NCEA Report: Sir Edmund school making good progress

Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate acting principal Dr Peter Uys is delighted with the results of a mentoring programme for struggling students. Photo / Dean Purcell

After receiving some "very low" NCEA results in 2009, Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate staff decided it was time to take action.

They called a teachers-only day, targeted "at risk" students and worked on a mentoring plan - involving families - in a bid to improve learning and achievement levels.

A year on, the results clearly speak for themselves.

The percentage of Year 11 students passing Level 1 NCEA has reached a record high for the decile 1 school, as have the number of students gaining University Entrance - much to the delight of their teachers.

"When [the results] came through we were really celebrating the success of it. It was great to achieve that," said the senior school's acting principal Peter Uys.

"I think it was the highest ever for our Year 11s."

Dr Uys said the school was very concerned after discovering only a third of its Year 11 students had passed Level 1 in 2009.

Determined to lift achievement levels, staff targeted students who were struggling with literacy or numeracy.

They then considered the pathways the students were taking and, in partnership with their parents, worked with them and monitored their progress throughout the year.

Now 60 per cent of the Year 11, Level 1 students have passed.

"I think that was one of the things that led to quite a dramatic increase in the results," said Dr Uys.

"With our Year 11s sometimes it's hard for them to get the 80 credits in one year [that are needed to gain Level 1]. Eventually they do get it, but this time it was a great push to achieve that [in the first year]."

Work was also done with Year 12 and 13 students, helping them choose the right pathways with the correct standards to ensure they were on track for gaining Levels 2 and 3. As a result, pass rates improved for both years.

Nearly three quarters of the Year 13 students who sat Level 3 last year passed - something Dr Uys said was a great improvement from when NCEA first started about seven years ago and only 1.7 per cent passed.

Sixty-seven per cent of Year 12 students sitting Level 2 also passed last year.

The school also noticed a marked improvement on the number of Year 13 students gaining University Entrance, which last year reached 41 per cent.

Dr Uys said the fact that students came from low socio-economic communities shouldn't be a barrier to achieving. "I think people so often say we are coming from poor areas but I think there is so much richness in the area as far as so many things are concerned - [like] talent and ability. We must recognise the richness we have as decile one schools and utilise that."

The plan for this year is "very much the same again as last year" with a focus on identifying students who needed help and a special emphasis on improving student engagement levels.

"We want to improve again on our results as far as possible. I think NCEA is the best vehicle we have ever had to make sure our students in decile one are positively engaged and leave for the workforce qualified to the best of their abilities."