Reporting to parents and whānau

This resource looks at different ways to effectively report ākonga progress and achievement to whānau.

About this resource

In this resource you will find principles and things to consider when reporting progress and achievement to ākonga and their whānau. Schools are encouraged to think about how information sharing informs learning, and how best to do this with their school community. This resource supports teachers to think about how they can encourage ākonga and their whānau to be involved in the reporting process. The final part of this resource contains examples across the curriculum of reporting in plain language.

Reviews

Reporting to parents and whānau

Effective reporting of ākonga progress and achievement across the curriculum requires:

An open channel of communication between the teacher, parents and whānau, and ākonga
meaningful, ongoing information sharing processes where the roles and expectations of ākonga, teachers, parents and whānau are clear.

Building partnerships

Build strong partnerships by communicating in ways that respect the knowledge, aspirations, and perspectives of ākonga, their parents and whānau.

This focus on partnership arises from the extensive consultation that informed development of the National Education and Learning Priorities.

To strengthen our education system and achieve our twin goals of equity and excellence:

We need to have “Learners with their whānau at the centre of education” (NELP Objective 1).
Schools and kura must “Have high aspirations for every ākonga, and support these by partnering with their whānau and communities to design and deliver education that responds to their needs, and sustains their identities, languages, and cultures.” (NELP Priority 2)

Information sharing that informs learning
Principles of effective reporting and information sharing
Student self-assessment and reflection in reporting
Checking in with parents and whānau
Reporting in plain language
Report time!

Information sharing that informs learning

The table below summarises the key differences between one-way reporting and reciprocal information sharing that informs shared decisions about learning.

One-way, accountability-focused reporting	Information sharing that informs learning
Teachers report to parents what their children have learnt, achieved, or how they have progressed.	Ākonga, parents, whānau, and teachers share and understand information and insights about children’s progress and achievement.
Focused on describing successes.	Focused on describing the learning and progress that has occurred and the next steps for learning.
Accountability and compliance are the key drivers.	Ongoing learning by ākonga, teachers, parents, and whānau is the primary purpose. Accountability is a by-product.
Once or twice a year only.	Continuous and timely, with agreed times for more formal evaluation.
Reporting is from school to parent, in one direction only.	Reporting is reciprocal, multi-layered, and multi-directional. Information flows between ākonga, parents, whānau, teachers, and the community.
Sense making and decision making are left primarily to teacher.	Ākonga, parents, whānau, teachers, and community collaborate to plan the way forward.
Reports are sent home on paper.	Communities agree upon appropriate communication methods, including technologies that foster two-way information flows and improve the quality, timeliness, and richness of the information shared.
Reports are primarily owned by the school.	Reports are primarily owned by ākonga and contribute to the creation of rich records of learning. Ākonga gain increasing control over who can access and contribute to the information and who can engage in discussion.

Principles of effective reporting and information sharing

Effective reporting practices are tailored to the specific needs, interests, and circumstances of your school and its community. The table below details the principles that guide effective reporting and information sharing and the outcomes that derive from them. The principles are drawn from research evidence and aligned with current educational policies and regulations.

Principles	Outcomes
The following principles guide information sharing in an effective reporting process.	If information is reported and shared effectively, these are the likely outcomes:
1. Ako Information sharing and reciprocal learning underpin the design of reporting processes that enable the construction of trusting, learner-focused partnerships. Parents and whānau share their knowledge, aspirations, and expectations, knowing that their perspectives are valued.	Information sharing contributes to the construction of effective learning partnerships. School practices add to whānau practices and whānau practices add to school practices. Teachers know about and value students’ identities, languages, cultures, interests, and talents. Ākonga know their teachers respect who they are.
2. High aspirations Information sharing enables the definition of valued outcomes that ensure every ākonga experiences success.	School and kura communities negotiate and define the outcomes that matter for all ākonga. School and kura communities use the Coherent Pathways tools to define and plan pathways to achieving valued outcomes. Every ākonga has a plan for working towards valued and ambitious outcomes.
3. Valid, reliable, and complete Shared information is valid and fair, providing reliable insights into ākonga achievement and progress. It is complete, describing progress towards valued outcomes from across the (localised) school and national curriculum.	Parents and whānau trust in the fairness and validity of the information that is recorded and believe that the recording process is purposeful and will benefit their children. Parents and whānau are clear about what their child has achieved, and the progress made across the (localised) school and national curriculum. Parents, whānau, ākonga, and teachers have shared understandings about what students understand, know, and do in terms of the learning areas and key competencies, and against progressions of learning.
4. Assessment literacy Parents, whānau, ākonga, and teachers have the capabilities they need to make sense of information about progress and achievement.	Parents, whānau, ākonga, and teachers have opportunities to grow their assessment literacy. Parents and whānau ask hard questions about the information that is reported to them. Ākonga take increasing control of their learning, including an increasingly active part in reporting. Teachers develop adaptive expertise that increases their responsiveness to feedback.
5. Foundations for learning Information sharing provides clarity about students’ understandings and skills in areas that are likely to impact their ongoing learning in all areas.	Parents and whānau can see their children’s progress and achievement in language, literacy & communication and maths (to reflect the strategy) and other foundation skills, such as the key competencies and their heritage languages.
6. Ākonga responsibility Reporting involves and benefits students. Ākonga take increasing responsibility for reporting on their progress in ways that strengthen their view of themselves as learners and their understanding of what they have learnt.	Ākonga are clear about what they have learnt, which learning strategies were successful, what they need to focus on next, and why it is important.
7. Motivation Information is designed to strengthen ākonga, parent, and whānau motivation and engagement. Reports allow every ākonga to celebrate their progress towards their learning goals.	Ākonga, parent, and whānau motivation to support learning is increased. Ākonga who tend to ‘switch off’ when faced with slow progress remain motivated and can see a pathway to success.
8. Technologies Available technologies are used to: make the indicators of ākonga progress visible enhance reciprocal information sharing for teachers, ākonga, parents, and whānau engage networks to support further learning.	Parents and whānau can see their child’s progress online in real-time. Parents, whānau, and the wider community use a range of technologies to support their children’s learning. Technologies are affordable and accessible for all users.
9. Checking in with parents and whānau Schools regularly inquire into and evaluate the effectiveness of their information-sharing processes, and make improvements in information-sharing policies, processes, and practices in response to feedback from parents, whānau, and ākonga.	Parents and whānau: are confident interacting with teachers feel their views are valued know where their children are at, the progress made, and what they need to learn next know where to access information and resources they need to support learning.

