Our research

Starting school is a major childhood event. It can be an exciting time for children and their families. But it is a big change, and so it can also be an uncertain time. A good start at school sets children up to succeed at school. We looked to see how changing to cohort entry impacts on children, their peers, and whānau, as well as their schools and early childhood education services.

Starting school is a major childhood event. It can be an exciting time for children and their families. But it is a big change and can be an uncertain time. Since 2018, schools have been able to have children start in groups at certain dates during the year. This is called cohort entry. ERO found that cohort entry has a range of benefits for children’s wellbeing and learning, schools’ ability to structure transitions more easily, and for teachers due to fewer disruptions and more time to teach.

This short report, aimed at primary school leaders, sets out how prepared students and schools felt ahead of the Covid-19 lockdown in August and provides recommendations for how schools can support their students as they return to the classroom. 

This short report, aimed at secondary school leaders, sets out how prepared students and schools felt ahead of the Covid-19 lockdown in August and provides recommendations for how schools can support their students as they return to the classroom. 

In 2020, Auckland students were particularly affected by Covid-19 and extra support was provided to them. Following this, ERO undertook an evaluation of three Te Kura programmes aimed at supporting Auckland NCEA students. This report outlines the findings of this evaluation - including the reach and impact of the programmes, and lessons for future responses.

This short summary accompanies the full report Responding to the Covid-19 crisis: Supporting Auckland NCEA students. It outlines the key findings from ERO’s evaluation of three Te Kura programmes aimed at supporting Auckland NCEA students following the lockdowns in 2020. This summary briefly lists who these targeted programmes reached, their impact, and lessons for responding to future lockdowns.  

Children and young people who are placed in Oranga Tamariki residential care are among the most at risk of poor outcomes later in life. Education can change that.  This report looks at the quality of education for students in Oranga Tamariki Care and Protection and Youth Justice residences and how it can be improved.

This short guide is for leaders and teachers that work with students in residential care. It draws from our report Learning in Residential Care, ‘They knew I wanted to learn’, sharing what we heard when we looked at the quality of education in Oranga Tamariki residential care, what research tells us about good education provision for these students, and actions leaders and teachers can take to strengthen teaching and learning in residential care.

This short guide is for social workers that work with students in residential care. It draws from our report Learning in Residential Care, ‘They knew I wanted to learn’, sharing what we heard when we looked at the quality of education in Oranga Tamariki residential care, what research tells us about good education provision for these students, and actions social workers can take to strengthen teaching and learning in residential care.

ERO looked at the quality of education for students in Oranga Tamariki Care and Protection and Youth Justice residences. During this, ERO talked to students about their learning in residential care. This short and easy to read guide is aimed at students in residential care and contains information on what students like them told us about their learning.

This short guide is for parents and whānau of students in residential care. It draws from our report Learning in Residential Care, ‘They knew I wanted to learn’, sharing what we heard when we looked at the quality of education in Oranga Tamariki residential care, what research tells us about good education provision for these students, and actions whānau can take to support students’ learning in residential care.

Children and young people who are placed in Oranga Tamariki residential care are among the most at risk of poor outcomes later in life. The education students receive in residence has the power to change their lives. ERO reviewed how well education is going in these settings. This summary describes what we found and our recommendations. This accompanies the full report Learning in residential care: They knew I wanted to learn.

This report is the companion report to Science in the Early Years: Early Childhood and Years 1-4. This report looks at, in more depth, good practice in science teaching and learning in English-Medium early childhood education. It presents examples of good practice of science in the curriculum, from eight services identified during their ERO reviews.

This report shares teaching approaches and strategies for Year 5 to Year 11 that ERO has identified in a range of schools where students were found to be highly engaged in science. This report should be seen as a resource for leaders and teachers looking to strengthen their teaching of science. It looks at Years 5-11 as they are the critical years for science engagement before learners make final choices on whether to continue in science.

Early childhood education services had to quickly adapt to changing requirements and periods of uncertainty due to Covid-19 in 2020. ERO undertook work to understand how this affected early childhood education services. This report presents our findings on how Covid-19 impacted children, whānau and services, how services responded and what they learnt, and the challenges that services expect they might face in future alert level changes.

To understand what the challenges of Covid-19 were in 2020 and how schools responded, the Education Review Office spoke to schools and surveyed over 2500 principals and teachers across the country. This report presents our findings on how Covid-19 impacted students, teachers and schools, how schools responded and what they learnt, and the challenges schools expect they might face in future alert level changes.