NZALT Newsletter 2025 no 4
NZALT 2025 Newsletter no 5
Tēnā koutou! 你好! 안녕하세요 Kia orana! Bonjour! Guten Tag! こんにちは。Salvete! Faka’alofa lahi atu! Talofa lava! ¡Buenos días! Mālō e lelei! Malo ni!
Kia ora, malo ni!
The school year has flown by and there is still so much happening. With the draft curriculum newly released, we need to work together as a language teaching community more than ever. There are a lot of updates about the new draft curriculum, from the MoE and NZQA to unpack in this Newsletter as well as information about Learning Languages Advocacy, the 2026 NZALT conference and other upcoming PLD opportunities so take your time to digest it all and do keep in touch if you have further questions.
We wish you all the best for the remaining weeks of Term 4.
Kia kaha 🙂
Ngā mihi nui,
The NZALT Exec
Feedback on the New Curriculum
You are likely aware that despite a lot of hard work and advocacy, Learning Languages has not fared well in the new draft Yrs 0-10 curriculum which has been released this week. In short languages are:
- The only learning area with no requirement to be taught
- given a suggested 20 hours per year for Yrs 0-8 and 60 hours per year in Yrs 7-10
Please see the screenshots at the end of this article or check out the websites for:
Individually and collectively we must give feedback on the new draft Yrs 0-10 curriculum which has been released this week. NZALT and the 13 languages communities in the NZC are working on a collective response, but as individuals and in your own communities we really encourage you to:
- send in your own letters and feedback via the official channels (we encourage you to do this yourselves, and as departments, schools, students, parents, NZALT clusters, communities etc)
- contact influential people and contacts for support
- any other actions you think might help!
We will keep you updated with any new information as it becomes available.
Subjects that must be taught! And ...
NZQA - Level 1 NCEA Internal Assessments - 1.1 and 1.2
We’d like to provide clarification regarding the requirement for students to refer to more than one event or experience in their responses for the 1.1 and 1.2 Achievement Standards.
To meet the standard, students must demonstrate their ability to use varied language appropriate to the context throughout their communication. This means that referencing more than one different event or experience is essential—not only to meet the plural form indicated in the standards, but also to allow students to show a range of different languages.
Further detail on this requirement is available in the NIF Webinar recordings hosted on the NZALT webpage: NCEA Language Standards - RAMP updates-20241119_123237-Meeting Recording.mp4 - Google Drive.
We encourage you to view the relevant sections for a deeper understanding:
- 1.1 Achievement Standard: Refer to timestamp 7:05
- 1.2 Achievement Standard: Refer to timestamp 9:40
There are a range of NZQA assessor support resources to help clarify this aspect of the standard on the NZQA subject specific pages. These include the National Moderators report Languages - National Moderator's Report - NZQA, a Webcast unpacking the 1.2 with regard to events or experiences Languages webcasts - NZQA, and an online module and APT on Putake the NZQA learning Management System Online courses and modules for assessors - NZQA. There are also level one examples available which exemplify the grade level and show evidence of students meeting the above criteria.
We encourage you to share this clarification and accompanying resources with your networks and teaching teams to promote consistent understanding and implementation across schools.
MoE - RAMP - NCEA Review and Maintenance Programme for all Achievement Standards
Background
Each year, the Ministry of Education undertakes an NCEA Review and Maintenance Programme (RAMP), a quality assurance process that ensures Achievement Standards and supporting assessment materials are fit for purpose.
As part of this programme, a wide range of evidence is gathered and considered, including valuable input from Subject Associations. We greatly appreciate the time and effort you and your members contributed to informing this work.
The 2025 review and maintenance has now been completed for NCEA.
A small number of subjects have updates to Achievement Standards or supporting materials. These updates are designed to improve clarity and usability for teachers, kaiako, and students. Importantly, there are no changes to the competencies being assessed. However, please note that all Conditions of Assessment have been updated for internal assessment to include clearer guidance about authenticity.
The updated Achievement Standards and supporting materials will be published in early October, allowing teachers and kaiako to engage with them during Term 4 and become familiar with any updates to their subjects.
Key Information
- Please ensure that all assessments in 2025 use the current 2025 versions of Achievement Standards and supporting materials.
- The updated versions, published as PDFs in October and marked as “Draft for planning purposes – for use in 2026”, are intended for familiarisation and planning only. These versions must not be used for assessment in 2025.
- In December 2025, NZQA will update their website with the new versions of any Achievement Standards that have been updated for use from 2026, for all three levels of NCEA.
Where can I find the RAMP updates?
To support planning for 2026, schools need to ensure they are using the correct versions of the reviewed Level 1–3 Achievement Standards. Updated materials will be published online on NCEA.education from 3 October 2025, ahead of their implementation in 2026.
Where Standards have been updated, supporting materials will also have been aligned and included alongside the Standard. Please ensure you check the most up to date versions for 2026.
Level 1 RAMP updates
- Visit NCEA.education.govt.nz and navigate to your subject as usual.
- Any updated materials will appear on the right-hand side of the subject Learning Tab as PDFs, clearly marked with the watermark: “Draft for planning purposes – for use in 2026.”
- A summary of updates will be provided to help identify what has been updated.
For Level 2 and 3 RAMP updates
- Visit NCEA.education.govt.nz and go to the NCEA Support tab.
- Look for the section titled “Level 2 and 3 RAMP materials for 2026.”
- Updated materials will be provided as PDFs, also watermarked: “Draft for planning purposes – for use in 2026.”
- A summary of updates will be provided to help identify what has been updated.
- Note, for Te Ao Haka, all updated materials will appear on the right-hand side of the subject Learning Tab, along with Level 1.
It’s exciting to announce that the updated materials for Learning Languages have just been published on NCEA.education:
Reviewed NZC Achievement Standards and assessment materials for use in 2026 | NCEA.
Summary charts of RAMP changes
NZALT Networks of Expertise Newsletter, Number 1, February 2025