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Dear Parents and Caregivers
In this newsletter I’ll outline some basic information on the qualification that your child is engaging with this year. There is a hyperlink to a video that I encourage you to look at, that being the NCEA video produced by NZQA. Please do click on this link provided later in this newsletter and take a look (it’s only just over 6 minutes long).
In addition, I’ll use the different parts of our NCEA page on StACNet and the Community Portal, to help you learn about some key aspects of NCEA as it occurs in the College. You’ll find that we provide you with much information and enable you to easily access your child’s NCEA information in an ongoing way.
My hope for parents is that they take NCEA in bite-sized bits and so eventually get their heads around it. If you do want to jump ahead and find out more about NCEA before my next newsletter, please click on the links below:
How NCEA works > NZQA Brochures >
More newsletters this year will provide you with further ‘bits’ but, if you ever have any questions that you’d like clarified or explained, please do get in touch via email at DBV@stac.school.nz.
Kind regards
David Bevin
Head of Teaching and Learning
In my February presentation to parents, rather than provide a whole lot of information about the workings of NCEA, at this early stage of a student’s (and that of their parents!) NCEA ‘journey’, I talked about how important it is for parents to understand some of the ways in which they can help their child along the way – what are the issues to be aware of? How can parents help their students manage their commitments? Their time? And so on….
It’s always good to know what lies ahead for your child as the busy life of a parent can often make it hard for them to know what to look out for. This table shows in very brief form how the year is looking.
The above diagram outlines the ‘shape’ of the academic year and very simply shows what lies ahead and what to watch out for when it comes to assessment commitments because every internal assessment has a significance attached to it. It’s very easy to see where things might possibly come to a bit of a ‘crunch point’ for students.
Where does your child fit into this picture? What are their commitments likely to be this year? What, and when, will be their ‘crunch/pressure points’? How do they cope with such points? You really should talk about this with them and have some honest discussion about how to manage. I would even advise you and your student to go as far as plotting on a calendar or a wall planner as many of the key events as they know of at this stage of the year. Right now, students are able to include their Term 1 assessments and, by looking through their course outlines, can gain an indication of what assessments happen later in Terms 2 and 3 in particular.
Two weeks ago, I spoke to students about what they need to show and do to manage the demands of Level 1 NCEA. Alongside developing their knowledge and understanding of the course content learnt this year, students need to:
A good number of students don’t experience too many problems with managing their various loads while, for others, it’s a real ‘jolt’ and a challenge to their ability to manage their time, prioritise their commitments and cover all of the assessment demands made of them.
To access all of our course outlines that are available on the College website, simply log into StACNet, then click on the ‘Teaching and Learning’ page, you will then be able to access the ‘Course Outlines 2023’ page. All Course Outlines for this year are presented in very similar formats so that you can quite easily find your way around them and will be able to read through the subject’s assessment information. This will help you and your student to gain a good view of the subject’s assessment programme for the year and so manage that planning task.
Your ‘go-to’ StACNet page for all things NCEA looks like this. Throughout this year, these various pages will be updated as needed and you will regularly be referred to one or more of them in my newsletters or in emails that will be sent to you.
Internal assessment is obviously the big concern for students this year. Most students will be assessed in, on average, 15–20 internals across the year. A few students will gain their NCEA through internal assessment before they even sit the external examinations in November (although the large majority of students will still need to sit their externals to clear the required threshold for the gain of Level 1 of 80 credits) and, as such, internal assessment is ‘high stakes’.
We have clear rules and procedures for students to follow covering many matters including student absence from an internal, late submission and breaches of authenticity and these are all detailed in the student copy of the ‘Rules and Procedures’. All students received their own copy of the ‘R & P’ in last week’s tutor time; they must be sure to read them as the rules must be, and are, applied in all assessments.
In my next newsletter, I’ll more fully explore the rules that we apply to the management of internal assessments, however, issues around extensions and absence from assessments occur every year and have begun to occur already so it is important for you to know that we have clear processes and rules for managing those issues so that assessment is fair to all students. Students simply cannot just hand in an assessment late or not turn up to a test without having a valid, and approved, reason. They must follow our procedures in this area.
Two weeks ago, all NCEA-level students and parents received an email from me about how we are managing this issue. In it, I outlined this information (this is also contained in the above student document for NCEA).
It is very important that you meet deadlines for NCEA internal assessments. If you are not able to meet a deadline, you must have a very good reason and are required to go through a formal process of applying to your teacher – and you are required to do this in a timely manner ie before the deadline. This is the process that you MUST follow for any internal assessment; if you don’t, you will not be entitled to an extension. Staff know about this process and know that they must enforce it on each occasion.
FIRST STEP – You must fill out the form by clicking here.
SECOND STEP – All applications are received by Mr Bevin, who will review them and then refer them to the teacher involved.
