Key dates and information

Please refer to the online version of the Key Dates to ensure you have access to the most up-to-date information. 

Key dates for secondary assessment

24 July

Submission instructions published on NZQA website for Kete Manarua, NCEA and NZ Scholarship portfolios with a submission date of 29 October

Portal open for all Kete Manarua submissions

1 August

Data file submission

Level 2 Visual Arts – art bag orders due:

Complete the form (external link)

25 August - 5 September

Te Reo Matatini me te Pāngarau (assessment event 2)

1-12 September

Literacy and Numeracy (assessment event 2)

8-12 September

Level 2 and Level 3 DCAT assessment event

Latest circulars

You can find NZQA publications including past circulars:

Newsletters and circulars

Term 3 online PN support sessions

You are invited to join our online support sessions hosted by our School Relationship Managers.

Each session within a topic covers the same content, just choose a time that works for you.

There is no need to register. Join the Teams meeting with the link.

Term 3 PN priorities

The key points will be:

  • Derived Grade exams
  • CAAs
  • Externals file

Tuesday 15 July, 3:30-4:15 pm (external link)

Wednesday 16 July, 3:30-4:15 pm (external link) 

Thursday 17 July, 10:00-10:45 am (external link) 

Special Assessment Conditions (SAC)

These times were changed to previously published times.

The key points will be:

  • SAC and exams
  • Making entries, attaching conditions and preparations for externals

Monday 21 July, 3:00-4:00 pm (external link)

Tuesday 22 July, 11:00 am - 12:00 pm (external link)

Tuesday 22 July, 3:00-4:00 pm (external link)

Data and entries

The key points will be:

  • externals file - what to check
  • resolving data issues.

Tuesday 5 August, 2:00-3:00 pm (external link)

CAAs, TAPā and the digital platform

The key points will be:

  • preparing for the CAAs
  • Assessment Master functions and new features

Tuesday 12 August, 2:00-3:00 pm (external link)

Wednesday 13 August, 2:00-3:00 pm (external link)

Submission of external moderation - reminder

A reminder that schools should submit material for external moderation for each standard in their moderation plan once the assessment process is complete. This means when internal moderation has been completed and results given to students.

At all NCEA levels, the material submitted for external moderation must be from the current year. 

To support you with the process, we will be emailing PNs a monthly summary showing:

  • standards where results have been reported but materials have not yet been submitted for moderation, and 
  • standards where materials have been submitted for moderation but results have not been reported.

The External Moderation page on the NZQA website provides full details and instructions:

External moderation

When submitting using the external moderation application, please include the following:

  • a copy of the task and/or supporting resources
  • a copy of the assessment schedule
  • selected samples of student work consisting of the key materials that the assessor has used to make an assessment judgement.

It’s important that the student work includes the key materials used by the assessor to make their judgement. This helps moderators understand the basis for the assessment and provide more useful feedback. 

If links are sent, please ensure they are set to be accessible by someone outside your school, and that the expiry date of the link is set to 90 days or more.

This is very important for SharePoint, which has a default expiry period of 30 days.

Contact your own SharePoint administrator to change this setting.

Rejected external moderation submissions

If your moderation submission shows a submitted date on your moderation plan, but the status changes back to "Submission – Not Started", it means the moderator has ‘rejected’ the submission.

This ‘rejection’ is most likely due to an inaccessible cloud storage link. However, other reasons could include incomplete student evidence or students not being identifiable, such as in a Dance performance.

You should receive a system email that tells you the submission has been ‘rejected’ and explains what is needed to be done before making the submission again.

If you have any queries about a specific standard, please contact ams@nzqa.govt.nz.

Identifying school paid Examination Assistants and additional Examination Assistants for 2025 NCEA and New Zealand Scholarships

Examination Assistants are typically teacher aides who assist during end of year examinations as part of their existing school employment. They are onboarded as Exam Assistants.

Exam Assistants must be trained and matched to the individual candidate’s approved SAC conditions (e.g. reader, writer/typist). The nomination and onboarding of Examination Assistants commenced on Tuesday 1 July 2025.

