Catch Up College January Intensive

The decision to go ahead with our Catch Up College was made late in 2021 due to uncertainties of Covid and NZQA result-release timelines. While numbers were lower than in previous years, for the first time all the students who enrolled in our January Intensive completed their standards by the deadline. This 100% achievement rate is a reflection of the extraordinary efforts that Catch Up teachers – and students – put in at a challenging time of year. Congratulations to them and their ākonga.

I would like to acknowledge the significant mahi contributed by all staff involved in offering the January Intensive. For administrative staff there are the extra pressures and early start to the year. With Covid, NZQA again changed their reporting requirements for late results and, like many things, we had to run with a constantly evolving process. It is a programme that aligns strongly with the College vision – the work of admin staff and teachers is certainly appreciated.

We have now moved to our longer-term ‘through the year’ Catch Up, with individualised programmes designed around students’ course entry or qualification requirements. We have dedicated Catch Up classes in English and Mathematics running through the year, and beyond this we arrange where possible for students to join Senior College classes in the subjects that they require. If you have any queries or know of someone who may benefit from this, please contact transitionsteam@hagley.school.nz

Certificate in University Preparation – UC partnership programme

As you may recall, in September the university decided to discontinue the Hagley provision of TRNS001 for students enrolled in their full-time certificate. The change to the university teaching CUP in-house has come as part of wider changes to the University of Canterbury’s transitions and first-year approaches.

While Hagley will no longer deliver the Academic writing and study skills (TRNS001) course at UC as part of the CUP certificate, we are able to offer a semesterised Academic writing and study skills course at Hagley College with UC credit transfer for TRNS001. This means that students can opt to do this paper (TRNS001) with us and to complete the full certificate at UC at a later date. Hagley 001 students still have access to UC library resources and we will continue to use UC Learn as our online platform, giving an opportunity for students to gain the skills and familiarisation with university systems without having to use any of their tertiary fees-free entitlement or student loan. It is also an appealing option for some students to have a longer course (18 weeks in semester 1; 12 weeks in semester 2) given the university’s trial this year of teaching their CUP courses as six-week intensive courses.

We continue to work closely with the university to offer Catch Up College, TRNS001, 13EPS and Fast Path courses. 13EPS, our semesterised Numeracy for Uni: Engineering and Physical Sciences class, gives students an opportunity to build maths skills that lead on to TRNS007 Introduction to Mathematics in CUP.

University Group

Tertiary Pathways staff are joining with Careers and Diversity staff in our Transitions Collaborative. Continuing to build on the last two years’ experience, we are again offering and developing our University Group for students intending to study at university.

Our lunchtime meetings will start next Thursday, 10th March, in the Careers Room, and will be held every second week. Students who are keen to be involved in this group should come along on Thursday or contact Kim Swann, and keep an eye out for the Teams site which will be launching in the next few weeks. In the current context we realise that having an online space for discussions and resources could be helpful as well, so we are developing a Teams space. While many of the resources and discussions are targeting Year 12 and 13 students, the Team will be open to students at all levels of study.