What records are held by schools?

Examples of types of records

Student files are records about individual students

Examples of student files include: 

• test results, internal assessment grades and external exam results
• parental consent and requests
• school reports. 

If a student transfers to another school, their student file is also transferred to the new school.

Records of school major events and milestones 

Schools can transfer records of school sports tournaments, awards and other milestones, to Archives New Zealand once the records are no longer needed by the school. 

Health and Safety records about serious injuries 

Schools must keep registers of serious injuries for at least ten years. After this the records can be sent to Archives New Zealand. 

Board of Trustee (school board) records about complaints and discipline 

Schools must keep their Board communications relating to minor complaints and discipline matters (about students and staff) for at least seven years. After this the records can be destroyed with permission from the Board.

Schools must keep Board communications about serious complaints (for example, complaints about bullying). 

Residential special schools and school hostels 

This includes: 

• records and logbooks for night duty
• records and logbooks for day duty
• incident books. 

These must be kept for at least ten years. After this, they can be transferred to Archives New Zealand.