School planning and reporting regulations

There are many rules and regulations that school boards must be aware of when developing their strategic plan and reporting on school performance.

This article outlines the main requirements to follow and explains why they are so crucial.

Keep reading to learn more.

What do the regulations require all school boards to do?

The Education (School Planning and Reporting) Regulations 2023open_in_new outline what boards must do and by when.

All state schools and kura (including state-integrated and special character schools) must partner with their school community to develop:

• A 3-year strategic plan that sets out how the board’s primary objectives will be met.
• An annual implementation plan that sets annual targets and actions for working towards strategic goals, including how progress will be monitored.
• An annual report (including a statement of variance) that reports on the school’s progress towards meeting annual and strategic goals, along with how resources are used (especially financial).

What must your board do when it comes to planning and reporting?

Your board’s strategic plan brings together priorities based on your community’s vision, your school’s current position, and the Government’s priorities.

That’s why it’s essential for your board to work with its community:

• Consult with your community (including staff, students, and others as needed) as you prepare your planning and reporting documents to understand what’s important to them.
• Write all planning and reporting documents in an easily understood way (plain language).
• Share your strategic plan with your school community and the Ministry of Education when it comes into effect, or after any significant changes.
• Publish your strategic plan, annual implementation plan, and annual report on your website (or a website maintained on behalf of your board).

What must your strategic plan contain?

Your plan should always start with a community-developed vision for your school or kura.

This will help you outline your board’s strategies for achieving its strategic goals based on the identities, needs, and aspirations of your school community. It should include strategies for identifying and addressing the needs of students whose needs have not yet been well met.

You will also need to show your board’s strategies to achieve equitable outcomes for Māori students, provide for students to be taught and learn in te reo Māori, and ensure your policies and procedures reflect New Zealand’s cultural diversity.

Or if you are a specified kura board, you must include a general statement about how the kaupapa of your kura reflects Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

To focus on improving the educational outcomes for students, your board’s strategic plan must include:

• At least three strategic goals for meeting your paramount objective (as outlined in Section 127 Education and Training Act 2020).
• At least one goal focused on improving educational achievement in at least one of the following: reading, writing, mathematics, pānui, tuhituhi, pāngarau.
• Measures, evidence, and processes used to identify and monitor progress. The goal focused on improving educational achievement must be monitored using data-informed, relevant assessments or aromatawai tools (SMART and PAT), or the relevant senior student qualification system data your school uses (such as NCEA).
• Links between your goal and the national curriculum.

You must also clearly identify how your board has prioritised its strategic goals.

In addition to these requirements, a specified kura board may develop strategic plans that reflect Te Aho Matua and/or local tikanga.

What must be included in your annual implementation plan?

Your annual implementation plan is where the principal will break down and outline their strategies for meeting your board’s strategic goals.

The principal must show all the following in their plan:

• Annual targets for each of the strategic goals (this may be specific to raising achievement in a particular group of students whose needs have not yet been well met).
• The actions the school staff intend to take to meet these annual targets.
• How the school resources will be allocated to support this work.
• What information the principal will use to measure and evaluate progress towards meeting these annual targets (this should also set expectations regarding the principal’s reporting to your board).

The plan needs to include information on how well the school performed in meeting last year’s targets, and, if relevant, how it will address any targets that were not met in this year’s plan.

For your goal of improving educational achievement, the principal will need to show how the annual target (and its measurement) is informed by relevant assessment or aromatawai tools.

The principal must also include information on how the teaching and learning strategies will address the needs of those students whose needs have not yet been well met by the education system.

What do you need to include in your annual report?

The annual report is a formal assessment of your school’s performance at meeting its previous year’s annual targets and raising educational achievement for all students, using the resources you had available. For more information, read our article on the Annual Reportopen_in_new.

What due dates should your board be aware of?

In general, you will need to meet the following requirements:

• By 1 March   Publish and submit your strategic plan (only in the first year of your 3-year cycle). The next cycle starts 1 January 2027.
• By 31 March (every year) Publish your annual implementation plan for the current year and send the previous year’s annual financial statements to your auditor.
• By 31 May (every year) Publish your annual report so it’s available to your community and submit it to the Ministry.

Visit the school planning and reporting frameworkopen_in_new page on the Ministry of Education’s website for the current timeline and guidance on submitting and publishing documents.

What support is there to help your board with planning and reporting?

The Ministry of Education has a school planning and reporting frameworkopen_in_new.

The framework aims to enhance planning and reporting practices by enabling school boards, principals, and staff to collaborate with their communities throughout the planning and reporting process.

Because the framework does not define board and school management duties, boards must discuss and decide how to divide these responsibilities.

Your board must have ownership of the strategic plan and the annual report because it is accountable for the school’s performance.

Neither the principal nor staff are ultimately accountable for ensuring the school achieves its goals – that responsibility sits with your board.

Questions your board could ask

• Do we know where to find the planning and reporting regulations and requirements? 
• Do we need help implementing these requirements?
• If so, have we reached out to GovHub for advice and support?
• Does our planning process emphasise the need to consult with everyone in our community, especially those with students whose needs have not yet been well met
• Does our current school website have the capacity to support uploading and sharing our strategic plan, annual implementation plan, and annual reports?
• Do we understand what “plain language” looks like to our community?
• Will we require more than one version of a document to make it available to all our community members?
• How can we do that in a timely and accurate way?

Templates, resources, and references 

Click on the link(s) below to access this topic’s templates, resources, and references.

Depending on your device, these may download or open in a separate browser.

Ministry of Education

• The school planning and reporting frameworkopen_in_new

Education and Training Act 2020

• Section 127 – Paramount objective of boards in governing schoolsopen_in_new
• Section 134 – Statements of variance and annual reportsopen_in_new
• Section 135 – Auditopen_in_new
• Section 136 – Annual report to be made availableopen_in_new
• Section 138 – School strategic and annual implementation planopen_in_new
• Section 139 – Preparing strategic planopen_in_new
• Section 142 – Expiry of strategic planopen_in_new
• Section 145 – Board to monitor performance against strategic planning documentsopen_in_new
• Section 146 – strategic planning documents to be on Internet siteopen_in_new

Other legislation

• Education (School Planning and Reporting) Regulations 2023open_in_new

Article last reviewed: 28/09/26