Our trial of the expanded PAT Tuhituhi | PAT Writing is here, and we'd like you to take part!
NZCER is looking for schools to test the PAT Tuhituhi Year 3 and 4 assessment with their teachers and students, which will happen during Weeks 8 and 9 of Term 1.
This is a paper-based writing assessment with tasks that cover four curriculum-aligned purposes for writing (recount, narrate, explain, persuade). Students create an extended written response to one of the four prompts, and teachers manually mark their students’ writing using the NZCER marking platform and new PAT Tuhituhi Year 3 and 4 writing rubric.
We are also looking for teachers who would like to participate in an exciting professional development opportunity in week 1 of the term 1 school holidays—teacher marking.
Teachers will attend remote (online) training on all of the below days to learn to use the new PAT Tuhituhi Year 3 and 4 assessment rubric and NZCER’s online marking platform.
- Tuesday 7th April (9am – 3pm)
- Wednesday 8th April (9am – 10:30am)
- Thursday 9th April (9am – 10:30am)
They will have the opportunity to mark writing from students across Aotearoa, learn about robust moderation and marking processes, and gain insight into the assessment development process and the types of writing created by Year 3 and 4 students from across Aotearoa.
If you’re interested in taking part in the trial (assessment and/or marking) please contact trialling@nzcer.org.nz by Friday, March 13th. Multiple teachers from the same school are welcome!
Did you know: Since its release in June, 2025 over 60,000 students have completed PAT Tuhituhi assessments? NZCER Is continuing its work on writing assessment with work on curriculum scoring alignment, developing the functionality for teachers to create their own prompts, and creating this new writing assessment for Years 3 and 4 students.
If you'd like to stay up to date with our assessments, you can sign up for our pānui here.