Back in December I shared that the Ministry is presently working on updating the application forms and guidance documents. This is not intended to make the application process harder, but they’ve been working on this for the past year because the big spike in applications caused them to see areas which they felt needed improvement. Their stated aim for the review of the forms is to “to ensure the application process and requirements are clear for parents, and to support staff decisions. The large increase in home education applications in late 2021 highlighted areas to regional and national office staff which needed to be reviewed to ensure a smoother application process overall.”

I would also note that the Ministry has promised a refresh of the forms since they introduced the current ones in 2016, due to persistent technical issues with them.

The Ministry sent NCHENZ, as well as HSNZ, a draft copy of the new forms, and we provided substantial feedback on them a few weeks ago. The Ministry is now working further on the forms. What further changes they will make and when these will come into effect are yet to be seen.

Once I know what the final format will look like, NCHENZ and I will provide updates on anything families need to be aware of. 

Meanwhile, a reminder of my longstanding advice - it is best NOT to use the Ministry's application form, except for Section One. For the rest, use a separate document to answer the questions. Just this week I've seen another case where a family completed their application using the Ministry form, but when they sent the file to the MoE, at the Ministry end it appears to be 3/4 blank, even though the information is definitely there - both I and the family can see it, but Ministry staff can't, even in a copy transmitted by me on the family's behalf. That's just one of the frustrating examples of the many technical difficulties experienced with the current forms. Hopefully they will be resolved as part of the updated forms in due course. 

This article looks at HOW home educated students can gain NCEA, including the criteria to gain credits, how link schools work etc. For a more general overview of how NCEA itself is structured, and the changes taking place, as well as alternative high school qualification options, and ideas around preparing for qualifications, see THIS article. 

NCEA (National Certificate of Educational Achievement) is the NZ state high school qualification. It is administered by NZQA (New Zealand Qualifications Authority). Among other things, NZQA determines what unit standards and achievement standards are approved, oversees the assessment of student work for credit, and maintains the databases of standards, assessment rules, and student achievements. 

Only organisations with "consent to assess" (student work) and "consent to access" (the framework) are permitted to assess work, determine whether it meets the requirements to gain the credits attached to the unit of work, and upload the results to the framework. These organisations are typically: most secondary schools, most tertiary education organisations, and other approved education providers. There are NO homeschool organisations with consent to assess/access, and so home educated students must have work assessed by one of the approved providers in order to gain credits and have them added to their learning record on the NZQF (NZ Qualifications Framework, which is controlled by NZQA). 

NCEA has three levels - Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 - typically completed in Years 11, 12 and 13 in schools. 
NCEA is changing, and these changes are being rolled out over the next several years. The timeline has been adjusted several times, to this may be subject to further changes. As of now (July 2023), the following applies:

Students entering Level 1 in 2024 will be under the new system for Level 1, which is that they will need to gain 60 Level 1 credits, plus 20 literacy/numeracy credits. 

These literacy/numeracy credits will be gained by sitting a Common Assessment Activity (CAA) which is an external exam done online at schools, offered at least twice (possibly more) per year. Once the new NCEA system is fully rolled out, ALL NCEA students will need to pass the CAA in order to be awarded any level of NCEA, though they can attempt it as many times as needed in order to pass. HOWEVER...

For 2024 and 2025, students will also be able to gain the required literacy and numeracy credits through an alternative set of assessment standards. There has been considerable concern expressed about the NCEA changes, which has resulted in this temporary allowance, among other tweaks to the timeline. I don't yet have information on what these assessment standards will be, though I suspect they'll be a continuation of the current lit/num standards in the meantime, or something very similar. 

Students entering Level 2 in 2024-2025 will still be under the present system, which is that they must gain 60 credits at Level 2 or above, plus 20 credits at any level, while also meeting the Level 1 literacy/numeracy requirements (which is what usually comprises the extra 20 credits). 

Students entering Level 2 from 2026 onwards, will be under the new system, which is that they must gain 60 Level 2 credits, plus have passed the CAA exam. 

Students entering Level 3 in 2024-2026 will still be under the present system, which is that they must gain 60 credits from Level 3 or above plus 20 credits from Level 2 or above (these can be previously earned "carry over credits") and must also have met the Level 1 literacy/numeracy requirements. 

Students entering Level 3 from 2027 onwards will be under the new system - requiring 60 Level 3 credits, plus have passed the CAA exam. 

University Entrance requirements (via NCEA) are currently that the student must have gained each of the following:

• NCEA Level 3
• 14 credits at Level 3 in each of three approved subjects
• Literacy - 10 credits at Level 2 or above, made up of:
  • 5 credits in reading
  • 5 credits in writing
• Numeracy - 10 credits at Level 1 or above, made up of:
  • achievement standards – specified achievement standards available through a range of subjects, or
  • unit standards - package of three numeracy unit standards (26623, 26626, 26627- all three required), or
  • numeracy unit standard 32406 OR te pāngarau unit standard 32412. (these are for students in 2022-2023 only)

University Entrance requirements are being reviewed in light of NCEA changes, and there are expected to be some amendments from 2024, though this may be pushed out due to the delay in Level 2&3 changes. 

More information about the NCEA change programme, approved standards, NCEA in general and University Entrance can be found at the following websites:

• New home of NCEA
• NZQA's existing/older site
• NZQA's revamped (still in progress) site​

(There's quite a bit of cross over in internal links between the above three sites currently). 

Each year, NZQA publishes its current "assessment rules" for NCEA. In previous years, there has been a set of rules and several pages on the website dedicated to homeschooled students, including information on how our students are assessed, using a link school, and a document to get the school to sign. This year, they've removed all that, and just have the one set of rules, which specifically state that they replace, among other things, the previous assessment rules for home-schooled students. The 2023 set of rules can be viewed HERE. 

