Kia ora koutou

We have very quickly reached the middle of the first term of the year. This is a time when we analyse data from last year’s cohorts, look at trends, draw conclusions and plan for the current year.

One of those pieces of data is our NCEA achievement. For the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) 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. 

In 2025, Level 3 NCEA was achieved by 242 out of 313 students - 77.3% of the cohort. This compared favourably to the national average of 70.4% but a little below the school equity index group (EQI) average of 83.1%. The EQI is a socio-economic measure that replaced the decile system, but performs a similar function, putting schools into groups with other schools with similar socio-economic ‘barriers’. A favourable comparison with the EQI group, would have needed another 18 students to achieve the level 3 qualification, or 22 less ‘eligible’ students. It is worth noting that the other side of the school’s achievement, the 22.7% that didn’t achieve level 3 includes nine ORS funded students (students with the highest learning needs), and six intensive English language learners, none of whom achieved any level of NCEA. In other words, there were 15 students who weren’t really eligible in terms of the statistics which makes our achievement far more favourable in terms of the EQI grouping.

At level 2 NCEA in 2025, 249 out of 323 students achieved the qualification (77.1%). This compared favourably with the national result of 72.7% but not as favourably with the EQI grouping of 83.7%. A favourable comparison with the EQI group would have needed another 21 students to achieve the Level 2 qualification, or 26 less ‘eligible’ students. This data includes two ORS funded students, three very high special needs, and 13 intensive English language learners, none of whom achieved any level of NCEA. In other words, there were 18 students who weren’t really eligible in terms of the statistic which again makes our achievement far more favourable in terms of the EQI grouping.

In terms of attendance, the emphasis given to this by the current government has probably been a factor in improving attendance across the school. The average attendance of the whole school in 2025 was 88.7% compared to 85.5% in 2024, an improvement of 3.2 percentage points. I have recently spoken to our current year 12 and 13 students about the link between attendance and achievement. Last year at year 13, students who attended more than 80% of the time had an achievement rate of 88.4% while students who attended less than 80% had an achievement rate of 58.8%. At year 12 the difference was more stark. Those who attended more than 80% of the time had an achievement rate of 86.9% while students who attended less than 80% had an achievement rate of 42.7%.

Another interesting piece of data is the relationship between students who participate in sports, clubs, cultural activities and their achievement at NCEA. Last year at year 13, students who achieved the level 3 qualification with Excellence were also, on average, participating in 3.7 sports/clubs/cultural activities - call these ‘groups’. There is a sliding scale associated with this statistic so that those who achieved their level 3 with Merit were, on average, a part of 2.5 groups, those who ‘achieved’ the level 3 qualification were part of 2.1 groups and those who didn’t achieve the qualification, were only a part of 0.7 groups, on average. The data was very similar at year 12 last year with those numbers being 2.6 (E), 2.2 (M), 1.1 (A), and 0.3 (N).

There are learnings and challenges in those statistics. Firstly, it’s pretty obvious that students give themselves the best chance of doing well at NCEA if they are attending well. Secondly, if students are participating in sports or clubs or cultural activities, they give themselves a better chance of achieving qualifications. I am aware that I am suggesting causality here and I need to be careful with that sort of statement. I am not suggesting that if a student signs up to play football, that they will have academic success. My hypothesis, if you like, is that when students are involved in some sort of activity outside of their normal class activity (sport/clubs/cultural), they form connections with other students through their participation. This creates a commitment to those other students and a greater desire to be at school, which strengthens their attendance at school, which, in turn, gives them a better chance at performing well on NCEA qualifications. I spent some time last weekend with our dragonboating teams who both performed really well in the regatta, but what was palpable was their excitement to be there, their closeness and enjoyment of one another, and the school spirit that flowed from that involvement. These sorts of activities make for happier kids and, to me, this is the causal factor.

This is why the school places a high emphasis on Ora, physical and emotional wellbeing. It’s one of our strategic priorities. We want our students to be making positive connections with other students in a range of contexts, which will ultimately positively affect their life outcomes.

Dominic Killalea

Principal