Student self-assessment and reflection in reporting

Effective reporting involves each ākonga taking increasing responsibility for their learning.

Ākonga reflection in written reports

Ākonga can reflect on their learning as part of the school’s written reporting process. Ākonga could write a letter to their parents or complete a template to insert into the report. The letter or template could include some suggested reflection stems, such as:

I feel good about …
I liked learning about ... because ...
I used to … but now I …
My whānau helped me in my learning when ...
Two things I will remember about what I have learnt over the last six months are …
A strategy that helped me learn better is …
If I could do something again differently, I would …
One thing I will remember to do in the future is …
One thing I want to learn is ...

When and how ākonga complete self-assessment

Your students could work with you to develop criteria related to their learning goals and then assess themselves at agreed times. Share these assessments with parents and whānau during student-led conferences, through portfolios or personalised learning maps, on online platforms, or in written reports.

Preparing to run a student-led or three-way conference

Student-led and three-way conferences provide a context for a conversation between a student and their parents, whānau, and teacher. Students share their learning progress and achievement, often using selected pieces of work in a digital or paper-based learning portfolio or learning journal. Most schools using these approaches report a significant rise in both parent satisfaction and attendance at conference times.

The purpose of conferencing

Student-led and three-way conferences are designed to:

help students demonstrate evidence of learning
teach students the process of reflection and self-evaluation
develop students’ skills, such as organisation and oral communication
foster student ownership of the learning process and encourage them to accept personal responsibility for their learning
encourage students, parents, whānau, and teachers to engage in open and honest dialogue
Improve attendance and satisfaction with reporting so parents better understand their child's learning.

Student-led conferences

The teacher is involved but does not necessarily sit with the student and parents all the time. You might set up your classroom or conference space so that four or five groups of parents and students can sit together to discuss student learning. Some schools set up stations, often for the younger students, where students and their parents move around looking at different aspects of learning.

Key features of student-led conferences are that:

the student takes the central role during discussions
the teacher acts as the facilitator and prompter, where necessary.

Three-way conferencing

Student, parents, whānau, and the teacher discusses the student’s learning, with the student taking an equal role. This is a conversation about what the student is learning, not what they are doing at school.

Key features of three-way conferences:

Parents and whānau listen to their child, ask questions, and encourage their child to explain further.
The teacher facilitates the conversation about the student’s learning and prompts the student when needed.
The student shares their learning and reflects on the progress they have made this year.

School leaders can maximise the benefits of conferencing

Provide training for teachers and students about how to run a conference.

Use feedback from parents, whānau, students, and teachers to adjust and improve your school’s curriculum plan, assessment, and reporting processes. Integrate this feedback loop into your planning to create a dynamic system (one that is flexible and responsive).

Checking in with parents and whānau

Every school’s community is different and it’s very important to consult with them to find out what works best for them.

Some suggested topics to ask about

1. Reporting practices

Ask people for their views about the school’s reporting timeline and practices and make changes as appropriate.

2. Plain language reporting

Find out what ‘plain language’ means to your community. You could do this in the following ways:

Identify the aspects of reporting parents and whānau frequently ask questions about. This indicates the need for a clearer explanation or for this aspect to be refined or replaced.
Find out what means of written reporting works best. Does reporting need to be visual, as well as written (for example, samples of students’ work, graphs, or images)?
Include a glossary or an explanation sheet. It’s a good idea to have any explanatory sheets checked by parents and whānau to ensure they are clear and easy to understand.

3. Means of communication

Ask about the different ways parents and whānau would like to communicate about their children’s learning. Do they find reporting most clear and easy to understand when it is:

digital, in an online platform (such as Seesaw, HERO, Spotlight, or Learning Talk)
face-to-face, so that any queries can be answered straight away
written or spoken in languages other than English
read aloud by the teacher or student (addressing their language and literacy needs)
part of regular informal catchups
supported by regular (for example, monthly or fortnightly) emails, phone calls, or texts?

4. Parent–teacher–student meetings

Find out from parents and whānau what works best for meetings, including:

how often
best times of day
length of meetings
whether childcare would be useful.

Reporting in plain language

When you report on the progress and achievement of ākonga, use plain language so that everyone understands what is being discussed.

Whether written or spoken, plain language reporting has the following characteristics:

it is concise
it clearly outlines a student’s progress and achievement
it uses language that parents, whānau, and ākonga can easily understand
it is free of complex and unnecessary educational jargon

Using plain language does not mean that you cannot use the language of education. Be deliberate and make conscious decisions about the terms that are important for everybody to know. Plan how these terms will be socialised across your school community to develop assessment literacy.