What is not immediately clear in reading them is HOW they apply to home educated students, and whether there are any significant changes on previous years, so after some digging, and some emails with NZQA (it only took them 6 months to answer me, hence the delay in publishing this article!), here's what you need to know: 

Buried on the website is a document called "Internal and External Assessment of Home-Schooled Students." It explains that:

• Home-schooled students and other persons who are not enrolled in a School are only eligible to be assessed against standards [for credit] or enter in a New Zealand Scholarship subject through linking with a School with Consent to Assess.
• There is no obligation on the part of any School to act as a Link School for home-schooled students wishing to enter for standards assessment or enter a New Zealand Scholarship subject.
• Home-schooled students wishing to enter for assessment standards or enter a New Zealand Scholarship subject must do so through a Link School using the appropriate form (see below)
• A home-schooled student must meet all entry and eligibility criteria as specified in the Assessment Rules for Schools with Consent to Assess 2022 and are subject to the requirements of those Rules.
• A home-schooled student who wishes to enter for New Zealand Scholarship must not have completed their secondary education in a previous year and must attest to their eligibility through a Justice of the Peace.
• Before accepting an entry for any unit or achievement standard from a home-schooled student or other person, the Principal's Nominee of the School must be satisfied that the assessment programme undertaken by the home-schooled student is:
  • fair, valid, reliable, and consistent nationally with the assessment Standard; and
  • all work presented for assessment by the student or other person is authentic.

             Note: All relevant internally assessed work must be moderated by the Link School.

• The Link School must carry out the necessary administration tasks for entering home-schooled students in examinations or other external assessments.
• The home-schooled student's results must be processed along with other students’ results from the Link School.
• A School which agrees to link with and / or perform other services for students who are home-schooled may make arrangements necessary to do so, including for any administrative costs.

You can view the above document HERE. It has an additional page with some links, though a couple of them are out of date. 

Even more buried is the form you need to use. I've saved a copy and you can download it HERE, as it's not easy to access from the NZQA website. This form has sections for internal assessment agreement, external assessment, and scholarship entry. Once completed, you need to keep a copy, and so does the school. The form is useful in discussing the options with the school, as many of them have no idea whatsoever how this works. 

Note that internal assessment is where the student completes work that is then assessed by a teacher at the school. External assessment is where the student sits exams (which are marked via NZQA). The new CAAs are externals, though they are sat at different times of year to the other external exams, which are held in set blocks near the end of the year. 

As noted above, most schools have no idea how NCEA assessment for homeschooled students works. If you would like to make a link school arrangement, you will need to approach suitable schools near you, make an appointment, and discuss it with them, which means you will likely need to explain to them how this works, and request for them to agree to be a link school for your student. Remember, they are under no obligation to do so. Take copies of the two documents linked above to show them, and if they agree to do so, get them to fill in their parts of the second form. 

The reality is that getting a high school to agree to be a link school for external exams is usually not too difficult. In such cases, all they need to do is take care of a little paperwork, order the examination papers for the student, ensure they have a place to sit in the exams, collect the papers afterwards and send them in. They're doing this for 100s of other students and one more is no big deal. They also routinely do this for Te Kura students, so are relatively familiar with the process. Making an appointment to see the Principal's Nominee and discussing it and completing the paperwork is often all it takes. 

However, finding a school willing to act as a link school for internal assessment is a completely different matter. Most schools consider themselves too busy with their own students and don't want to even think about this. And if they are more willing, they will have questions like - what are they assessing? Who sets/decides the work? How does it align with the assessment standards? How do they know the student has not cheated? etc. By the way, there are no set answers to these questions - they are all matters for discussion/negotiation. The result is that it is rare for a school to agree to provide internal assessment for home educated students. The Ministry is convinced that most schools should be willing to do so, but this has never been the reality. 

One of the most common questions in light of the above is: can a student attain NCEA via external credits only? The answer to this is - possibly. Each set of external exams includes several papers, each one examining a certain assessment standard, and each worth a set number of credits. You can find out the details of exams and credits for each subject on the NZQA website. It takes a bit to get your head around the details and how to find things on the website, but to give an example, I can see that the Level 1 Science exam for 2023 will include the following:

• 90940 - Demonstrate understanding of aspects of mechanics - 4 credits
• 90944 - Demonstrate understanding of aspects of acids and bases - 4 credits
• 90948 - Demonstrate understanding of biological ideas relating to genetic variation - 4 credits

Now, a student does not have to sit ALL of the papers in an exam - they may have just enrolled for certain ones - and it's worth noting that they have the full 3 hours available in an exam to work on whatever papers they are sitting, even if it's not the full number of available ones. But if our hypothetical student DID sit all three of the above science papers, and was successful in all of them, they could gain a total maximum of 12 credits in science. 

Remember that for each paper you plan to have your student sit, they need to have completed suitable learning/work ahead of time to prepare them to sit that specific paper. 

So the answer to the question of whether a student can gain NCEA (and/or U.E) via exams only needs to be worked out based on:

• What subjects they will do
• What papers are within the exams they will sit, and which ones they will be prepared for/ready to sit
• The total number of credits available this way

Schools are not the only organisations which provide programmes where students can gain credits. Pretty much any institution or training provider that provides recognised training will have their courses based on recognised standards which are attached to credits on the NZQF. These credits will be at various levels, starting at Level 1 and going through to much higher levels. Completing any approved standards with an agency who has consent to assess/access will give your student additional credits which will be added to their learning record and are included in their overall attainments. 

Some ways that students may gain credits and/or complete NCEA other than via secondary schools include:

