Maths Professional Learning and Development Maths Professional Learning and Development

Professional learning & development (PLD) to support the implementation of the revised Mathematics and Statistics Learning Area for years 0 – 8 of the NZ Curriculum is being made available nation-wide from 2025. Facilitators will be available to come to a school, or group of schools, to deliver PLD. An online option is also available.

The aim of the maths PLD is to provide teachers with:

• a good understanding of the teaching sequence to be taught across phases 1-3 (years 0-8).
• a good working understanding of the knowledge, practices and processes of the Mathematics and Statistics learning area.
• a good understanding of the Science of Learning in relation to mathematics and statistics and the ability to use it to inform their teaching.
• a good understanding of the teaching guidance in the Mathematics and Statistics Learning Area.
• the ability to plan for maths successfully, incorporating a quality hour a day of maths. This includes annual, unit, weekly and individual lesson planning.
• increased knowledge of quality formative assessment practices that inform daily teaching.

Maths PLD will be delivered via a country-wide pool of facilitators selected and trained by the Ministry. The Ministry will assign facilitators to the requests received by schools based on facilitator availability and location. All facilitators will deliver the PLD using consistent approaches and materials.

Engagement with maths facilitators will depend on the mode of PLD delivery:

In-person PLD

Facilitators will visit schools or clusters of schools to deliver the PLD; the venue will be one of the schools receiving the PLD.

Online PLD

Schools will engage with the online video content for the relevant PLD day, followed by two two-hour online sessions with a maths facilitator. There will be three time slot options for the two-hour sessions:

• 9am – 11am
• 1pm – 3pm
• 4pm – 6pm

Videos for online maths PLD will be made available to schools once they have requested the PLD and have been assigned a facilitator.

Maths PLD is available for years 0 - 8 staff in state and state-integrated schools. This includes:

• School leaders
• Teachers
• Staff employed on a Limited Authority to Teach (LAT)
• Teacher aides
• Resource teachers
• Relievers

A minimum of 20 people is required to request PLD. Schools are encouraged to request PLD as a cluster or kāhui ako, to access the training. 

Small and rural schools may not be able to assemble 20 teachers, even if clustering – these schools or clusters can still request PLD; the Ministry will discuss these requests directly with the school.

Teacher release time and travel costs are not funded for this PLD.

Requests for PLD are submitted through the online request system – see “Submitting a request via the online system” below.

A request can be submitted for one maths PLD day at a time which will allow for customization of each day (e.g. for clustering and delivery mode), and multiple requests can be submitted. For example, a kāhui ako of 200 teachers might wish to request 10 days of Day 1 PLD if they can only release 20 teachers at a time.

The Ministry will endeavour to make facilitators available for schools’ first choice of days for this PLD. Scheduling is subject to facilitator availability and the Ministry will contact schools to discuss alternative dates if needed.

One school will submit a PLD request on behalf of a kāhui ako or cluster of schools.

The number of attendees by each phase of learning will be required in order to complete and submit the PLD request. To gather this information from all the schools in a group, the below template can be used to circulate to each school to collate this information:

Maths PLD will be accessible between 20 January 2025 and the end of Term 4 2026.

The Ministry will finalise each school term’s PLD scheduling before the end of the previous term – PLD requests will need to be submitted by the end of week 5 of each term in order to request PLD dates in the following term.

Please note that any emails regarding the status or outcome of your application will be sent from an email address with the @Salesforce.com domain – please ensure you are checking your junk/spam email folders.

If you have questions about the PLD or about a PLD request, please contact Maths.PLD@education.govt.nz