Last week, the Government made a revised offer to settle the PPTA | Te Wehengarua secondary teachers’ collective agreement. The PPTA | Te Wehengarua members are currently voting on this offer. The Government’s press release is available on their website:

Government makes historic pay offer to secondary teachers – New Zealand Government

If the PPTA vote to accept the offer, there will be some consequential changes to contribute to the cost of the settlement, including changes to banking staffing. While the banking staffing system would remain the same in principle, the change would mean that schools would no longer receive reimbursement for underused staffing entitlement. This effectively returns us to the banking staffing settings pre-2010.

We will continue to use the Bulletin to provide additional information.

The New Zealand General Election will be held on Saturday 14 October.

State and state-integrated school boards are part of the state services, and therefore must be politically neutral. You can display material encouraging staff and parents to vote, but you must not:

• encourage electors to vote, or not vote, for specific parties, policies, or candidates
• allow billboards, posters, pamphlets, and other political party advertising material at your school | kura.

Political neutrality applies to elections, by-elections, and referenda. All staff at your school must be familiar with your school | kura code of conduct or policies and procedures relating to personal and professional behaviour. 

The recently published Code of Conduct for State School Board Members requires board members to be politically impartial in their role as a board member, and not to endorse or campaign for a political party or candidate in their capacity as a school board member.

Notice of issue of the code of conduct for state school board members ­– New Zealand Government

Proprietors of state-integrated schools may choose to express views separately from the school.

As state servants, school | kura staff have the same rights to freedom of speech and political activity in their private lives as other New Zealanders.

Te Kawa Mataaho | Public Service Commission has published more detailed guidance on its website for the 2023 General Election:

General Election Guidance 2023 – New Zealand Government

Candidates at an election may hold a public meeting, free of charge, in a suitable school | kura room or space. Refer to what the Electoral Act says:

Use of public school rooms for election meetings – Parliamentary Counsel Office

There will be grey areas where boards will need to exercise their judgement. We recommend erring on the side of caution and, where you are unsure, seeking further advice.

If you have not submitted your reporting data for Term 4 2022 or Term 1 2023, please submit it as soon as possible (it is a requirement for receiving funding).

If you began or continued implementation in Term 2, your data for this term is due by 18 August.

• log into Salesforce with your ESL details via the link:

Login Taku Education – Ministry of Education

• complete the questions including providing learner details of those who participated.

Guidance on how to submit your lost learning information can be found at:

Guide to accessing the lost learning portal [PDF, 286 KB]

If you have any questions, contact your local Te Mahau office.

You will need an education sector login account with the ‘learning supports’ role assigned to access the Salesforce survey. Your school | kura delegated authoriser can add this for you. For queries relating to your ESL account contact service.desk@education.govt.nz.

Reading Together® Te Pānui Ngātahi is a strengths-based series of workshops for parents and whānau to support their children’s reading at home. Families taking part in Reading Together® will also receive sets of books to read with their children and practise the strategies they learned from the workshops.

If you are interested in offering Reading Together® in 2023/24, applications for funding are open. Schools | kura will have 10 weeks to deliver the programme if their application is successful. Email reading.together@education.govt.nz to find out more and apply.

Applications for Creatives in Schools will close at 11.59pm, 21 August.

To apply, visit:

Creatives in Schools – TKI online

For questions, email creativesinschools@education.govt.nz.

The refreshed 2023 Action Plan for Pacific Education is now available:

Early Learning Bulletin 3 August

To see how the curriculum and assessment changes are progressing, we encourage you to visit our online timeline, which shows when key milestones are scheduled:

Curriculum and assessment programme timelines – Ministry of Education

Several services have reported concerns about whānau not appropriately using car restraints when transporting tamariki to and from school | kura. Read this article to ensure that correct car restraints are used:

Early Learning Bulletin 3 August

On 28 July, this agreement was settled and ratified by area school principal members of the NZEI Te Riu Roa and PPTA Te Wehengarua. The term of the agreement is from 3 July 2023 to 2 July 2025.

Details of the settlement, including the new rates of pay for principals working in positions covered by the collective agreement, are published on our website:

Circular 2023/08 – Settlement of the Area School Principals’ Collective Agreement

The collective agreement can be downloaded from our website:

Collective agreements – Ministry of Education

When schools | kura are enrolling international students | ākonga or applying for the 28-day waiver, they need to check whether they are signatory to the Education (Pastoral Care of Tertiary and International Learners) Code of Practice 2021 (the Code).

The Tertiary and International Learners Code of Practice – NZQA

Only schools | kura who are signed up to the Code can enrol international students or request an extension to a 28-day waiver.

Guidance about the eligibility requirements for enrolment can be found at:

Circular 2020/08 - Eligibility to enrol in New Zealand schools – Ministry of Education 

Your local Te Mahau office will be able to support you with enquiries:

Local Ministry offices – Ministry of Education

Temporary services to support the wellbeing of the education sector through the COVID-19 pandemic have been extended. These include Gold Star and EAP counselling support.

Gold Star, an interactive online tool that can be accessed any time, will continue until June 2024.

EAP counselling support has been extended until December. This is available in addition to health and wellbeing initiatives currently offered by schools | kura.

Ensure staff are aware of these supports. More information can be found at:

Workforce wellbeing package – Te Mahau

Our Carbon Neutral Government Programme team is investigating state schooling sector’s annual greenhouse gas emissions based on centrally held data, which will create a sector-wide overview rather than per school | kura. This will provide a baseline for measuring emissions reduction over time, helping to identify opportunities to reduce the sector’s emissions.

For updates, or to provide feedback or ideas, email CNGP.schools@education.govt.nz.

For more information, visit our website:

Carbon Neutral Government Programme in New Zealand schools and kura – Ministry of Education

School boards are subject to, and have responsibilities under, the Official Information Act (OIA) 1982. Some boards may have limited experience dealing with requests made under the Act or have limited capacity to respond. Any person or body corporate in New Zealand can request information held by a school board, and the board has an obligation to respond under the terms of the Act. This applies whether the request is made directly to the board or transferred to the board by another agency, such as the Ministry.

Comprehensive guidance is available on the Ombudsman’s website:

Resources and publications – Ombudsman

This page can be filtered to show just the guides to the Act or to show template letters.

The general guidance on the handling of requests can be found at:

The OIA for Ministers and agencies: a guide ­– Ombudsman

Other resources delve into specific refusal or withholding grounds and should be referred to if you determine the information requested can’t be released, whether for administrative, conclusive or other reasons as set out in the Act.

If there is no information in the scope of the request for your school, the Act provides grounds to refuse on the basis that the information requested does not exist. Importantly, though, the board is still required to respond in such situations, explaining the grounds for refusal, and advising the requestor of their recourse to complain to the Ombudsman. A template for this can be found at:

Resources and publications, templates – Ombudsman

If your board needs advice or support in responding to a request, contact NZSTA or Te Rūnanga Nui:

Get in contact – NZSTA

Te Rūnanga nui o ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori o Aotearoa – Whakapā mai ki te tari