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The Education Review Office (ERO), in partnership with the Human Rights Commission (HRC) and the Office for Disability Issues (ODI), looked at how well the education system is supporting disabled learners in schools. We found that we need to improve education for disabled learners so they can thrive. This report describes what we found and what is needed to significantly improve education for these priority learners.

This report shares teaching approaches and strategies for Year 5 to Year 11 that ERO has identified in a range of schools where students were found to be highly engaged in science. This report should be seen as a resource for leaders and teachers looking to strengthen their teaching of science. It looks at Years 5-11 as they are the critical years for science engagement before learners make final choices on whether to continue in science.

Since 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic has caused significant disruption to schools, their staff, learners, and whānau. Three years on from the start of the pandemic, this report has found significant and concerning ongoing impacts on learners’ progress, particularly for learners in poorer communities, and on teachers and principals.

Going to school is critical for our children’s futures. The evidence is clear that every day of school matters, missing school leads to lower achievement.  In New Zealand, learners are expected to attend school every day the school is open. And yet many don’t. New Zealand has lower attendance than other countries and alarmingly attendance is falling.

Teacher aides have a wide range of valued roles and responsibilities. They enhance learner outcomes by drawing on positive relationships, good training, collaborative practices, and cultural expertise. This guide shares practical strategies and insights for classroom teachers, to help you work alongside teacher aides to make a real difference for learners, together.

Teacher aides have a wide range of valued roles and responsibilities, and the quality of their practice makes a big difference for learners. Teacher aides can enhance learner outcomes by drawing on positive relationships, good training, collaborative practices, and cultural expertise. This guide shares practical strategies and insights for teacher aides, to inspire and improve their everyday practice.

Teacher aides in Aotearoa New Zealand have a wide range of valued roles and responsibilities. We know that they can enhance learner outcomes by drawing on positive relationships, good training, collaborative practices, and cultural expertise. This report looks at what good teacher aide practice and support looks like and sets out four key areas of teacher aide practice that make a difference for learners – as well as what schools can do to set teacher aides up for success.

This guide shares practical strategies and insights for principals, Special Education Needs Coordinators, Learning Support Coordinators, and other school leaders, to help you work with teacher aides to make a real difference for learners, together.

While there are a range of factors that impact on attendance, our research shows that some are more important than others. This report sets out the drivers of attendance that have the biggest impact on whether learners go to school regularly. These include parents’ attitudes, learners’ attitudes, and how learners experience school.  

Starting school is a major childhood event. It can be an exciting time for children and their families. But it is a big change, and so it can also be an uncertain time. A good start at school sets children up to succeed at school. We looked to see how changing to cohort entry impacts on children, their peers, and whānau, as well as their schools and early childhood education services.

Starting school is a major childhood event. It can be an exciting time for children and their families. But it is a big change and can be an uncertain time. Since 2018, schools have been able to have children start in groups at certain dates during the year. This is called cohort entry. ERO found that cohort entry has a range of benefits for children’s wellbeing and learning, schools’ ability to structure transitions more easily, and for teachers due to fewer disruptions and more time to teach.

ERO is undertaking a programme of work to learn the lessons from the lockdown and to support the education system, schools and early childhood centres to respond to the disruption to education caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. As a first stage of this work, ERO surveyed a sample of students and teachers in primary and secondary schools. This report sets out what we found about their wellbeing and experiences of learning and teaching during the lockdown.

Teacher aides can make a real difference for learners. They have a wide range of valued roles and responsibilities, and can enhance learner outcomes by drawing on positive relationships, good training, collaborative practices, and cultural expertise. ERO was commissioned by the Ministry of Education and NZEI Te Riu Roa to find out what good teacher aide practice and support looks like. This summary gives an overview of what we learnt.

This report looks at how well science is led in services and schools, how well science is woven through the curriculum, and how well kaiako/ teachers include science in a responsive curriculum. Each section of this report provides leaders, kaiako, and teachers with reflective questions to consider, which could support improvements. We also identify opportunities for improvement at both the individual service / school level, and for the system.

This report explains strategies for supporting secondary students’ engagement during the Covid‑19 pandemic. These strategies include re-engaging students who present with wellbeing concerns or show signs of disengagement. The report also includes some innovative actions schools used to promote student engagement after the first lockdown in 2020.

Aotearoa New Zealand is becoming more ethnically diverse, and this is changing quickly. It is critical that education meets the needs of all our children. This report finds that many learners from ethnic communities are succeeding in education but encounter racism, isolation, and lack of cultural understanding. We must achieve significant change if Aotearoa New Zealand is to be a great place to learn for children and young people from ethnic communities.

This guide is for educators and providers that work with young people in Alternative Education. It shares what we heard from the young people, educators, and providers we talked to in Alternative Education, what we found out about what good provision looks like, and the changes to provision that we are recommending.

Each year, Alternative Education provides education to over 2,000 young people who have been disengaged from education and who have high and complex needs. The Education Review Office (ERO), in partnership with the Social Wellbeing Agency (SWA), has looked at how well the education system is supporting young people in Alternative Education. This study describes what we found and what is needed to significantly improve education for t

Going to school is critical for our children’s futures. The evidence is clear that every day of school matters – missing school leads to lower achievement. Aotearoa New Zealand has lower attendance than other countries and, alarmingly, attendance is falling. This short summary looks at some of the reasons why.

Each year, Alternative Education provides education to over 2,000 young people who have been disengaged from education and who have high and complex needs. The Education Review Office (ERO), in partnership with the Social Wellbeing Agency (SWA), looked at how well the education system is supporting young people in Alternative Education. This study describes what we found and what is needed to significantly improve education for these young people.