New Zealand Science Curriculum Years 1-10 | Now Available

The updated New Zealand Science Curriculum for Years 1-10 is now published on Tāhūrangi

Schools and kura are expected to start using the new Science curriculum from 2027.

The New Zealand Science Curriculum for Years 1-10 is now published on Tāhūrangi in pdf with full HTML webpages to be made available later in the year.

See the Science Curriculum Here

"What you told us and how we responded" reports

"What you told us and how we responded" reports are also available at the bottom of the page. These summarise the feedback received by the Ministry of Education during the consultation period and how the ministry has responded.

Bay Science's approach of bringing together the collective expertise of educators during the consultation process for Phases 1-4 and Phase 5 included c.a 50 educators from around the motu and resulted in over 2000 annotations and more than 700 A3 pages of detailed feedback. We are interested to know, from readers and from contributors to our collated feedback, whether they believe that the recorded annotations/comments have been genuinely incorporated - as annotations are indexed, this provides a clear reference point for all readers.

     When do we have to implement the new science curriculum and, is there a transition period?

This part gets messy. You'll be aware that our super-timeline, which has been continuously updating based on a range of Tāhūrangi posts, says that the new curriculum will need to be used from January 1 2027 -- this would also be consistent with the landing page of the August 12 2026 Science Curriculum (screenshot below... and no, as of 18/08/2026 you're not imagining it... there is an incorrectly placed full stop in place of a comma).

You might have also noticed that within the August 12 2026 Science Curriculum there are also transition arrangements on Page 2 (screenshot below):

At this stage, we aren't sure who qualifies for this arrangement, or how it will look if NZC07 for Years 0-10 is going to be revoked by the end of this year (2026).

     Where can I find a copy of the October 2025 draft materials?

Draft materials for Phase 1-4, which was released during October 2025, can be found here.

     What can I do next?

Various educator associations have scheduled webinars and events to support kaiako. As more become available, we will share these via our weekly national newsletter.

• Webinar: New Zealand Association of Environmental Education (NZAEE) NZAEE have a webinar on Thursday, August 27th from 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm to unpack the final Year 1-10 Science and Social Sciences curriculum.

• Webinar: Bay Science (BSc), Aotearoa Educators Collective (AEC) and esteemed guest(s) Immediately follow the NZAEE webinar, Bay Science is supporting another Afterschool Special: Analysis of the NZC Science Phase 1-4 Curriculum.
  

• Survey: Post Primary Teachers' Association (PPTA) Members are reminded to check their inboxes (August 5 2026) for the latest Curriculum Pulse-Check survey. This closes at 10:00 am on Wednesday August 19 2026.
  

• Cluster Meeting and PLD: Bay Science Cluster No. 3 will take place during Term 4. In the meantime, digital materials are being developed as part of our national reach. We will endeavour to secure a time and venue before the end of Term 3, as we recognise that secondary kaiako will need advance notice attain PLD release for Term 4 events due to internal-relieving constraints.
  

• Survey: Bay Science As Bay Science looks to support our membership we are interested in your thoughts. Share them here. Thank you in advance for sharing your whakaaro, as this helps guide the future direction of our association.

     What else should I be aware of?

Earlier this month, two educator associations had published statements regarding the pace and direction of the curriculum rollout. Findings from a 2025 NZCER survey, which captured sentiments from teachers, were also published.

• NZEI published a press release welcoming the Waitangi Tribunal's direction to defer the releasing of all updated NZC and TMoA content. www.nzeiteriuroa.org.nz/about-us/media-releases/nzei-te-riu-roa-welcomes-waitangi-tribunal-direction-to-defer-curriculum-release
  

• Te Akatea, the New Zealand Māori Principal's Association, has also published a public statement endorsing urgent Memorandum-Directions issued by the Waitangi Tribunal "issuing a clear, uncompromising demand to Minister of Education Erica Stanford: Pause the release of the updated Years 0–10 national curriculum immediately" www.scoop.co.nz/stories/ED2608/S00013/te-akatea-strongly-endorses-waitangi-tribunal-direction-crown-must-pause-curriculum-reforms.htm
  

• The New Zealand Council of Education Research (NZCER) NZCER has published a report stating "Teachers had mixed views about the direction of curriculum change, but clear concerns about pace and engagement with the teaching profession". https://www.nzcer.org.nz/research/publications/secondary-teachers-perspectives-2025-national-survey-uiuinga-motu-o-nga-kura
  

     What about the 2023 Science Curriculum Draft?

Educators who have been following the science curriculum development process over the last five years will remember than an early draft-of-a-draft had sought to align the science curriculum development process with key ideas from the PISA 2025 Science Framework as well as its supporting document. A stocktake of the 2023 draft, as well as expert ideas gathered during a science education summit in 2024, has been documented here in the New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies.

International benchmarking We also wish to remind our readers that on September 8 2026 all results from PISA 2025 testing, of which Science was the major focus, will be released. Furthermore, the OECD in late 2025 had also released frameworks for Media and AI Literacy as well as Climate Literacy for 2029 -- the latter draws from the 2025 science framework i.e. readers may want to consider whether the final curriculum materials align with the direction set forward by the 2023 fast-testing drafts, and hence whether or not the final materials also allow Aotearoa New Zealand to meet the international benchmarking of PISA.

     Enquiries

If you have any pātai or whakaaro to share with us, we would love to listen. info@bayscience.nz or complete our survey here. We also want to acknowledge our educator colleagues who have been involved in the curriculum development process, and further acknowledge that the full extent of their expert contributions may not be fully represented in the updated materials which have been published due to a rushed process. Bay Science had, during the consultation period, suggested that more time be made available.