After the COVID-19 disruption earlier this year, the Ministry of Education (MoE) are progressing work to support the changes to NCEA.

Continuing the Review of Achievement Standards (RAS)
To sustain the momentum of the NCEA Change Programme, the MoE will be progressing design and development work for Achievement Standards for eight NCEA Level 1 subjects not affected by proposed changes to the provisional Level 1 subject list. These subjects are:

Mathematics and Statistics, Geography, Agriculture and Horticulture, Music, Dance, Drama and two groups of the Languages.

As consultation has yet to be fully considered regarding the merging or otherwise of Health and Physical Education at Level 1, these subject disciplines do not appear on this list of eight subjects.

Expressions of Interest: SEG Critical Friend role
The Ministry recently emailed all SEG members inviting Expressions of Interest for the role of SEG Critical Friend. The Critical Friend is a subject matter expert within a SEG who will liaise between the SEG and the Ministry SEG facilitator to provide specialist subject expertise on the development of new Achievement Standards and associated assessment products.

A Critical Friend will be appointed for all existing New Zealand Curriculum subjects for which SEGs were formed and they will begin work at the Learning Area level for each subject ahead of the first full SEG meetings. Applications for this role close at 4pm on Sunday, 20 September 2020.

RAS Trial & Pilots initiative
As you may already be aware, the MoE are seeking feedback on draft Achievement Standards and supporting resources for three of the four NCEA Level 1 Trial & Pilots subjects – English, Religious Studies and Visual Arts. That feedback process closes on 22 September 2020. It does not include NCEA Level 1 Science products, which will now be released for feedback at a later date.

The Ministry are also inviting schools and wharekura to submit Expressions of Interest to take part in a mini-pilot in 2021, when the draft Achievement Standards and resources for all four Level 1 Trial & Pilots subjects will be piloted in a small number of schools. The deadline for submitting Expressions of Interest is 22 September 2020.

Regional Support Network
Last week saw the beginning of Ministry visits to regional offices to discuss a National Service Plan.

The National Service Plan outlines the approach to implementing the NCEA changes and the supports the MoE have in place. Regional Change Plans will detail any region-specific support and planning that is required.

Teacher Only Day
Preparations are underway for the Teacher Only Day in November, which will focus on engaging teachers and schools on the details of the NCEA Change Package and the progress in the NCEA change journey so they can also share this with their communities. Details and resource materials will be provided to schools closer to the time.

This will also be a great opportunity for the Ministry to reconnect with teachers and school leaders after the COVID-19 disruption earlier this year.

New NCEA website
The MoE are aiming to launch a new online platform (to replace TKI) to support senior secondary students and teachers later this year. As the RAS progresses, the products and supporting resources that the Ministry will produce alongside the sector will be published on the new platform.