Ms Berry, or someone senior in her office, also instructed education directorate officials to "un-invite" other politicians who some schools or teachers had already invited to attend functions without her permission.

Documents released under freedom of information, originally to the ABC, show Ms Berry's move to un-invite other politicians from the events came after a long-running dispute she had with Speaker Joy Burch.

Ms Burch last year created a new Speaker's Civics and Citizenship Awards program for Canberra schoolchildren, which she said in a statement was supported by the Assembly's Administration and Procedure committee, as part of the Assembly's broader community education program.

Ms Burch kept presenting the awards at schools until at least October, despite a reprimand from Ms Berry in a letter sent in May last year. Ms Berry wrote it was 'unfortunate' Ms Burch had created the awards without her, or the directorate's, permission.

She also wrote that while Ms Burch had met with officials about the program, the directorate had not approved it, and given her advice the awards may be "problematic and of limited educational value" to students.

Emails sent by directorate staff also showed they were experiencing 'stress' over the dispute, with one saying they believed Ms Berry had contacted Ms Burch telling her to 'stand down'.

In all, Ms Burch said she attended 15 schools presenting the awards last year, seven of which were government schools and the remainder of which were non-government schools.

Ms Burch's attendance may have contravened an education directorate policy demanding the minister be invited before any other politicians or public figures, and others could only be invited with Ms Berry's permission.

But emails written by a senior education directorate official in late November pointed to bigger problems with the impending graduation season, including Ms Berry's delays and other politicians "inviting themselves to graduations".

In one email, the official wrote that "the minister's office does not respond to school requests in time for schools to make arrangements".

"We have had some graduation requests since September (and earlier) and the schools still have not received confirmation that the minister can attend, or advice on the other names they've put on their proposal," the email reads.

"They are at the point where they have to lock in their schedule, print programs etc and in desperation I think they go to the next name on the list."

The same email also shows Ms Berry's office told the directorate "to tell schools to 'un-invite' people and none of the team are comfortable with that when the school is not provided with an alternative".

Despite the decision in the ministerial office to "un-invite" other politicians, at some point in the four days after issuing the directive, Ms Berry's office decided against the move.

An email from the same senior official four days later said: "We won't be telling schools to un-invite people. [smiley face emoji] The minister's office has agreed this is not a good position to put schools in."

Instead of forcing schools to renege on the invitations, the email said the directorate would send schools the relevant protocols and "ask them to plan carefully for next year".

Ms Berry's spokeswoman did not explain why her office had originally asked directorate staff to tell schools to "un-invite" people from graduations

Ms Burch also said she appreciated the minister had "introduced a renewed policy to manage access to schools and that any new or changed policy will always involve a period of transition".

It is unclear when the new policy was introduced, or whether it differed from the previous one, as neither were publicly available on the directorate's website, and the directorate did not answer questions on the matter.

A directorate spokesman said the policy was in effect, had been discussed with officers and was "regularly shared with schools as a reminder of appropriate procedures".

Ms Berry's spokeswoman said all ministers held multiple portfolios and managed a significant number of requests and overlapping event proposals, and early invitations were held to co-ordinate allowing Ms Berry or a representative to attend, rather than "first in, best dressed".