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Ministry of Education New Zealand

The Education (School Staffing) Order in Council sets entitlements for staffing state schools and kura each year.

This is outlined in section 582 of the Education and Training Act 2020.

Education (2024 School Staffing) Order 2023 – New Zealand Legislation

How entitlement staffing is calculated

We use your school roll for each year level to work out the components of your entitlement staffing. Read how we calculate:

  • entitlement staffing
  • salary units
  • middle management allowances for secondary and composite schools
  • senior management allowances for secondary schools only.
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Full-time teaching equivalent (FTTE)-based entitlement staffing

Entitlement staffing:

  • gives the school board a base to make long-term decisions.
  • drives the calculation of salary units, and middle management and senior management allowances.
  • has 3 components – curriculum delivery, management, and additional guidance staffing.

You can view your entitlement staffing in Pourato.

Finding information in Pourato – Applications and Online Systems

Curriculum delivery staffing

Curriculum staffing entitlements may be:

  • primary curriculum staffing
  • technology education staffing
  • secondary curriculum staffing.

View the total staffing elements on your school’s staffing entitlement tab under ‘curriculum delivery’.

Management staffing

Management staffing has a roll generated component and either:

  • base management staffing for secondary, area and composite schools
  • professional leadership staffing for primary, intermediate, restricted composite and special schools.

Additional guidance staffing

Guidance staffing is a roll generated component.

Salary units

We provide your board with salary units to allocate as permanent or fixed-term additions to your teachers’ salaries.

Salary units are generated by a formula using your school’s entitlement staffing. Very small schools may generate 0 units.

Rules for allocating salary units

Units are for teachers and may not be paid to principals.

Middle management allowances for secondary and composite schools

A middle management allowance may be available for a teacher who has specific curriculum or pastoral management responsibility. This could be a head of department or dean, or responsibility for at least 5 students funded under the Ongoing Resourcing Scheme. 

Rules for allocating middle management allowances

The rules are set out in teachers’ collective agreements.

The rules can be found in the Post Primary Teachers' Association (PPTA) and Te Whakarōputanga Kaitiaki Kura o Aotearoa (formerly NZSTA) guidelines.

Senior management allowances for secondary schools

Units may be available to a teacher who is an assistant or deputy principal and does principal duties at times.

Rules for allocating senior management allowances

The rules for allocating units are set out in teachers’ collective agreements.

For primary, intermediate and special schools, they are also covered in:

  • ‘Unit Allocation Guidelines’ issued jointly by us, New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI), and Te Whakarōputanga in 2008.

Senior management allowances are in:

  • Secondary Teachers’ Collective Agreement (STCA), and
  • the guidelines prepared by the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA), and Te Whakarōputanga.
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