Events

2026 NZAI Assessment Conference   Early bird rates close soon!

 

So many changes in education in a short time, it’s very hard to keep up with them all. Our conference will bring clarity to the changes, offering keynote speakers and workshops to give you the heads-up on the why and the what and the how of the changes. Our conference theme confirms our continued confidence in the power of effective assessment practice to improve teaching and learning.

🌟Keeping Assessment where it Belongs: Still at the Heart of Learning 🌟

Dates: Wednesday April 8 and Thursday April 9

Venue: Ormiston Junior College, East Auckland

Download the Conference Timetable here, with times and what’s happening when. A full programme will be published soon, including the workshop timetable.

This conference has been designed for educators in both primary and secondary sectors.

Keynote speakers:

• Yvette McCausland-Durie and Nathan Durie of Tipene / St Stephen’s School will discuss high expectations, sporting and academic achievement, and using assessment/performance data to motivate students.
• The Hon Erica Stanford, Minister of Education, will again update us on the government’s intentions and plans.
• Daisy Christodoulou will be joining us virtually from the UK. This well-known educator has been working at the cutting edge of assessment for many years. The title of her presentation is One assessment system, many audiences. Her talk will set out practical techniques teachers and leaders can use to ensure assessments are both accurate and useful.
• Luke Sumich, Principal of Ormiston Junior College, will share how his school is facing the challenges of change and growth.
• Jann Marshall, Deputy Chief Executive of NZQA, has information to share about assessment in the digital space, AI, and assessment being at the heart of learning.
• Neil Watson, Principal of Otahuhu College, has heartening information about improvements in achievement in his school.
• Professor Jenny Poskitt of Massey University, and NZAI President, will connect the dots and talk about how NZAI is at the heart of assessment understanding and innovation.

Some of the workshops on offer:

• Over a dozen presentations featuring schools with students from Year 0 to 10 telling stories of challenge and success.
• The Ministry of Education will be running workshops on assessment and the SMART tool, and the new Reporting to Parents expectations.
• NZCER will be introducing their new assessment tools and research.
• A choice of workshops on maths teaching and learning.
• Data analysis in primary or secondary schools.
• Dr Mel Atkinson will give an update on the Collaborative Improvement Community and the stories from its eight wonderful schools.

You’ll be spoiled for choice!

Join us for this abundance of assessment knowledge and innovation.

 

🌟 Link here to register. 🌟

 

Early bird registration prices, available until 22 March 2026

	Early bird prices	Standard prices
Full registration – two days	$495	$595
One day registration	$265	$315
Student full registration	$240	$240
Student one day registration	$160	$160

 

• All prices are in NZD and exclude GST of 15%.
• Full payment for registration fees must be received to secure your place at the Conference.
• Student teachers need to provide evidence of their status as a full-time student to be eligible for the Student rate.

 

Register for three, fourth registration is free!

If you purchase three Early Bird Full Registrations from the same organisation, the fourth registration will be free. Bring the team!

 

 

Discounted Accommodation offer   Discounted hotel rates have been organised for NZAI Conference attendees at The Sebel Auckland Manukau. You can find the details on the registration form.   The Sebel Auckland Manukau  16 Lakewood Court, Manukau City Centre    Other accommodation options close to the conference venue can be found on the registration form.

 

💥 Check in on this page for more information as it becomes available.

We’re looking forward to seeing you there!

🌟NZAI Collaborative Improvement Community🌟

 

NZAI is determined to keep the momentum going from our recent conference, as an independent, authoritative network. Building on our assessment work over the years – successful conferences, thought pieces on assessment, the publication and distribution of Assessment to Improve Learning – Principles, Practices and Proofs (PPP) – we are excited to announce our new initiative, what we’re now calling NZAI Collaborative Improvement Community.

NZAI invites you to join a collaborative network to problem-solve, contribute and develop proofs of progress through using assessment in its broadest sense.

