On Tuesday 16 August from 10–11am, you are invited to hear Education Minister Chris Hipkins and Associate Education Minister Jan Tinetti speak on navigating leadership in a COVID-disrupted world.

You will then be invited to a group kōrero on either Monday 22 August or Tuesday 23 August – this is an opportunity for you to share your experiences and effective practice with other tumuaki on re-engaging our ākonga.

The kōrero will be held:

• 22 August 10–11.15am for secondary school principals and area/composite school principals
• 22 August 1–2.15pm for U1, U2, and U3 principals
• 23 August 10–11.15am for intermediate principals, U4 principals and kura kaupapa Māori tumuaki
• 23 August 1–2.15pm for U5, U6, U7, principals.

You will need to be registered by 9am Tuesday 16 August for the presentations by Minister Hipkins and Minister Tinetti.

For the group kōrero, we can take registrations on the day (22 and 23 August) but given the large numbers of principals invited we suggest you register early. This will help us allocate facilitators to break-out discussions.

Register for ‘navigating leadership’ – Hui for principals

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

Watch these new video summaries:

Tauhara College: Focus on student motivation

Te Kura a Rohe o Whaingaroa | Raglan Area School: Leadership within the community

Tarawera High School: People will always come first

You can find the series so far on the Te Mahau website:

Navigating Covid-19: School leaders reflect – Te Mahau

To be eligible for additional relief teacher funding (ARTF) under the new process for Terms 3 and 4, you will need to code your day relief costs to ‘DDR’, for example not ‘PPTAH’, ‘SPTAH’ or ‘APTAH’.

DDR indicates that a teacher is being paid as a day reliever (as opposed to additional hours).  

• The distinction is important because the collective agreement requires you to vary a part-time teacher’s hours if they have been paid additional hours for more than four consecutive weeks.   
• In addition, day relievers are entitled to be paid a minimum of two hours per day. 

The new process is outlined in last week’s bulletin and on our website:

Additional relief funding extension and process change – School Bulletin 2 August

How 2022 additional relief funding is calculated – Ministry of Education

If you incurred day relief costs in the first half of the year that were coded to ‘additional hours’ pay codes PPTAH, SPTAH or APTAH rather than DDR, please contact us at resourcing@education.govt.nz to discuss how we can support you to ensure these hours are taken into account.

The collective agreement requirements around part-time teacher hours must be adhered to and can be found:

Primary Teachers Collective Agreement: Clause 3.23 and 3.25 – Ministry of Education 

Secondary Teachers' Collective Agreement – Clause 4.4 and 4.5 – Ministry of Education 

Area School Teachers' Collective Agreement – Clause 3.26 and 3.27 – Ministry of Education  

If you require advice about Collective Agreements please contact NZ School Trustees Association or Te Rūnanga Nui.

ARTF for RTLB will continue to be available by submitting an ARTF application for Terms 3 and 4. 

We will provide funding from the first day of absence if the absence is for more than a week and a suitably qualified relief teacher is hired for the whole period of absence.

ARTF for an absence due to jury service will continue to be delivered automatically. 

Please ensure you use the correct jury service leave code in the payroll system to receive funding automatically.

The Ministry of Health has put together advice on improving ventilation in homes. You may wish to share this advice with your community.

Ventilation and COVID-19 – Unite against COVID-19

A reminder that information on improving ventilation in schools is also available on Te Mahau website.

Ventilation in schools – Te Mahau

The Education and Training Amendment Bill No 2 passed into law on 31 July. It is now the Education and Training Amendment Act 2022 (No 38).  

For schools, the act’s requirements took effect from Monday 1 August.

Its main provisions:  

• require that a police vet must be obtained for non-teaching and unregistered employees at schools before they commence employment
• strengthen and streamline Teaching Council disciplinary processes by raising the threshold for mandatory referral of complaints from the Complaints Assessment Committee (CAC) to the Disciplinary Tribunal, whilst retaining an existing requirement for the CAC to reach agreement with a teacher on sanction
• allow the Education Review Office to review professional learning and development services accessed by schools
• remove requirement for the Secretary of Education to review strategic plans under the new planning and reporting regulations. The regulations are under development and expected to come into force on 1 January 2023
• allow the assigning of national student numbers (NSNs) to students studying for NCEA overseas where New Zealand has arrangements for teaching and assessing NCEA standards, and for schools in those jurisdictions to be specified users of NSNs. 

