Furious parents in an upmarket city suburb are digging deep for what could be the country's most expensive school PE tops.

The scrapping of nearly one million book loans to schools each year will let down students who are not prepared for digital alternatives, the Labour Party says.

Education Minister Hekia Parata has released figures for the first time showing iwi by iwi how Maori children do in early childhood education, primary school and NCEA.

Schools' latest stationery demands are making some parents mad enough to cry - especially the discovery that tissues are now listed among their children's essentials.

Settling into a routine as soon as possible is one of the best ways to give your child a good start to school, a leading principal says.

Auckland is a great place - but it can be even better. In the second of our five-part Future Auckland series we aim to stimulate debate. Teuila Fuatai reports.

If teachers were unpaid, they would be reluctant to do the job and, in the end, children would be worse off, writes Jamie Whyte. Yet the same goes for those who supply the capital.

Some teachers need to get over their victim mentality and recognise the benefit of cutting their holiday time, a leading principal says.

The Government has signed up the first schools to take part in its flagship education scheme. One union says relatively low interest shows teachers and parents are not on board.

Getting the Government's Investing in Educational Success programme running in relatively quick order was never going to be easy. The concept was bound to be opposed by some.

An Auckland primary school has been closed by the Ministry of Health after a number of pupils and staff came down with a vomiting bug.

Fewer children starting school can speak in sentences, prompting an investigation by education chiefs.

Luxurious holidays in the south of France or Rarotonga and an internship in New York are among the prizes on offer at an extravagant school fundraiser.

Schools are being made to re-enrol students they had kicked out for bad behaviour including carrying weapons, physical assaults and drug use.

Her own boy has done okay - but over a 35-year teaching career Margaret McCaw has helped in the development of hundreds of other children.

The number of young school children achieving or bettering the national standard in reading has fallen or flat-lined in half of the country's regions.

New Zealanders would rather money was spent on improving teaching standards than on reducing class sizes, a Herald-DigiPoll survey reveals.

Labour will fund an extra 2000 teachers under its policy to reduce primary class sizes to 26 students by 2016 - a step expected to cost $350m over the next three years.

Labour's new teaching policies are response to National's proposal to pay good teachers and principals more and require them to work with others.

Labour wants to end "voluntary" school donations by offering a grants of $100 per student to schools that stop asking parents to fund "day to day" spending.

Act's education policy of allowing schools to opt into a charter school format has prompted an education union to urge National to steer clear of any coalition partnership deals.

Ghetto kid turned presidential hopeful Ben Carson is in New Zealand to help celebrate as the Duffy Books in Homes scheme turns 20.