No NCEA RAMP changes to sciences, minor changes to assessment activities for L2 Chemistry and L3 ESS

There are no RAMP changes to Achievement Standards in the sciences, however some minor changes to the assessment activities for L2 Chemistry and L3 ESS have been made. These will be available on NCEA.Review on Friday 11th September.

Kia ora koutou e kaiako mā,

Earlier this week, the NCEA Review team shared the following message with our collective:

Kia ora,

We are writing to let you know about the approaching publication of updates to NCEA Achievement Standards and supporting materials for use in 2027. 

The NCEA Review and Maintenance Programme (RAMP) for 2026 has resulted in no changes to Achievement Standards or supporting materials for your subject.

Please continue to use existing Achievement Standards and supporting materials for assessment in 2026 and 2027.

For other subjects where changes have been made as part of the 2026 NCEA Review and Maintenance Programme, updated supporting materials will be published from 11 September 2026 on NCEA.education. This will allow teachers and kaiako to engage with their subject materials during Term 4 and become familiar with any updates ahead of implementation in 2027.

Ngā mihi,

As our platforms aims to include news and developments for all science subjects, I sought to clarify if the original message covered:

• Level 1 Science, Physics and Earth & Space, Chemistry and Biology, Agriculture and Horticulture.

• Level 2 and Level 3 Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Earth and Space, Agriculture and Horticulture, and Education for Sustainability.

I am pleased that the NCEA Review team were able to respond promptly:

Kia ora Lian,

Thank you for your email.

There have been no RAMP changes to Achievement Standards for the subjects you have listed.

There have been some minor changes in the assessment activities for L2 Chemistry and Level 3 ESS.

For Chemistry, the following updates have been made for Level 2:

• Product: AS2.1A 91910 Internal Assessment Activity What's Changed: Amendment made to example in the Assessment Schedule to better align with expected responses at Excellence level.

For Earth and Space Science, the following updates have been made at Level 3:

• Product: AS3.6a 91415 Internal Assessment Activity

  What's Changed: Changes in the wording of the task to better support understanding of the Achievement Standard.
  

• Product: AS3.6b 91415 Internal Assessment Activity What's Changed: Changes in the wording of the task to better support understanding of the Achievement Standard.

These changes will be published on Friday as pdfs in the ‘NCEA Support’ tab of the NCEA | NCEA website. The pdfs are intended to support planning for 2027.

Note: the text in the boxes above have retained their original wording, but formatting (boldening and bullet pointing) has been added for clarity.

Ngā manaakitanga,

Lian Soh

Co-Director

info@bayscience.nz