Dear Ministry of Education,

I request under the Official Information Act all documents and records relating to the apparent reorganisation or removal of curriculum subjects that address food, nutrition, and wellbeing - specifically changes affecting Food and Nutrition (Health Studies, Year 11), Home Economics (Year 12/13), and Food Technology (Technology learning area).

This request seeks to clarify whether and how nutrition, wellbeing, and practical food preparation learning will continue to be provided under the new senior secondary subject structure (as posted at https://tahurangi.education.govt.nz/seni...) and the decision-making behind these changes.

Accordingly, I request the following information:

1. Decision-making records - any Cabinet papers, Ministerial decisions, memoranda, or approvals that considered, recommended, or confirmed changes to Food and Nutrition, Home Economics, and Food Technology, including whether they would be removed, merged, or replaced.

2. Policy and analysis - Ministry briefing papers, impact analyses, options, and any other advice, including but not limited to those addressing:
- how food/nutrition content will be delivered under the new structure;
- rationale for not listing a subject explicitly focused on food and/or nutrition under Health & PE;
- anticipated impacts on student health, wellbeing, and learning outcomes;
- whether practical food preparation learning will continue in any subject, other than Hospitality;
- anticipated workforce impacts - including redeployment, job losses, or attrition of specialist teachers due to 'their subject' no longer being offered.

3. Consultation - materials, submissions, feedback, engagement notes, summary reports, surveys/data collected from schools, teachers, and subject associations, health/nutrition experts, parents, students, iwi, or other community stakeholders, or records of any meetings where these changes were discussed; including details of the type of stakeholder where available.

4. Comparative materials - any working documents mapping the current subject content (Food and Nutrition, Home Economics, Food Technology) to the proposed/replacement subjects, showing how content will be retained, merged, or omitted.

If portions of this request are likely to be refused for reasons of substantial collation, I am happy to discuss narrowing the scope or receiving information in stages.

I understand that some parts of my request may relate to detailed materials that are still under development (for example, detailed subject content and course design). For clarity, I am requesting information that has informed the confirmed list of 'Years 11-13 subjects for the National Curriculum', as published on 11 September 2025 - including decision-making, analysis, consultation, and planning carried out to date. If any part of my request cannot be answered for this reason, please confirm this explicitly in your response.

If any material is withheld for other reasons, please state the grounds for withholding with reference to the relevant section of the OIA, and release all reasonably separable material.

Yours faithfully,

H Patel