Why report in plain language?

If ākonga can understand their reports, then their parents and whānau will, too. Then ākonga can talk about how they are doing and what help they need at home.

When you use plain-language reporting, parents, and whānau feel more:

informed about their children’s education
confident in communicating with the school
able to play a proactive (thinking ahead and positive) role in their children’s learning.

Using plain language supports the construction of reciprocal learning partnerships by:

reducing the time spent explaining unfamiliar terms and intended meanings so that discussions can focus on working together to reach learning goals
helping ākonga understand where they are, and where they need to be
providing opportunities for ākonga, parents, and whānau to talk confidently about students’ progress and achievement, as active participants in the assessment and reporting process.

Tips for writing in plain language

Keep words, sentences, and paragraphs short and simple.
Use a summary sentence to get to the point first, then explain in more detail.
Use bullet points to create brief lists of related points.
Check that the content is grouped and ordered in a logical way.
Encourage student comments in reports.
Leave out anything not relevant to the student or their parents and whānau.
Use language that is familiar and easy for all to understand.
When explaining a learning process, use actual examples where practical.
Avoid jargon. If you feel there are terms that parents and whānau need to know, then explain what they mean.
Use personal pronouns - with students’ permission, use their preferred pronouns (for example, he, she, they).
Be clear about the final results of assessment and ensure parents and whānau understand what these means in terms of their child’s learning.
Make explicit connections to the relevant learning progressions, learning areas, key competencies, or school values.
Amplify connections and explanation through the use of images and examples (for example, learning stories, narrative assessments, photographs, or video links).

Names, pronouns, and gender markers

Be sensitive about your use of students’ preferred names, pronouns, and gender markers, and respectful of student privacy. Some students may not use these with their parents and whānau, and it may not be safe for them to do so. You can find information and advice on how to address these issues in Creating Rainbow-inclusive School Policies and Procedures (InsideOUT Kōaro, 2021).

How school leaders can support teachers to report in plain language

Develop a shared understanding of plain language reporting and expectations for its use.
Share examples of plain language written reports and provide opportunities for collegial discussion.
Observe teachers when they report to whānau and parents. Give guidance in areas where they are less confident.
Talk with parents and whānau about what is easy and hard to understand.
Encourage student participation in the reporting process (for example, through student-led conferences), as this helps keep the language simple and easy to understand.
Provide reporting templates, professional learning on reporting practice, and training in the use of online platforms.

Plain language reporting examples

The following tables provide examples of how the professional language of education can be rephrased as plain language. The examples follow a broad progression from after one year at school until the end of year 8.

Plain language reporting in reading

In reading, a written report comment is likely to cover the student’s ability to:

read a text and their ability to respond to it
understand and use what they have read.

