From the Principal

Tena koutou katoa. Nga mihi nui atawhai.

Ridiculously good – again! That is the only way that you could describe our NCEA academic results for 2019. To view these in graph form, please click HERE

Our Level 1 literacy (100%) and numeracy rates (98.6%) showed that all the students get a very sound educational foundation. The percentage pass rates of L1 (97.3%), L2 (98.5%), L3 (89.1%) and UE (84.1%), when compared to same decile schools, show we exceed those results by 15% and up to 22%.

With our Excellence endorsed NCEA certificates (students have to gain 50 credits or more at Excellence), L1 = 59.4%, L2 = 56% and L3 = 42%, showed that in L1 and L2, over half of our students gained this Excellence endorsement. At all levels, this endorsement rate was more than double the comparative Decile 8-10 schools.

With endorsed NCEA certificates (students have to gain 50 credits or more at Excellence and Merit), L1 = 91.6%, L2 = 82.9% and L3 = 82%. That means, for L1, 9 out of 10 students gained an endorsement and at L2 and L3, more than 4 out of 5 students gained an endorsement.

With our 22 scholarships gained, 5 of them were Outstanding (in the top 5% of NZ) and Josephine Situ was the Top Scholar in NZ in Chemistry.

We are so proud of the diligence of students because we can’t keep gaining these sorts of academic results, year after year, without hard work, a focus on high expectations and dedicated, high quality staff.

The last four slides in the linked Powerpoint shows that our deliberate and intentional actions in terms of removing pre-requisites for NCEA subjects, reducing the number of assessments, reviewing assessment task requirements, removing ability banding in Science and Maths in Years 9 and 10, more resourcing for the pastoral team and a focus on wellbeing, has resulted in a sustained increase in the academic attainment levels when compared to previous results.

With results like this, our focus is on sustaining these impressive learning outcomes. We will be making sure we are also working on the ‘soft skills’ of resilience and perseverance, underpinned by our Mercy values, to ensure our Carmel graduates are Mercy women who can ‘challenge and shape the future’.