We have a new page with information on overseas teacher recruitment.

Overseas teacher recruitment – Ministry of Education

This page has information on:

• how to hire a migrant teacher on the new Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV), including information on ‘green list’ roles, becoming accredited, and the job-check step which you can apply for from 20 June
• financial support for those schools and kura who may be seeking to recruit overseas (see further information in our previous bulletin item below)
• recordings of webinars with Immigration NZ discussing the AEWV.

Reactivating supporting incentives – School Bulletin 24 May

Feedback to date has highlighted how quick it is to obtain accreditation (Step 1 of the AEWV). The average application time to date is 20 minutes, with some applications taking only five minutes to apply with accreditation received 10 minutes later.

We are working with some principals who are currently going through the recruitment process to identify how else we can support and help schools to recruit overseas teachers. Please keep an eye on upcoming bulletins and our new page for further updates.

KidsHealth has some useful information about children returning to physical activities after having COVID-19.

The guidance covers when and how children should ease back into physical activity.

Guidance for returning to activity and sport after having COVID – KidsHealth

Erika Ross and Steve Lindsey talk to more principals about their experiences with leading their school communities through the pandemic.

Watch these video summaries:

Maraeroa School: Leaning into the community

Newlands Intermediate School: Learning through change

Discovery School: Changing schools in a pandemic

Find the full series on Te Mahau website.

Navigating COVID-19: School leaders reflect – Te Mahau

Last week’s Cabinet reshuffle has meant some reallocation of responsibilities within the education portfolio.

The detailed delegations have now been finalised.

• Minister Tinetti is now Associate Minister of Education (School Operations). Central to her expanded responsibilities is oversight of Te Mahau.
• This encompasses schooling network decisions for English-medium schools as well as Te Mahau’s role in supporting schools and early learning services
• It also includes the expansion of functions as envisaged in ‘Supporting All Schools to Succeed’ (the Tomorrow’s Schools reforms), such as the establishment of leadership advisors and Te Mahau’s overall role in building the status and capability of leaders and principals.
• Oversight of Te Mahau also covers Minister Tinetti’s existing delegations in relation to learning support, the Attendance and Engagement Strategy, and research and evaluation, plus Te Poutāhū (the Curriculum Centre). This last delegation has now been expanded to include NCEA and the NCEA Change Programme.
• In addition, Minister Tinetti has new delegations in relation to initial teacher education (ITE) and teacher supply, as well as her existing role overseeing the Education Review Office.

• Minister Davis’ role as Associate Minister of Education (Māori Education) has been expanded to include schooling network decision for Māori-medium and kaupapa Māori.

• As Minister of Education, Minister Hipkins retains responsibility for the overall development of policy within the education portfolio and the lead on all budget decisions.
• He continues to have oversight of industrial relations including bargaining and pay equity, funding policy, and the operational work of Hautū Te Puna Hanganga, Matihiko (Infrastructure and Digital).
• He retains oversight of the Teaching Council and responsibility for the Education Payroll and for the implementation of principal eligibility criteria.
• He also continues to cover tertiary education, international education and most aspects of early learning.

This year the July roll count date is Friday 1 July with returns due no later than Friday 8 July.

Refer to the school roll return guidelines for more information on completing your return.

School roll return guidelines – Education Counts

There is no change to the process of generating your roll return – send the Ministry of Education file (.moe) directly from your student management system (SMS).

Schools not using an SMS must complete the manual roll return Excel form provided on the Education Counts website and submit this via the Secure Data Portal.

July roll return forms – Education Counts

Secure Data Portal – Applications & Online Systems

As with previous years, the donations scheme opt-in process remains aligned with your July roll return submission.

As outlined in our bulletin on 7 June, the collection of responses in this year’s roll return remains linked to your school’s decile. This means that decile 1 to 7 state and state-integrated schools will be prompted to confirm your 2023 status when completing the electronic approval step of your roll submission.

Schools who become eligible due to the change to the Equity Index will be provided with a late opt-in process so that you have time to consult with your community about joining the donations scheme.

If you have any further questions regarding the donations scheme, see our website or contact the team at school.donations@education.govt.nz.

Fees, charges and donations – Ministry of Education

Donations scheme FAQs – Ministry of Education

Donation scheme eligibility under the Equity Index – School Bulletin 7 June

This week your school will be emailed a personalised link to a web form for the ‘predicted roll and supplementary question’ part of the July roll return.

