Deputy Principal of Achievement

Stephen Tisch, Deputy Principal

SENIOR SCHOOL

A student’s National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) is an educational CV that highlights what they can do and how well they can do it. Given the time of the year and disruption caused by COVID-19 again, it is worthwhile to clarify the changes that have been put in place to help give students a fair opportunity to get their NCEA or University Entrance (UE) this year.

Changes to NCEA 2022:

• Learning Recognition Credits (LRCs) - one LRC for every five credits gained up to a maximum of 10 at Level 1 and 8 at Levels 2 and 3 • Certificate Endorsements - adjusted to 46 credits instead of the usual 50 • University Entrance (UE) - credit requirement for the third subject is amended so 14 + 14 + 12 (still need NCEA L3 and Literacy and Numeracy UE requirements) • Submission dates - some non-examination external assessment submission dates have been moved back one week to allow extra time

NCEA and Scholarship examinations will go ahead as planned, starting on 7 November.

Our tracking of our NCEA results reflects the disrupted year with a number of our indicators less than where we were this time last year. For example, Year 11 Numeracy is currently at 65% (versus 75% this time last year with a final result of 89.7%). Also, the average number of credits gained so far across the three NCEA levels is between 2 to 4 credits less than last year. Pleasingly, our Year 11 Literacy pass rate is currently at 89% which is the same as last year. We have identified students at risk of not achieving their NCEA based on their current pass rates and predictions and will be actively working with them. Our Academic Support Mentor, Mrs Stacey Shefferd, and Kaitiaki Matua Bobby Ketu will lead this work and, if necessary, offer additional learning opportunities to help those students achieve their NCEA goal.

JUNIOR SCHOOL

As indicated earlier in the year, we are supporting the Ministry of Education and NZQA to pilot the new foundational Literacy and Numeracy standards. The majority of our Year 10 cohort and some of our Year 9 students did the Reading, Writing and Numeracy pilot assessments.

Initial results are around a 70% pass rate for both Reading and Numeracy with Writing about 50%. Although these results are less than we want them to be, they are in line with national pass rates - which in itself is cause for concern. We are using the findings from the pilot assessments to inform our teaching and learning programmes moving forward. Being a part of the pilot also gives our students a head start in terms of preparing for the future changes to NCEA that will be implemented in 2024.