• STAR courses - these are short (around 4 month) courses offered by various providers. STAR stands for "Secondary Tertiary Alignment Resource" and most of these courses are offered by universities or polytechs to secondary students. While websites may say there are no fees, that applies to students enrolled in schools, as govt funding for STAR courses is provided through schools. Home educating families will have to pay for these courses if they wish their students to enroll. These courses are for capable Year 12&13 students and are at first year university level. 
• Gateway courses - these are structured workplace-based learning programmes for Year 11-13 students, typically overseen by Industry Training Organisations (ITOs). Again, they are funded for students in school, but home educators need to pay for them. An example would be MITO's StartUp programme, where students would spend time in an automotive workplace (parents need to arrange this), usually one day per week. They would have specific coursework/assignments to complete, and there are specific activities they have to complete and be assessed on by a suitable workplace supervisor and/or ITO assessor. 
• Foundation Studies - these are courses via tertiary providers aimed at school leavers who have not completed NCEA Levels 1 or 2. Generally these are not ideal for secondary students, as they really are aimed at adults with little educational background, and the content may not be very interesting. For this reason, some providers, such as Open Polytech, will no longer allow home educated students to enroll in these courses, but some providers may still do so. 
• Enrolling in Te Kura under the Young Adult gateway - this is free for 16-19 year olds who are not enrolled in school, and enables students to work towards NCEA. If a home educated students is enrolled full time in Te Kura (3 or more subjects) their exemption and homeschooling supervision allowance ends, but on the other hand, they are then eligible for funded access to STAR and Gateway courses. Working via Te Kura is also good for students who don't want to sit exams, but wish to gain NCEA via internal assessment only. This is possible for most levels of NCEA, though it may be more difficult to attain U.E via internal assessment only, due to the need to gain at least 14 credits in each of 3 approved subjects. 
• Pre-trade and primary industry courses - these are full time programmes for students who are 16+ (15yos with exemptions may be accepted), in which the students are attending in person, working on both practical and academic requirements. They are aimed at students wanting to attain Level 2 and the skills to enter an apprenticeship or similar. There are various providers around the country. Some providers also offer shorter distance courses to give students a taste and help them gain a few credits. 
• Additional credit-earning courses. Many short courses in various things have some credits attached. For example, completing a St John first aid course would gain the student some credits. There is a directory of education providers HERE - once you see who is on it, you can look up the websites of the ones you are interested in to find out more about what they offer. 

NCEA is the NZ state high school qualification. Gaining NCEA is a means to an end, not an end in itself. When considering whether your student needs NCEA, and how to access it, think about what they are wanting to do AFTER they finish high school, and what they need to be able to pursue this. Not all students need to complete NCEA. They may wish to gain an alternative high school qualification, or just need to complete enough credits to demonstrate they have what it takes to move on to whatever is next for them. 

NCEA credits can only be gained on work that is assessed and recorded by an approved education or training provider, who are deemed to have "consent to assess" (the work) and "consent to access" (the qualifications framework). Credits are attached to units of work, known as "standards" which may be internally or externally assessed. Home educated students can have an arrangement with a local high school to act as a "link school" for assessment purposes; most often they are only willing to do so for external assessments (exams). 

Students can also gain credits by completing courses through alternative institutions and/or training providers.

Getting to grips with NCEA and how it all works is akin to learning a whole new language. Don't be discouraged if you found some of the terms used above confusing, or you are having trouble wrapping your head around how it all comes together. This takes time! The same can be said for any qualification system - they each have their own terms, requirements and processes.  

I hope that the above information has given you something of an overview of how NCEA works and how it can be accessed for home educated students. 

This week the supervision allowance for home educated students has been paid to most eligible parents. A significant number have found they were underpaid, mostly those who have exempt students age 16+ who have enrolled in 1-2 subjects with Te Kura. For those students, the allowance should NOT be affected. I have been investigating. I'm posting this information here so those in this situation know what action to take. Once this has been resolved, I will add the pertinent points to my more general article on the Supervision Allowance and Te Kura or Distance Learning. I encourage you to read that also if you have more general questions about whether you should be eligible for an allowance. 

When a student is enrolled in Te Kura under the Young Adult gateway, their enrolment details (name, NSN, date of enrolment etc) goes through to the Ministry of Education on a list, as the Ministry fund these students. Any students on the list who hold a homeschooling exemption, the Ministry extracts onto another list and sends back to Te Kura, asking for confirmation of how many subjects those students are enrolled in. Te Kura sends the list back with a list of how many subjects each student is enrolled in. The Ministry can then make updates at their end to ENROL and RAD (the national student and homeschooling databases respectively). 

If the student is enrolled in 3 or more subjects, then their exemption is ceased, and they are no longer entitled to the homeschooling supervision allowance. If they are enrolled in only 1-2 Te Kura subjects, then the exemption and allowance continues. 

At least, that's the theory. However....

There are multiple points in this chain of processes where things can go wrong.....
1) Te Kura itself first updates the student on ENROL, the national database. They tell me that if they note that the student is currently listed as exempt, then they try to make a point of contacting the family to ask how many subjects in total they intend to enroll in (as initial enrolment does not necessarily reflect full intended subjects), and to explain if it's 3 or more the exemption will cease. That's an excellent idea, but I'm confident from the comments of many families that does not always happen. In the process of updating the student on ENROL, unless they have checked and found/acted otherwise, their action of adding them as a Te Kura student will automatically cease the exemption. 
2) If the Ministry fails to check with Te Kura, or Te Kura fails to return confirmation of subject numbers to the Ministry, then things won't get corrected as they should.
3) Even if the above does happen, there is no guarantee that follow up will be correctly done. In theory, because of the above process, there should not be the current issues occurring - the sheer volume of them shows that things are not being done property at some point in the chain. And from my conversations with the Ministry and Te Kura, no one actually knows where it's going wrong, making it hard to fix. 
4) There is no set regularity to the process of sending through lists, responding to them, and taking follow up action, which doesn't help the efficacy of the process. 
5) In theory, the student's learning advisor is also supposed to make notes on the record that the student is home educated and only doing 1 or 2 subjects, but how/if that is picked up on and actioned is unclear. 

As I said to the lovely folk at Te Kura today, it shouldn't be this complicated! I will therefore be submitting a suggestion to the person currently working on improving the online enrolment forms, which should help:

On the online enrolment form for Young Adults, add the following questions/information:

• Does this student currently hold a homeschooling exemption? Y/N
• If yes, what is the total number of subjects this student intends to be enrolled in this year?

Note: If your home educated student enrolls in 3 or more subjects, their exemption and homeschool supervision allowance will cease. If they enroll in no more than 1-2 subjects, there will be no change to the exemption/allowance. 

I've already been told this would help a lot, as it would immediately alert the enrolment team to the situation, and allow them to ensure that they update ENROL in a way that will not cease the exemption where the student will only be doing 1-2 subjects and holds an exemption. The person in charge of changes however, is on leave until the 3rd of July. 

I've also received a note from Resourcing on 4th July saying:
"We have had situations where students have enrolled in 3 or more subjects, but then have only attended 2 of those subjects. If this is the case, the parents need to ensure that they have withdrawn the student from those subjects formally with Te Kura and advised us of this change."
​
So if that applies to your student, make sure you follow up. 

