National Education Guidelines

A board is required to pay attention to regulations called the National Education Guidelines.

The National Education Guidelines are defined by section 60A Education Act 1989 and given effect by sections 61 (2), section 61 (4) (b) and section 62 (2).

The guidelines have five components:

National Education Goals

The National Education Goals, sometimes referred to as `the NEGs', are:

• statements of desirable achievements by schools
• statements of government policy objectives for the school system.

This is where the Government lays out national priorities for education which, among issues of local importance, the board must take into account when preparing a charter.

Foundation curriculum policy statements

Foundation curriculum policy statements are statements of policy concerning teaching, learning and assessment that are made for the purposes of underpinning and giving direction to:

• the way in which curriculum and assessment responsibilities are to be managed in schools
• National Curriculum statements and locally developed curriculum.

National Curriculum Statements

 The National Curriculum statements describe achievement objectives for students including:

• the areas of knowledge and understanding to be covered by students
• the skills to be developed by students
• desireable levels of knowledge understanding, and skill, to be achieved by students during the years of schooling.

National Standards

National Standards aim to lift achievement in literacy and numeracy (reading, writing, and mathematics) by being clear about what students should achieve and by when.

National Administration Guidelines

 The National Administration Guidelines ('the NAGs'), set out:

• the broad regulations about teaching and assessment, staffing, health and safety, and financial affairs that a board must observe in governing the school
• requirements relating to planning and reporting and, in more detail, what a school's charter should cover.