Potaka Tama; Stanford EricaTAMA POTAKA (National—Hamilton West): I'm up to my attendance question now. Now Māori attendance at school—regular attendance at school—in term 4 2022 was 38 percent. In term 4 of 2022 38 percent of Māori kids went to school regularly. There have been some minor improvements since then but not enough in my view. Just what messages is the Minister giving to iwi and Māori leaders about how she will ensure there will be improvement in regular attendance by those young people?The final question in my triplicate is around establishment. So Māori are desperate for performance at school by schools that generate and facilitate outperformance by young Māori children. And the best outperforming school for university entrance with a majority of Māori students is a school known as Manukura in Palmerston North—a great school. Now the Manukura principals are taking up residence at a phenomenal school called St Stephen's School in Bombay. What is the Minister doing to give capital expenditure and operating expenditure support to the re-establishment of St Stephen's School in Bombay?ERICA STANFORD (National—East Coast Bays): Just staying with the healthy lunches theme I'm just wondering—I mean the Minister gave some really great anecdotal evidence of people that she had talked to on her visits which we all get. I'm interested in the evidence. What evidence does the Minister have since the start of the healthy lunch programmes as to increases in attendance increases in achievement of those students in school—actual data.CHAIRPERSON (Hon Jacqui Dean): Order! Order! Hon Jan Tinetti: We couldn't hear. Can you start again please?CHAIRPERSON (Hon Jacqui Dean): Thank you.ERICA STANFORD: My question was: what evidence and data does she have to support the healthy lunch programme in terms of achievement and attendance?Hon JAN TINETTI (Minister of Education): I will have to just get what's happening with St Stephen's. I remember reading some work about that but of course it comes under the Hon Kelvin Davis so I will have to look through that.Attendance is something that we've been aware of for quite some time—or Government I should say because this is the big we" here. We've been aware that attendance for Māori hasn't always been easy to encourage. I know that going back to mine again that when the attendance services were taken and made into bigger entities that that became even harder to establish those relationships and we know that establishing relationships is really really critically important with Māori and so we've been working with peak body groups in that area. I know that with the re-signing of contracts I think it's almost tripled the number of contracts that we have signed because we have made those attendance services closer to schools. What I will say is one-third of attendance services are being led by iwi. I do know that when I've visited—and I'm sure that the member has had the same experiences—different places around the motu where services in any of the education sector are being led by iwi we're seeing some really good results. That's why a number of those contracts—as I say one-third—have been signed over to iwi and I'm really looking forward to working with them further to have those results.The lunch programme—we have had three evaluations so far and they are all positive. We continue to refine the programme. Again I just want to connect the two questions there because some of the best examples that I have seen in the lunch programme have also been led by iwi. There's one in particular that really stands out for me and that is Victory Primary School in Nelson and the work that the iwi have done down there to lead that programme and the difference that it has made to young people's attendance and engagement in that particular school. Now they're not the only ones and that's what we're gathering through the evaluations to show whether it is making a difference or not. As the member who asked the question about attendance and engagement with the lunch programme knows I very much always say that I've always been an evidence-based practitioner and it's really important to me that evidence is collected and that we do see it. If we see that there are some anomalies I want to know why those anomalies exist and so that's been something that I've been really clear about. But some of the best engagement that we have seen and the best attendance that we have seen is because of the work that we've seen in those iwi-led lunch programmes but they're not the only ones. It seems to be also I will say where young people are having a voice and having agency in the delivery of those programmes as well. I think those of us and there are a few people in the House that I know have been educators across both sides of the Chamber here—we know that when there is learner agency we do tend to see better results and stronger results and that is something that I want to follow up with as well."