There are two departments involved in this - Te Kura's enrolment team, and the Ministry's resourcing department. In the first instance, it is best to contact Te Kura, because they need to update ENROL (if applicable) and also provide the Ministry with proof that your student is only doing 1-2 subjects. In theory they have already done that (via the lists), but the Ministry will not make further changes without evidence. You can contact the Te Kura enrolment team on 0800 65 99 88, select 1 from the menu. 

The Resourcing department is responsible for issuing a declaration if one was not already done, and making the missing payment. You will likely also want to contact them, quoting your homeschooling reference number and stating the issue. You might write something like this:

"My child (insert full name) has a home education exemption, family reference number (insert number). They were enrolled in Te Kura for 1 (or 2) subjects from (insert date). Their exemption/supervision allowance should therefore not have been affected, but we have not received the expected payment amount [OR: we have not received the declarations or payment]. Attached is evidence that (child's name) is only enrolled in 1 (or 2) subjects [OR: we have been in contact with Te Kura and requested that they ensure the record reflect he/she is enrolled in only 1 (or 2) subjects.]. We therefore request that you ensure that our exemption remains in force or is reinstated if necessary, and that the missing payment is processed."

You can email Resourcing at Resourcing@education.govt.nz 

Any payments that need to be made will usually happen within a month or so once Resourcing has things sorted. 

If your student is newly enrolled in Te Kura in 1-2 subjects, then until we know things have been fixed, it would be worth proactively checking with Resourcing prior to the next allowance payment that your student is correctly on the system and full payment will be processed for them. If they were enrolled at least a month prior to the declarations coming out, then how they are written on there should be accurate, but if they were enrolled later, it may not reflect what their system now says. In theory you could write on the forms, but I have no confidence that Resourcing actually reads/actions notes on the declarations which parents add. 

When you enroll a student, either for the first time, or when enrolling them at the start of a new year for continuing studies, or if you have made changes to the subjects they are enrolled in, I recommend you communicate with Te Kura to make sure they are aware, and appropriately note, that your student is exempt, and should remain so. 

However, note that if you do enroll in 3 or more subjects at any given time, the exemption will cease, and along with it the allowance. If they later drop out of Te Kura, or drop subjects, it is unlikely that they will be able to get the exemption back. 

If this situation has only now come to your attention, and you have been historically "short changed" over the last couple of years or so, you may have a case to make for back payment with the Ministry - though you'll need to take that up with them. 

If your student is enrolled in Te Kura full time (3 or more subjects) under the young adult gateway, there is also no student support payment (aka Te Kura supervision allowance) payable from Te Kura. 

If your student is enrolled in Te Kura full time under another funded gateway, they may be eligible for the student support payment, however, that is a completely separate system, managed entirely by Te Kura, and none of the above applies. This is also true if a previous exempt student transfers to full time free Te Kura (eg due to geographical isolation). 

Hopefully the above information will help you to resolve any issues you have may have experienced with missing supervision allowance payments for your child, and to proactively ensure that the issue does not arise again. I also hope that Te Kura and/or the Ministry can refine their systems to make it less complicated and more effective. 

In New Zealand, children between the ages of 6 and 16 are required to be enrolled in and attend a registered school unless they are exempt. The most common form of exemption is a homeschooling exemption granted under Section 38 of the Education and Training Act 2020.

​Some children learn at home, but are not exempt as they are enrolled in Te Kura or other distance learning schools. Confusion often arises around homeschooling vs distance learning options, and when exemptions are needed, which this post seeks to clarify. 

Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu, known as "Te Kura" for short, is the NZ correspondence school. It is a registered state school, which teaches the NZ curriculum. Originally set up in 1922 to provide distance learning to students who were too geographically isolated to attend a local school, now Te Kura has students who are enrolled for variety of reasons which are grouped by "gateways." There are 10 free (govt funded) gateways under which students can be enrolled. The gateways for pre-school, primary and secondary students are for students who:

• are from families who are geographically remote or itinerant, or living overseas 
• have been bullied, alienated or excluded/expelled from their face-to-face school
• have been referred to Te Kura by the Ministry of Education due to psychological or psycho-social needs
• have a long-term illness or medical condition (Early Childhood only)
• have learning support needs
• are pregnant or are young parents
• have been referred by the Ministry for Children, Oranga Tamariki or the Department of Corrections
• are elite athletes, dancers, musicians, sportspeople or performers whose extra-curricular commitments make a regular school routine impossible
• would like a second chance at completing their high school qualifications (young adults)
• are unable to attend an early childhood education centre locally because of distance and isolation or because demand exceeds the places available in their area.

The specifics of each of the above can be found in Te Kura's Enrolment Policy document. How to apply varies, depending on the gateway - in some cases you can simply enroll via the website, in others you will need a referral from the Ministry or similar. In the first instance, talk to enrolment staff at Te Kura for more information. 
NB: there are some gateways that are not funded, also set out in the enrolment policy, such as certain overseas students, and exempt fee-paying students (see below). 

When students are enrolled in Te Kura, their work/resources are (mostly) provided by the school, and their progress is assessed and monitored by the teachers, just like in a regularly school. 

All students who are enrolled under one of the funded gateways are still enrolled in a registered school (in this case, Te Kura) and therefore do not need/hold a homeschooling exemption, and are not homeschoolers, even though they are learning at home. 

However, students who do not fit the criteria for free enrolment in Te Kura may still be enrolled if their parents first gain a homeschooling exemption, and then choose to enroll on a fee-paying basis. A full programme costs about $8K per year, or individual subjects about $1800/year. The 2023 fee schedule can be found HERE. Because such students would hold a homeschooling exemption, their parents are taking responsibility for their education, and simply "purchasing" Te Kura courses as a resource; they are homeschoolers. 

Note that students who hold a homeschooling exemption and are aged 16-19 can be enrolled in 1 or 2 free subjects with Te Kura under the young adult gateway, and still retain their homeschooling exemption. However, if they enroll in 3 or more subjects they are considered "full time funded" and their exemption would be ceased. 

A fairly recent phenomenon is that there are now other distance learning schools registered in NZ. They are not state-owned, but private. Some are physical schools with a distance learning option. Others are virtual schools only. Any student may be enrolled in these schools, in the same way as they can be in other private schools - the individual schools may have enrolment criteria, but generally speaking any family can choose one of these schools for their student. Being private schools, however, there are fees attached, and no free options. Fees vary, from $3000/year to about $23,000/year. NZ private registered distance schools are as follows (in brackets are the type of curriculum and high school qualification they offer):

• Mt Hobson Academy (NZ curriculum/NCEA)
• AGE School (NZ curriculum/not applicable)
• Amana Christian School (ACE curriculum/ACE Certificate)
• Otamatea Christian School (ACE curriculum/ACE Certificate)
• ATEA College (Cambridge curriculum/Cambridge exams)
• Crimson Global Academy (Cambridge curriculum/Cambridge exams)

Enrolment and fee information can be found on these schools' respective websites, which I have linked. 

For students enrolled in these schools, like Te Kura or any physical school, the school is responsible for providing the teaching, curriculum, assessment and monitoring etc. 

Students enrolled in these schools are enrolled in a registered school. They do not need/hold a homeschooling exemption and are not homeschoolers, though they are learning at home. 

However, there are other distance learning schools which are NOT NZ registered schools (for example they may be based overseas). Families who wish to enroll their children in those schools will need a homeschooling exemption first, and therefore will be homeschoolers. 

Homeschoolers are those whose families have decided to take responsibility for their child's learning programme themselves and have applied for and gained a homeschooling exemption under Section 38 of the Education and Training Act through an application for exemption to the Ministry of Education. 

These families may choose from a range of curriculum and other resources, including, if they wish, paying for Te Kura courses, paying tutors etc, though most families don't do that. Whatever they do choose, they are taking personal responsibility to ensure that their child will be "taught as regularly and well as they would be if enrolled in a registered school." There are no free resources provided by the government - the parents are solely responsible for sourcing and funding resources (other than some access to Ministry resources through Down the Back of the Chair)

Homeschooling families are eligible for a small stipend (called the "supervision allowance"), which they can use as they see fit. They can purchase whatever resources they wish, or use no paid resources and make up their own lessons ultilising free resources like the library or free downloads etc. 

More on how to get started homeschooling can be found HERE as well as on the Ministry's webpage. 

Homeschooling (with a Section 38 exemption) is commonly also known as "home education" in NZ, and is referred to as such on the Ministry's website and most homeschooler/home educator's websites in NZ. 

Many parents who have children enrolled full time as funded Te Kura students also think of themselves as homeschoolers, because their children are "doing school at home." They may be involved in local homeschool groups (where such groups welcome Te Kura students). Because of this, and because members of the public who may not know any different also tend to lump all home-based learners into the "homeschooling" basket, folks who are new to the whole scene are often confused, and as a result get the wrong end of the stick about when/if they need a homeschooling exemption or not, whether they can just enroll in Te Kura as an option, whether the government provides curriculum and resourcers and so on. Te Kura staff tell us that they are needing to explain the difference to parents on a daily basis (though not always successfully), and I and other home education consultants find we are often doing the same. 

In an ideal world, perhaps we'd all have/stick to clearer "labels" but of course that's not likely to happen, and we also respect folks right to use their own terms for their own lives/children. However, the simplest ways to identify the categories are:

"Homeschooler" or "home educator" = student who has a Section 38 long term exemption. It is exclusively these students to whom the Ministry and Te Kura would apply these labels. To them, all other students are NOT homeschoolers. Homeschool parents are legally responsible for overseeing/delivering their child's learning programme, and for monitoring their progress. 

"Distance learner" - student who is enrolled in a distance school, whether Te Kura or a private distance school, and does NOT hold a Section 38 exemption. Distance students have teachers who are legally responsible for delivering and overseeing their programme of learning, and assessing/monitoring their progress.

As explained above, there are some students who are both exempt and enrolled in Te Kura via the fee paying gateway, or enrolled in an off-shore distance programme; legally they are homeschoolers/home educators. A student cannot be both exempt and enrolled in other NZ private distance schools, as enrolment in them is enrolment in a registered school which voids any exemption, and those schools don't have alternative options like Te Kura does. 

A fellow homeschooling parent and consultant, Nina Lawgun, spoke to Te Kura staff today about this issue. The following is copied/modified with permission. 
The points that Te Kura feels parents need to be reminded of and have clarified for them are...

1. Te Kura and any other registered online schools are not classed as homeschooling; they are schools.
2. Te Kura is a state school that offers free distance education to students who cannot attend their local school due to one of 10 very specific reasons, listed here [copied above]
3. To homeschool a parent needs to apply to the Ministry of Education for a homeschooling exemption. Their page on homeschooling is here. [This website also contains much info on homeschooling, and I offer a guide to exemptions and other resources]
4. To enroll at Te Kura no exemption is required, but a student must meet their free entry enrollment criteria, and if they do, then Te Kura as a government-funded registered state school will become their official school. However, they are not homeschooling, even though they will be learning and studying at home. [The same applies if they are enrolled at any other NZ registered distance school, except they will pay fees.]
5. If a student does not have a homeschooling exemption, that their parents have written an application for and sent for approval to the Ministry of Education, they are not classed as homeschooled, no matter how much work is involved on the part of the parent.
6. However, a homeschooled student, with an exemption, can apply to Te Kura as a private candidate at a cost of around $8000 to undertake study through them. In this case, since they will still have an exemption, they will retain their homeschooling status via this paid route.
7. At age 16, a homeschooled student with an exemption can take up to two courses through Te Kura and not lose their homeschool exemption. Three or more courses at Te Kura means you are enrolled with them as your school, and are no longer homeschooled. This is known as the Young Adult gateway and is free.

Hopefully this post will have clarified for you who are (legally) homeschoolers (aka home educators) and when an exemption is or is not required in order for your child to learn from home. 

Personally, I totally understand when Te Kura parents consider themselves homeschoolers, and I also understand how important for many of those families connecting with others via local homeschooling groups can be, and how little social support or connection is otherwise often available for those families. The purpose of this article is not to push any of you away or make you feel unwelcome! It's to define things legally and for the sake of those who are looking to take their kids out of school but are being confused by the terms they hear or in some cases the direct misinformation they have been told (or info they have misunderstood). For such families, clarity around the terms, options, requirements and situation is essential. 

