What boards must do

Under the Education and Training Act 2020 and the Education (School Planning and Reporting) Regulations 2023 a new planning and reporting framework is in place.

Education (School Planning and Reporting) Regulations 2023 – New Zealand Legislation

Te Whakangārahu Ngātahi aims to improve schools and kura planning and reporting practices to:

• focus on delivering equitable and excellent outcomes for all ākonga | students, and
• be more accountable and responsive to the needs of their community.

Te Whakangārahu Ngātahi requires your board to:

• consult your community and develop a 3-year strategic plan outlining how the board will meet its primary objectives
• create an annual implementation plan that sets annual targets and actions for working towards strategic goals
• create an annual report that details the school’s progress and finances.

Your board’s first strategic plan will be for a period of 2 years (1 January 2024 to 31 December 2025) to align with board triennial elections. From 2026, plans will be for 3 years.

Timeline for 2025

Your board needs to complete the following in 2025:

• 31 March – Publish your annual implementation plan for the current school year. Send your annual financial statements to your auditor.
• 31 May – Submit your annual report. Publish your annual report online as soon as practicable following this.

Submitting your documents to us

Submit your strategic plan and annual report to us using the Secure Data Portal. Document files must be 22MB or less.

Secure Data Portal – Applications and Online Systems

Publishing your documents online

You must publish all planning and reporting documents on a website so parents, whānau and communities can access them.

If your school or kura does not have its own website, we can host your documents on our Education Counts website. Send a board-approved request to us.

Email: [email protected]

It is the school board’s responsibility to ensure your planning and reporting documents do not contain any information that may breach an individual’s privacy before you publish them.

Your responsibilities – Office of the Privacy Commissioner

Resources for implementing the framework

Our toolkit supports your board and principal to implement Te Whakangārahu Ngātahi | Planning Together.

The toolkit sets out the requirements of your planning and reporting documents.

This toolkit includes worksheets that schools may use during the planning process.

Information for Māori-medium settings

We have designed an information kit for boards, tumuaki | principals and staff in Māori-medium settings and for specified kura boards. It has information about the new requirements, a suggested process and example templates.

The information kit is different from the English-medium toolkit. It includes:

• a definition of a specified kura board and the different requirements for their plans
• example templates for how a tumuaki could report to their board.

Templates

You can use these optional templates to create your strategic plan, annual implementation plan and annual report. You can adapt them to suit your school, kura and community.

Community planning pack

This pack provides information about the planning and reporting process for your community. It explains the role the community has in the process.

Contact us

Your regional office can help with developing your planning and reporting documents.

Regional offices

Assistance is also available from Te Whakarōputanga Kaitiaki Kura o Aotearoa (formerly New Zealand School Trustees Association):

Advice and support – Te Whakarōputanga

Freephone (NZ only): 0800 782 435