To read the detail on the act’s provisions visit:

Education and Training Amendment Act 2022 – NZ Legislation

Recently we commenced remediation payments to some current and former school employees who received incorrect employer contributions to their KiwiSaver account because of payroll errors made between 22 August 2012 and 17 November 2021. 

Several schools have reported staff raising concerns about the validity of our remediation emails. A school has also reported a third party has attempted to scam an employee via text and email. This may have been in relation to the remediation emails that have been distributed or coincidentally with another scam text about the cost-of-living payments that is currently in circulation.

We can confirm this is a legitimate Ministry remediation project and around 50,000 current and former school employees will be receiving a remediation payment. At no point during this process will we ask for an affected employee’s bank account, log in or password.

For more information on KiwiSaver remediation see our website:

KiwiSaver remediation and compensation – Ministry of Education

Earlier this year, we asked you for your feedback on how to improve the Specialised School Transport Assistance (SESTA) online application. 

Thank you to everyone who took the time to respond and for your valuable feedback.

Using the feedback, we’ve made some improvements to the online application. These improvements went live yesterday 8 August. 

The changes include:

• how the application looks and feels
• the integration of the ‘safe travel plan’ into new SESTA applications.

Integrating the safe travel plan into new applications means you will no longer have to upload a separate document. However, if a safe travel plan is required for an existing SESTA ākonga, you will still need to fill out the existing paper-based safe travel plan form and upload it to the application. 

From Thursday 1 September, we will also no longer be accepting paper-based application forms for new SESTA ākonga. 

This is because the online form provides better security of information and faster processing times, as well as the ability to track the application as it moves through the approval process. 

More improvements are coming in October 2022 and we will provide you with information about these closer to the time.

You need an Education Sector Logon (ESL) to use the SESTA online application. Ask your ESL delegated authoriser to add the ‘SESTA school user role’ to your ESL account.

Education Sector Logon – Applications & Online Systems

• For assistance with SESTA applications, contact the School Transport team on 0800 287 272 or school.transport@education.govt.nz 
• For technical assistance with the ESL, contact our service desk on 0800 422 599 or service.desk@education.govt.nz.

As part of the NCEA change programme, we are releasing new digital resource toolkits to help bring ‘mana ōrite mō te mātauranga Māori – equal status for mātauranga Māori’ into your classroom and kura.

There will be five digital resource toolkits released between June and November. Each toolkit includes a web series, a podcast, supplementary resources and a live interactive webinar.

To sign up and to find out more, visit:

Toolkits – Mana Ōrite

Tihei, Mana ōrite!

The next accord teacher only day to support the implementation of the NCEA change programme will be held from Monday 15 August to Friday 26 August. 

To find out about the teacher only days visit:

Teacher only days – NCEA Education 

As part of the ‘teacher only day – ngā rangi mō ngā kaiako-anake’, we will be seeking your feedback on Te Marautanga o Aotearoa (TMoA) and the first group of The New Zealand Curriculum (NZC) NCEA level 2 draft materials. 

Feedback on TMoA NCEA level 2 and NZC NCEA level 2 Te reo Māori draft materials can be provided via online surveys or during online engagements with kura.

The draft materials and online surveys for both TMoA NCEA level 2 and NZC NCEA level 2 Te reo Māori will be published on the above teacher-only days website later this week.

The TMoA NCEA level 2 draft materials include the learning matrix, achievement standards and assessment activities for the following Wāhanga Ako: Hangarau, Hauora, Pūtaiao, Pāngarau, Tikanga ā-iwi, Te Reo Rangatira and Ngā Toi (Ngā Mahi a Te Rēhia, Toi Ataata, and Toi Puoro).

The available subjects are:

• accounting
• business studies
• economics
• agribusiness
• physical education
• health
• food and nutrition
• geography
• tourism
• psychology
• statistics
• classical studies

To feedback on the NZC NCEA level 2 draft materials for the subjects above, use the link below to access the online survey.

