Recent announcements by the Government sees an easing of COVID-19 restrictions throughout the country, which is encouraging. However, we will continue to uphold safe practices such as the wearing of masks and social distancing practices. The increasing of indoor venue limits from 100 to 200 people still means that we will not be holding whole-school assemblies but are able to have year-level assemblies.
School Sports
Changes have had an impact on outside events too, particularly sport. All students can now compete in sport despite their vaccination status and similarly there are no restrictions on spectator numbers. Winter sport begins early Term 2 and it will be great for our students to have the opportunity to compete in regular competitions. See the latest guidance from College Sport here.
Programme for International Student Assessment
Our school has been selected to take part in a programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), one of the world’s largest education research studies. PISA data provides a rich source of information on how well education systems are preparing their learners/ākonga for success. The PISA assessment will focus on learning experiences during COVID-19, wellbeing, maths, creative thinking and our students’ achievement in mathematics literacy, reading, science and creative thinking.
Proposed NCEA changes
Under the guidance of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority, all secondary schools in the country are undertaking a process of strengthening NCEA by making a series of changes to improve well-being, equity, coherence, pathways and credibility – for students and teachers. This process of change is scheduled to take place over several years, and began in 2021. This year, the Ministry of Education has scheduled four staff-only days for every school to assist with the implementation of the changes. The first of these will be on the 16 May.
It is important for the national qualification to reflect the nation, and the incorporation of mātauranga Māori is a welcome change to NCEA course curricula. Each department at Sancta Maria College will be working hard to align schemes of work and assessment materials to reflect the new NCEA changes.
For more information on the NCEA Change Programme, please click here: https://ncea.education.govt.nz/what-ncea-change-programme
