What 'As Regularly and As Well' Actually Means for NZ Homeschoolers

When New Zealand families research homeschool exemptions, they quickly run into the phrase that defines the entire legal standard: your child must be taught "as regularly and as well as in a registered school." It sounds deceptively simple. In practice, it is a standard that needs to be addressed clearly in the application, and gaps can lead the Ministry of Education to request revisions or decline an application.

This post explains precisely what the standard means, how it is measured, and what your application must demonstrate to satisfy it.

The Legal Foundation

Section 38 of the Education and Training Act 2020 grants the Secretary for Education the authority to exempt a child from enrolment at a registered school. The exemption is granted when the Secretary is satisfied that the child will be "taught at least as regularly and well as in a registered school."

Both halves of that phrase matter to the application.

"At least as regularly" refers to the frequency and rhythm of learning. "At least as well" refers to the quality and substance of the programme. An application should address both.

What "As Regularly As" Means in Practice

No particular daily schedule or fixed minimum number of hours is prescribed for home education. A proposed weekly or annual rhythm can show how learning will occur regularly, but it is evidence for the application rather than a fixed legal format.

What satisfies the regularity standard:

• A weekly timetable showing planned learning sessions across five days
• A narrative schedule describing the typical learning week (e.g., "Monday through Friday, learning activities run from 8:30am to 12:00pm, with afternoon sessions for projects and practical work three days per week")
• An annual plan that accounts for school holidays and explains how regular learning will be sustained across the year

What needs more explanation:

• A vague statement that you will "learn every day" without structure
• A plan that gives no credible account of how learning will occur regularly
• A child-led plan that does not explain how regular learning, annual goals, and records will be maintained

The Ministry is not looking for a carbon copy of school. An afternoon of hands-on science counts. A field trip with documented learning objectives counts. But the cumulative learning time needs to be demonstrably comparable.

What "As Well As" Means in Practice

This is where most applications require the most thought. "As well as" does not mean "using the same methods as school." It means that the outcomes — what your child learns and can demonstrate — are comparable in breadth and depth to what a registered school provides.

The New Zealand Curriculum (NZC) and Te Marautanga o Aotearoa are not legally mandated for home educators. The eight NZC areas are a useful reference point for explaining breadth:

• English
• Mathematics
• Science
• Technology
• Social Sciences
• The Arts
• Health and Physical Education
• Languages

Your application can show how these areas, as relevant to your programme, will be addressed at a level appropriate to your child's age and current stage. It does not need to look like a school timetable with discrete class periods for each subject. A unit study on ancient Rome might cover Social Sciences, English (writing and reading), Arts (architecture and sculpture), and Science (engineering and construction) simultaneously. The Ministry needs to be able to understand the programme's breadth, not see compartmentalised periods.

"As well as" also encompasses assessment and tracking. Schools use ongoing assessment to check that learning is progressing. Your application needs to describe how you will track progress and adjust your approach if your child is not advancing as expected. This does not require formal testing — narration, portfolio work, oral discussion, project outputs, and parent observation records all count.

The Combination: What Reviewers Look For

When a Ministry reviewer reads your application, they are checking whether both standards are addressed together. A technically sound programme paired with no account of its regular rhythm leaves regularity unexplained. A detailed schedule paired with no explanation of the programme's breadth leaves the "as well" standard unexplained.

The application needs to address:

Frequency: How will learning occur regularly? What does a typical week or annual rhythm look like?

Breadth: Which learning areas will be covered, and how does your approach address each of them?

Depth: What are the specific goals for this year? How will you know if your child has met them?

Flexibility with accountability: If you use a flexible schedule (e.g., seasonal learning, project-based blocks), how will you ensure the cumulative learning is equivalent?

A Practical Demonstration

Consider a family following a Charlotte Mason approach. Their application might include:

• A weekly narrative schedule: "Our learning days run Monday through Friday. Morning lessons (approximately 9am to 12pm) cover English through copywork, dictation, and reading aloud; Mathematics through daily practice; and Science or Nature Study through observation and journaling. Afternoons (approximately 1pm to 3pm) are used for Arts, handicrafts, and Social Sciences through living books and timeline work three days per week."

• An annual plan mapping each term to specific books, topics, and projects.

• A list of specific, measurable goals for the year: "By December 2026, [child's name] will be able to write a narration of 150–200 words from a living book passage with correct sentence structure and punctuation appropriate to their stage."

• A description of how progress will be tracked: "We will maintain a portfolio of written narrations, copywork samples, and nature journal entries. We will review goals at the end of each 10-week term and adjust our book choices or lesson frequency if progress is below expectation."

This addresses regularity through a proposed weekly rhythm, breadth (English, Mathematics, Science, Technology, Social Sciences, Arts, Health and Physical Education, and Languages), depth (specific goals), and accountability (portfolio review each term).

Unschooling and the Standard

Unschooling families face the most significant documentation challenge because the standard appears to conflict with the philosophy. Unschooling is a recognised approach; the key is explaining regular learning, annual goals, and records rather than replicating the school process.

A separate post addresses unschooling applications in full detail. The short version: if you are unschooling, explain how regular learning, annual goals, and records will be maintained, including how you will recognise and document learning as it occurs.

The Most Common Errors

Underselling structure. Many families who have rich, busy learning lives undersell their structure because they do not want to sound "school-at-home." Write what you actually do. If your child does four hours of structured learning five days a week, say so explicitly.

Ignoring specific learning areas. Use the eight NZC learning areas as a breadth check and explain where the relevant areas appear in your programme. Technology and Languages are easy to overlook.

Goals that are activities, not outcomes. "We will study the solar system" is an activity. "By the end of Term 2, [child] will be able to name and describe the eight planets and explain the difference between rotation and revolution" is an outcome. The Ministry wants to see that you know what mastery looks like.

No review mechanism. Your application must explain what you will do when things are not working. A brief statement — "We will review progress at the end of each term and adjust resources or lesson frequency as needed" — is sufficient, but it must be there.

The "as regularly and as well" standard is achievable for any family with a genuine, thoughtful approach to home education. The challenge is not meeting the standard — it is demonstrating clearly in writing that you meet it.

If you are preparing your NZ exemption application and want a structured framework for putting all of this together — including goal-setting templates, timetable formats, and a topic plan structure — the New Zealand Legal Withdrawal Blueprint walks through the full documentation process step by step.

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