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More than a third of our principals have less than five years’ experience in the role, and it’s important that they are set up for success. ERO looked at pathways and supports for new principals.

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.

Principals and school leaders have taken on a lot of responsibility during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Education Review Office interviewed principals and board chairs and surveyed 1777 principals across the country from May through to September 2020 to understand how they have responded. This summary highlights how those school leaders rose to the challenge.

This report is the companion report to Science in the Early Years: Early Childhood and Years 1-4. This report looks at, in more depth, good practice in science teaching and learning in English-Medium early childhood education. It presents examples of good practice of science in the curriculum, from eight services identified during their ERO reviews.

ERO looked at how new principals are doing in their first five years in the role. We found that new principals are not always well prepared, and many are not confident about their new range of responsibilities. School boards can make a big difference in setting new principals up for success.

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.

To understand what the challenges of Covid-19 were in 2020 and how schools responded, the Education Review Office spoke to schools and surveyed over 2500 principals and teachers across the country. This report presents our findings on how Covid-19 impacted students, teachers and schools, how schools responded and what they learnt, and the challenges schools expect they might face in future alert level changes.

Learning science in the preschool years helps children become better problem solvers and critical thinkers. This short guide aims to help parents and whānau of children in early childhood education to understand why science matters for this age group, know what to expect for science teaching and learning for their child, and think about how they can support their child’s science learning journey.

Early childhood education services had to quickly adapt to changing requirements and periods of uncertainty due to Covid-19 in 2020. ERO undertook work to understand how this affected early childhood education services. This report presents our findings on how Covid-19 impacted children, whānau and services, how services responded and what they learnt, and the challenges that services expect they might face in future alert level changes.