School sticks to its guns after meeting

Auckland Grammar School Principal John Morris in the school's main hall. Photo / Herald on Sunday

A meeting with Ministry of Education officials has not changed Auckland Grammar's plans to concentrate on Cambridge examinations instead of NCEA this year.

The school's headmaster, John Morris, met ministry staff yesterday after a week of debate about plans for most of the Year 11 students to sit Cambridge International examinations instead of NCEA.

Mr Morris said the officials wanted to know exactly what the school was doing and would return after reporting that information back to the ministry.

However, he said the meeting had not changed anything and around 90 per cent of the Year 11 students starting school next week would be using the Cambridge system.

The remainder, mostly students who weren't as strong in maths or English, would sit NCEA.

The ministry's principal adviser, Kevin Wilson, said the meeting was constructive.

"We learned more about the range of qualifications offered at the school. Officials will now carefully consider the information in order to provide feedback to the school in due course."

Grammar has faced criticism this week for its stance, with some groups saying the school was being elitist and undermining the country's national qualification, NCEA, by using the Cambridge system.

PPTA president Kate Gainsford went as far as to write to Education Minister Anne Tolley asking for the school's board to be sacked if the school did not revert to the NCEA examinations.

However, the minister appears unlikely to follow that advice, saying the important thing was that the school was offering both options.