Overseas Students

Education providers including secondary schools in the Wellington region host international students each year. These students are attracted to Wellington’s high educational standards, learning assistance (particularly for English language assistance), and ongoing pastoral care and support. Wellington is also seen as a safe, friendly, relaxed and cosmopolitan environment in which to live and study. Up-to-date information on fees charged for international students is available on individual schools’ websites. These can be accessed through the Education Wellington International website.

Education Wellington International website

National Qualifications

The National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) is the main qualification at all levels of senior secondary school. The NCEA is designed to remove the old distinctions between academic and vocational education. In each school curriculum subject, there is both external assessment (including examinations) and internal assessment (where the school awards grades), using achievement or unit standards. Excellence of achievement is recognised in the reporting of both internal and external assessment.

NCEA - New Zealand Qualifications Authority website

Holidays, Terms & Hours

The school year runs from February to December and is divided into four terms of about ten weeks each. Terms are divided by two-week holidays, with a six-week summer holiday from mid-December to the end of January. The Ministry of Education website has term times for the current year. The school day usually begins at 9am and finishes at 3pm, while the secondary school day starts around 8.30am and ends around 3.30pm. School students generally have a short break in the morning, and an hour for lunch.

School Terms and Holidays - Ministry of Education website

Curriculum

The New Zealand Curriculum is built around the acquisition of essential academic and practical skills. Academic skills include languages, mathematics, science, technology, social sciences, the arts, and health and physical wellbeing. They are balanced by eight practical or 'essential’ skills including communication and numeracy skills, information and problem-solving skills, self-management and competitive skills, social and co-operative skills, physical skills, and work and study skills.

Most Wellington schools enhance their core curriculum programme with regular visits to cultural institutions like Te Papa museum, the National Film Archive and the Carter Observatory. The region's natural assets are also well used by many schools with outdoor activities such as rowing, tramping (hiking) and science field trips.

National Curriculum - Ministry of Education website

Cost

Government-funded state schools provide a mostly free education. While fees are not mandatory, parents and students are expected to help with fundraising activities and may also be asked for donations to cover such costs as materials for art, trade or technology classes and school trips. Parents also pay for stationery and uniforms (at secondary school level). The annual school fee or ‘donation’ varies widely depending on the school’s requirements but is usually in the order of several hundred dollars.

Parents - Ministry of Education website

Disciplinary Issues

All New Zealand schools are expected to have a strategy for dealing with disciplinary issues and especially bullying. Teachers are not allowed to physically punish students but they are allowed to remove their privileges, or give them detentions. If bullying occurs, parents and caregivers should always be in close contact with the school.

The New Zealand Police have a 'No Bully' website which has more information about what bullying is and what to do about it.

No Bully website