2020 NCEA Achievement

We would like to congratulate our Year 11, 12 and 13 students on their NCEA success last year.  The following is an outline of the students' success:

Level 3 Students gaining University Entrance

• Minette Cabbigat
• Shuntay Daniel
• Deklin Taumata
• Scarlett Motley
• Caitlin Garner
• Tuata Tunupopo
• Shontelle Wilson
• Meg Hamley
• Cora Hulme
• Olivia MacPherson
• Matthew Martin
• Kiana McLean

Overall certificate Endorsements:

Subject endorsements:

2020 NCEA Results commentary

As our results are released from NZQA and we get to see the initial picture of our students' success we are thankful for all the support our students received from parents, whanau and our teachers.  Thank you to everyone who had a part to play in this success.  We know it takes a village to raise children!

I have been thinking about results during the summer break, what they mean and how we can inadvertently put too much pressure on our students by using NCEA results as the sole measure of success.  It is fair that we need to have some system of measurement so students, employers and tertiary providers have a benchmark of success and achievement but I think we also need to look at the wider picture.

We are very proud that once a student is enrolled with us they immediately become part of our school whanau.  We accept them with all of their special learning abilities and needs, talents in sport and cultural activities and also with any gaps they have in their learning and achievement.  During 2020 we found we had a larger than usual number of senior (year 11, 12 and 13) students join our school whanau many of whom had little to no achievement.  Regardless of this we welcomed them and prepared individual plans for them to achieve and set goals with them for their future career pathways.

We were delighted to appoint Mr Jason Jowett as one of our Leadership team to specifically focus on the achievement of our senior students.  Jason was able to quickly analyse the results from the previous year and to also set some goals for endorsements and achievement rates.  He also led the team of teachers who were able to offer students a variety of ways they could achieve their NCEA certificates.  On top of this we changed the structure of the school timetable to allow students to have longer learning periods where deeper periods of learning could occur.  We also introduced Arataki where students could have one teacher who was tracking their learning, progress and goals across their entire subject range.  We learnt a lot and we also made some changes as the year progressed to make the new structures work the best they could for our students. We appointed Mr Aaron Mutua to the role of Principal’s Nominee which meant he worked closely with all of our Curriculum Leaders to ensure all NZQA processes were recorded to make sure all students' results were accurately reported.

We cannot talk about results without of course talking about COVID-19 and the lockdown we all experienced.  For some of our students they struggled to return after lockdown, some chose employment and others struggled with regularly attending.  We found there was some trauma suffered by our young people in all year levels as a result of COVID-19.  Many of our Year 13 students in 2020 unfortunately felt like they had missed out on many of the privileges they had worked hard to gain in Year 13. During our time away from school some students struggled with online learning and missed assessments despite our very lenient approach to assessment over this time.

Our results include all the students who have attended Forest View High School for 70 days, even if they left on day 71 they are counted in our results.  Our initial results also include students who need a small number of credits to achieve endorsements or the level of NCEA they are working towards which they will work on during the first two weeks of school.

Things I would like you to consider when looking at our results are:

• We have a number of students who are on a two year programme to gain NCEA Level 1.  
  This is a deliberate choice based on their learning needs.
  These students will be reported in our statistics as not achieving, this is only painting part of the picture as they met the goals we had set for them.

• Students are all on an individual learning plan, if they need University Entrance or think they may need it in the future this is part of their plan and
  we strive for them to achieve this. Naturally this means not all students will gain University Entrance as it is not appropriate for their future plans.
  This will be reflected in our UE results.

• Some students will gain Level 2 as their highest qualification and leave at the end of Year 12 or part way through Year 13 when an employment opportunity comes up.  
  We work tirelessly to help find our young people apprenticeships and employment.
  Leaving part way through a year affects achievement statistics but students being employed is much more important to us.

• NCEA results do not consider the progress a student with mental health issues may have made in a number of areas other than achievement in classes.  
  Their achievement could be increasing their attendance from 1 day a week to 3 days a week.
  It could also mean they have decided to engage in counselling which may not translate into NCEA results but will make a difference for their life long term.

• We know that being a teenager can be a difficult time as students' brains quite literally regrow but also as they find out who they are and make choices which
  impact their future. Sometimes teenagers make bad choices but instead of giving up on them our intention is to provide opportunities to continue working
  alongside them.  It means during parts of their journey achievement may not be their sole focus, practicing making better choices may be the main goal.

In saying all of this, we are very proud of our students' successes!  In NCEA terms we have gained more endorsements than 2019 and we have increased our overall NCEA achievement percentages.  We are very proud of our students who have gained Vocational Pathways awards which are equivalent to an endorsement but in a Trades based pathway.

I urge you as families to think deeper than simply looking at numbers without thinking about the complexities our teenagers face on a daily basis.  Continue to encourage them in their learning journey, even if the results are not what you or they were expecting.

We look forward to the work we will do with all of our students again this year and look forward to introducing our Year 11 students to NCEA.

If you need our help to engage your student in learning in the senior school, you don't understand the results or how to help your student please reach out to their Arataki teacher who will be only too happy to help.

Joss Hale - Principal