Ministry of Education – Review report and Ministry work programme

Email from the MoE – We are having a Teleconference with the MoE next Tuesday and would love your feedback:

Dear Home Educating Parent

The Ministry of Education has recently completed its review of home education in New Zealand which we consulted with you on in September 2014. We have now developed a work programme for change which includes a number of operational improvements.

As well as consulting with you, we also sought feedback from Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu (the Correspondence School) and the Education Review Office (ERO) as well as Ministry of Education staff. We used the feedback from throughout the sector to inform our decisions and actions to improve home education in New Zealand.

You can find a copy of the review report at:

http://www.minedu.govt.nz/Parents/AllAges/EducationInNZ/Homeschooling.aspx

The report contains the Ministry’s future work programme for home education as an appendix and includes dates about when particular changes are scheduled to take place.

These changes are mainly focused on operational improvements including:

·         Reviewing the application form and appeal and complaints process

·         Developing new practice guidelines

·         Training ministry advisors in home education philosophies

·         Implementing a more robust application assessment process (in particular regarding declining applications)

We have also made some immediate improvements based on your feedback. For example the Statutory Declarations will no longer need to be signed by a Justice of the Peace which will take effect 1 April 2015.

If you have any questions or feedback, please email home.schooling@minedu.govt.nz.

Kind Regards,

Jim Greening

Group Manager – Sector Enablement & Support

Ministry of Education
Ministry of Education | Te T?huhu o te M?tauranga
www.minedu.govt.nz

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Links:
Home Education Foundation letter which covers exemption form, beneficiaries, International home educators and Keystone.

– MoE/ERO issues

– Changes in the MoE

– MoE discussions introduction to the Red Tape Cluster Buster meetings

– Preparation for the MoE discussions with Red Tape Cluster Buster meetings andrelevant for the Problem Scoping Survey
– Discussions home educators had online at Clutter buster group or (for ease of reading as not everyone can get onto the Google docs) here…https://hef.org.nz/coming-events-archives-2012/red-tape-cluster-buster/ (Also a lot of very good information to aid you in filling out the Problem Scoping Survey)

– Record of Progress and Achievement (an example of the new National MoE office staff understanding home educators)

– Truancy and the Home Schooler/Home Educator (another success with the National Office in that Megan showed us alternatives)

– Scoping Meeting 15 July 2014 – Getting to know you

– 2nd Meeting 28 July 2014 – Red Tape Cluster Buster Meeting

– MoE scoping Home Educators – email

– Feedback Form (Problem Scoping Survey) on MoE website

– Email to the MoE about the Scoping Survey from a Home Educator

– Problem Scoping Survey: ideas and deadline

– MoE’s reply to Yumiko’s email about the Scoping Survey

– MoE Problem Scoping Survey: please make it known and fill it out

– The last of Craig Smith’s writings before he died 3 years ago

– MoE Problem Scoping Survey

Home Education Foundation’s Problem Scoping Survey

Scoping Survey: Barbara Smith

Problem Scoping Survey – Update

Letter to MoE re Scoping Survey 7 October 2014

Scoping Survey: Long term plans for our personal “survey/email”

“Next Steps” from the MoE

Feedback for the Scoping Survey due back 8 December 2014

Next Steps deadline 8 December 2014

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Please share/forward this link with other home educators.

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Updated 1 October 2014:  Three years on (Craig Smith’s Health) page 7 click here

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Needing help for your home schooling journey:

https://hef.org.nz/2011/needing-help-for-your-home-schooling-journey-2/

And

Here are a couple of links to get you started home schooling:

Information on getting startedhttps://hef.org.nz/getting-started-2/

and

Information on getting an exemptionhttps://hef.org.nz/exemptions/

This link is motivational: http://hef.org.nz/2012/home-schooling-what-is-it-all-about/

Exemption Form online: https://hef.org.nz/2012/home-schooling-exemption-form-now-online/

Coming Events: https://hef.org.nz/2013/some-coming-events-for-home-education-during-2013-2/

Beneficiaries: http://hef.org.nz/2013/where-to-for-beneficiary-families-now-that-the-social-security-benefit-categories-and-work-focus-amendment-bill-has-passed-its-third-reading

Red Tape Cluster Buster Meetings and the Scoping Survey: https://hef.org.nz/2014/next-steps-deadline-8-december-2014/

2 thoughts on “Ministry of Education – Review report and Ministry work programme

  1. As the mother of teenagers my priority now is to prepare them for life beyond home education. I would therefore Like the Ministry of education to allow home educating students with an exemption to undertake NCEA studies through Tekura whenever they feel they are ready. failing this then perhaps from age 15 onwards when some other organizations such as GH Training allow home educated students with exemptions to participate in their courses which are usually for ages 16 – 19 years.

    This is especially of importance now as in December of last year the Cambridge International Exam option was removed and students can no longer sit these exams without special arrangements with a link school…. most of which will require full time enrollment for a student to sit exams.

    My only other concerns are that I would like a family application for exemptions that enables parents to add addition children to the exemption as they reach the appropriate age.

    I like that they have gotten rid of the statutory declaration requirements for the allowances.

    Well done everyone

    Nina

  2. Oh and I strongly oppose any standardized academic testing which I feel some MoE feedback was pushing for.

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