Strengthening our National Curriculum

Together, we are making the most significant changes to our national curriculum since 2007.

The national curriculum for schooling, made up of The New Zealand Curriculum (NZC) and Te Marautanga o Aotearoa (TMoA), underpins everything that you, as principals and tumuaki, and teachers and kaiako, do in the classroom.

Our multi-year change programme includes refreshing, redesigning, and strengthening our curricula and assessment systems so they are in line with the best in the world.

The changes we are making encompass what will be taught and in what sequence for each year of schooling, the teaching practices that teachers and kaiako use in classrooms, and the assessment and aromatawai tools and practices teachers and kaiako use to monitor and respond to learner and ākonga progress.

Why is the national curriculum being strengthened?

Our national curriculum needs to be fit for purpose, now and in the future. That means making sure it is internationally comparable, evidence-based, and provides a strong foundation for learning across Aotearoa New Zealand (this includes making sure it supports kura and Māori medium settings to deliver on their designated or special character).

The changes we are making combine evidence, insights, and experiences drawn from the time-period both curricula have been in use with formal feedback and input from a wide range of groups from across the education sector.

Our strengthened national curriculum will be knowledge rich, grounded in the science of learning and nationally consistent – so that we can enable learners to get a world leading education wherever they go to school.

We’re making both The NZC and TMoA clearer and easier to use - supporting teachers and kaiako to raise achievement and reduce the equity gap.

We want teachers and kaiako to be focused on bringing learning to life in the classroom. By introducing greater direction and clearer progressions to the national curriculum, we aim to give teachers and kaiako greater direction about what to teach, and how and when to teach it, freeing you up from having to create sequences yourselves.

Like you, we want you to be able invest your time and passion into creating exciting teaching and learning programmes that build depth of understanding and foster a love of learning.

We also want learners and ākonga - and those supporting them - to be clear about what they are learning and the progress they’re making along the learning pathway. To achieve this, we’re organising both the NZC and TMoA into 5 phases of learning and introducing year-by-year teaching and learning sequences.

These phases are:

We want to make sure learners and ākonga know how they are tracking every step of the way and that their parents and whānau have clear visibility of this progress too. That’s why, alongside the new national curriculum content, we’ll continue to provide you with high-quality standardised assessment and aromatawai tools and guidance to support you to use them consistently. Using these tools, you can monitor progress and identify what’s going well, any areas for improvement and opportunities for extension.

Ultimately, we want our strengthened national curriculum, combined with quality teaching practices and a more consistent approach to assessment and aromatawai, to provide every learner and ākonga with the opportunity to realise their potential and thrive in the classroom and in life, regardless of their individual circumstances or where they go to school.

Our approach to implementing change

We are committed to ensuring the effective delivery and implementation of a strengthened national curriculum. This means making sure we deliver services and supports that enable the use of a clear, structured, evidence-based curriculum in all schools and kura.

Our approach involves supporting and extending the capability of teachers and leaders through:

• Professional learning and development
• Curriculum resources
• Guidance and tools for teachers and leaders
• Frontline support

We’re also focused on communicating clearly with our stakeholders so that they are aware of and can access the supports and services available. That way, teachers, kaiako, school and kura leaders, whānau, and school boards can access what they need to ensure all learners and ākonga thrive in a high-quality education system.

Our journey to date and what’s ahead

As a sector we have been talking for a number of years about the need for a clearer, more detailed national curriculum to support quality teaching and learning, and to reduce teacher and kaiako workload. While our journey to strengthen the national curriculum has seen us adjust course at times, we’ve continued to build on the important work that came before and always remained committed to collaboration.

Together we are working towards these goals to strengthen the national curriculum.

Many teachers, kaiako, subject-matter experts, school and kura leaders, and curriculum design experts have contributed to our joint work over the last few years.

This work has also been shared with sector representative groups for initial feedback and independently reviewed by the Education Review Office (ERO) who have drawn on their leadership partners from schools and kura around the country and international experts.

Your valuable views, insights, and experiences are integral to helping us shape the national curriculum content and support materials, so they are relevant and fit for purpose.

Like the consultation and independent evaluation supporting development of learning areas and wāhanga ako, our approach to implementing and embedding change is being informed by ongoing conversations with the sector. This means we will continue to work closely with you and support you with making change in your schools, kura and classrooms as we move through each phase of implementation.

