NCEA National Moderator's Report 2026 | Science Subjects
- Feb 28
- 3 min read
The NCEA National Moderator's Report 2026 is now available for Science, Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Earth and Space Science, Agriculture and Horticulture, and Education for Sustainability.
The reports give feedback to assist kaiako with general issues and trends that were identified during 2025 external moderation.
For convenience, Bay Science has collated all the reports below. Please note the reports do not introduce new criteria, change the requirements of the standard, or change what NZQA expect from assessment.
Level 1 Sciences
The following report gives feedback to assist assessors with general issues and trends that have been identified during external moderation of the internally assessed standards in 2025.
Note: The NZQA website also included 2026 National Moderator reports for PESS and ChemBio, but the text appears to be the same as the L1 Science NMR above -- just in a different order. We've attached them below anyway, for completeness.
Level 1, 2 & 3 AgHort
The following report gives feedback to assist assessors with general issues and trends that have been identified during external moderation of the internally assessed standards in 2025.
It also provides further insights from moderation material viewed throughout the year and outlines the Assessor Support available for Agricultural and Horticultural Science.
Level 2 & 3 Biology
The following report gives feedback to assist assessors with general issues and trends that have been identified during external moderation of the internally assessed standards in 2025. It also provides further insights from moderation material viewed throughout the year and outlines the Assessor Support available for Biology.
Level 2 & 3 Chemistry
The following report gives feedback to assist assessors with general issues and trends that have been identified during external moderation of the internally assessed standards in 2025. It also provides further insights from moderation material viewed throughout the year and outlines the Assessor Support available for Chemistry.
Level 2 & 3 Earth and Space Science
The following report gives feedback to assist assessors with general issues and trends that have been identified during external moderation of the internally assessed standards in 2025. It also provides further insights from moderation material viewed throughout the year and outlines the Assessor Support available for Earth and Space Science.
Level 2 & 3 Physics
The following report gives feedback to assist assessors with general issues and trends that have been identified during external moderation of the internally assessed standards in 2025. It also provides further insights from moderation material viewed throughout the year and outlines the Assessor Support available for Physics.
Level 3 & 3 Education for Sustainability
The following report gives feedback to assist assessors with general issues and trends that have been identified during external moderation of the internally assessed standards in 2025. It also provides further insights from moderation material viewed throughout the year and outlines the Assessor Support available for Education for Sustainability.
Assessor Support | NZQA
NZQA provides a range of online support for teachers assessing NZC achievement standards.
This includes:
Exemplars of student work for many standards
National Moderator Reports
Online learning modules, both general and subject specific
Clarifications for selected standards
The Assessor Practice Tool for a number of standards
Webcasts
Exemplars, moderator reports, clarifications, and webcasts can be found on the relevant NZC subject pages on the NZQA website.
The online learning modules and the Assessor Practice Tool are available through Pūtake, NZQA’s learning management system, and can be accessed via the Education Sector Login.
NZQA may also be available to present at national conferences upon request from subject associations. At a regional or local level, online support may also be possible.
For further information or to request support, you can contact:
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