October 2024 Code News for schools

2024 Code self-review and attestation

School signatories must regularly review the quality of their learner wellbeing and safety practices under Part 7 of the Code.

Schools then attest that self-review has taken place at a date set by NZQA.

Completing these steps is a requirement for a school to maintain its Code signatory status.

The due date for 2024 attestation submissions for school signatories is 1 December.

If you have not enrolled international learners for the past year, but wish to maintain your Code signatory status, you must complete and document a self-review against the Code outcomes. In this situation, self-review is not a review of performance, but a review of documented policies and procedures.

If you no longer wish to maintain your Code signatory status, you can request to voluntarily withdraw this status by emailing us at code.enquiries@nzqa.govt.nz.

Please note that once Code signatory status has been withdrawn, a school must re-apply should they wish to enrol international learners in the future.

Submitting your attestation

Completed attestation forms will be uploaded through the NZQA school portal.

Attestation forms in the NZQA school portal

To submit your attestation please log into your NZQA school portal. You will need an Education Sector Logon (ESL) to access the portal. In the portal you can download, complete, and submit the attestation form.

The attestation form can be completed in 10-15 minutes.  

If you do not have an ESL, you can request one by visit the:

Ministry of Education’s ESL webpage (external link)

Please note this process can take up to10 working days.

Code Spotlight: Making sense of evidence to inform decision-making after your Code self-review

In the September edition of Code News, we shared information on the first two components for effective self-review: preparing for and gathering evidence for your Code self-review.

In this edition, we will cover the remaining two components:

• making sense of your evidence and
• using this to inform decision making at the end of your self-review process.

Making sense

Analysing the information you have gathered will help you make determinations about your school’s compliance with and performance against the Code.

Once your evidence has been collected, review it closely to see what it is telling you about your current practices. This will help you make sense of your data and contextualise it.

Keep the following in mind to support you in making sense of your evidence:

• How does your evidence answer your key questions?
• How is your implementation of the Code? Check compliance with required processes.
• How effectively are you doing what you need to be doing? Assess the effectiveness of practices and evaluate against Code outcomes.

Our self-review toolkit has resources that may help you make sense of the data and information you have collected for self-review.

You may also amend these resources to fit your needs and guide your self-review process.

Self-review toolkit

Decide

The fourth component of effective self-review is decide. This involves prioritising and planning your school’s next steps once you have been able to review and make sense of the evidence you have collected.

This is where your school will consider what action you will take based on the findings of your self-review and what it may have revealed about the effectiveness of your learner wellbeing and safety practices.

From there, consider developing an action plan to protect and enhance any strengths you identified or to address any areas for improvement.

Good action plans include clear timelines and identify staff responsible for completing actions.

For more detailed information or resources to support your self-review, please refer to:

• self-review and attestation web page
• Code self-review guidelines [PDF, 2.4 MB]