If you're a parent newly considering having your child learn at home instead of at school, I hope this article has made things clearer. If you're a parent whose child is already a home-based learner, whether homeschooled or doing distance education, I'd simply encourage you to make sure, when you have conversations with other parents, to be aware of the confusion that can happen, and where warranted, explain the different options and requirements. Using differentiated terms may help with that. 

Every family who is home educating exempt students is sent a declaration twice a year (in about March and Oct), covering the periods Jan-June and July-Dec, to sign and return, along with forms in which they state whether they wish to receive the supervision allowance. Previously I have written THIS post about some recent changes to this process, as well as discussing why these declarations must be completed, and what happens if you don't. 

This article will go over some further new/current specifics as well as changes to the supervision allowance. 

A small allowance is payable to home educating families who choose to receive it. It was first introduced in 1990, and has not changed one cent since that time. Last year, after significant lobbying by Homeschooling NZ, and work by NCHENZ, the government agreed to increase the allowance by 2.75%, in line with the yearly funding increase for schools, from 2023. The new figures have been released with the declaration forms - they actually calculate out to be 3.3-3.5% increase, depending on the number of exempt children in a family, but I note that what's actually happened is they have just made them the same as the current Te Kura Student Support Payments, which no doubt makes things simpler for them. The payments will now be:

First child: $384.50 (half year) = $769/year 
Second child: $327 (half year) = $654/year
Third child: $269 (half year) = $536/year
Subsequent children: $192.50 (half year) = $385/year

(While we are very glad that there has been an increase, this does nothing to address the long-standing lack of increases, and this is a matter that we will be looking at further.)

The Ministry's Resourcing department does a print run of declarations for all families with current exemptions twice a year, and sends those out by post to the addresses on file. 

However, if an exemption was granted after the print run close-off date, then the regional office that processed the exemption is responsible to send the family a part-period declaration (from date of exemption to end of that six month period); they should do so with the exemption. For the first half of 2023, the print run close off was 2nd Feb. If you have a child whose exemption start date is later than the 2nd of February, and you did not receive a declaration, then you need to contact your regional office and request they send this to you. 

If you have been homeschooling for some time, and did not receive the most recent declaration at all (wait until the end of March to allow time for them all to be posted out), or have misplaced it, then you can contact Resourcing to ask for another copy. 

If you have recently gained an exemption, or you have a child over 6 whose name is not on the declaration, the Ministry ask that you contact your regional office, as one of the following could be the case:

• The child's exemption has not been approved (or not yet started) - or they may not have correctly updated the database.
• The exemption was approved/started after 2nd Feb so was not included in the print run and the regional office have not sent you the declaration.
• The child has been recorded as having ceased home education (this could be because of a school trial, overseas travel, full time enrolment in free Te Kura or other funded programmes, the exemption being revoked, or a clerical error). 

All of the above are matters for the regional office to sort out. 

Note: when contacting the Ministry about any home education matters, please always quote your family homeschooling reference number, which is found on your exemption certificates, declarations, and other Ministry correspondence. 

Declarations (if sent by Resourcing) are accompanied by a cover letter which has useful info on the back of it. The March 2023 version has a couple of errors in it where they have forgotten to change dates from the previous letters, which may cause confusion. 

Where it says "...if your child's exemption date is later than 1st July 2022" it should read "...if your child's exemption date is later than 1st January 2023.." (then you will be paid a pro-rata amount for this period, from the date of exemption to the end of June, rather than the full amounts above). 

Where it says "If you have home educated your child(ren) for a period other than shown on the form..." the dates should be 1st January to 30th June 2023. 

The first time you receive the supervision allowance, you need to supply proof of your bank account number. You will also need to do this if it has been more than 18 months since you last received a payment (eg if you stopped homeschooling for a time, but now have a new exemption, been overseas for that period, or have not been returning the declarations/getting the allowance). 

Your proof needs to include a Bank logo, an account number matching the one you have written on the form, and show the name of the account holder(s). Usually you can print something suitable off from your internet banking - eg a copy of a statement, but delete your transaction details, which they don't need to see. You don't need to get this certified by the bank or anyone else. You can have payments made into an account in a name other than your own if you wish, just so long as all the right details are provided. 

The deadline to return the completed declaration is Friday 5th May 2023. If it is received by then, payment will be made in the week of 19-23rd June 2023. It may appear in your account on any day of that week, and this will vary by bank. Do not contact the Ministry to ask about missed payments until at least the following week. 

If your declaration is sent in later than the deadline, you will still be eligible for the allowance, but the payment will be delayed. The Ministry will add the payment to their payment schedules, which are put through when full or on a periodic basis. This means that payments are usually made in 2-4 week cycles, so it may take a month or so for you to receive the delayed payment. You do not have to wait until the next supervision allowance run in December. 

Even if you do not wish to receive the allowance, you still need to sign and return both the declaration AND the allowance forms (which ask if you wish to receive it). For more on the legal particulars of this, see HERE

Hopefully the above info, and that in the linked article, tell you everything you need to know about the 6 monthly declarations and allowances. Let me know if I missed anything!

I have received the following email from the producers of Deer Heart Films, and agreed to share it; if you would like to participate in this project, sharing your typical day and your passion for your home education approach, you can contact them directly. I will not be making recommendations of particular families to them, unless families ask me to do so. I do think this sounds like an interesting project, and an opportunity for home educating families to showcase what learning at home can look like. Families considering participating should check out the links and info for themselves, and ask any questions they may have of Miriam and Chris directly. 

In the 2023 Census, there is a question (plus 2 related questions) which is causing a bit of confusion about how to respond for home educators. Let's take a look at how to correctly respond. First, a few quick Census facts:

• Census night is March 7th 2023. You can complete the census earlier, but are to answer as if it were March 7th. 
• The Census can be completed online or in paper form. 
• It is legally required to complete the census. The 2018 census has the poorest return in more than 50 years, with some 700,000 not completing it. This was put down to a number of factors, but in summary the way it was conducted was considered to be a disaster. Around 50-60 people were fined for failing to complete it. Since then, new legislation has been passed and the govt has spend lots of money on improving the process. It is now an offence with an up to $2000 fine for individuals for not completing the census. 
• Census data is used to inform things like planning roading, schools and other community things where it's important to know how many people there are that will be affected by whatever it is that is to be worked on. It is also the source of official NZ statistics such as population, religious affiliations and so on. 