Timeline for rolling out the new curricula

Once the full updated national curriculum has been gazetted by the end of 2026 and is in use from 2027, the Government intends to move into a regular update cycle for the NZC and TMoA, as occurs in other jurisdictions, to avoid the need for wholesale reform.

Phases of implementation

There are three key implementation phases – preparing for change, implementing change, and sustaining and maintaining change. While teachers and kaiako may find phases sometimes overlap, rollout of the new curricula is being phased and sequenced to make sure you are well supported to lead the changes in your schools, kura and classrooms.

Phase one – preparing for change

During phase one, to prepare for change, schools and kura, and teachers and kaiako will consider the strengthened NZC and TMoA content and new practices for teaching, assessment and aromatawai. They will also engage with available supports – including professional learning and development (PLD), existing online resources, additional funded resources, working with Ministry frontline staff and peer-to-peer networks, and (where applicable) Curriculum Days and Teacher-Only Days.

Support for assessment and aromatawai will cover the ongoing use of existing tools such as e-asTTle, PATs and TWA, and new tools such as the phonics checks and Hirira Weteoro, with some requirements currently planned to be introduced in 2026.

The phased approach to strengthening the national curriculum means that change preparation can continue into the implementing change phase and beyond.

• For example – with the release of the English (0-6) and maths (0-8) learning areas and Te Reo Rangatira (0-6) and Pāngarau wāhanga ako in Term 4, 2024, there is an overlap between Phase one and Phase two for Years 0-8.

As you prepare for change, the Ministry and ERO will work with you to understand how you are getting ready to implement change, including the successes you are having and challenges you are facing, while tailoring additional support as needed.

Phase two – implementing change

Implementing change starts when schools and kura are required to use the updated national curriculum content. As you begin to implement change, there is no expectation of perfection on day one. We acknowledge people will be at different stages of readiness – it’s just important to make a start.

To support schools and kura with embedding changes, we have a range of supports and resources available.

Implementation Supports (Tāhūrangi)

Phase three – sustaining and maintaining change

Implementation does not stop when the new learning areas and wāhanga ako are incorporated into your teaching programmes. We know change takes sustained focus and investment and it will take time for new practices to be embedded. With data, insights, and feedback from you, we’ll continue to make improvements to the supports that are offered.

Supporting you

Meaningful and transformational change of this scale doesn’t happen overnight – it takes sustained focus and investment. To help you get ready, get started, and sustain the change, we will be here every step of the way to support you with using the new national curriculum to its full potential. At a national level, this includes a range of resources and professional development opportunities. At a regional level, this includes our Curriculum Advisory Service who can provide in-person support.

We’ll also continue to engage with the sector because progress, and pursuit of our shared goals, remains a collective effort and will continue in this spirit.

As you start to embed new content into your classroom teaching and learning programmes from the start of 2025, we know you will have insights and experiences to share that will help to inform relevant refinements and there will be further opportunity to provide feedback on the content.

What does success look like?

By way of measurement, we’ll be monitoring success across a range of milestones including achieving the Government’s target of 80% of Year 8 students being at or above the expected curriculum level for their age in reading, writing and maths by 2030.

While reaching this target paves the way for ongoing learner success, recognising that the foundational learning areas are integral to all learning, we will also be looking for improvement across the national curriculum via the Curriculum Insights and Progress Study and Tīrewa Mātai.

Beyond these important measures, our shared success is also characterised by a number of inextricably linked outcomes:

• a clear, consistent national curriculum that contains knowledge-rich content and is grounded in the science of learning
• teachers and kaiako, at every stage of their learning journey, feeling confident in what they are teaching and when, and how they are teaching it
• teachers and kaiako using excellent teaching materials and resources and best-practice assessment and aromatawai tools to track progress and help them respond to learners and ākonga needing extra support or extension
• schools and kura reporting positive relationships with the Ministry
• schools and kura rating the efficacy of the professional learning and development opportunities and other resources highly
• parents and whānau knowing and understanding how their tamariki are tracking including strengths and areas for improvement, along with ways they can also help them to thrive.

Ultimately, we want to have a world-leading national curriculum other jurisdictions look to as an exemplar. But most importantly, we want our national curriculum to support equitable and excellent outcomes for all learners and ākonga. Every child should be empowered to realise their potential.