NCEA LEVEL 1 - St Andrew's College

Everything you need to know for your NCEA year

2021NCEA LEVEL 1

YEAR 11

1 | P a g e

NCEA LEVEL ONE AWARDS – YOUR TARGETS – THERE ARE THREE THINGS TO AIM FOR

2 | P a g e

Definitions

NCEA has a lot of jargon but you do need to understand it. The following are probably the most common phrases and words:

Standards

Each subject has a course that is made up of a set of Standards, between 3 and 6 or so. A Standard assesses different areas of knowledge and skills within a subject such as giving a speech, analysing a text or giving a dramatic presentation.

Internals Standards that have an assessment that is done in school only. Your teacher prepares you for the assessment, you do/sit it and it is marked by your teacher or another teacher and you are awarded a final grade.

Externals Standards that have an assessment that is done in an exam (or, perhaps, a portfolio) at the end of the year and marked by someone outside of the school (apart from the MCAT which is done in September but is still marked externally). Prelim exams give you a chance to practise for the real thing – externals!

Credits and Grades

Each Standard comes with a certain number of credits (or points) that you gain when you pass the assessment for the Standard. You need to accumulate 80 credits to gain Level 1.

Grades Each Standard can be gained at Achievement, Merit or Excellence grade level but the number of credits you gain does not change in spite of the grade.

Excellence credits and Merit credits

If you gain Excellence in a 4-credit Standard, for example, you gain 4 Excellence credits. If you gain Merit in that 4-credit Standard, you gain 4 Merit credits. You accumulate these types of Excellence and Merit credits towards the 50 needed for Excellence or Merit endorsement.

Achievement Criteria

These are the description of the requirements that are needed for a grade in a Standard and change with the increasing achievement level in each Standard. When you are given an assessment to do for a particular Standard, you read the 3 different sets of criteria (sort of, expectations of you when doing the assessment) that you have to reach for a particular grade.

Assessment Task

This is what you have to do in the assessment for a Standard. It is essential that you know exactly what to do in a task so that you have a good chance of gaining the Standard. Always read the Task and the Criteria very closely.

3 | P a g e

Our NCEA Rules and Procedures for Students 2021

We have to make sure that all assessment is conducted in a way that is valid, transparent and fair to all involved. These Rules and Procedures make clear what is, and isn’t, allowed in any assessment – what

teachers and students have to do to ensure that results are valid, fair and accurate.

WHO’S INVOLVED IN INTERNAL ASSESSMENTS?

TALKING TO THE RIGHT PERSON IF THERE’S AN ISSUE WITH… It’s very important that you don’t just sit in silence this year if there’s a problem with an assessment. This table shows you who you should talk to if you need help in these types of situation.

An internal – about what to do in it, when it has to be completed by, the marking, the result, an appeal, an issue of illness/lateness/inability to complete it.

Classroom Teacher If there are issues with a number of internals due

to sickness, start with the Dean

An internal – you’re not happy with a/some detail/s to do with the internal that you think the teacher just can’t help you with.

The Head of Department*

Your ability to manage your assessment, or even your whole, workload.

The Dean and/or your Tutor

Concerns about the assessment that neither the classroom teacher nor the Head of Department can sort out for you and finding out about the ‘ins and outs’ of NCEA!

Mr Bevin, Head of Teaching and Learning

Special Assessment Conditions entitlement Mrs Broad

NCEA issues, records, results, systems, Candidate Admission slips for NCEA exams

Mrs Faulls

YOU!! – YOUR MOST USEFUL SKILLS FOR MANAGING NCEA In this, your first year of NCEA, there will be a lot for you to know, understand and keep up with. You will be challenged in your ability to communicate (with your teachers), to manage your time, to be well-organised and to be aware of what you have to do, when and how you have to do it!

A WORD ABOUT TIME MANAGEMENT You must work really hard at managing your range of commitments this year, academic and non-academic, and be sure to give a good level of priority to your NCEA assessment programme. The first step is to have, and use, a form of calendar or diary on which you can note down your assessment due dates and your other commitments or involvements such as, for example, participation in Winter Tournament Week or something like that.