Written report comments – Reading
Level	Educational language	Rephrased as plain language
In the first year of school	Draw on oral language skills with teacher support.	Kate willingly talks about things in the past, present, and future. She engages in well-known texts such as nursery rhymes, asking questions, and laughing at the funny parts. Kate is working within the early stages of level one of The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum.
	Consolidate basic reading skills and letter and sound knowledge. Learn to make meaning of and think critically about increasingly challenging texts.	Tāne participates in group reading lessons with interest and enthusiasm, attempting to repeat familiar words aloud as the teacher reads. He enjoys reading his name when he sees it written on work, and he likes working out the meaning of other signs and symbols around the school and neighbourhood.
After one year at school	Developing early concepts about print.   Learning to decode unfamiliar words.	Nafitalai enjoys reading and is making sound progress in learning basic words. He is proud of not using his finger to point to each word and is letting his eyes do the work by moving to the next line of words when he reads. At school, I am helping Nafitalai recognise sounds in more difficult words. He is working within level one of the 2007 New Zealand Curriculum.
	Uses and discuss visual language features.   Recognises high-frequency words.	Dean is working within level one of The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum. Dean: uses the pictures in stories to help his understanding of the story and new words reads to a buddy before school to support him to progress with his reading likes it when Aunty reads to him at home.
After two years at school	Makes appropriate choices of text for independent reading. Uses intonation and phrasing.	Sione is working within level one of The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum. Sione: made rapid progress this year and is reading longer stories on his own has extra help from Marie and now varies his voice to make his reading sound interesting enjoys getting books from the library and has plans for his sister to help him read his books during the holidays loves telling us the Tongan stories he learnt at church.
	Locates information that is explicitly stated in the text.   Notices complex punctuation and phrasing.	Kereama continues to make great progress and is working within level two of The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum. Kereama is skilful at finding information about tikanga in the te reo Māori books she reads. Her reading group have decided that they are going to work on answering questions by finding information from more than one place in the book. Matua Hauāuru worked with Kereama and her friends to read plays in te reo Māori. Kereama uses her letters and sounds knowledge to work out new words in te reo Māori and English.
After three years at school	Uses texts to meet the demands of the curriculum.   Integrates and use comprehension strategies.	Rosie is working within level two of The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum. She has achieved her goal of reading chapter books from the library. She is going to continue with this goal and plans to keep reading more books at home over the holidays. When reading true stories and information during class topic studies, Rosie confidently uses clues such as the diagrams and her general knowledge to help explain ideas to her group.
	Makes connections between ideas in the text in order to make simple inferences.	Sia is working within level two of The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum. Sia: is making strong progress in finding facts and inferred messages in text to help him answer questions can retell a story accurately. Sia is very interested in model making. He can use his computer to find and read model making plans and follows the instructions carefully.
By the end of year 4	Uses processing and comprehension strategies to read texts accurately.	Jemima is working within level three of The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum. Jemima: reads longer books over several days, remembering the main ideas accurately gives information in her own words. We will keep working on finding more than one reason for an answer and learning how to bring different ideas together.
	Selects appropriate decoding strategy when encountering unknown words.	O Mele o se teine e galue malosi i ana meaaoga aemaise le faitaitusi. Mele has learned some skills to read harder words and is reading a lot more words. Mele has been talking and reading to me before school and reading the books on the computer. This has helped her make faster progress. She is working at level two of The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum.
By the end of year 5	Locates, evaluates, and integrates information.	Jack is working within level four of The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum, exceeding the expected level for his year group. Jack: has made very good progress with getting ideas from several pieces of information for his topic research can work out the meaning of new words, particularly when reading science and technology material is an expert at finding ways to get the answers to questions that come from his love of basketball.
	Generates and answers questions to meet specific learning purposes across the curriculum.	Congratulations Lee, you are now motoring through tasks and getting your work completed. Reading at home and in the local library has helped, and the class was interested in your talk about how to get out e-books. You used your “What does a good reader do?” skills when you auditioned for a part in the school play. You must have worked hard to read and memorise the script. A next step for you is to check which pieces of the information you find on web searches is the most useful for your study.
Student with additional education needs	Developing early concepts about print.   Learning to decode unfamiliar words.	Helen is part of the choir and was very proud to have performed at the Town Hall. With Mrs Kale’s support, she remembered most of the songs. Helen now knows about twenty words and has moved up a reading level. She practises her words and her reading regularly with her buddies and works very hard with her reading. It was helpful talking about Helen’s good progress at the meeting last month, so I know the practice she is doing at home is helping her in the classroom.
By the end of year 6	Selects appropriate strategies for different reading purposes.	Fatu is working within level four of The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum. This exceeds the expected level for his year group. Fetu: can locate facts and figures quickly can scan material efficiently to find information uses information in texts to understand new words. writes interesting reviews of the novels he reads for pleasure is making very good progress at reading more complex material when researching information.
	Understands and recognises the differences between figurative and literal meanings of phrases.	Annie enjoys working with her new classmates and works well on group tasks. As we discussed, her poor attendance is a problem, as she is away several days a week. In class, we are working on improving Annie’s understanding of the information she reads, carefully looking for clues to see what the author is meaning. At home, continue to encourage Annie to read for at least twenty minutes each night. Annie is currently working at level two of The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum; this is below expectation for the year level.
By the end of year 7	Manages the complexity of the texts in all areas of the curriculum.	Tom continues to make strong progress and is achieving within level 5 of The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum. Tom: reads a range of material and understands complex ideas greatly enjoys reading technical information and loves sharing his knowledge with the class organised a Skype call with the electronic whizzes, and this certainly helped to answer his and the class’s questions.
	Interprets abstract ideas, complex plots and sophisticated themes.   Uses continuous and non-continuous text types.	Congratulations Otis, you are working within level 4 of The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum; this is where you should be for your year. You worked hard and made good progress to achieve your goal of reading more widely, including everyday reading materials such as newspapers, the internet, and magazines. Your inquiry and speech about “The Death of Newspapers” was really interesting, and you showed some very good thinking when comparing newspapers to online news.
By the end of year 8	Working at Stage 2 of the ELLP.	Amira is quickly learning to read and understand English. Amira: uses the iPad effectively for English/Arabic translations is reading sentences from left to right continues to learn basic words and key phrases.
	Recognises and understands a variety of content-specific vocabulary.	This year, I have made really good progress. I am working within level 4 of The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum, the expected level for year 8. I am ready for year 9! I had difficulty understanding the ideas in some of the information at the start of the term but have gotten better at thinking; the thinking maps helped me. Thank you, Ms Smith, for showing me note-taking using the tablet. I know I need to keep working on my understanding of harder words, like technology words.

Plain language reporting in writing

In writing, a report comment is likely to cover a students’ ability to write (including planning, revising, and publishing) and their ability to use writing for a variety of purposes across the curriculum.