So what’s the plan?

We at NZAI want to build positivity and energy into the national educational discourse by amplifying the improvement stories that we hear every year at our Assessment Conference. We know that these stories represent a small slice of the great things happening in NZ education, often invisible and buried within the national argumentative discourse.

Our vision is to celebrate, exemplify and build on the success stories of individual schools through the creation of a collaborative community of participating schools focused on school improvement. Our plan is to capture and present school stories of successful practice on a framework that will enable success to be highlighted and exemplified. Stories will be focused on intentional assessment and the formative use of data – what is to be improved, the change process, and the evidence of improvement – and will provide adaptable case studies. Participation will of course be voluntary, and will emphasise security and privacy.

We are aiming to publish an annual analysis of successful practices from the school stories and they will be presented on our website in due course.

NZAI is well placed to facilitate this, being non-partisan and representative across the education community. Our improvement methodology is research-based, designed around iterative improvement year-on-year, focussed on celebrating what works and appreciative inquiry.

What’s in it for you?

We see a range of benefits for schools and the profession, including:

• providing a national platform for schools to share their success stories
• motivating schools to initiate and build on their action-research processes through providing a space for ongoing investigation
• collaborative success building and problem sharing
• building connectivity and community among teachers and schools
• easy, cost-free participation
• networking and professional growth

As a politically neutral national education body, solely focussed on advocating for the use of effective assessment in all its forms, we can help build national positivity through creating a virtual community of schools that can celebrate what they have achieved and share and learn from each other about how to even better solve problems.

What are the next steps?

If you are interested and think this may well add value to you and your school, and help build positivity throughout education, please contact us at info@nzai.org.nz. 

We’ll then send you more information about how we’re planning for it to proceed, how you will actually participate, and more details about how we envisage the process over 2025 and the following years.

NZAI Assessment Conference 2025   A great two days at Ormiston Junior College!

 

Under the theme of 🌟Using assessment for better, smarter, faster learning🌟we were excited to bring together practitioners across the education spectrum to share wisdom, insights and best practices.

During the first week of the April school holidays, educators from across the sectors connected at Ormiston Junior College in Auckland to  listen and discuss all facets of assessment from the classroom through to the Ministry of Education.  We were teachers, school leaders, PLD facilitators, education agency personnel, university academics – all education professionals interested in discussing how effective assessment practice is a vital component of learning, teaching and system improvement.

• We listened to local experts workshop their tested theories of improvement
• We were challenged by a range of brilliant keynote speakers and panellists
• We heard how colleagues across schools/kura/kāhui ako have improved achievement trends despite changing government requirements.
• We connected with educators focused on using assessment to improve outcomes for all ākonga and expand their professional network.

Thank you:

• to all delegates who were interested to attend our conference, attentive to the issues raised by our speakers and workshop presenters.
• to our keynote speakers and workshop presenters, who made their knowledge and experience available to others so that we can add to the our growing body of understanding of what makes good assessment practice.
• to our sponsors, Evaluation Associates | Te Huinga Kākākura Mātauranga and MasseyUniversity who contributed in many ways to making the conference a success, 
• to Ormiston Junior College for generously allowing us to use the school as a wonderful venue, to NZCER for their ongoing support for NZAI and to The Conference Company for running our conference with their usual friendly and helpful efficiency.

Be aware that videographed keynote addresses and workshops will be on our website just as soon as we can get the technology sorted. All conference delegates will be sent a personalised link. 

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 Please feel free to dive into our archive of keynote addresses and workshop presentations from previous years. There’s a storehouse, in fact a treasure trove of illustrations of effective assessment practices that support improved learning.

 

And while you’re on our website, go to our publication Assessment to Improve Learning: Principles, practices and proof, distributed to all schools in 2021 and available online through the link.  You’ll be able to make connections with conference themes. 

Please don’t hesitate to be in touch if you have queries. Email us at info@nzai.org.nz.