Dear Education Review Office,

Under the Official Information Act 1982, I request copies of the following information relating to the development of ERO's revised school reporting framework during 2025–2026.

1. Evidence and research supporting simplified or colour-coded reporting

Any research synthesis, evidence review, literature review, commissioned research, briefing paper, external research, internal evidence summary, or similar material relied upon in concluding that simplified, colour-coded, or judgement-based school reporting improves parent comprehension, accessibility, engagement, or decision-making.

This includes any material relied upon for statements that simplified or colour-coded reporting improves parent understanding of school reports or aligns with international practice.

2. Risks associated with public judgements and colour-coded reporting

Any final risk registers, issue logs, mitigation plans, risk summaries, assurance papers, governance papers, briefing papers, or similar documents relating to risks identified in connection with:

• the introduction of public judgement categories (including categories such as "Requires Improvement", "Taking Steps to Improve", "Embedded", or "Excelling"); and/or

• the use of colour-coded reporting within ERO's revised school reports.

This includes, but is not limited to, risks relating to:
• public interpretation of reports;
• school comparisons or league table effects;
• reputational impacts;
• stakeholder concerns;
• consistency of judgements; and
• implementation of the revised reporting framework.

This request is limited to final or substantive material used for decision-making, governance, assurance, or implementation purposes. I am not seeking routine administrative correspondence, meeting invitations, scheduling emails, or early drafting material.

Yours faithfully,

Phillip Fry

Dear Ministerials,

Thank you for your response to OIA-26-458.

I would appreciate some clarification regarding the second part of my request.

My request sought:

Any final risk registers, issue logs, mitigation plans, risk summaries, assurance papers, governance papers, briefing papers, or similar documents relating to risks identified in connection with the introduction of public judgement categories and/or the use of colour-coded reporting.

Your response refers me to your earlier response of 23 June 2026.

Having reviewed that response, I note that it addresses the Organisational Performance Committee papers. However, I am unclear whether ERO considered those papers to be the complete response to this part of my request, or whether any documents falling within the other categories I requested (such as risk registers, issue logs, mitigation plans, risk summaries, assurance papers, briefing papers, or similar documents) were identified.

Could you please clarify whether:

1) ERO identified any documents within those categories in addition to the Organisational Performance Committee papers; or

2) No such documents exist or are held by ERO.

I am simply seeking to understand whether the earlier response represented the complete response to that part of my request.

Yours sincerely,

Phillip Fry