Written report comments – Writing
Level	Educational language	Rephrased as plain language
In the first year	Enjoy writing for a variety of purposes and can read their story or text to another person. Write by using purposeful marks not recognisable as letters or words.	Mahalia enjoys writing and is an active participant at the shared writing table. She excitedly tells me what she wants to write as we co-construct this together. She loves sharing her writing with others and when Mrs Mars comes to visit, she always grabs her writing book to share.
After one year at school	Creates texts in a range of contexts.	Liam is working within level one of The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum. Liam: is a keen writer who loves writing about insects and what he does at the weekend can write several sentences on his own is making good progress learning how to use capital letters and full stops has had extra help from home with writing on the line and is very proud of his progress with forming letters.
	Encodes words using a developing knowledge of morphology.	Peta is working within level one of The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum. Peta: has learned many basic words and uses these in her writing refers to word charts to check for accuracy is learning to hear and write the sounds at the end of words.
After two years at school	Uses planning strategies to organise ideas and turn ideas into connected sentences.	Sam continues to make fast progress and is a keen writer. He plans his work well and groups his ideas. He likes writing about topics we have studied and thinks carefully about his choice of words. Sam is working within level two of The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum. His next step is to vary the beginning of his sentences using time language like ‘next’, ‘after’, and ‘later’.
	Uses simple sentences, and some ideas that relate to our curriculum topic.	D’Jon has made extra progress in his writing this term, with support from Mrs Green. He is now attempting to write the sounds he hears in new words. While D’Jon needs support from adults to plan his work and then start writing, once underway he can write some interesting sentences. He likes writing about science activities. D’Jon is working at level one of The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum; this is the expected level for his year.
After three years at school	Uses increasingly specific adjectives and more precise nouns and verbs.	Roshan is working at level two of The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum. Students are expected to be at level 3 by the end of the year, so this is above the expected level for his year group. Roshan chooses good ideas to write about and uses exciting words to make his writing interesting. He spells most words correctly. His next step is to tell what happens next and add more information.
	Uses visual language features to support the meaning.	Freya is working within level one of The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum. Level two is the expected level for her year. Freya: is keen to write enjoys writing labels for pictures thinks about the stories she reads and asks questions makes up interesting titles for her poems. Freya’s next step is to use correct spelling and punctuation.
By the end of Year Four	Creates content relevant to the curriculum task.	Callum is working within level one of The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum. Level two is the expected level for his year. Callum: works hard at writing and takes great pride in publishing can use pictures to make a story plan sometimes needs support to write his ideas down on paper, and it helps if I do this for him as he says them. Callum’s next step is to choose the ideas to include, by himself.
	Can create a variety of texts to record and communicate ideas and information across the curriculum.	Ana listened to the kōrero of the kaumātua when they visited and looked at their photos of whanaunga. She wrote her own account of their stories, making her writing interesting by using exciting words. Her writing is on her blog, and Ana’s whānau and classmates have left many positive comments.  Ana is working within level three of The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum. She has decided her next step is to research and write about whānau from the past.
By the end of Year Five	Uses writing as an interactive tool for learning.	Amelia is making strong progress with meeting the goal of writing sentences that give a good finish to her work. Her next step is to work on titles. Amelia is writing plays for the class to perform in drama, telling stories about how our town developed. She communicates the feelings of her characters very well through her choice of words. Amelia is working within level three of The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum. This is the expected level for her year.
	Content is relevant to the curriculum task.	Molly is working within level three of The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum. Molly: is making great progress with her editing and proof-reading has presented well-described research work – a good example of the extra effort she is making writes for enjoyment and was a member of the yearbook team. Molly is working on how to write articles to suit different readers.
Student with additional learning needs	Encodes words using a beginning knowledge of morphology.	Henry has met most of the goals in his learning plan. He can now write all the letters in his first name. He is very proud that he is now learning to write the letters in his surname and is making good progress with this goal. He works with his teacher aide in the afternoon, and they enjoy working on the ladder computer programme. He is pleased that he can use this programme on his own.
By the end of Year Six	Knowledge and skills of diverse phoneme-grapheme relationships and spelling rules and conventions.	Teri is working within level five of The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum, the expected level for her year group is level three. Testing shows that she is a very capable student. Teri: is the school spelling bee champion – she has a sound understanding of most spelling rules enjoys science and her scientific writing is thoughtful. Teri has not made as much progress this year as in previous years. As discussed at our meeting; her lateness is still a concern.
	Can write independently, choose language and structures appropriate for their audience.	Amereta is working at level two of The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum. She is a careful worker who likes to spend time planning her work, so it is good to see the success she has had and that she is progressing at a faster pace. Amereta has made a good start on her goal of using exciting words in the pamphlet she is designing for her market stall.
By the end of Year Seven	Thinks critically about work and generate and answer questions that meet the learning purposes of the curriculum.	This year I understand how to use metaphor and rhetorical questions in my writing. This has helped my poetry and narrative writing. I have worked hard at being clear and to the point when I have written my research reports. I have tried to have a formal tone in my science writing and will need to keep working on this. I am working within level four of The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum.
	Can interpret abstract ideas, complex plots and sophisticated themes.	Iosua has achieved level three of The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum and is working within level four. This is his expected level. Iosua: has excellent ideas for his writing can plan a piece of writing and put ideas in sections writes about exciting adventures with interesting conclusions illustrates his tech class writing using drawn graphics. In English class, Iosua is a kind, hardworking, and respectful student. Malo lava Iosua mo le alualu i luma o lana galuega i le aoga.
By the end of Year Eight	Able to evaluate aspects of work in science and technology.	Karl chooses relevant facts to write about and links his facts carefully. He has identified that his next step is to bring together different pieces of information from his research and then create his work from these. He thinks about how his research can benefit the community. Karl can identify and discuss the many improvements he has made this year. He is working at level five of The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum.
	Link ideas within and between paragraphs.	Elias has built on the progress made last year and is proud that he is now working at level three of The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum. Elias: writes imaginatively with ideas that interest his readers is working on getting his paragraphs to flow sensibly wants to improve his wording in graphic design projects.

Reporting in plain language in mathematics and statistics

In mathematics, a report comment is likely to cover the ability to solve number problems and ability in a non-number related aspect of mathematics (geometry, measurement, or statistics).