Draft NCEA Level 2 feedback survey – Ministry of Education

Your feedback will be used to refine the achievement standards and supporting resources, in preparation for a planned mini-pilot of all TMoA NCEA level 2 Wāhanga Ako in 2023 and the full pilots of all TMoA NCEA level 2 Wāhanga Ako and NZC NCEA level 2 subjects in 2024.

If you have any queries, email them to ncea.review@education.govt.nz.

If your kura or school is running a creative project for your students in 2023, apply now for Creatives in Schools in partnership with an artist or a creative professional.

Applications close at 11.59pm Sunday 21 August.

If you need support with your application, please email cisregionalsupport@core-ed.ac.nz.

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

We have recently made some changes to what is awarded for the guidance counsellor training study award.

These changes have been made in line with the eligibility criteria to reflect the growing profession and with the guidelines to assist schools in providing pastoral care, ‘Te Pakiaka Tangata: Strengthening Student Wellbeing for Success’. 

Te Pakiaka Tangata: Strengthening Student Wellbeing for Success [PDF, 2.12 MB]

We will continue to provide a contribution towards travel or relocation costs and the recipient will continue to receive their normal salary from school while on study leave, plus: 

• fully fund course fees for a master’s qualification in counselling or counselling studies (two years full time and up to four years part-time) at an approved tertiary institute 
• contribution to course-related supervision costs. 

• There is no limit to the school roll, however, eligibility is still limited to state and state-integrated secondary schools and wharekura.
• You no longer need to be working a minimum of 0.6 FTTE as a guidance counsellor.
• You must apply to a Master of Counselling or Counselling Studies at an approved tertiary institute: 
  • University of Canterbury: Master of Counselling 
  • University of Waikato: Master of Counselling 
  • Massey University: Master of Counselling Studies 
  • University of Auckland: Master of Counselling  

For more information and a full description of what the award includes and the eligibility criteria visit the TeachNZ website.

Guidance counsellor training – TeachNZ

Alternatively, you can call 0800 165 225 or email teacher.studyawards@education.govt.nz.

As highlighted in our bulletin on 24 May, the Online Curriculum Hub (OCH) will be a one-stop-shop that provides you with fast, easy digital access to quality curriculum content and support materials.

Update on the Online Curriculum Hub – School Bulletin 24 May

• Building and testing the OCH is well underway.
• Content providers have been approved and are in the process of auditing national curriculum content and resources to ensure only quality resources are available on the platform as it’s phased in over the next three to five years.
• Later this year, we’ll be carrying out user testing within the sector to gain your valuable feedback and to ensure it meets everyone’s needs.
• Working with our curriculum leads, we’ll ensure there’s a good representation of kaiako from schools and kura from across the country.

We’ll keep you posted, including how you can participate, in future bulletins.

In association with Anxiety NZ and Autism NZ, Life Education Trust have launched a series of workshops for all teachers (primary and secondary) and learning support staff.

‘Nuturing healthy minds’ supports teachers to develop strategies to help students suffering from anxiety, including tamariki with autism.

There are two workshops which will help you learn the signs and symptoms of anxiety, how it may present in students with autism, calming strategies, types of treatment and where to go for help.

The workshops are 90 minutes long and led by experienced facilitator Cat Levine. They are held on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 3:30pm and cost $75pp.

Workshop 1 is for any teachers who want to know more about anxiety and what we can do to support our tamariki and rangatahi.

The next workshop is this Thursday 11 August with further dates running through to Wednesday 30 November.

Workshop 2 will offer more detail for SENCOs, learning support coordinators, teacher aides and teachers who have participated in the first workshop.

Workshop 2 launches Wednesday 14 September with further dates running through to Tuesday 22 November.

You can register for each workshop individually or register for both workshops together.

Register for nurturing healthy minds – Life Education Trust

For further information, email webinar@lifeeducation.org.nz.

Last week Tuesday 2 August, we sent out the first bulletin of term.

We have since been made aware that a number of you didn’t receive the bulletin as you normally do. The bulletin contained a lot of important and useful information, so if you are among those who missed out, you will find it here.

School Bulletin update 2 August – Mailchimp

You may also find the bulletin in your junk or spam folder.