News

Microsoft is supporting training partners to run free Minecraft Education Edition training across the country.

• Find out more and book your training »

Minecraft: Education Edition is included in the Ministry of Education's software agreement with Microsoft . Through to December 2021, all students and school staff in New Zealand gain free access to Microsoft 365 A3 suite, which includes Minecraft Education Edition.

Are you interested in how other NZ schools use digital technologies to support teaching and learning?

Read our latest e-mail newsletter  to find out more.

To sign up for our newsletters:

• go to the Newsletters  page
• look for the heading Keep Informed – enter your email, and click on the subscribe button.

Tālofa lava! Afio mai!

Samoa Language Week / Vaiaso o le Gagana Samoa is being held in Sunday 24 May to Saturday 30 May. The theme for Samoa Language week is "Prepare yourself a gift for your travels".

For ideas, resources, and inspiration to help you learn and celebrate the language of Samoa with your school community go to Pasifika resources»

Netsafe are hosting three Netsafe LIVE online events to answer all the online safety questions schools and kura are currently asking.

If you have questions you’d like answered send them now to education@netsafe.org.nz or ask them on the day.

Netsafe Live events

• School leaders – May 21 @ 4pm, Netsafe’s education team and guest examine how school leaders can implement best practice online safety to support school communities.

• Students – May 28 @ 4pm, Netsafe’s education team and members of our Youth Action Squad explore how online safety initiatives can meaningfully support students.

• Teachers – June 4 @ 4pm, Netsafe’s education team and a guest tackle the challenges and opportunities Aotearoa’s educators are presented with as we transition back into classroom learning.

The sessions will be hosted on Netsafe’s Facebook  and YouTube  pages and if you can’t make it during the live broadcast they will be online shortly afterwards.

This is Rotuman language week. The theme for the week is "Nurturing our Rotuman identity through language and culture." 2020 is the first time it has has been included in the Pacific Language Week series. 

For ideas, resources, and inspiration to help you learn and celebrate the language of Rotuma with your school community go to Pasifika resources»

With many of your students working from home or transitioning back to school, project-based learning is a great approach to take for planning.

Read our latest e-mail newsletter  to find out more.

To sign up for our newsletters:

• go to the Newsletters  page
• look for the heading Keep Informed – enter your email, and click on the subscribe button.

Are you looking for a creative, engaging, curriculum-based project for your students to work on? Game design and development balances the fun of play with the challenge of coding.
Read our latest e-mail newsletter to find out more.

To sign up for our newsletters:

• go to the Newsletters  page
• look for the heading Keep Informed – enter your email, and click on the subscribe button.

Are you considering how to maintain connections and reach all of your school community during this time of social distancing?
Read our latest e-mail newsletter  to find out more.

To sign up for our newsletters:

• go to the Newsletters  page
• look for the heading Keep Informed – enter your email, and click on the subscribe button.

StudyIt provides online help for NCEA for students.

• Get study advice for NCEA Science, Maths, and English. 

• Ask questions in the forum  and discuss NCEA issues with other students and teachers.

Does your school need support to take your learning online and would you like your students to access existing online programmes?

The Ministry of Education will fund additional enrolments with the VLN Community by schools who need support to take learning online or would like their students to access existing online programmes. PLD support is also available for schools.

Find out how you can participate here:

• Online programmes
• PLD support for schools

Network for Learning (N4L), The Ministry of Education, and Netsafe have developed an internet safety filter for all students learning from home. Parents can set it up on their children’s learning device.

The safety filter blocks access to a range of websites known to be unsafe and inappropriate for learning. These include adult websites, as well as those known to host unsafe software, such as malware and phishing scams. 

Instructions on how to set up the safety filter can be found at www.switchonsafety.co.nz .

The Enabling e-Learning Community calendar of events  for term two is online now! Our focus is supporting you to set-up and plan learning from home.
Read our latest e-mail newsletter to find out more.

To sign up for our newsletters:

• go to the Newsletters  page
• look for the heading Keep Informed – enter your email, and click on the subscribe button.

Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced an $87.7 million emergency funding boost to allow schools students to work from home.

It includes:

• two new television channels for education-related content, one for English medium and one for Māori medium, including Pacific-targeted content
• some specialised content for parents, to help them support their child's education, and early learners
• hard-copy material provided and delivered for different year levels
• working with telecommunications companies and internet service providers to connect households without internet connection as quickly as possible
• working with schools to identify students who lack a suitable device for online learning, and delivering as many devices as possible to the students who will benefit the most.

