Parents and caregivers are legally required to enrol their children and ensure they attend school and you are required to take all reasonable steps to ensure students attend school when it is open.  

To fulfil this obligation, you should regularly review your attendance processes. To help you do this we encourage you to use the guide, introduced as part of the additional attendance indicators last year, to review your current attendance processes to identify patterns of student absence and respond to absence patterns before they become an issue.

A user-guide to the additional attendance indicators [PDF, 2.9 MB] 

This year Ramadan started on 13 March and will run up to 10 or 11 April. Fasting during Ramadan means those involved do not eat or drink from before sunrise up until sunset. There are children, families and communities in Aotearoa who acknowledge and participate in Ramadan. 

School students, families and staff may participate in Ramadan while working at or attending school. 

Families may request that their child has a day off school to celebrate Eid at the end of Ramadan. This absence can be treated as a justified absence, in the attendance reporting expectation: 

Student attendance: guide for schools and kura – Ministry of Education

If you have any queries about this, please contact your Te Mahau Office.

We recently hosted webinars covering an introduction to Ramadan, the meaning, common practices, and guidelines for school communities to facilitate better understanding and how to support students, learners, colleagues and whānau who are observing Ramadan. A recording of the webinar is available. Please contact enquiries.national@education.govt.nz if you wish to receive a copy of the video. 

All schools and project managers working on school-led projects need to refer to the updated school-led property procurement framework when planning for property procurements that are due to approach suppliers for quotes from 1 April onwards.

The objective of this update is to make the property procurement exercise more efficient and easier for school leaders.

Learn more about this change, and what this means to you, by attending our infrastructure sector forum on Teams on 26 March, 4–5pm. 

Register your interest and view the topics we will be covering at:

Infrastructure sector forum – Microsoft 

For any queries, or feedback, contact hangangamatihiko.engagement@education.govt.nz.

Due to the July 2023 variation to the Support Staff in Schools’ Collective Agreement (SSSCA), the expiry date of the SSSCA has been extended to 19 December.

The fund, which opened in April 2023, is an opportunity for your teacher aides to access up to $1,000 of funding towards the cost of PLD and associated time and travel/accommodation to participate.

There is limited funding remaining and it will finish when the SSSCA expires or when the funding is fully allocated – whichever occurs first.

PLD accessed via the fund will need to be completed before the expiry of the SSSCA.

For more information on how to apply, visit: 

Teacher aide PLD fund 2023–2024 – Ministry of Education

We will be operating a professional learning and development (PLD) fund for Kaiārahi i te Reo in 2024, as agreed through settlement of the Kaiārahi i te Reo and Therapists’ Collective Agreement 2022–2024. 

This fund recognises the important role Kaiārahi i te Reo have in supporting education outcomes and provides financial support for professional learning opportunities related to this role. The $300,000 fund will operate as a pilot to gauge the level of interest and the type of PLD, which could be funded long term for the Kaiārahi i te Reo workforce. 

Kaiārahi i te Reo will be able to access funding towards PLD, wage reimbursement for their time participating in PLD and travel and accommodation costs required to attend PLD.

We expect to launch this fund on 25 March, and it will remain open for Kaiārahi i te Reo to access until the collective agreement expires on 19 December or until the funding is fully allocated – whichever occurs first.

For further information and details on how to apply, visit:

Kaiārahi i te reo professional learning and development fund 2024 – Te Mahau

The confirmed rolls and staffing entitlements will be visible in Pourato on 28 March. Please refer to the SDP on 3 April for a letter if your school will be staffed on its provisional roll in 2024.

These will be on the SDP from 29 April and advises whether you have a nil balance, underuse or overuse balance for the end of the year, providing next steps if needed. For any under or overuse, the calculated reimbursement or recovery amount will be included in your July Operational Grant payment.

Secure Data Portal – Te Mahau 

This data is now on the secure data portal (SDP). Download and review your leavers list and school report and make the required updates in ENROL by 28 March.

Submission of non-NZQF assessment results, that is IB and Cambridge is due on 2 April. If your school offers a qualification other than NCEA, complete this so achievement of your school leavers is accurate.

If your school offers an alternative qualification and has not yet received a form through the SDP, you can contact us at school.returns@education.govt.nz.

We have settled this claim with NZEI Te Riu Roa. We, along with NZEI Te Riu Roa and NZSTA, have released initial guidance to help schools | kura who employ therapists implement the changes resulting from the settlement. View the guidance on our website:

Therapists’ Pay Equity Claim – Ministry of Education

There will be webinars for schools | kura with NZSTA and NZEI Te Riu Roa in Term 2 and Term 3 to outline the changes and to provide additional support. 

If you have any questions, contact ohumahi.support@education.govt.nz or call 0800 114 117. Alternatively, contact NZSTA at eradvice@nzsta.org.nz or call 0800 782 435 (option 2).

On 1 April, you will receive the next instalment of estimated funding for non-teaching pay equity settlements and collective agreements. This payment will be made via Pourato under the payment type 'Non-teach support PE and CA funding’.

A letter detailing this funding will be made available via the secure data portal (SDP) on 27 March. We encourage schools and kura to download and retain a copy of their funding letter from the SDP for auditing purposes.

To read more, visit:

Pay equity funding – Ministry of Education

Collective agreements: Non-teaching staff – Ministry of Education

We are making a remediation payment towards Holidays Act arrears for about 3,000 school employees today. Further details can be found on our website:

Holidays Act remediation payment – March 2024

No action is required from you to support the payment.  

If you receive questions about the payment, direct people to the link in this article in the first instance. For questions not covered online, you can contact us direct via: 

School payroll remediation query form – Ministry of Education

• email remediation.query@education.govt.nz  
• phone 0800 439 333 (8am–5pm, Monday to Friday). 

If your roll grows following the March confirmed process, refer to our website for further information: 

Staffing for roll growth – Ministry of Education 

Applications for roll increases can be accepted from 28 March. 

Donations scheme funding will be automatically reviewed and increased if schools have experienced roll growth between their July roll return and their March roll return. The difference will be paid to you as part of the July operational grant instalment.

If you have any questions about the donations scheme, email school.donations@education.govt.nz.

Autism New Zealand is inviting all schools to participate in a national ‘quiet hour’ on 10 April at 10am. Turn down the lights, turn down the noise and turn up for the autistic community of Aotearoa to celebrate Autism Acceptance Month 2024. Join this nationwide movement for acceptance, understanding and accessibility.

To read more and find out how to participate visit:

Autism Acceptance Month – Autism New Zealand

Recipients of the 2023 Ngarimu Video Competition will be celebrated at an award ceremony in Gisborne on 22 March, commencing with a pōwhiri at 11am and the official presentations from 11.45am to 3pm.

This year’s award ceremony will be livestreamed and the link will be available on our Ngarimu Scholarships webpage:

Ngarimu Scholarships – Ministry of Education

More information about the competition is available on our website:

Ngarimu Video Competition – Ministry of Education