The emailed link is personalised for each school, so please don’t share it. If you have not received this link by next Monday 27 June, check your junk folder first, then email school.returns@education.govt.nz.

We are opening this survey earlier this year to provide you with more time to complete it prior to the school holidays.

The survey will close Friday 8 July.

Up-to-date fire evacuation plans are an important part of making sure that your school is safe to occupy. They are also required under the Building Act 2004.

Your school’s fire evacuation plan needs to be displayed in a place that is easy to see so:

• people know how to safely evacuate the buildings
• building inspectors are able to review it as part of signing off the building warrant of fitness (BWOF).

If your school’s fire evacuation plan needs to be updated (for example, if you have new buildings on site since the plan was made or the assembly point has changed), there is guidance on our website.

Fire safety design requirements for schools – Ministry of Education

Fire evacuation plans need to be reviewed by a fire engineer and approved by Fire and Emergency New Zealand.

When you update your fire evacuation plan, please send a copy to your property advisor.

It’s important that you do not move building exit signs or add new building exit signs. 

Building exit signage should only be put in the places that are identified in the fire evacuation plan. Those doors have been identified in the plan because they are a safe place to exit during an emergency. 

Adding extra signs makes the exit path more confusing and potentially less safe if it leads somewhere that is not a final point of exit, such as a courtyard.

There are additional statutory requirements for fire exits that are triggered when an exit sign is placed somewhere new.

• All marked exits must have a manual fire alarm switch so that the fire alarm can be set off as people walk out the door.
• Doors must be made of fire-rated materials.
• Doors must also open outward and must not be lockable from the outside.

It can cost thousands of dollars to upgrade a normal door to a fire exit door. This cost can be avoided by only having exit signs up on doors that are identified as exits on the fire evacuation plan and have already been built to the higher standard.

It is also important to note that final exits need to be clear from obstruction and both the emergency exit light and manual call point need to be visible and not obstructed.

If you need help, you can get in touch with Argest by emailing teamMOE@argest.com or calling 0800 274 378.

Together with NZEI Te Riu Roa, we’re pleased to announce that we have reached a proposed agreement to settle the pay equity claim for kaiārahi i te reo.

Employees working as kaiārahi i te reo can now consider the proposed settlement and vote on whether to approve it. If approved, the settlement would see approximately 80 people, mostly wāhine Māori, receive pay increases ranging from 77% to 83%.

Details of the proposed settlement will be widely communicated by NZEI Te Riu Roa to all kaiārahi i te reo covered by the claim before those employees vote on the proposed settlement later in June.

Webinars for kaiārahi i te reo

NZEI Te Riu Roa will be hosting webinars for kaiārahi i te reo on 23 and 27 June to talk through the details of the proposed settlement and answer any questions. Your employees can register for these on NZEI Te Riu Roa’s website.

Events – NZEI Te Riu Roa

Is there any action required?

If the settlement is endorsed, we will provide ongoing funding to schools and kura to cover the increased cost of the kaiārahi i te reo settlement.

No actions are required from schools or kura at this time. We will provide guidance to help implement the changes resulting from the settlement in partnership with NZEI Te Riu Roa and NZSTA. The guidance will be released around the beginning of Term 3.

Together with NZSTA and NZEI Te Riu Roa, we will also run a series of kanohi ki te kanohi hui in Term 3 to outline the changes resulting from a settlement and provide additional support to schools and kura in understanding any settlement.

Further information

The proposed pay equity settlement was reached under different legislation and using a different process to the regular collective bargaining which occurs approximately every two to three years.

More information about the kaiārahi i te reo claim can be found on our website.

Kaiārahi i te reo pay equity claim – Ministry of Education

The collective agreements that cover administration staff, teacher aides, librarians, science technicians, kaiārahi i te reo, therapists, assistants to teachers of students with severe disabilities, special education assistants and other support staff have been settled. 

They were ratified by NZEI Te Riu Roa and E Tū members on Thursday 16 June. Both agreements are effective from yesterday Monday 20 June to Monday 19 February 2024.

You will now need to offer an updated individual employment agreement (IEA) to employees whose role is covered by these agreements and who are not NZEI Te Riu Roa members to move them to these new conditions of employment.