Priority will be for high school students working towards NCEA and those with "greatest need to disadvantage".

Full story TV1 News »

Have you considered how you might apply flipped learning during school closures? 
Read our latest e-mail newsletter to find out more.

To sign up for our newsletters:

• go to the Newsletters  page
• look for the heading Keep Informed – enter your email, and click on the subscribe button.

Schools will shortly be moving into distance learning delivery. This will open up many new opportunities, challenges and possibilities for the way schools and kura operate, and how staff (both teaching and non-teaching staff) work. 

Online support for distance learning

The Ministry has launched two websites which provide advice and resources to support parents, whānau and teachers. The websites will help early learning centres, schools and kura to develop online learning plans that they can share with their parents and whānau.  

• Learning from Home and Ki te Ao Mārama

Helpdesk assistance 

The Connected Learning Advisory helpdesk assist leaders, teachers, kaiako and whānau to make full use of the online environments and resources, as they provide for a continuity of learning for their students and tamariki.

CORE Education, run the helpdesk. They will provide this and other online support from 8am to 5pm on business days.

• To contact the Helpdesk, call 0800 700 401, or email learningfromhome@connectedlearning.org.nz . 
• To speak with the Helpdesk in te reo Māori, call 0508 294 462. 

Support includes:

• Technical advice for teachers and whānau in response to their Helpdesk enquiries
• Online support to assist:
  • whānau to understand how to use the IT tools they have and how to engage safely in collaborative spaces
  • principals, leadership teams, and teachers to select and use appropriate tools and strategies to communicate, maintain learning programmes effectively across their community, and manage online safety
• Community liaison: connecting early learning services/school/kura leaders and whānau with networks and resources.

For more information read:

• Ministry of Eduction School Special Bulletin – COVID-19 , 2 April 2020

Netsafe encourage people to use and engage with all different types of technology to stay connected; they provide tips and advice about how to do it safely.

The resources on netsafe.org.nz including the 10 best online safety tips for lockdown  will help you provide a safe environment at home and when working remotely with your students.

Netsafe are asking people to use the #stayconnectedstaysafe on social media to share how they have made a difference to someone else.

Zoom has lifted the 40-minute meeting limit on free Basic accounts for schools in New Zealand.

• Request to have the limit lifted for your school »

Security resource for educators teaching over Zoom

• Blog: Best practices for securing your virtual classroom .

All schools and kura can access additional support for distance learning:

• You can ask your current PLD facilitator for help and support to plan distance learning
• If you want to use a PLD provider to help support thinking and planning for distance learning but you don’t have PLD hours or your current facilitator is unable to help please contact the PLD mailbox. pld.enquiries@education.govt.nz and the Ministry of Education will be in contact to help broker some support.
• A number of schools can continue to offer learning online, if the Ministry of Education can help please contact them through the PLD mailbox pld.enquiries@education.govt.nz

Most of the major telcos have removed data caps and the possibility of any extra charges based on usage.
 
See the links to those major companies listed below if your staff or students working from home need further support with this.
 
SPARK – https://www.spark.co.nz/help/covid-19/
“Removing overage charges for customers who are on data-capped broadband plans, so they won’t have to worry about paying extra to stay connected. This applies to both small and medium business and consumer customers;”
 
VODAFONE – https://news.vodafone.co.nz/covid-19-care
“The removal of data caps from data-capped Broadband plans for consumers and small to medium sized businesses until at least the end of June 2020”
 
VOCUS/SLINGSHOT – https://help.slingshot.co.nz/hc/en-us/articles/900000386943-Our-action-against-COVID-19?_ga=2.224375707.1878754814.1585097493-87562686.1585097493
“We removed all the data caps from our plans to better enable you to work from home during this time of social distancing and self-isolation.”
 
2DEGREES – https://www.2degreesmobile.co.nz/help-and-support/mobile/your-account/covid-19/
“Any customer who was on a limited data plan on or before Friday, March 20 will now receive unlimited data through until June 2020.”

Microsoft and Google are holding online meetings to support schools establishing or offering distance learning for their students.

Microsoft meetings

Google meetings

Schools can participate in Google Hangouts meeting drop in sessions at Distance Learning Hangouts . These drop in sessions are for questions and help.