Written report comments – Mathematics and statistics
Level	Education language	Rephrased in plain language
In the first year of school		Scott can copy a repeating pattern and enjoys working with his group to create a new pattern for others to copy. He enjoyed answering questions during our statistical investigation on favourite foods and his next step is to be able to explain his reasoning for his findings. Scott is working in the early stages of level one of The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum.
After one year at school	Compares volume of objects directly. Applies counting-all strategies.	Hirini is keen to work on maths activities and enjoys activities involving water and comparing liquid measurements. He has made good progress and can now add two groups of fewer than ten objects together. He uses counters and his fingers. Hirini is learning to count backwards from a given number. He has good understandings at level one of the 2007 maths curriculum and is beginning to explore the objectives at level two.
	Investigates questions using the statistical inquiry cycle. Creates and continues sequential patterns.	Jo is working in the early stages of level one of The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum. This is slightly below where she should be. Jo: can say and write numbers up to 5 and is now learning to say and write numbers up to 10 enjoys making patterns and putting objects into ‘big and biggest’ and ‘small’ and ‘smallest’ groups.
After two years at school	Describes the likelihood of outcomes involving chance. Uses simple grouping strategies to combine and partition numbers.	Turki is working within level two of The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum. This is above where he should be for his year level. Turki understands new ideas quickly. He enjoys working on more challenging activities but needs encouragement to get started. He makes good guesses about the numbers on the dice when we roll these in class. His next step when adding and subtracting numbers is to use his good knowledge of counting in 10s.
	Uses equal sharing to find fractions of sets and measure duration.	Nico is working within level one of The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum. This is below the expected level for his year.  He is on the maths recovery programme to help him move to level two. Nico: has made steady progress with counting to and from 100 can split objects into two even groups can group objects into even groups of up to 20 can say the time to half hours.
After three years at school	Applies basic addition facts and knowledge of place value to combining and partitioning numbers. Measures using linear scales.	Rota has a good understanding of basic addition facts, and this is helping his progress. He can add numbers quickly in his head. Rota’s koro taught him to count in te reo Māori and now Rota is helping us learn bigger numbers, like rua tekau mā rima = rua tekau (20) mā (+) rima (5) = 25. Rota has a good understanding of length and can measure accurately. He is working within level two of The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum. This is above the expected level for his year.
	Uses knowledge to think mathematically when modelling situations. Continues spatial and number patterns.	Leilani has worked extremely hard this year on recalling her basic facts. She has made progress with counting and can add numbers from any number between 1 and 100. In class, Leilani is learning to add numbers in her head. Leilani can sort objects and shapes. She has worked hard to make progress and is working within level two of The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum.
By the end of year 4	Applies place value to combine or partition whole numbers. Gathers and displays category and simple whole number data.	Su Wei has achieved the expected curriculum level for her year. Su Wei: has made great progress learning maths words in English knows and uses her times tables and makes few errors in her addition or subtraction. Su Wei’s next step is to graph using Excel on the computer.
Student with additional learning needs.	Applies basic addition and subtraction facts to combine or partition numbers or find fractions of sets.	Jonnie has received additional mathematics support this year, which has strengthened his number knowledge. He is working within level one of The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum. Jonnie: is beginning to recall addition facts to 20 is now learning to count from 1 when adding numbers.
By the end of year 5	Applies multiplicative strategies, and measures time.	Maddie has identified several areas in which she has improved this year. She loves working in her group and helping her friends when they are having problems in maths. She is especially pleased with her faster times tables speed. She can now use multiplication and division to solve problems involving fractions. She is particularly pleased that she can now add and subtract time. Maddie is working at the expected 2007 curriculum level for her year.
	Describes locations and gives directions using grid references and points of the compass. Applies simple multiplicative strategies to combine or partition whole numbers.	Bella: can correctly name locations on a map using coordinates can multiply numbers by 10, 100, and 1000 uses her fractions knowledge in technology. Bella is not working at the expected 2007 curriculum level for her year. One of the things Bella and I have discussed is that she would progress more quickly by learning fast recall of times tables. We agreed that a next step is to memorise the times tables. Bella says that another next step for her is to solve more difficult problems using more than two steps.
By the end of year 6	Performs mixed operations using addition and subtraction as inverse operations. Gathers or accesses multivariate category and whole-number data.	Oliver is working within level three of The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum. This is the expected level for his year. Oliver: works out answers to problems accurately, using his knowledge of addition and subtraction continues to make very good progress with understanding the features of two and three-dimensional shapes. Oliver has identified that his next step is to improve on simplifying and rounding decimals.
	Applies additive strategies to decimals. Creates or identifies nets for rectangular prisms and other simple solids.	Findlay has made progress this year with learning to add decimal numbers and add money. He was able to use these skills while working on his enterprise inquiry. With extra help from the teacher, Findlay can draw outlines for solid shapes. He takes care to make his models accurately, like the stars he made for the Matariki display. Findlay is working at level two of The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum; this is below the expected level for his year.
By the end of year 7	Applies additive and multiplicative strategies flexibly to decimals and integers.	I finally understand how to work with fractions, percentages, and decimals. I am still working on ratios. I understand BODMAS. My biggest success this year was creating a project with my group for the Year 7 Maths Competition. My group learned a lot about working with data (and working together). I have achieved the expected 2007 curriculum level for year 7.
	Identifies patterns and displays them in different ways. Applies additive and multiplicative strategies flexibly.	Jesse is working at the expected 2007 curriculum level for his year. Jesse: can sort information and talk about what he has learned uses his knowledge of geometry in the designIT programme to model his plans for hard tech has made progress at reading and ordering large numbers is now learning to convert length to smaller or larger amounts (mm, cm, m).
By the end of year 8	Applies additive strategies flexibly to decimals and integers Using the statistical inquiry cycle, sorts, and displays data identifying patterns, variations, and relationships.	Karl understands decimals and place value, which helps him to answer problems. He uses a range of ways to work out harder problems, including division. He successfully uses information from graphs to help his problem solving and is very quick to spot any errors. His next step is to use his maths understanding more consistently in his science and technology work. Karl is working at level 4 of The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum; this is the expected level for his year.
	Shows relationships in spatial and number patterns using recursive rules for non-linear relationships. Identifies and describes features of shapes or patterns that change or do not change under transformation.	Siobhan is working at the expected 2007 curriculum level for her year (level 4), and she can discuss the areas in which she has made the most improvements this year. She indicated that she particularly enjoys algebra and working with equations. Her next goal is to master the addition and subtraction of negative and positive numbers. Siobhan is to be congratulated for the work she put into her digital maths artwork that used tessellating shapes. She successfully included her maths work as part of her art portfolio.

