NCEA Information Evening Rathkeale College

1. NCEA Information EveningRathkeale College February 14 2017

2. Credits and Standards • Courses of work (subjects) are broken into units based on skills or content knowledge. Each of these units of work has a standard of achievement attached – if you reach the standard you “pass” and earn credits. Credits are accumulated during the year. • The number of credits attached to each standard depends on such things as the depth of knowledge required, the amount of effort required, the complexity of skill needed.

3. Form of Assessment Each unit of work is assessed either: • internally (assessments are prepared, supervised, marked and moderated by teachers within the school), or • externally (assessments are prepared, supervised and marked by NZQA employees).

5. Grades Possible Achievement Standards are based on school curriculum and have 3 stages of achievement: • Achieved – the minimum required for success (A) • Achieved with Merit (M) • Achieved with Excellence (E) NB: a Not Achieved grade (N) is given for students who had the opportunity to succeed but who did not reach the minimum standard for success.

6. NCEA Level 1 • Minimum of 80 credits required at Level 1 (or higher), including: • 10 credits in Literacy (from a wide range of subjects), and • 10 credits in Numeracy (mainly from Mathematics)

7. NCEA Level 2 • Minimum of 80 credits required, including: • 60 credits from level 2 or higher, and • 20 credits from any other level (usually level 1). Note that these 20 credits do not have to be over and above the 80 level 1 credits needed for NCEA level 1. • Must include: • 10 credits in Literacy (from a wide range of subjects at level 1 or 2), and • 10 credits in Numeracy (mainly from Mathematics at level 1 or 2)

8. NCEA Level 3 • Minimum of 80 credits required, including: • 60 credits at level 3 or higher, and • 20 credits from level 2 or above. Note that these 20 credits do not have to be over and above the 60 level 2 credits needed for NCEA level 2. • Must include: • 10 credits in Literacy (from a wide range of subjects at level 1, 2 or 3), and • 10 credits in Numeracy (mainly from Mathematics at level 1, 2 or 3)

9. Other Qualifications that NCEA is used for: • University Entrance – minimum requirements: • NCEA Level 3 (see above), including: • 14 credits in each of three approved Level 3 subjects • 10 Literacy credits from a range of subjects at level 2 or above (5 credits in reading and 5 credits in writing) • 10 credits in Numeracy at Level 1 (or above)

10. Other Qualifications that NCEA is used for: • National Certificates NCEA credits also count towards many National Certificates such as Computing, Hospitality, Business Administration and Employment Skills. These are issued automatically by NZQA.

11. Recognising High Achievement • Course (Subject) Endorsement • Excellence endorsement – 14 or more credits at Excellence in a single subject in a single year, including at least 3 Excellence credits from external assessment and 3 Excellence credits from internal assessment. • Merit endorsement - 14 or more credits at Merit (or a mix of Merit and Excellence) in a single subject in a single year, including at least 3 Merit credits from external assessment and 3 Merit credits from internal assessment.

12. Course (Subject Endorsement) in PE and Visual Arts •  A course will be endorsed: if 14 or more credits are achieved with Merit or Excellence from internally assessed Physical Education standards • if 14 credits are achieved with Merit or Excellence from one of the externally assessed Level 3 Visual Arts standards or 14 or more credits are achieved with Merit or Excellence from internally assessed Level 3 Visual Arts standards.

13. Recognising High Achievement • Certificate (Level )Endorsement • Excellence endorsement – 50 or more credits from any combination of subjects achieved with Excellence • Merit endorsement – 50 or more credits from any combination of subjects achieved with Merit (or a mix of Merit and Excellence) • Note that Certificate Endorsement is not ‘year specific’ – Merit and Excellence grades earned across more than one year will all be counted. Certificate endorsements can be earned retrospectively.

14. New Zealand Scholarship Exams • These exams are not part of the NCEA process. • These exams are based on the Level 3 courses but a much higher standard of answer/work is expected. They do not earn credits. Successful students earn money!

15. Results – NZQA website • Internally assessed results are given to students when marking and moderation is complete. These are forwarded to NZQA on a twice monthly basis starting in April. • External assessment results are available from the NZQA website, usually from the middle of January. • Students are encouraged to access the website regularly to check the accuracy of the internally assessed results, and obviously the external results when they are released. • www.nzqa.govt.nz

16. Results – KAMAR portal • Parents and students can access NCEA results (and a range of other school data) via our database software portal • http://portal.rathkeale.school.nz • Please note that these results are not official results – these are shown on the NZQA website

17. Fees • NZQA charges a fee of $76.70 per year for NCEA. • Entry into scholarship exams is charged at $30.00 each. • Parents will be asked to pay this fee towards the end of term 2.