Schools and kura are responsible for identifying and providing:

  • a list of school paid Exam Assistants, and
  • any additional Exam Assistants needed to support ākonga requiring Special Assessment Conditions (Reader/Writer/Typist).

We recommend starting to gather this information now, ahead of the initial meeting between the Exam Centre Manager and the Principal’s Nominee.

Working with the Exam Centre Manager

If you have questions, please email the Assessment Delivery team:

examcentremanagement@nzqa.govt.nz

New Derived Grade application tool

The new Derived Grade application tools are now available through your MyNZQA login (see below image). There are two tools:

Instructions on how to use the new application tools (external link)

Please note: These tools are not used for derived grades at scale applications, such as for an event affecting a whole school. That process remains unchanged. 

Derived grades at scale

The process for making individual Derived Grade applications remains unchanged:

  1. The student completes an application form (an updated form is available on the NZQA website or provided to them by the school) and submits this with supporting evidence to the school.
    Complete the updated form
  2. The Principal's Nominee checks the application form and supporting evidence.
  3. The Principal's Nominee submits all applications to NZQA through the new tool.

New features include:

The ability to upload documents within the tool

You can choose to upload all the documents, write a summary of the event/illness, or both, whatever works best. If we need more information, we will ask you to upload all documents if you have not already done so.

The tool only displays the exams and standards the student is entered for, and only those that fall within the dates covered by the application

The derived grades at scale will be displayed if they have been submitted in a data file, otherwise the grades will need to be added manually. Grades can also be updated if required.

You can make multiple applications for a student

For example, if they are sick in the first week and then again in the last week of exams.

All communication is through the application tool

All communication happens securely within the application tool, rather than using email.

Application status

The application status will show as ‘In Progress’ once assigned to a NZQA staff member.

If approved, the status will change to ‘Approved’ after exams finish in December.

Declined applications are notified immediately.

Derived Grade screenshot

Aromatawai Māori

Te Marautanga o Aotearoa (TMoA) | NZC kaupapa ako Māori Information and Resources

  • Te Reo Māori
  • Te Ao Haka 
  • Te Reo Matatini me te Pāngarau

To view the 2025 Tautuhinga (Assessment Specifications) for TAPā and Kete Manarua assessments, Kete Manarua Tūmahi (Task), Tauaromahi (Exemplars) and other assessment material for the above subjects/wāhanga ako, please go to:

Te Pā Mātauranga

About TAPā and Kete Manarua

For general information about TAPā and Kete Manarua methods of assessment, visit:

About TAPā and Kete Manarua

Guide to preparing for Tūmahi Aromatawai Pātahi (TAPā) external assessments

To help manage the delivery of TAPā external assessments, we have summarised a list of important information and resources to prepare ākonga and kaiako for the TAPā.

Go to the TAPā guide

Te Reo Matatini me te Pāngarau

Information about the TAPā 1 assessment, including the assessments and assessment schedules, assessment reports, and FAQs, can be accessed at:

Te Reo Matatini me te Pāngarau

Reminder – 2025 Wānanga Aromatawai – register for upcoming drop-in sessions

Following the online workshops held during Term 1, NZQA is hosting online drop-in sessions in the lead up to assessments to support kura and kaiako working with the new TMoA and NZC kaupapa Māori Level 1 achievement standards and Field Māori unit standards. These will cover both internal and external assessment. The drop-in sessions will be open for an hour and provide kaiako a chance to discuss any assessment-related questions with a subject-matter expert. 

To sign up for a drop-in session or view the workshop recordings please visit:

Events

Ringa Toi Exhibition 2025 – Celebrating 10 Years – Submit artworks for consideration

We are now accepting artwork submissions for this year’s Ringa Toi exhibition which will be held at Te Papa Tongarewa, Museum of New Zealand, from Monday 15 September to Friday 28 September 2025. 

If you are interested in submitting student work to be considered for this year’s exhibition, please complete and submit the artwork submission form by 22 August 2025.

Artwork submission form (external link)

Ringa Toi

Any pātai/kōrero can be sent to ringatoi@nzqa.govt.nz.

