Kāhui Ako | Communities of Learning
Achievement Challenge reports

Kāhui Ako | Communities of Learning were disestablished on 28 January 2026.

Achievement challenges were shared goals identified and developed by a Kāhui Ako based on the needs of its learners.

Click through the filters below or enter search terms to find the achievement challenge report for a specific Kāhui Ako. Further information about achievement challenges can be found under About Kāhui Ako.

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About Kāhui Ako

Kāhui Ako set between 3-5 achievement challenges. These were related to, or derived from, the National Curricula and could include preconditions necessary for achievement such as wellbeing/hauora and student engagement.

Achievement challenges focused on the things that the Kāhui Ako considered would make the most significant difference to all the children and young people and help them to achieve the outcomes in the New Zealand Curriculum and Te Marautanga o Aotearoa

Identifying achievement challenges

Kāhui Ako identified achievement challenges that were a priority for their community. Achievement challenges were common to all or most of the schools within a community, but may have been apparent in different ways in different schools along the learning pathway.

The following questions were helpful starters.

  • What is our vision of success for our students?
  • What are the common challenges across our Community of Learning?
  • What do we know about possible reasons for these challenges and how do we know?
  • What support will be needed and what resources are available to help?

Understanding links and reasons for the challenges helped define the achievement challenges and setting out goals and objectives towards addressing them.

Endorsement of achievement challenges

Once the achievement challenges were identified and a high level plan for addressing them was developed, the boards of each of the schools agreed to them and signed a memo of understanding. Staff members, parents, family and whānau were involved in the achievement challenge process.

Achievement challenges needed to show:

  1. The evidence for why each challenge was chosen. That is, the inquiry process that led to identifying the learning need, and how this related to the outcomes sought in the NZ Curriculum/Te Marautanga.
  2. The story about what would happen to make progress against each challenge. That is, the high level plan of the actions to be undertaken to make progress against each challenge.
  3. How it would be known that progress was being made against each challenge. That is, the data collected to establish the current state; the assessment tools used to measure progress.

The below documents provided guidance for Kāhui Ako to identify achievement challenges.

Completed achievement challenges were submitted to the Director of Education for endorsement. Endorsement enabled a Community of Learning to access the full range of resources available to them to support the important job of tackling the challenges.

Refreshing achievement challenges

Achievement challenges and action plans were living documents and were intended to evolve and grow with the Community of Learning.

Kāhui Ako were expected to formally refresh their achievement challenges and high level plan when their original plan ‘expired' or if the Kāhui Ako decided to make significant changes to their achievement challenges and high level plan (for example changing a focus area). A formal review or refresh was an opportunity to reflect on progress so far, evaluate the evidence in light of the work a Kāhui Ako had been doing and refine the approach as required.

If one or more achievement challenges were changed it was recommended that a summary of the actions taken to address each challenge, the progress made, and the rationale for why the focus was changed was included. Ideally, this again included a consultation process so that the voices of key people could be considered as part of the process.

Guidance was developed to help Kāhui Ako review and refresh their achievement challenges.

When achievement challenges were refreshed, a copy was sent to their local Ministry Advisor for review and approval by the Director of Education. Once approved, the original achievement challenge was replaced with the refreshed version.

All Kāhui Ako were able remove National Standards and Ngā Whanaketanga Rumaki Māori from their achievement challenges if they wanted to do so in a formal refresh.