THIRD STEP – The teacher concerned, and the Head of Department will then discuss the application, using the following criteria and process:
| Request Type | Process that must be followed by the Teacher. |
| If you have COVID-19 and are therefore isolating | Extension request is automatically approved. Negotiation of a revised final date will be done by the teacher and you when you are well enough to resume schoolwork. |
| If you make a request on medical (non-COVID) grounds | The extension request will be approved subject to the provision of a medical certificate (this must be provided to the teacher and in a very timely manner). The final date is negotiated by the teacher and you. |
| All other requests | Subject to there being valid grounds for a consideration (e.g., a school field trip/sports event), negotiation over the submission date may be possible. |
FOURTH STEP – The teacher or Head of Department will confirm their agreement with you in writing.
Note about Medical Certificates
You will see clear reference to medical certificates in Step 3. If a student is sick (non-COVID), they must get a medical certificate and provide it to their teacher as part of their application for an extension. If they do not, they will not have an extension. This is non-negotiable on the school’s part. Given the nature of COVID-related illness and the required isolation period, in that circumstance, a medical certificate is not required.
The NCEA Assessment Calendar is found on the NCEA StACNet page.
This very important calendar provides some overview information about what assessments are on when, according to each year level. Please note that assessment programmes are of necessity a little ‘fluid’ and therefore dates sometimes change; teachers are expected to keep students and parents informed of such changes so please understand that what is on the Calendar, while it’s accurate, is not ‘set in stone’. The NCEA Assessment Calendar provides an important way of helping your child to programme their commitments term-by-term.
It’s very relevant at this point to remind you of the ‘one-stop shop’ nature of our Community Portal, which sits within StACNet. Parents are able to access a lot of information provided by the College with regard to attendance, assessment and reporting.
When you click on the Results tab on the right of the screen, you will be able to access both the Fortnightly Feedback and the ‘powerful’ and dynamic NCEA Current Results Summary. This particular document enables you to see the grades that your child gains over the course of the year in their various internal assessments and practice/indicative assessments and their progress towards Level 1 NCEA awards, such as certificate and course/subject endorsement. You no longer have to ask your child to tell you what their assessment results were because you can see them through your own login!
When you click on ‘NCEA Current Results Summary for (your student’s name)’, you will be able to see the subject, standards, credit values and, when results are recorded by teachers, grades gained for those standards.
At this early stage of the year, it’s a good idea to have a look through this information so that you can see just what assessments they are likely to be doing. Early on, very few results will show but as the year progresses and internals are completed, it will become very interesting reading that you will not need to ask your teenager to show you – there’ll be no ‘hiding’ from results! The summary table ‘NCEA Results Summary’ provides an excellent summary of ‘Achievement/Merit/Excellence credits’ that are being gained and so shows a student’s progress towards a Merit or an Excellence endorsement.
You will of course be very familiar with these ‘snapshot’ views of your child’s attitude and effort in class as we give you feedback on these most fortnights through the year. There is a very clear connection between a student’s attitude to learning and their effort in class and their overall academic achievement. So far, teachers have provided two Notes; we report in this way but we don’t notify you that they are there. Remember that, this term for example, Notes are provided in weeks 4, 6, 8, 10.
This 6-minute NCEA video is a very good starting point for parents new to NCEA. It is updated annually and is therefore very current.
To view the video in other languages, click here.
Video credit: NZQA
To help you a little bit more, in our Year 11 NCEA Rules and Procedures, I have provided a model that I hope very well describes for you in diagrammatic form NCEA Level 1.
Rules and Procedures for Students 2023 >
NCEA assessment and awards are about the gaining and accumulation of credits (similar to points) and grades from the various internal assessments that are done in class during the year and in the externals (mostly examinations but also other forms such as portfolios) at the end of the year.
These students gained up to 20 Level 1 credits from their Science course last year. The good news is that their credits are added to their Level 1 total this year. Any Excellence or Merit credits gained last year will be added to their totals this year and so contribute to their overall endorsement total for Level 1.
To gain Level 1, a student must gain at least 80 credits from assessments of Standards (mostly called Achievement Standards) and there is no requirement for a certain number of internal, or external, credits. All Standards have a number of credits attached to them and by gaining a Standard, the student gains the associated credits, and grade (there is no difference in credit values whether the grade is Achievement/Merit/Excellence). Most students end up gaining comfortably in excess of 90 credits on average across their year of learning and assessment. For many students they will not have reached the 80 before they sit their external examinations in November, so they will require passes in their externals to complete their Level 1 certificate.
A student can gain Level 1 with Merit if they total up Merit or Merit and Excellence grades with their associated credits to at least 50 from any Standards (internal or external).
To gain Level 1 with Excellence, they must total Excellence grades with their associated credits to at least 50.
Students can take more than one year to gain this endorsement and can add to their endorsement total any grades, with their associated credits, gained in the previous year in that Level. This is particularly important to know for those students who are also doing Level 2 (Year 12) courses as part of their overall Year 11 programme this year.
Parents typically find it difficult to know who to contact about an NCEA issue that may have arisen for their child:
