When selecting a school in New Zealand, there are many things to look at. You probably first checked the price, the courses and location. But with so many schools to choose from which ones provide the quality you need?

The New Zealand government regularly checks all language schools in New Zealand, and publishes its reports on the NZQA website. This website can be a little confusing because it not only lists language schools but all education providers (such as the local music schools and dance studios).

To take an example, lets find one school listed on this website. Nelson English Centre is a great small school in sunny Nelson on the tip of New Zealands South Island. If you want to go off the beaten track this is a fantastic place to relax.

First enter the NZQA website here.

Then select “Nelson” , and in the list that follows you have to search for “Nelson English Centre” (use CTRL-F to quickly find it if the list becomes very long).

This should give you the Nelson English Centre school profile , as shown here.

On this page you will find the schools contact details, and at the bottom the two bits of most crucial information. First there is the school audit report. This should list in detail all that is good and bad about the school in plain English.

Secondly, it lists the schools Audit Cycle. Here it is three years, which means that the government only thinks its necessary to come by once every three years (the longest period). Newer schools, and schools that have previously failed inspection will have shorter inspection periods.