Earlier this week, I was in Queenstown for the annual Secondary Principals’ Association of New Zealand (SPANZ) Conference. This runs over four days and includes workshops, keynote addresses, and, importantly, the opportunity to connect with other school leaders from across the country.
This is, and has been for some time, a period of flux and fluidity regarding the education landscape: curriculum change, philosophies of education, and now impending changes to national qualifications. Principals across the motu are required to navigate the imposed changes, and unsurprisingly, conversations at the conference frequently resorted to these issues.
Back in mid-May, the government released details about the new qualifications that will replace NCEA. These changes include how students will be graded, recognised and assessed from 2028 onwards. The government's intention, whether educators agree with it or not, is for new subject‑based qualifications to be easier to understand, credible and similar to those used in other countries. It seems that the UK and Australia are the two countries that Minister Stanford is referring to here as an influence and guide. She goes on to explain that they will be aligned with a ‘refreshed’ senior secondary curriculum, which is being finalised this year and rolled out from 2028.
From 2028, NCEA will be replaced with two new national qualifications:
New Zealand Certificate of Education (NZCE) for Year 12
New Zealand Advanced Certificate of Education (NZACE) for Year 13.
Students will take five subjects each year and must pass at least four to gain their qualification.
Each subject will be marked out of 100, with results reported as letter grades (A–E) instead of Achieved/Merit/Excellence.
The national curriculum is being updated to match these new qualifications and pathways.
A new foundational qualification will also be introduced for Year 11 from 2028. It will focus on reading, writing and maths. My read is that this will not be a full qualification replacement of Level 1 NCEA, which has always been an optional qualification.
Many schools around New Zealand have removed L1 NCEA as an exit qualification in recent years. At Wellington College, where I have come from, we removed L1 NCEA at the start of 2024. We wanted to create space for deeper, richer, and more authentic learning experiences, focused on better preparations for the rigours of L2 NCEA. Another reason was to mitigate the assessment fatigue and declining motivations that we often see in many Year 13 students, who, as a result, do not realise their full academic potential. In place of L1 NCEA, we created the Wellington College Certificate, a bespoke Year 10-11 certificate. It recognised academic effort and co-curricular participation, which develops key learning habits through an emphasis on effort.
While there were concerns by some in the community about keeping Year 11s motivated without the extrinsic motivation of assessment, the programmes that were created, and our narrative around the certificate, resulted in the students seeing its value and responding positively. Teachers appreciated having the time to go deeper into the learning, and using more formative assessment opportunities to check students’ progress. A gardening analogy is helpful here. Summative assessment is akin to measuring the grown plant, while formative assessment tasks are the watering and feeding of the plant, appropriate to its needs.
There are many good things about NCEA, but a flaw that has emerged over the past two decades is a perception that NCEA is the curriculum. As such, we often teach to the requirements of the Achievement Standards, whether internal or external. This approach has filtered into junior learning programmes. Assessment should be for learning and not the other way around. The shifting of this narrative and learning culture is key to students giving their maximum effort to everything they do, and in the senior school, not just activities that give credits. Ivan Cleary’s quote about not everything counting, but everything mattering frames the culture of effort and motivation that we’re resetting and strengthening.
Following the government's announcements, we agreed that it was timely to open a conversation with our staff about the removal of L1 NCEA in 2028 and whether we wanted to consider an early removal in 2027. I felt it was important that we leaned into the discussion and, together, worked to a decision. The outcome of these discussions across the first half of the term was three options. One was the full removal of L1 NCEA in 2027, the second, a bridging model that reduced the number of credits available to students, and the third, the status quo and removal of L1 in 2028, as planned by the government. We considered the strengths and concerns about each option, and the Learning Area Leaders agreed that the bridging option was the best for 2027. A key factor taken into account was the internal changes we have initiated around classroom practices, values, and culture, and the need to mitigate any change fatigue for staff. This was discussed with the two boards in the past week, and they affirmed that the bridging option was most sensible. Their support is appreciated.
What does this mean for Year 11s in 2027? These students will still be able to access the L1 NCEA qualification. To gain this, a student needs to achieve 60 credits. At present, they might have 100-120 credits on offer to do this, far more than is needed. The result is that learning and assessment programmes are incredibly cluttered and pressured, and students jump at pace from high-stakes summative assessment to high-stakes summative assessment. It’s relentless and does not create space for deeper and more authentic learning, nor does it best prepare students for the national qualifications in Year 12 and 13. What the Learning Area Leaders have agreed to is removing some of the credits they offer in their subject areas. This will begin to shift a culture that focuses on and values assessment at the expense of learning.
Our approach to this discussion has been considered, and we have looked to other contexts and the changes they have made. The lens I brought from a context where Level 1 was removed, alongside the research and design work that went into its replacement, added to this. It is a tricky landscape we are being asked to navigate as school communities, and the looming election will add its own flavour. We take confidence in the expertise that our people bring to the table and the collaborative and evidence-informed approaches that we take to decision-making and design.
A key part of our vision is to grow ākonga who are well-educated, well-prepared, and committed to excellence, and their pathways shaped by personal achievement. We are committed to ensuring that whatever comes our way, we take control here and develop learning programmes and opportunities that carry rigour, are relevant and equitable, and purposeful. Thank you for your trust in us as we continue to navigate these choppy waters, and work together to ensure that our young people thrive and realise their potential.
Kā mihi nui
Dr Aaron Columbus
Principal | Tumuaki
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