Individual employment agreement for support staff [PDF, 196 KB]

Individual employment agreement for kaiārahi i te reo and therapists [PDF, 213 KB]

Changes to remuneration

The agreements have new remuneration rates set for teacher aides, therapists, librarians, science technicians, assistants to teachers of students with severe disabilities and special education assistants  

Details of the new rates are available on our website. 

Circular 2022/04: Settlement of collective agreements and new IEAs – Ministry of Education

These rates will be paid by Education Payroll Limited (EPL) to employees who are NZEI Te Riu Roa members with effect from Thursday 2 June 2022. For employees on individual employment agreements, the rates will take effect from the date they accept the new conditions of employment.

New rates will also eventuate for administration staff and kaiārahi i te reo as a result of the proposed pay equity settlements which are currently out for approval by the affected staff (as above). The proposed pay equity settlements were reached under different legislation and using a different process and were not part of collective bargaining. 

Ongoing funding will be provided to schools and kura to cover the increased costs of the settled support staff and kaiārahi i te reo and therapists collective agreements. This funding will be paid as part of your operational grant instalments, with the first instalment scheduled for Sunday 1 October.

Disregarded sick leave for teacher aides and other support staff

Disregarded sick leave (DSL) has been introduced for staff covered by these agreements. 

Sick leave will be able to be disregarded for eligible employees who have been sick with COVID-19 or another notifiable illness and have been required to isolate under current public health settings.

Notifiable diseases – Ministry of Health

As with DSL for teachers, only the amount of time that an employee needs to isolate for can be disregarded and DSL applies only to the sick leave that an employee takes when they are ill. DSL does not apply for sick leave taken because a dependent is ill or when an employee is not ill but is isolating. 

Only sick leave taken after the employee has accepted these new conditions of employment can be disregarded. For NZEI members, this is sick leave taken after Monday 20 June 2022. For employees on an IEA, it is sick leave taken after you have offered them an IEA and they have accepted it.

Advice about how to develop a policy for disregarded sick leave for non-teaching staff is available from NZSTA.

Disregarded sick leave for support staff – NZSTA

Te Rūnanga Nui are also available for support.

Further information

Answers to FAQs and examples about how DSL will work in practice can be found on Te Mahau website.

Disregarded sick leave for teacher aides and support staff – Te Mahau

Several other changes have been introduced to the conditions for employees covered by these agreements. Full details are available on our website.

Circular 2022/04: Settlement of collective agreements and new IEAs – Ministry of Education

You can also email NZSTA at eradvice@nzsta.org.nz, Te Rūnanga Nui at tari@runanga.co.nz or our DSL team at employment.relations@education.govt.nz.

During our May 2022 engagement on planning and reporting we heard from schools and communities that:

• there’s a need for schools to show how they have given effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi linked to the achievement of ākonga
• planning and reporting must:
  • reflect the local character of whānau and the community
  • have learners at the centre
  • apply a holistic approach to ākonga needs with information on student achievement, school attendance data, measures of learner safety, health, physical and emotional wellbeing, and equity and diversity.
• there needs to be better communication and relationships between schools, whānau and communities is a priority and should use a range of platforms like face-to-face and online meetings, social media, school websites and email. 

This feedback sets the scene for a follow-up round of engagement with schools and communities. This will run over the next week and next week (yesterday Monday 20 June to Friday 1 July).

We’ll be reaching back out to schools and their communities with a more detailed summary of what we’ve heard as well as testing some ideas for how this could be reflected in regulations.

If you would like to be involved in this engagement, contact your local Te Mahau office.

Contact details for Te Mahau offices – Ministry of Education

Public consultation on the new framework and draft regulations will happen late 2022 to early 2023.

We want to know more about the professional learning and development (PLD) and support needs of early career teachers and kaiako.

This information will inform future support services and is a valuable opportunity for your staff to contribute to developing models of support for early career teachers and mentors.

We have contracted New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER) to conduct focus group interviews as part of this research.

NZCER would like to:

• invite early career teachers or kaiako working in English-medium learning centres to participate in group interviews
• talk to mentor teachers of beginning or provisionally registered teachers and kaiako about their perspectives of early career teachers’ needs, as well as their own support needs.