Special Assessment Conditions (SAC)

Previous SAC updates

Previously published SAC updates can be found via the Communications link in your school’s MyNZQA portal.

Attaching SAC provisions to exam sessions

The Special Assessment Exams Processing link on your SAC page for attaching SAC provisions to examinations is now open. Refer to page 38 of the SAC online tool guide for step by step instructions. 

SAC online tool guide [PDF, 1.9 MB]

Please consult the previously published SAC Updates 2 and 3 for detailed advice.

Students requiring Braille papers or headphones

Please consult the previously published SAC Update 3 for detailed advice.

  • Braille paper requests for the second co-requisite assessment event are due by 18 July.
  • Requests for the end-of-year exams by 1 August.

SAC online question and answer sessions

We are planning several online question and answer sessions focused on end-of-year exams and the process to attach SAC to exam sessions. Please share with relevant staff.

Note that these times differ from those published during the LNA seminars earlier in the year.

Mon 21 July, 3-4 pm (external link)

Tues 22 July, 11 am-12 pm (external link) 

Tues 22 July, 3-4 pm (external link)

Support

Please email sac@nzqa.govt.nz if you have any questions or need support on SAC processes. 

Assessor Support

You can download a list of recently published Assessor Support resources and modules for internally assessed standards:

Published Assessor Support resources and modules [XLSX, 14 KB]

Authenticity declarations for submission of external standards

For certain submissions, an Authenticity Declaration is required. Schools must use the 2025 versions of these forms. Submissions using outdated versions may invalidate the candidate’s work.

See below for the list of standards that require an Authenticity Declaration. The DVC Authenticity Declaration form will be included with the personalised folders sent to schools in October.

Scholarship Dance - 93311

Authenticity Declaration form [PDF, 84 KB]

Scholarship Drama - 93304

Authenticity Declaration form [PDF, 148 KB]

Scholarship Music - 93305

Authenticity Declaration form [DOCX, 48 KB]

Scholarship DVC - 93602

Make the authenticity declaration on the personalised folder cover.

Scholarship Visual Arts - 93306, 93307, 93308, 93309, 93310

Authenticity Declaration form [PDF, 103 KB]

Visual Arts verification bag orders

Schools with Level 2 Visual Arts submissions for verification must send the portfolios in custom red bags provided by NZQA. 

If your school is new to assessing Visual Arts at Level 2 or has lost the red bag, you can order a replacement through the:

Online form for Visual Arts bag orders (external link)

The deadline for NZQA to receive bag orders is 1 August 2025.

Further information can be found on the Visual Arts subject page under ‘More Resources’.

Visual Arts

University Entrance - Numeracy

As announced in 2023, from 2024 onwards, students can only meet University Entrance numeracy requirements through:

Learn more about the announcement

Students who met the previous University Entrance numeracy requirement before the end of the 2023 academic year are considered to have met the University Entrance numeracy requirement during the transition period of 2024 and 2025.

Learn more about the transition period

Please ensure any student who wishes to gain University Entrance from 2026 onwards meets the current requirements.

Learn more about the current requirements

Note this does not include the ‘266’ series of Unit Standards.

Lessons from May 2025 CAA and TAPā quality assurance

During the May 2025 Literacy and Numeracy | Te Reo Matatini me te Pāngarau Co-Requisites assessments, School Relationship Managers completed 80 quality assurance visits to schools and kura across the motu. 

The purpose of these visits was to evaluate how schools prepared for and delivered the assessments. We have compiled a downloadable summary of the good practice observed:

Lessons from May 2025 CAA and TAPā quality assurance [DOCX, 56 KB]

Checklist

The following checklist provides a quick reference of the actions associated with information in this email link.

See the Action items for Principal’s Nominee by calendar month

1 July data file submission

Check Batch Information after File Submission.

Check Key Indicators in your Provider login.

Check your confirmed entries for DCAT assessment event.

External entries

Remind Learning Support staff that the link for attaching SAC entitlements to the November external examinations has opened. These can only be processed if the external entries have been made for the SAC candidates.

Ensure all entries with requests for translated te reo Māori papers or answers in te reo Māori have been flagged.

Visual Arts

Order Level 2 art bags (if required).