Craighead Diocesan School is set to become the first South Canterbury school to ditch NCEA level 1, opting to introduce its own diploma instead.
Ahead of a refresh of the qualification, a growing number of schools around the country are beginning to offload level 1, and Craighead is now looking to follow suit next year.
NCEA level 1 is a pupils’ introduction into end-of-year examinations and will be sat by the majority in year 11.
The changes to level 1 will start to be introduced next year, with pupils only able to earn it after meeting a new one-off 20-credit literacy and numeracy co-requisite.
Craighead principal Lindy Graham said there were several reasons the school had decided to introduce its own diploma.
‘‘Most if not virtually all of our students stay through to year 13, so when you’ve done level 1 and move into level 2, level 2 makes level 1 obsolete.
‘‘Another big reason is around continous over assessment. We are trying to minimise that but we are also trying to build a course that better meets the needs of our young women as they feed into level 2.’’
Deputy principal Lara Hearn said the refresh made them consider an alternative.
‘‘We were a bit concerned about the introduction of the new level 1 standards and then going back into the existing level 2, we had a few concerns about that so we thought, actually our focus needs to be on level 2.
‘‘Our big thing is looking at what our students need, how we can provide that and how it is we can ensure that student wellbeing is met.’’
Ms Graham said the school had been discussing this alternative for the past 18 months.
‘‘We’ve been tinkering with the idea of does level 1 actually meet our needs any more and we’ve been gradually chatting about it.
‘‘We then noticed more and more schools were dropping it, so we got to the point where we came up with our own diploma. ‘‘What we want is our diploma to better feed into level 2 and give our students the grounding to go into level 2,’’ Ms Graham said.
The new diploma will be broken down into four criteria
— academic engagement and attainment, spirituality and sustainability, community and service and te ao Ma ¯ori and discovery.
Academic engagement and attainment looks at pupils’ commitment to learning and achievement, and aspects such as pupils actively engaging in class and completing all expected work and assessments.
Spirituality and sustainability is a component regarding a pupil’s contribution to the life of the school community, they must complete a rotational course covering chaplain’s studies and health and career work.
Pupils will also be required as part of the diploma to undertake 20 hours’ volunteer work in the community with five hours organised by the school and the remaining 15 organised by themselves.
Te ao Ma ¯ori and discovery is a part of the diploma designed to demonstrate a commitment to a bicultural Aotearoa New Zealand with pupils having to complete marae visits and additional programmes such as RYDA and Women in Trade.
Pupils’ will still be assessed following the existing NZQA requirements and there will still be a formal end-of-year examination period.
Endorsements will also still be given but will now be called bronze, gold and platinum.
To achieve the new diploma, a pupil will need to have completed a record of learning, course completion and attendance requirements, been assessed for literacy and numeracy and have completed the four criteria.
Ms Hearn said the diploma would give pupils so much more than just an academic experience.
‘‘We want to broaden our students’ horizons and not just have them focused on ‘am I going to get an excellence endorsement in level 1?’, which for many of our girls is superseded by the time they get level 2.
‘‘We are trying to build those foundations on which they can aspire to personal excellence.’’
Ms Graham said the response to the new diploma had been overwhelmingly positive.
‘‘We firmed up our proposal with the staff first, then took it to the board which is parent representatives, then we had a parent information session and we could answer every question. . .because we have really thought about what this might look like and everyone seemed to be positive about this.’’
She said she was very excited to give pupils a new meaningful and deep learning experience.
‘‘A lot of thought has gone into this and it can only be better for everybody, we think.’’
Craighead year 9 and 10 pupils were formally introduced to the new diploma at an assembly yesterday and staff will continue to work together to get the diploma finalised and ready for implementation next year.
