RSHS Newsletter - Term 1, Issue 4

KORERO FROM MIRANDA

Kia ora Rototuna e te Whānau,

It is exciting news that we will be moving back to our normal timetable next week, Monday 4 April, before the end of the term. We are all looking forward to seeing your students again as we continue to work towards quality outcomes together.

NZQA has confirmed our results for 2021. Last year we aimed to maintain high achievement levels while improving the quality of work that our young people were producing, working with our Year 13 Māori students and whānau to support students’ attainment at Level 3, and raising numeracy levels for our Year 11 students.

Patterns included:

• overall Level 3 results for NCEA and UE were above the national averages

• overall NCEA achievement has continued to improve at Level 2

• 86.6% of our students achieved NCEA Level 2 in Year 12, slightly exceeding decile 10 averages

• both NCEA Level 3 and UE attainment improved significantly for our Year 13 Māori learners and is now at and exceeding national averages

• numeracy (89.5%) and literacy levels (82%) have improved significantly for our Year 11 students.

Given the challenges of COVID in 2021 these achievements represent a huge shared effort from staff, students and families working together. Thank you for your continued support for the success of our young people.

There are always areas to improve. Our work ons for 2022 are:

- Improving the quality of work that our young people produce, with a focus on Year 13

- Increasing our UE attainment up to or exceeding 60%

- Working with our Year 11 and 12 Māori students towards quality outcomes

To improve quality, our teachers will be working with students to help them deepen the ways they are able to think about subject knowledge. To show deep thinking, our young people need to apply subject ideas and concepts to new situations and to make connections between these ideas and concepts in different ways. Deepening their thinking and applying this to improve their responses needs to happen before your student hands in their work for final grading.

To support our students' learning in Wānanga Ako we have been developing and will be introducing a system to share their progress with you. Progress indicators are based on the quality of evidence your student is producing as they participate in their courses. There is more information about what to expect later in this newsletter. Sharing your students’ learning in Puna Wānanga is equally important and we are continuing to develop ways of sharing this information with you. Details will be included in future newsletters.

I look forward to our continued work together.

Ngā mihi, best wishes and stay safe

Miranda