Now let's look at that "tricky" questions, which are in the individual form: 
NB: the following has been updated after new information was received from the Census team on 28/2

Note that this question is not about finding out whose kids are not going to school etc, nor is it intended to discriminate against or leave out a portion of the population (ie home educators). 

Here's the guidance from the Census website (where you can also view all the questions in the census, and guidance about them):

What do you mean by 'attending, studying, or enrolled'?This includes anyone who:

• is attending secondary school, university, polytech, or any other place of learning, and will
• receive a formal qualification that is recognised by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA).

What is the difference between part-time and full-time?

• If you spend less than 20 hours a week in class and studying (for example, homework), it is part-time.
• If you spend 20 hours a week or more in class and studying (for example, homework), is is full-time.

I am still at school. How should I answer?
​Answer 'full-time'.
I am an apprentice. How should I answer?

• If you are working full-time as an apprentice, answer 'full-time'.
• If you are working part-time as an apprentice, answer 'part-time'.

Based on the above, I previously advised that this would mean for children of primary age, or older children who are simply home educated with an exemption and not enrolled in a course leading to a qualification, the answer would be NO. However, new information just in from the Census team states:

"Thank you for your question, and we regret any confusion. The education question is for anyone attending school, including people studying at a level below NCEA. The guidance is not exhaustive, but we will note that there could be some ambiguity there. For homeschooling, you should answer 'yes'. If you answer this for the travel question, you should not be asked to list where the place of study is."

So for purely home educated (exempt) students, tick Yes, full time. 

If your students is enrolled in a course/programme of learning outside of the home, then you may wish to answer based on that instead, though for most home educated students, anything additional will still be done from home, so the answer remains the same. 

Whatever your actual programme of learning looks like, based on "as regularly as", a home education programme should be treated as full time (ie over 4 hours/day), even though your formal lesson portion may be less than this, with the rest being life-based learning. 

Why this question is asked:
Data from this question:

• provides a measure of the number of people who study at home
• provides a more complete picture of transport patterns in different areas of New Zealand, and supports transport planning work.

As you can see in the image above, study at home is an option, and if your student is not travelling to any other place of study, then select that option. Then move directly to Q21.

Data from this question:

• is used primarily for measuring traffic flows and planning transport services
• helps to work out daytime populations in specific areas for civil defence
• is used to tell us whether you are enrolled in an early childhood centre, school, or tertiary institution
• is used in combination with other travel data to give an idea about typical travel flow in New Zealand.

If you answered "Study at home" for Q19, this question should not appear if you are doing the form online, and should be skipped if you're doing the paper version. However, if your student is enrolled in a course outside of the home for which you have answered the questions, then you will need to complete this section too. 

Please consider the details above so you can most accurately answer these questions for/with your children. 

If you want a quick gauge of your child's reading or spelling abilities, these tests may be useful. Both the Schonell and Burt reading tests are word recognition tests - they test the child's ability to read a list of words. They do not test reading comprehension, however, it's generally accepted that word recognition is an indicator of general reading ability. (However, often students do lack the ability to find answers within text, which is an important reading comprehension skill, even if they can read each word - practicing this is something you'll also want to include in your learning programme). 

Both tests have been around for many years. The Burt one was more recently updated than the Schonell, and sometimes if you mention the Schonell ones in exemption applications, certain staff will complain they are out of date. (Not entirely reasonable - some schools still use them, and they are available through the MoE's own curriculum website). For that reason, if you intend to include this in your application, you may want to refer to the Burt tests instead. 

It used to be easy to find these tests online, but it is becoming harder in some instances. Therefore I've uploaded copies which you can download using the following links. Instructions on how to use and score the tests are included in each document. 

You're welcome :-) 

The Ministry of Education has begun a review of their exemption application documents. The stated purpose is to "provide clearer guidance to families." I believe this was mostly motivated by a large number of applications received in 2021-2022 which were significantly lacking in most of the information needed. (During that period, a large number of families made the choice to begin homeschooling, and rushed the application, without having taken the time to understand the requirements or plan out their learning programme). 

The Ministry plans to include the NCHENZ govt liaison team (myself and Sheena Harris) and other representative stakeholders in consultation once they have drafted their changes. I have also reminded staff of the long-standing promise to create a family application form allowing for more than one child, and ask that they look at this as part of the review if possible. 

I'm mostly writing this post to act as a "place holder" so I can create a category for it here - if you check back in future using this link, you will see all entries in this category, to read any updates on the review and/or any changes made to the application. 

Sometimes students who are exempt, or their parents, want to see if they would be better off, or are ready to return to, learning in a school environment. However, getting the exemption in the first place was such a big deal, they worry that if school doesn't work out, then they would have to do an application all over again. This is exactly why the school trials policy was created in the first place. 

Let's take a look at the nuts and bolts of it, and some FAQs.

Before we get to that, note that this is a Ministry POLICY, not a law. That means it's something they agreed to and instituted, and can also change. In 2017, a Ministry staff member who was reviewing policies found that the then-wording of the policy did not align with the law, and they were going to do away with it (or replace it with a much more messy and unworkable version). Fortunately, he came to me about it (in my role as NCHENZ Government Liaison), and I was able to explain the history, reasoning, and need for this policy, and suggest that rather than throw out the policy, tweaking the wording would be more appropriate. After some on-going discussion, that's what happened. (If you're not a NCHENZ member, please join - it's free! - though donations are appreciated)

All students in NZ are entered on the national student database, known as ENROL. On that database, the student is linked to the school they are enrolled in, or if they are exempt, listed as home educated. The law requires that all domestic students who are age 6-16 are enrolled in a registered school, unless exempt. The database is used to manage things like assigning national student numbers, tracking who is enrolled and who is not, sending out homeschooling declarations and so on. It's an old database, and quite clunky to work with, and limited in its functionality. When it was created, there was no such thing as a school trial option, and it does not have any way of allowing for that. 

