NCEA at Wā Ora

By Jan Gaffney –Principal

At the last Board meeting the Deputy Principal in charge of the high school, Ava, presented her report on the NCEA achievement of students from Wā Ora. Our thanks to Ava for a well prepared report, the gist of which follows.

The graphs and percentages don’t really mean a lot because of the low numbers of students we have in our high school but the great news was that all of our students passed the level they were sitting and those that needed to, gained university entrance as well. This can be seen in the following table (Wā Ora is a decile 8 school).

  Yr 11 NCEA L1 Yr 12 NCEA L2 Yr 13 NCEA L3 Yr 13 UE
National results 2015 85 88.1 82.5 63.0
Decile 8—10 schools, 2015 91.7 92.5 88.1 75.7
Wa Ora results 2015 100 100 100 100

To get into University, students need NCEA level 3 and university entrance. All of our Year 13 students who stayed until the end of the year gained both. One student left school half way through the year to attend a course at Open Polytech. This student left with NCEA level 2, the qualification the government has as its goal for all school leavers to attain.

It is wonderful to know that our students are achieving at the desired level and leaving school to follow the career path of their choice. That is, after all, what we want for them. Even better, is that our past students report that they are well prepared for life as a tertiary student, knowing how to manage their time, plan assignments, get work in, ask questions and seek help if needed.

These are the things they are learning from a very young age here which are consolidated through the college programme and, along with the ability to adapt to new situations and expectations and solve the problems that come their way, are the skills that are more likely to lead to a life well lived than academic results on their own.

Our school is always looking to see how we can do better and while, overall, results are looking great, there are areas to focus on in order to do even better. One of the areas we want to continue improving this year is external exam preparation. The Board of Trustees has also asked us to answer the question: are students meeting their potential? We will let you know our findings.