The study is voluntary and confidential, and no school or staff member will be named. The focus group interviews will take one hour, and participants will go into the draw to win one of four NZCER Press vouchers (worth $90 each).

If you would like further information or to register your interest, email: earlycareerteachers@nzcer.org.nz.

The University of Otago provides PLD support programmes for:

• provisionally certificated teachers (PCTs) in English-medium and Pia in Māori-medium settings
• overseas trained teachers (OTTs) with provisional certification
• mentor teachers and Pou Tautoko.

2022 support – University of Otago

The programmes support PCTs and OTTs to develop effective teaching practices for diverse learners in a New Zealand teaching context.

Participants will have access to the appropriate programme to assist with gaining full certification and making a successful start to their teaching career in New Zealand.

You can choose from a range of face-to-face and online delivery modes to best meet your needs within your induction and mentoring programme and build PCT capability implementing national education and learning priorities.

This service is delivered on our behalf by the University of Otago at no cost to the teacher or school. To request this support, email essadmin@otago.ac.nz.

Applications for Round 4 of Creatives in Schools are now open.

Creatives in Schools – Arts Online

Applications close at 11.59pm Sunday 21 August.

If you need support with your application, email our Creatives in Schools regional coordinators: cisregionalsupport@core-ed.ac.nz.

For questions about the programme, email creativesinschools@education.govt.nz.

We are running two webinars to explain the Creatives in Schools application process and answer any questions you may have.

Webinars are free to attend and open to teachers and their creative partners.

To participate, select the session you want to attend and click below to register your interest:

Session one

Tuesday 28 June 3:30 to 4:30pm

Register for session one – Zoom

Session two

Wednesday 6 July 3:30 to 4:30pm

Register for session two – Zoom

As you know, Te Marautanga o Aotearoa (TMoA) is being redesigned. This redesign is being done to reflect the aspirations of ākonga, whānau, hapu and iwi, and make TMoA grounded in te ao Māori. It will be based on the conceptual framework ‘Te Tamaiti Hei Raukura’.

Refresh of Te Marautanga o Aotearoa – Kauwhata Reo

Te Tamaiti Hei Raukura [PDF, 3.17 MB]

Facilitators will be contacting kura and kura hapori shortly to discuss the future of TMoA. They’ll be asking you to help us to answer some of the ‘big questions’ of the redesign, as well as getting your thoughts on Te Tamaiti Hei Raukura and a proposed curriculum framework, te tīrewa.

To support this, we are sending some resources to kura to encourage wānanga around the redesign of Te Marautanga o Aotearoa.

The resources include:

• the big questions for consideration
• a history of the marautanga
• the position paper, ‘Te Tamaiti Hei Raukura’.

We hope you will find these resources useful and clear.

We are sending resource packs to any kura or rumaki unit that we know of that may use Te Marautanga o Aotearoa. If you believe your school has missed out, contact whakahou.marautanga@education.govt.nz and let us know.

Due to the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s Prime Minister’s Education Excellence Awards (PM Awards) have been cancelled. 

The awards will be refreshed and will reopen in an exciting new format in 2023. We’ll communicate next steps in a future bulletin and on the PM Awards’ website.

2022 awards – PM Awards

A reminder that we have created a range of resources that support teaching and learning about Matariki, including Puanga.

The suite of resources includes waiata, pao, videos, ebooks, ākonga worksheets, activity cards, kaiako guidance, and aromatawai that are relevant from early learning to secondary schooling in both Māori-medium and English-medium education.

Te Mātahi o te Tau Matariki Ahunga Nui – Kauwhata Reo

For a range of other resources you can draw from, see our bulletin on 7 June.

Mānawatia a Matariki – School Bulletin 7 June

VLN Primary School is a collaborative community of schools throughout New Zealand, working together to provide opportunities for students through online learning. 

The community aims to meet the needs of students from Years 1 to 8 and is inclusive of all primary, intermediate and area schools. It offers opportunities to extend curriculum choices for your learners and increase your school’s confidence and capability in online and distance learning.

You are invited to register for Term 3. Kia tere, hurry, registrations close next Monday 27 June.

Learn more and register – VLN Primary School

A wide range of language programmes available including te reo Māori and kapa haka, as well as digital technology, gifted and talented, creative arts, literacy and science and maths.

Funding support is available for some schools and learners. Contact primary@vln.school.nz with queries.