Curriculum News April 2024
Published April 19th, 2024
This is our second Curriculum News email for 2024 and you can find earlier updates in the Newsletters section. Note that information is changing all the time so some links from previous newsletters may now be outdated.
The aim of these updates is to summarise and highlight key information that is relevant to kaiako and environmental education providers, with a focus on the curriculum refresh and NCEA change programmes. This includes news about policies, curriculum documents, online support and new resources, from both the MoE and other Networks of Expertise.
This update includes:
- Government Action Plan: Education actions
- Changes to Professional Learning priorities
- NCEA Level 2 and 3 delayed a further 2 years
- Curriculum Centre and wider MoE staffing changes
This short update summarises the most recent announcements from the Ministry of Education - you can sign up to receive their curriculum newsletters here - and also includes quotes from government media releases (click on bold text for links).
Government Action Plan for April - June
Actions that relate to Education:
27. Take decisions on the rollout of structured literacy for year 1-3 students, including a phonics check.
28. Take action to strengthen teacher training, including refocusing Professional Learning and Development for teachers on numeracy, literacy and assessment.
29. Take action to develop standardised assessment and regular reporting to parents.
30. Introduce legislation to reintroduce charter schools.
31. Launch an Attendance Action Plan and introduce the first phase of initiatives to lift school attendance.
The above action plan has resulted in the following changes to our sector in the last month:
New Professional Learning Priorities
Funding for regionally-allocated PLD from Term 2 onwards must meet one of these criteria:
- Structured literacy
- NCEA Level 1 implementation
- Assessment for learning
Read the full details here. This is a shift from the previous priorities which included local curriculum design and cultural capability (assessment for learning remains the same), and will have an impact on schools’ ability to incorporate environmental education and place-based learning into their funded PLD for teachers.
NCEA Levels 2 and 3 implementation ‘rephased’ to 2028 and 2029
The announcement of a further 2-year delay for the NCEA change programme means that secondary schools will continue to use the existing Education for Sustainability standards for Levels 2 and 3 for another four years. Just a reminder that you can find excellent resources and support for the EfS standards here.
It also means we’re unlikely to see the work undertaken by the Subject Expert Group (SEG) for the proposed Toitū te Taiao | Sustainability for Level 2. A review of Level 1 is also planned, which will have an impact on the pathways for students and according to the press release (see below) a senior curriculum for Yr 11- 13 will be developed.
Official statement from the minister:
“The Government will be rephasing the NCEA Change Programme to develop the secondary curriculum of Year 11-13 subject areas before introduction of new assessments. As a result of this the NCEA Change Programme will be delayed by two years. During this time key actions will include:
- A review of the new NCEA Level 1 will be undertaken by the Education Review Office documenting key learnings
- The senior secondary curriculum for Year 11-13 students will be developed
- An implementation plan will reflect learnings from ERO’s evaluation of Level 1
- NCEA Level 1 (revised) and NCEA Level 2 will be fully implemented by 2028
- NCEA Level 3 will be fully implemented by 2029
Read the full press release here
Curriculum Centre | Te Poutāhū and wider MoE staffing changes
Our thoughts are with all of the people affected by the job losses at the MoE this week. We know that many of those affected were working on the NCEA change programme within the Curriculum Centre. We don't know how this will affect work such as the move from TKI to Tāhūrangi, development of resources for learning areas, and direct support for teachers and schools.
