Kia ora koutou
When I arrived at school on Friday 21 February, our contractors for our music room refurbishment had already started to dissemble the scaffolding. The renovation of our music spaces has been going on since late last year but we were able to welcome our students into the new spaces on Tuesday 25 February much to the relief of our wonderfully patient and tolerant music teachers, Katherine Hodge and Steven Huckfield. We previously had one classroom, a band room and recording ‘booth’, with two practice rooms, a music ‘lab’ and a keyboard room (that was quite underused). The new fit out includes a second classroom (to meet our burgeoning roll), a band room, and 7 practice rooms of varying sizes. It’s amazing how much more we can get out of an existing space with a little rethink! I know our music teachers are very excited, and I noticed that all spaces were occupied by very excited groups of students playing a wonderfully eclectic mix of musical styles during my visit at lunchtime last week. This also means that many of the itinerant music programmes will begin for the year and it is really pleasing to know that approximately 150 students are enrolled in this programme.
The next piece of work we expect to be completed soon is our hall which is undergoing mostly external work to address spalling concrete. In a sense, having contractors undertaking major work onsite is a sign of what’s to come in the not too distant future with work expected on the first block of our masterplan likely to commence later this year. The first block will be built on part of the current car park so it will not interfere with operations in any classrooms but it will affect access for drop offs and pick ups. I will provide more information about this before the project commences.
The start of the new year is also a time to reflect on the NCEA results from our leaving cohort and our students who are graduating to year 13 this year. The National Certificate of Educational Achievement provides information about the achievements of all students but comparisons are generally made between a year cohort and the associated NCEA qualification – year 11 and NCEA level 1, year 12 and NCEA level 2, year 13 and NCEA level 3. Any students who have attended more than 70 calendar days during the year, are included in this comparison. This is quite simple in many schools but it can be quite complex in many others including our school.
That simple measure of comparing one’s achievement to the nominal year level and associated NCEA qualification includes, in our case, refugee students and immigrants, most of whom are learning English language, and ORS funded students (students with the highest learning support needs). In a cohort size of 286 students, we had 206 achieve the level 3 qualification – 72.0%. This can be compared to a national statistic of 68.7% and a school equity index group of 82.2%. The school equity index group is a group of schools who have a similar socio-economic profile to our school but that doesn’t mean that they are a similar school. Consider for a moment that we had 11 students in year 13 last year who were new to NZ and NCEA in 2024 and for whom the major focus was English Language learning with none of them attempting NCEA level 3 credits. In addition, we had seven ORS funded students who were nominally in year 13 with none of them attempting NCEA level 3 credits. That is a group of 18 students (representing 6.3% of their cohort) who shouldn’t really be counted under the current system but they are. An argument could be made that it is the same for every school but it’s not. We know that not all schools in Wellington, for example, provide space for ORS funded students.
We also know that in the group of students who did not achieve NCEA level 3, we had an additional six students who arrived at the start of the year with only two of those students achieving level 2 the year before. When we analyse our data further, we know of difficulties with physical and/or mental health that affected at least another 15 students with a further 13 students leaving part way through the year for employment or polytech courses.
This brings me to the matter of what success actually looks like because it’s not just the number 72 or 82.2 or 68.7. It is the individual stories of every student and we are very concerned with those stories. For our English language learners, the acquisition of English language is the next step on their personal pathway and they experience great success when they are able to start interacting in English and thinking, a little, in English. For our students who may be struggling with their mental or physical health, success may be earning some credits at NCEA level 1, 2 or 3 or it may be engaging a little more in their work than they have previously. It may be that they improve their attendance as they strive to meet the challenges of their respective diagnoses. For our new students who enrolled in 2024 (and there were 22 of them at year 13) perhaps success was more socially based, and we were a place where they were able to enjoy school, perhaps for the first time in their school journey.
And this is the concept of personal excellence, striving to be the best we can be. It’s one of our strategic priorities and we actively work to create a school where our students can be the best version of themselves. However, as I’ve stated above, that’s not necessarily captured in a single number.
Dominic Killalea
Principal