Reporting in plain language across a range of learning areas

Report comments will address achievement and progress towards valued outcomes from across the curriculum. The examples below are written for Georgia, a year 4 student, working at curriculum level 2. Reference to progress in language, literacy, and numeracy illustrate how learning in foundation skills is integrated across the curriculum.

The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum focus for this period

Progress and achievement

Key: E = Exceeding curriculum expectations M = Meeting curriculum expectations Y = Yet to meet curriculum expectations

The arts

Music, visual art, dance, and drama have their own distinct languages.

Communicating ideas through painting.

Georgia increased her learning by reading widely and finding experts online. She is now using lines, textures, colours, and shapes to create the effects she wants in her paintings. She also understands the meaning and significance of some Māori symbols that New Zealand artists like Darcy Nicholas use in their art works. She is using her new knowledge and skills to express her ideas creatively.

Health and PE

Taking responsibility for my own hauora (health and wellbeing) and contribute to the hauora of those around me.

Developing movement skills using tī rākau.

Georgia takes responsibility for keeping herself fit. She loves physical activity and quickly develops skills in most of the sports she attempts. She led a group to show what they had learnt in tī rākau at assembly.

In health, Georgia has learnt about the practices needed to keep everyone safe in the school environment. She used skills she learnt about writing headlines to design guidelines to help other students learn about safe practices.

Science

Physical properties include smell, colour, texture, and strength.

When substances are mixed together, they usually react or combine in some way, and when substances are mixed together, they can change to form new substances.

Scientists have systematic ways of working and use specific scientific methods.

Georgia has learnt that scientists test their ideas. She knows how to carry out a simple trial. She learnt to graph her findings using Excel. She also learnt to write a report on her investigation where the paragraphs flow logically from one to the next.

Social sciences

Time and change affect people's lives.

People make choices to meet their needs and wants.

Georgia learnt how to conduct an interview so that she could investigate why people value the past. She shared her knowledge about taonga and why people value them by writing an explanation in her class blog. She understands taonga are important because they are associated with whānau and have been passed down through generations.

Technology

Ways to:

identify and clarify a need
explore existing products
develop criteria and test materials
develop and explore ideas and mock-ups
test mock-ups and develop final products.

Georgia identified possibilities for improving the library. She wrote a persuasive text that provided reasons why cushions would be useful in the library. She investigated and tested the properties of materials needed for cushion fillings, drew some patterns, and transferred her ideas from two-dimensional drawings to a three-dimensional mock-up. Georgia is excited about testing her mock-up and developing the final cushions. Our librarian is looking forward to receiving the cushions!

Examples of introductory comments on written reports

The purpose of introductory comments is to explain the role of the report within a school’s wider information-sharing processes. For instance:

This summary report is part of our school’s processes for sharing information between ākonga, teachers, parents, and whānau. It is supported by the conference your child leads and by your child’s digital portfolio.

Please share your comments about this report in the parent/whānau section of your child’s digital portfolio.

This report is a summary of your child’s progress and achievement based on The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum. It includes your child’s and their teacher’s judgements about their learning and progress. Your child's judgements are made after considering progress in relation to learning goals. The teacher’s judgements are made after considering a range of assessments, including:

knowledge and appreciation of your child and your child’s interests
observations of your child as they learn
conversations with your child
your child’s assessment of their work
results from tests.

Please add your comments about your child’s learning and progress over the last six months in the space provided.

How parents and whānau can help at home

These are some of the examples of advice that could go on written reports to help parents and whānau support their children’s learning in reading, writing, mathematics, and key competencies. Some examples stand alone, while others could be supported by workshops, modelling, or conversations between parents, teachers, and ākonga.

