I have had a number of people asking about whether the Ministry of Education will move the school holidays in light of the recent Covid interruption.

This is a message that came through in a MOE bulletin late last week. I think it is highly unlikely.

From Iona Holsted, Sec of Education

There’s been lots of interest in whether the school holidays will be moved as they were in early 2020.

The situation is a little different this time around. In March 2020, as we prepared to go in Alert Level 3 and then quickly into Alert Level 4, the Government agreed to bring the Term 1 school holidays forward two weeks to ease the impact of alert level changes on parents and whānau.

We’re not planning to do the same this year for a variety of reasons. Moving term dates presents challenges and we need to consider the wider and longer-term impact of doing this at this time of year. NCEA is an important consideration – there have already been changes made to external assessment dates based on current term dates. We also know many families already have plans in place, such as childcare options, for the October holidays.

But never say never. As we know, with COVID-19 things can change quickly and Minister Hipkins has advised that he’ll be keeping an eye on the situation and, though we don’t expect to move the school holidays, he hasn’t completely ruled it out.