Despite the challenges of lockdown, Nelson schools produced favorable NCEA results in 2020. Photo: Supplied.

Lockdown does not dampen school results

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Nelson school principals are relieved with successful 2020 NCEA results despite a difficult year.

NCEA released its first set of provisional data for secondary schools last week. NCEA is the main national qualification for secondary school students in New Zealand.

Nelson College headmaster Richard Dykes says, despite not knowing what to expect, the results for the school were “really positive”. This was especially true considering the anxieties of students following a challenging schooling year filled with remote learning due to Covid-19 lockdown.

“Our students have excelled themselves. We’ve seen improved results across level 1, 2 and 3. I’m really pleased,” Richard says.

Nelson College saw higher achievement rates, endorsement rates and university entrance rates are all similar to 2019.

“That just reflects the work of the community, the work of staff and the commitment of students and whānau in a really difficult and trying year.”

The trend of high success rates also continues for Nelson College for Girls and Nayland College.

Nelson College for Girls principal Cathy Ewing says the school is “very proud” of the students’ NCEA results.

Sixty-seven percent of the college’s year 11 students gained a merit or excellence endorsement for their Level 1 certificate. More than 85 percent of year 12 and 13 students gained a Level 2 or Level 3 certificate and 67 percent of year 13 students gained university entrance.

“These results are a huge credit to the efforts of both staff and students to have overcome the challenges of 2020,” says Cathy.

Nayland College’s principal Daniel Wilson says he is “delighted” with their results and says students and staff were “incredibly resilient” considering the challenges of the past year.

Daniel says all qualifications are sitting above national averages and says there were significant gains in level 2, 3 and university entrance.

“The changes in the credit structures due to Covid have obviously had an impact across the country – with national averages up between 3-5 percent at each level.”

NCEA announced a learning recognition credits scheme last year to account for the challenges of remote learning and the anxieties caused for students concerning the pandemic.

“Even so, our results are significantly better than anticipated, even when taking this into account,” says Daniel.