Submission on Draft New Zealand Curriculum (Years 0-10)

Recreation Aotearoa is the leading professional body supporting New Zealand’s recreation sector, advocating for quality experiences that keep people active, healthy, and connected. Its members include those who plan, deliver, and manage community sport, recreation, and outdoor programmes across the country.

Overview of general comments

The Ministry of Education has officially released the final Health and Physical Education (HPE) curriculum for Years 0–10. Thanks to sector-wide advocacy with our good friends EONZ and WaterSafety NZ, several key priorities in Recreation Aotearoa’s submission were taken up. 

Key highlights include:

•    The "Unfunded Mandate": While the curriculum mandates rich aquatic and outdoor learning, it fails to provide the targeted resourcing required for pool hire, transport, and Education Outside the Classroom (EOTC) gear. Without dedicated funding, rural and high-equity-index schools risk being unable to deliver these experiences.
•    Unprotected PE Time: The framework stops short of mandating our requested minimum of 2.5 hours of Physical Education per week, leaving teaching time vulnerable to competing priorities.

Read our submission

For more detail, please read:

Submission on Draft New Zealand Curriculum (Years 0-10)

Questions or Feedback

If you have any questions, or want to share your views, contact our Advocacy Manager, Sam Newton by email: sam@nzrecreation.org.nz