Communication Organisation Time Management

4 | P a g e

THE HEADS OF DEPARTMENT* The Head of Department is a key person in helping you to sort out some of the problems that can happen with assessment. They make sure that our rules are enforced properly and fairly in each situation.

Department Staff Member Agribusiness and Agriscience Mrs Cloughley

Arts Mrs Swadel Commerce Mr Temple

Drama Mr Wiseman English Ms Gilbert ESOL Mrs Brooks

Social Sciences Mr Boulton Maths Mr Howard

Languages Mrs Radcliffe Music Mr Ferguson

Physical Education Mr Eves Sciences Mr Cummack

Technology Mrs Duncan Transition Ms Hampson

BEING ORGANISED – what happens and when it happens…

YOUR ACADEMIC YEAR - WHAT TO WATCH OUT AND PLAN FOR

This table will help you to plan and organise your academic year, knowing what ‘big events’ you should watch out for and plan into your programme. Remember that the assessment pressures will increase the further you go into the year and you will need to be very organised with your time and efforts.

5 | P a g e

TERM ASSESSMENT CALENDAR – Helping you schedule your assessment commitments!

This provides full scheduling details for all internals. In Term 1 of each year, this goes live from the middle of February and, for the other terms, information is live from the beginning of each Term. You should of course have each subject’s assessment details in each course outline. Below is the link to the Calendar. https://intranet.stac.school.nz/NCEA/Pages/AssessmentCalendar.aspx

KEY EVENTS

MATHS COMMON ASSESSMENT TASK (MCAT) This is an externally-assessed paper that is sat in school during the Prelim exams – this year it is sat on 15 September. Not all students sit this exam so you should find out if you will be entered for it.

PRELIM EXAMS (and derived grades) You sit these exams in mid-September. They are the official practice exams for the NCEA externals in November. Your Prelim grades are used as the official derived grades if you can’t sit some or all your exams or can’t complete one. So, Prelims are a very big deal.

NCEA EXTERNALS (start 9 November (for Level 1 NCEA), end 29 November for Level 1 NCEA) The timetable is available on the NZQA website (https://www.nzqa.govt.nz/ncea/ncea-exams-and-portfolios/external/national-secondary-examinations-timetable/) and also on the back page of this booklet. If you find that you have 2 exams on at the same time, you’ll have a clash and will need to see Mr Bevin. You must sit your exams when they are timetabled but there is special arrangement for any clashes.

SOME COMMON PROBLEMS WITH INTERNALS AND HOW THEY ARE RESOLVED ‘Situations’ occur with assessment that can be problematic. The following situations are the most common and this is how they can be managed and resolved.

Situation What to do

You are away on a personal/family trip and won’t be present for a deadline or an assessment test.

Your parents should have notified the Head of School. You are not eligible to receive an extension nor to sit the assessment later (nor, most likely, earlier either).

You are away on a school-related trip or event. Tell your teacher. Together, you’ll be able to negotiate either an earlier submission/test time (you can’t be made to sit or submit early) or, more likely, a later submission if that works for the test’s validity. If the event takes you away for, say, 2 days, you are entitled to the same length of time for the extension.

You are absent for an approved reason (eg sickness) from part of an assessment that takes place over more than one lesson.

Contact your teacher if you are sick or cannot attend. Sickness must be supported by a medical certificate; if you have one, you may be able to negotiate with your teacher once you’re back at school to complete the assessment.

You have more than one assessment due at the one time and think you can’t manage the workload.

Talk to your Dean who will talk to the Head of Department, but this may not change the deadline. The HOD has to be fair to all students and not give you an advantage.

Student fails to submit an assessment (eg project, paper) on time saying that they were unwell but not enough to go to the doctor. Enquires about an extension.

Talk to your teacher. If you weren’t sick enough to get a medical certificate, you are expected to be at school, so you won’t be able to get an extension. Not valid grounds and medical certificate must be supplied in a timely manner.

6 | P a g e

THE RULES FOR INTERNAL ASSESSMENT - TEACHERS These are the main steps in the assessment process and should be followed by teachers in each and every assessment. There is ‘paperwork’ that is provided in each of these steps.

Provide you with documentation about the course assessment – Standards, assessment details, completion dates.

