Students outperform national results

Western Bay students beat the national averages in three different NCEA certificate levels.

Western Bay students are achieving their high-school qualifications at higher rates than the national average.

Six Western Bay of Plenty colleges beat the national averages in all of the three different NCEA certificate levels last year.

Bethlehem College, Katikati College, Mount Maunganui College, Te Puke High School, Aquinas College and Te Wharekura O Mauao scored higher than average achievement rates.

Russell Gordon, Mount Maunganui College principal, said the school's trends were towards continuing growth across the school. "We've hit a stage now with our results where there's no looking back. We've hit a level that we know with the systems we have in place, this will be a continuous feat moving forward."

The school's NCEA Level 1 rates were slightly lower than last year's, and Level 2 and Level 3 rates slightly higher.

"The trend for us is consistently above the national average and I can't see that changing in the foreseeable future."

When a school had strong NCEA results, students saw this as the norm, Mr Gordon said.

Otumoetai College principal Dave Randell said he was pleased with his school's results.

"We've been working hard on getting our Level 2s up to national average. The whole country has a target of 85 per cent for Level 2 so we want to get as close to that as we can."

Mr Randell said schools had been asked to work on the disparity between Maori and non-Maori achievement rates and that had been a focus as well.

Lifting achievement rates for boys was also important and Mr Randell said scoring above the national standard was a good reflection for a co-ed school.

Western Bay students beat the national averages in three different NCEA certificate levels.

One of the biggest problems that affected achievement with Tauranga students was the high level of transience.

Te Puke High School principal Alan Liddle said his school's achievement rates for Levels 1, 2 and 3 were good. "We're really pleased with the results. Level 2 is outstanding at 94 per cent, which is a great pass rate. One highlight was 98 per cent of females achieving Level 1."

Mr Liddle said his results by ethnicity were also great, with 92.3 per cent of Year-12 Maori students achieving Level 2.

The Bay of Plenty Times was unable to get comment from other local colleges.