About Education in Schools

We love what we do – and apparently it shows.

“I have valued my interactions with the staff at the Plunket head office in Wellington. When I started teaching ECE they were always at the end of a phone or quick to respond to an email if I encountered any problems with the content or had assessment queries … they are reliable, professional ECE providers.” – Class Teacher, Bay of Plenty

For all Agreement Forms and MOUs please see the corresponding course info page.

Course Report Forms

• Unit Standard Course Report Forms
• Non-Assessed Course Report Forms

Evaluation Forms

• Teacher Led Evaluation Form
• Plunket Led Evaluation Form
• Student Evaluation Form

Consent Forms (for parental permissions for practicums and ECE centre placements)

• Level 2 consent form
• Level 3 consent form

Do you have a child/children from 0-5 years of age? Are you interested in sharing your parenting experiences? Do you have a few hours to participate in first hand learning experiences with our students?

Then we’d love to hear from you!

“I really enjoyed being a part of Plunket in Schools. I'd go in with the kids and the students ask questions about what it’s like being a parent. I liked being able to help and impart some of my experience to the younger generations.” – Christy, mum of three

What do the volunteer parents do?

For some Plunket led classes we invite our volunteer parents and their pre-school children to come into the classroom. These sessions are between 30-45 minutes long and held during the school day.

During the session you will be introduced, and the students will have some pre-prepared questions to ask you about you and your children and your experiences of parenting.

For example, sometimes the focus of the session might be about:

• Play and the students will engage with you and your children with some toys and games which they have sometimes made themselves, or
• Nutrition and the students will have made an appropriate meal for young children that they would like to share with your tamariki.

The classes are advertised on our closed Facebook groups and you will choose if you are available to attend a session and what the focus of the session will be.

You’ll also be given directions on how to get to the school office, where to park and you will be met at the office by students and then take to the classroom.

We are always grateful for families being available for these classes as it helps reinforce new learning for the students and gives them practical experiences that puts this learning in context.

We’d love to hear from you

If you’re interested in finding out more, contact our EIS team below to register your interest or to get more information.

You can also check out our Parent Volunteer Guide 2021.

We also always love to hear about how our current volunteer parents are finding their experience with us. Feel free to send us your feedback.

In line with Whānau Āwhina Plunket’s pro-equity strategy, Education in Schools is working towards our strategic goal: To enhance how our teaching and learning connects with and honours Education in School learners and their diversity, culture and gender.

As an example of this, we have received and welcomed feedback on course design for a new non-assessed programme developed for Teen Parents on how we could better reflect our learners in our learner material, which we promptly implemented. 

This goal fits closely with the steps that Education in Schools has been taking to ensure our practices are aligned to the requirements of the newly implemented Code of Practice for pastoral care. Below is a summary report from our Code of Practice Self-review, as well as summary report of complaints received over the past 12 months.

Code of Practice for pastoral care Self-Review October 2022 - Executive Summary 

In line with regulations, we submitted the NZQA attestation on 1 November 2022 stating that we have implemented the requirements of the Code. These requirements included a self-review of our current practices and opportunities, which we conducted with the support of external industry experts. 

The review confirms that we are achieving the intended impact of the required first four outcomes of the combined Code listed below.

1. A learner wellbeing and safety system: Providers must take a whole-of-provider approach to maintain a strategic and transparent learner wellbeing and safety system that responds to the diverse needs of their learners.
2. Learner voice: Providers understand and respond to diverse learner voices and wellbeing and safety needs in a way that upholds their mana and autonomy.
3. A safe, inclusive, supportive, and accessible learning environments, online and in person: Providers must foster learning environments that are safe and designed to support positive learning experiences of diverse learner groups.
4. Learners are safe and well: Providers must support learners to manage their physical and mental health through information and advice, and identify and respond to learners who need additional support.

The review has been used as input to our Code of Practice Implementation goals for 2023. Below is a summary of what is well implemented and our implementation goals.

What is in place and well-implemented:

• Plunket has all the necessary policies in place, including student code of conduct. These are reviewed frequently and kept up to date.
• We work proactively with learners and teachers, gathering their views through surveys and frequent communication. Survey results are constantly reviewed and the student voice taken into account.
• The Individual Secondary Schools we work with, have Wellbeing Code of Practices in place
• Our staff go through a thorough onboarding and induction process and are supported to achieve their professional development goals.

Our Code of Practice implementation goals for 2023 include: 

• Review survey questions and procedures to ensure they are up to date.
• Review data collected over the last 3 years as a whole to identify risks to student wellbeing and check sufficient risk reporting and mitigation is in place.
• Run regular professional development days with staff and contractors on Code of Practice and available services for students
• Ensure students are provided with a list of available services and can clearly identify how a support person can be contacted.      

These improvements will be reviewed as part of our 6-monthly operational plan review to establish their effectiveness. 

We will also continue to monitor complaints and feedback as per our existing complaints procedure. Complaints and feedback can be submitted through the schools where their teachers or our educators deliver Education in Schools learning, through our educators, or through an email submission to EISadmin@plunket.org.nz.

Over the past 12 months, we have not received complaints relating to learner wellbeing or the learning environment. The only complaints received were related to a technological delay in receiving login details for the online babysitting programme which was promptly attended to.

Education in Schools have been taking steps to ensure our pastoral care offerings are aligned to the requirements of the current Code of Practice. We submitted the NZQA attestation on 1 November 2022 stating that we have implemented the requirements of the Code. These requirements included a self-review of our current practices and opportunities, which we conducted with the support of external industry experts. 

The review confirms that we are achieving the intended impact of the required first four outcomes of the combined Code listed below.

1. A learner wellbeing and safety system: Providers must take a whole-of-provider approach to maintain a strategic and transparent learner wellbeing and safety system that responds to the diverse needs of their learners.
2. Learner voice: Providers understand and respond to diverse learner voices and wellbeing and safety needs in a way that upholds their mana and autonomy.
3. A safe, inclusive, supportive, and accessible learning environments, online and in person: Providers must foster learning environments that are safe and designed to support positive learning experiences of diverse learner groups.
4. Learners are safe and well: Providers must support learners to manage their physical and mental health through information and advice, and identify and respond to learners who need additional support.

The review has been used as input to our Code of Practice Implementation goals for 2023. Below is a summary of what is well implemented and our implementation goals.

What is in place and well-implemented:

• Plunket has all the necessary policies in place, including student code of conduct. These are reviewed frequently and kept up to date.
• We work proactively with learners and teachers, gathering their views through surveys and frequent communication. Survey results are constantly reviewed and the student voice taken into account.
• The Individual Secondary Schools we work with, have Wellbeing Code of Practices in place
• Our staff go through a thorough onboarding and induction process and are supported to achieve their professional development goals.

Our Code of Practice implementation goals for 2023 include: 

• Review survey questions and procedures to ensure they are up to date.
• Review data collected over the last 3 years as a whole to identify risks to student wellbeing and check sufficient risk reporting and mitigation is in place.
• Run regular professional development days with staff and contractors on Code of Practice and available services for students
• Ensure students are provided with a list of available services and can clearly identify how a support person can be contacted.      

These improvements will be reviewed as part of our 6-monthly operational plan review to establish their effectiveness. 

If you have a question for the Education in Schools team, feel free to get in touch.

Sharelle Rowntree
Team Leader - Education in Schools
Email: sharelle.rowntree@plunket.org.nz

Email:EIS.Admin@plunket.org.nz