Helping at home – reading and writing examples

Tell me stories about whānau events, and then ask me to retell them in my own words. (My teacher says it doesn’t matter if I miss some things).
Tell me stories about people and events that are important to our hapū and/or iwi and help me to think about how and why they are important today.
Help me see that reading and writing go together by leaving notes for me to reply to.
Share the pūrākau of our tīpuna. Help me see the messages these carry.
Ask me to write short messages (for example, e-mails and texts to my nana and grandad).
When the reading book I choose seems a bit hard, take turns reading it with me and talking about the story. Ask me things like: What do you think will happen next? Do the characters remind you of anyone you know?
Help me see that words can be organised in different ways on a page by helping me to read bus timetables, maps, and recipes. Give me experiences with both digital and paper-based writing.
When we visit our marae, help me to ‘read’ each pou to understand their meaning.
Help me to write for different purposes, like a shopping list, menu, or thank you message.
Talk to me about the books I am reading and the authors I like. It would be great if you could take me to join the local library to find more books by the authors I like.
Talk to me about your understanding of whakatauākī. Ask me how these ideas might apply in our lives.
Talk with me about the Bible passages I have memorised and what I am learning at Sunday School.
Talk to me about interesting new words and what they mean. Take turns with me to find a new word to discuss each day.
Help me to write to elders in my family in te reo Māori (or other home language) to find some information about where I come from.
Watch kapa haka with me. Talk with me about how meaning is made and communicated with an audience through words, actions, and facial expressions.
When you are reading to me, pause occasionally and talk with me about what’s happening in the story and any new or interesting words.
Tell me about a TV programme or movie you liked when you were my age and ask me to tell you what I like about the characters in my favourite TV programme or movie.
Talk to me about the steps you are taking as you make dinner or as you fix something. Tell me about the steps you take to make a hāngī or karanga to manuhiri. Ask me why particular steps are of importance.
Talk about the things we see when we travel together, interesting signs, cars, buildings, etc.
Ask me to help you plan our next trip. We could use a device to make lists and research places to go.
Take turns reading with me. We could take one page each.

Helping at home – mathematics examples

Teach me a new card game we can play together.
Let me show you my favourite app with some maths in it.
Help me learn to estimate things, like how much things weigh, how long they are, the cost of our groceries, or how long it will take to travel to a certain place.
Set up a reward system at home to encourage me to remember what I need to do.
When we are driving or walking, play Launchpad with me. Spot a number, then use it as a launchpad for seeing how many combinations we can make with that number (for example, there’s a 12 on a letterbox, that’ s 3x4, 2x6, 10+2, 100–88, and its half of 24).
Play online maths games with me.
Keep playing with me, and encouraging me, in the games I’m learning, even though I’m not very good yet.
Talk to me about the maths you use every day and at work.
Show me the family budget and explain how you pay all the bills and save.
Ask me to figure out how much change you should get back from a purchase. If I get the amount right, you might sometimes let me keep the change!
Help me memorise facts (for example, forwards and backwards from 100, the 7 times tables or doubling and halving numbers up to 20).
Ask me to help make dinner and talk about any maths involved, like halves, quarters, litres, grams, and temperatures. Get me to do any measuring or weighing that is needed.
Show me graphs and tables in our newspaper and talk with me about what they mean.
Tell me about games you played with your brothers and sisters, where you needed to use your maths skills.
Have a games night at home where we play a board game together, like Monopoly, chess, backgammon or mah-jong.

Helping at home – key competencies examples

Help me learn that time and effort pay off. For example, when I say, “This is too hard,” say, “That’s great because now you have an opportunity to learn something new.”
Help me see my problems are temporary. If I make a mistake, celebrate it as an opportunity to learn. Help me to understand that making mistakes will help me learn.
If I feel like giving up, encourage me to stick at it a little longer or try another way to do it.
When I say, “That’s good enough,” encourage me to ask if it is my best work.
Encourage me to apply the ‘can do’ attitude I have in rugby to my writing goals.
Talk to me about how other people might see issues in our community. Help me see different perspectives.
Help me to role-play so I can see other people’s views as clearly as possible.
Give me responsibilities. I could feed the cat, empty the rubbish, or help with dinner.
Help me to take responsibility for my school things. For example, I could put a cardboard box near the door of my room. Every afternoon, I put my school things in the box. When my reading is done, it goes in the box, too. I check the box before I leave for school.
Help me to understand and experience the consequences of my choices.
Help me break down big tasks (cleaning my room, getting ready) into smaller steps.
Encourage me to do small things that will help others.

Report time!

Sharing progress regularly is vital for each child’s ongoing learning and success. Sharing quality learning information between learners, parents, whānau, schools, and kura helps everyone to understand and support the learner. 

Are you doing too much?

A whiteboard marker held up to a board, with writing reading "Report Time!"

Simply put, Regulation 21 of the 2020 School Boards Regulation (which maintains the intention of NAG2c) is to ensure that good quality assessment or aromatawai information is used to report to parents. The reports must:

be written in plain language (this can be digital)
be provided at least twice a year
include the student's progress and achievement:
- across The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum or Te Marautanga o Aotearoa
- in mathematics and literacy, and/or te reo matatini and pāngarau.

There are different ways of meeting the intention of Regulation 21. However, a lack of clarity about expectations means that some kura and schools are reporting more than they need to for effective partnerships. Check these scenarios against your kura or school’s reporting policy to make sure you aren’t creating unnecessary work for little benefit.

Meeting the intention of Regulation 21 may be easier than you think.

These interactive resources show how Regulation 21 can be met in different ways by sharing how some schools and kura are reporting to students and their whānau, what this looks like, and whether these ways of reporting meet the intention of Regulation 21. 

See Materials that come with this resource to download:

Report time in te reo Māori and English guides (.pdf)
Report time - meeting the intention of Regulation 21 in te reo Māori and English (.pdf).

How can this resource be used?

The resource is deliberately designed as a fun conversation starter, to guide conversations with you and your staff as you develop or review your reporting practices with the needs of your students and their whānau in mind. This resource can be used to help you consider:

Are you doing too much?
Are you doing enough?
Is your reporting policy intended to improve learners’ ongoing progress by sharing information?
Are you improving the ongoing learning and success of learners through your reporting to parents and whānau?
How do you balance effective reporting that benefits learners and whānau, with teacher workload?
Does your reporting policy reflect the needs of your community?