Bay schools do well in NCEA results

MANDY SMITH
Nearly every Hawke's Bay secondary school achieved higher marks in NCEA than the national average and most improved on the previous year's results.
Those that did not, blame transient school populations and a buoyant economy enticing pupils into the workforce, not the NCEA qualification, for pupils failing to complete their studies.
National results, published last week by the Qualifications Authority, show Hawke's Bay pupils made achievement gains across all year levels and genders.
The most outstanding results went to Iona College, Woodford House, Lindisfarne College and St Joseph's Maori Girls College, with all colleges achieving well above their national and decile averages for levels one, two and three.
Iona College principal Gillian Melville said she was pleased with the school's performance, which she attributed to goal-setting.
"If the focus is on learning and getting pupils engaged in that then the appropriate achievements will follow."
Hastings Boys' High School principal Rob Sturch said, by his calculations, the school had done extremely well, topping Hawke's Bay state schools at level two, and coming second at level one.
Level three results fell short of the national average, which he attributed to its relative difficulty. "We have an ongoing process of goal-setting in all departments to get boys up to the mark," he said.
"Our targeted goal this year is to get level three equal to level two and level one."
However, some schools failed to get even a third of their pupils achieving NCEA at the appropriate level.
Flaxmere College pupils achieved well below the national average at all levels.
Principal Nigel Hanton said that was partly due to a transient school population - many pupils had parents who travelled for seasonal work, making it difficult to maintain learning.
But he was pleased with the number of pupils achieving NCEA level one, which had quadrupled since 2005, and expected a further 50 percent of pupils to achieve last year's NCEA levels by term two of this year.
"Although its not where we want to be, there's been a significant shift," Mr Hanton said.
To lift results, the school had changed its delivery of NCEA, allowing pupils to sit half-year instead of full-year courses.
"It's credit-rich and gives them the opportunity to try a whole lot of things," he said.
"We are also strengthening the employment strand in our curriculum, to recognise the fact that many students in the school are not choosing tertiary study after college, but rather are readying themselves for the workforce."
William Colenso College was one of the few schools in the region that did not improve its performance on 2005.
Principal Mark Cleary said he was pleased with the school's performance at levels one and two, even though it was below the national average.
The school's high retention rate counted against it, he said.
"If you have a low retention rate to Year 13, say a quarter, they will be the top-performing cohort so it looks like an 80 percent pass rate.
"If we had the same retention rate as other decile two schools, our level three results would look good." Due to a buoyant economy, many pupils left school during Year 13 to pursue work.
Others prepared for work using vocationally orientated, credit-poor subjects.
The school was making better use of its STAR and Gateway programmes, and increasing communication between pupils, their tutors and home, to improve results, he said.
Mr Cleary was a firm believer in NCEA, saying it was a "good qualification" that parents and the public should have faith in.
"New Zealand should be focusing on the students not doing well but, unfortunately, the main debate is about NCEA and its alternatives."
Hukarere Girls' College reported pass rates above the national average at levels one and two but the figure fell to just 6 percent at level three, prompting some serious soul-searching by principal Heather Moller.
"We are very disappointed," she said. "It's a huge drop from last year, and a reflection of the calibre of students we get from year to year, the subjects they took, and what counted towards NCEA level three."
The school was offering its pupils more subjects at senior levels to improve pass rates and meet pupils' learning needs.
"Okay so we didn't go so well last year, but this year we'll look at what happened so that we're more successful."