Because the law says all students must be enrolled, unless they have an exemption, an enrolment and an exemption are mutually exclusive under the law. They cannot both exist at the same time. When you gain an exemption, school enrolment is ended. When you enroll in school, an exemption ceases. And because the database is limited in its function, it has no way of "parking" an exemption on the basis of a school trial. 

Because of the above, it is necessary for parents to communicate well with the Ministry, and for the Ministry (and schools) to do their part. If your child is to do a school trial, these are the steps that need to happen:

1) Parent chooses which school their child will attend and arranges enrolment from a certain date with the school. When the enrolment begins, the exemption technically ceases on ENROL. For this reason, don't allow a school to enroll the student weeks in advance of when you want a trial to begin.
2) The parent contacts their regional Ministry office - in writing, so by email, is best - and advises them their child is starting a school trial from the date of enrolment. The Ministry make a note of that on the family's file. 
3) If the parents choose to withdraw the child within 10 school weeks (not counting holidays) to return to home education, they again notify the Ministry, this time of their return to homeschooling, requesting the exemption be reinstated. It is also important that the parents make sure the school has been advised to remove the child from their roll (ie they're not coming back). If they do not do this, then the Ministry will not be able to reinstate the exemption in ENROL. 
4) MoE reinstates the exemption status on ENROL. No new application is required in most circumstances. 

Under what circumstances is a new exemption application needed?
If the student has been enrolled in school for longer than 10 weeks, then a new application is required. 

If the student has been enrolled for less than 10 weeks, then a new application is only required if "there has been a material change in circumstances" - this is part of the MoE's policy wording and is not defined, but allows for situations where something has been discovered during the school trial period which means that, in the MOE's view, the previous exemption did not cover it. So, for example, let's say the exemption was granted for a child who had no known special education needs, but when they went to school it was noticed and documented that they had significant additional learning needs. The MoE could ask the parents for a new application, taking into account these additional needs and how they will be supported at home. Another example would be where new information comes to the Ministry attention that they think may affect the parent's ability to continue to meet Section 38 (as regularly and well) requirements. While this wording was added in 2017, so far, I know of no instances when it has been put into effect. For them to act on this, though, their policy requires that the Ministry has "appropriate supporting evidence" (ie proof of the matter they think relevant). 

Does the 10 weeks include school holidays?
No, the 10 week period does not include school holidays. This wording was added to Ministry policy in 2018. The wording says: "If a trial falls over a school holiday period, then those holiday weeks will not be counted towards the 10 weeks duration."

How does a school trial affect the supervision allowance?
If the student returns to home education on or before 28 days, then they will receive the full supervision allowance, including for the period they were enrolled in school. 

If the student returns to home education after 28 days but within 10 weeks, then their supervision allowance will be calculated on a pro-rata basis, not funded for the days they were enrolled in school. 

Can there be a "transition period" between home education and school, or vice versa?
Yes, in theory, there can. Wording in the Ministry's policy document says "Regional office staff should work with parents on a transition plan for their child exiting home education and attending school or leaving school and recommencing home education if necessary." This does not happen commonly, but there is potential for it if it would be in the best interests of the student - this would need to be discussed with regional staff. 

Do I have to tell the school that my child is attending only on a trial basis?
It may be best not to do so at the outset, so that the student is treated the same as all other students (eg resources are not withheld on a "we'll see if you stick around" basis, which would adversely affect your ability to see if school is the right fit for your student.) That said, the Ministry thinks that "schools must agree to the trial" - though this flies in the face of the legal right you have to enroll your child in any school for which they are in zone. Let's call this a "grey area". 

How many school trials can I do? Is there a particular allotment per year? Can I try several different schools?
There is technically no limit to how many school trials you could do, or how many different schools could be tried over time. After all, families often have changes in circumstances which mean they move house, change schools, or enter or leave homeschooling. The law that says it is your right to decide how and where your child will be educated remains in place, not matter what else changes around your circumstances, and you have the right to responsively and responsibly respond to new information or circumstances, acting in the best interests of your child at the time. 

That said, the Ministry expects that a school trial "should be regarded as a serious attempt by the student and their parents to reintegrate (or enter for the first time) into a schooling environment. Multiple school trials require further investigation by regional staff to assess why they are occurring. This will involve discussions with both the parents and the relevant school/s".

Bouncing in and out of school trials will likely result in questions being asked, or them requiring a new exemption to return to home education. So only do this with wise forethought and be ready to answer questions if needed.

If you are serious about your child returning to school, but the first school you try is not a good fit, then it's fair enough to try another one. Remember that if you begin a trial, and then move to another school (without officially returning to home education in between) then they are simply enrolled in a school - it's ok to take the necessary steps to figure out which is the right one for them. If this is the case, then likely it's sensible to just not worry about the whole "school trial" idea and simply focus on finding the right school for your child. Should you end up deciding to return to home education later, it's not that big of a deal to do a new exemption application - often you can just update the previous one if it wasn't too long ago and resubmit it, or write a new one. After all, you will now be more experienced than a parent just starting out, which should make it easier to do if you need to. 

The school trial policy exists to enable parents to attempt to reintegrate their children into school without worrying about needing to do a new exemption if a short return to school shows that that is clearly not the right fit for them at this time. It's not intended to cover every contingency and/or lengthy attempts to find the right school, and that's ok. 

The school trial policy exists to make it easier for parents to attempt to reintegrate their children into learning in a school environment. If you wish to use it, then make sure you are aware of the steps required, and follow them. If you do a trial, take your kids back out, then don't get in touch with the Ministry for months, then don't be surprised if they require new exemptions. It's important to do your part in a timely fashion. 

If you need your child to be in school for a longer time in order to work out if it's right for him or her, that's ok. Yes, you'll need to do a new exemption application if you return to homeschooling, but that is not the end of the world. Focus on figuring out what is best for your child, not just trying to avoid the application process. You can get support with the application process if you need it. 

Remember, policies can be changed. Be thankful we have this policy in place, and don't abuse it. 

​If you run into any issues around school trials, feel free to Contact Me if you need some advice or support.