EXTENSION OF NCEA LEARNING TIME

Kia ora koutou

At the risk of sounding cliche this year has been unprecedented due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I am incredibly proud of how we have come together as a kura and  community supporting each other, in and out of kura.   As you are aware, we lost several weeks of kanui ke te kanui class time during rahui noho in alert level 4.  This has had a significant impact on our students, particularly our Senior NCEA students.

NZQA REQUIREMENTS

The NZQA requirements to gain NCEA have been changed this year in recognition of “interrupted learning time”.  I have outlined the changes at the bottom of this panui. These changes will go some way to ensure students have a fair opportunity to achieve qualifications and awards despite the disruption to teaching, learning and assessment from COVID-19, while preserving the integrity of NCEA and UE.

HOW OUR KURA WILL SUPPORT OUR STUDENTS

We have also been considering how best we, as a kura, can support our NCEA learners.  In consultation with Leaders of Learning, we have decided to extend the learning time available  to support our NCEA students.  Senior students learning programmes will continue to run until 26th November 2020.  Learning opportunities will be varied from normal timetabled lessons, subject wananga and external provider workshops.

It simply does not make academic sense, in light of this year’s lost learning time, to have students  leave for summer “just short” of attaining their NCEA goal.  I thank you in advance for your support of this kaupapa.  It is imperative that our students have every chance of educational success.

He waka eke noa

NCEA changes are:

  • Students working towards an NCEA can gain additional credits, based on the number of credits they achieve during the 2020 school year. For every 5 credits a student achieves towards their NCEA through internal or external assessment, they can be awarded an additional 1 credit. Students at NCEA Level 1 are eligible for up to a maximum of 10 additional credits while those at Levels 2 or 3 are eligible for up to a maximum of 8 additional credits. These will be known as Learning Recognition (LR) credits.

 

  • Students will be awarded a certificate endorsement if they achieve 46 credits at Merit or Excellence level, rather than the usual 50. Students achieving 12 credits at Merit or Excellence level in a course – rather than 14 – will be awarded a course endorsement.

 

  • Current UE requirements have been reduced to 12 credits in three UE-approved subjects, from 14 credits in each of three approved subjects. Students still need to attain NCEA Level 3 and meet the literacy and numeracy requirement to be awarded University Entrance.

 

Noho ora mai rā, tātou tātou

 

Alec Solomon

TUMUAKI/PRINCIPAL