Westlake Boys' High School on Auckland's North Shore established its own programme called 'Elevate' when it walked away from level 1. Photo: Google Maps
As the government mulls what it is going to do about NCEA level 1, a school that dropped it two years ago has no regrets.
Education Minister Erica Stanford is promising an announcement shortly about the future of the secondary school qualification.
Westlake Boys' High School on Auckland's North Shore established its own programme called 'Elevate' when it walked away from level 1.
"We felt that having our own course meant that we could keep the students longer, headmaster Paul Fordham told Morning Report.
"We had situations where students were studying NCEA level 1 and when they left for their external examinations, only had one or two exams to sit across a three-or four-week period, which meant they were they were missing out an opportunity to engage with their learning."
He said the results from its own programme had been "overwhelmingly positive so far" with good feedback from teachers and families.
"It's still quite early on - we don't necessarily have the historical data to support how things are going academically, but the signs are positive across year 12 and 13 that the students have prepared well for level 2 and 3 NCEA."
Some changes had to happen with the qualification, he said, but it needn't be "baby out with the bathwater".
NCEA had good elements, such as a broad curriculum that gave students a chance to develop skills in lots of different areas, he said.
However teachers marking their own students' work wasn't rigourous, or consistent across the country, he said.
It's about consistency and and having a universal standard for the whole country.
"Ensuring that the value of external examinations at the end of the year is high, and that the way in which we structure the programme to have increased weighting on those will be a positive change.
Education Minister Erica Stanford Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii
The first place to look would be at the best examples of top-performing schools and how they were serving their students, Fordham said.
Stanford said on Monday the announcement on NCEA, planned in the next weeks, followed an the Education Review Office report the previous government's rollout of NCEA level 1.
"Because we do not want to repeat the mistakes of the past and we know we need good implementation time frames, good professional learning development and great resources.
"We are very focused on making sure that those things happen."
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