Two quick education notes.
1. More good news on attendance now that Term 2 2026 data is official.
“Nationally, 64.3% of students met the criteria for regular attendance (present more than
90% of the term). This is an increase of 5.9 percentage points from Term 2 2025.”
69.5% was the pre-covid high (2015) and it is very good to see the trend going in the right direction.
A lot of effort still needs to go into some groups – but the trend there is positive also:
“In Term 2 2026, regular attendance was 49.1% for ākonga Māori, 51.4% for Pacific students, 76.1% for
Asian students, and 66.5% for European/Pākehā students.
Regular attendance improved across all ethnicities compared with Term 2 2025. Pacific students had
the highest increase in regular attendance of 7.1 percentage points compared to Term 2 2025.
The rate for ākonga Māori increased by 5.4 percentage points compared with Term 2 2025, with
European/Pākehā students showing a 5.8 percentage point increase and Asian students a 6.1
percentage point increase.”
2. I had privilege of being on last weeks Leigton Smith podcast (his intro below).
“Alwyn Poole; Education & More.
“The first point on how to improve all things education in NZ is that, so long as any government thinks that they are the podium of truth in this area, they will fail and all improvements will be marginal (at best)”.
This was written by educational consultant Alwyn Poole.
While improvements in education are promising, there is significant room for growth.
Alwyn Poole is critical where necessary, but gives praise where warranted.
We reveal interesting details regarding a new school, a Covid story you won’t have heard before, and we visit The Mailroom with Mrs Producer.”