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.

The disruptions caused by Covid-19 over the last two years have been challenging and long lasting. Auckland in particular has had many lockdowns and is where the majority of Pacific learners live.

Pacific communities have faced the challenges of Covid-19 with resilience and schools have put in a range of responses to support Pacific learners through the disruption. This report shines a light on these challenges and shares successful strategies.

The disruptions caused by Covid-19 over the last two years have been challenging and long lasting. ERO’s new report, Learning in a Covid-19 World: The Impact of Covid-19 on Pacific Learners, looks closely at the achievement, attendance, mental health and wellbeing, school contexts, and education pathways of Pacific learners over this time. The report shines a light on challenges and shares successful strategies.

Science is important – we rely on science and scientific thinking in almost every endeavour in our modern society. High quality science education at school is essential for learners who want a career in science, but it is also important for all learners to help them understand the scientific issues that whānau, communities, and nations face. Issues such as climate change, healthy living, and innovation all depend on science.

Early childhood education services had to quickly adapt to changing requirements and periods of uncertainty due to Covid-19. During lockdown, services had to transition to supporting children to learn from their homes. After lockdown, they had to support children to return to services and continue their learning in a Covid-19 world. This summary highlights the efforts of early childhood services to support students and their whānau.

ERO has a comprehensive and fast-tracked work programme underway to understand the ongoing impact of Covid-19 on students, services and schools, and on teaching and learning in Aotearoa New Zealand in the English and Māori medium education sectors.

This booklet is for all parents and caregivers who have infants and toddlers in an early childhood education service, or who are thinking about enrolling their child in an early childhood service. It gives you an idea of what you can expect from high quality early childhood education and the questions you can ask a service about the education and care of your child. 

This national report presents the findings of ERO's recent evaluation of how well early childhood services include children with moderate to severe special needs. This evaluation supports the Government's priority for every child to have the opportunity to participate in early childhood education (ECE).

The report examines how well 235 early childhood services supported infants and toddlers to become competent and confident communicators and explorers.

This good practice report presents examples from five early childhood services where priorities for children’s learning were well considered and reflected on.

This report discusses secondary schools where Pacific learners are achieving at or above the national norms for all students. It includes details of initiatives and good practice and how these work together to get great results.

This national report discusses how effectively 147 early childhood services used Equity Funding and the extent to which the Equity Funding objectives of participation and quality in early childhood services were achieved.

We have also published a companion report - Use of Equity Funding in Pacific Early Childhood Services.

This national report is one of two reports that present the findings of a 2012 national evaluation about curriculum priorities. 

This national report is one of two reports that present the findings of a 2012 national evaluation about curriculum priorities.

This evaluation looks at the Ako Panuku programme, which is funded by the Ministry of Education for Māori secondary/kura teachers. ERO conducted an online survey of all teachers involved in the programme and also visited a number of schools and kura. Our findings show that a high proportion of teachers found the programme to be highly effective or effective for them. Ako Panuku has had positive outcomes for participants and their students.

This is ERO's third report on the progress of schools in promoting Pacific student achievement. It tells a similar story to ERO's two previous reports with little evidence of system-wide improvement.

In this evaluation Partnership with Whānau Māori in Early Childhood Education, ERO focused on the extent to which:

• services understood and valued the identity, language and culture of Māori children and their whānau, particularly when the child and whānau enter the service
• managers and educators built positive relationships with the whānau of Māori children; and
• each service worked in partnership with the whānau of Māori children. 

Early childhood education has been an important focus for the Education Review Office for over 20 years. This report uses findings from ERO's national evaluations of early childhood education and individual services' education reviews to highlight the factors that contribute to high quality early childhood education and care, as well as those that contribute to poor quality. The report provides a good starting point for further discussion for anyone involved in early childhood education including education providers, policy makers and teachers.

This report complements the national evaluation report, Success for Māori Children in Early Childhood Services, March 2010. It presents examples of good practice from nine early childhood services, identified during their ERO reviews, which had practices that were working for Māori children and their parents and whānau.