Give you full details in writing of what the task requires, when it must be completed by and other relevant information.

Mark it and give you the final result within 3 weeks of assessment completion. You’ll have the right to sign for an appeal but must give good reasons why.

THE RULES FOR INTERNAL ASSESSMENT – STUDENTS – DON’T BREAK THEM!

Students must be aware of the rules that apply in each and every assessment. They are applied fairly and equitably and in a way that is transparent so that everyone follows our processes, and no-one gains an unfair advantage over others.

The work you produce must be your own work and must be referenced where necessary. Don’t produce work that is someone else’s and don’t let someone else copy from your work.

Don’t hand in assessments late unless you have a very strong excuse that is approved by the Head of Department only.

You must be present for an assessment (test) and, if you can’t be there, you must produce a medical certificate (for sickness) within 24 – 48 hours or this must be discussed with the Dean and Head of Department.

You can’t use the failure of your device as a reason for a late submission. Back up all work very regularly.

AUTHENTICITY

LATENESS

ABSENCE

FAILURE OF TECHNOLOGY

ASSESSMENT STATEMENT

ASSESSMENT TASK

YOUR ASSESSMENT

7 | P a g e

YOUR RESULTS YOUR NZQA LEARNER LOGIN

In late March you’ll receive instructions from the College for registering with NZQA so that you can begin to check on your assessment results, including your November exam results when they are available in mid-January. The Learner Login (that’s yours!) has excellent diagrams of your NCEA progress that only you can see and it will give you the ability to access the official NZQA Record of Achievement which summarises each year’s results and that you can use when you are asked to provide official evidence of your NCEA results in each year. If you did Level 1 Science last year, you’ll have set up your Login already.

(note that you can also see your results when you login to the Community Portal – the same portal as your parents’ login!)

RESOURCES THAT CAN HELP

NZQA WEBSITE – NCEA INFO AND EXEMPLARS FOR EXTERNALS As you go through the year, you’ll be told about assessment help and resources that will be available online. The NZQA website has a lot of resources that you can look at, and use, such as exemplars of student exam work. Exemplars can be real, or ‘practice’ papers done by students and can

show you how to answer an exam question at a particular grade level such as at Merit or Excellence (they exemplify that grade). They’re also available for internals.

www.nzqa.govt.nz

OUR ACADEMIC AWARDS FOR NCEA ACHIEVEMENT NCEA results are used to make academic awards in February of each year. All results that you gain in

your NCEA assessment programme this year, both internals and externals, contribute to your overall GCA (used to determine the Academic 30s students in each of Yrs 12 and 13), an academic tie and blazer. We

also award students who gain an NCEA Excellence endorsement and give the particularly prestigious Academic Colour award to students who gain at least 85 Excellence credits. Our academic awards for this

year’s Year 11 are based on results from this year only.

LEVEL ONE LITERACY AND NUMERACY As part of gaining Level 1 NCEA, you must accumulate at least 10 literacy and 10 numeracy credits. They

are usually gained in English and Maths but there are many standards in fact in your assessment programme that you can gain to cover these requirements and no particular grade level is required. The

College will monitor your completion so that it is almost certain that you’ll gain them this year!

This booklet links to the Student Rules and Procedures full document where you can find a more detailed explanation of some of the information covered in this booklet. You are advised to check that document

to ‘cover yourself’ if ‘issues’ arise in a particular assessment this year.

8 | P a g e

RULES AND PROCEDURES – FULLER DETAILS

COMPLETING INTERNALS

• Usually, you’re expected to enter all of the Standards in a subject unless in cases of extended absence or sickness or perhaps in the case of being on a school exchange for more than a few weeks.

• Usually, you can’t choose the Standards that you will enter for (unless a subject’s programme provides a range of Standards from which students can choose a certain number, according to need or interest and in discussion with the class teacher).

• Where you’ve handed in material for assessment (complete or not) or had an adequate opportunity to attempt the assessment, you’ll receive a grade.

• You might be able to withdraw from a standard in discussion with your teacher, but you must have what the school considers to be a valid reason. Feeling unable to ‘pass’ an assessment isn’t a valid reason!

IF YOU’RE ABSENT FROM AN INTERNAL…

• If you know early on that you’re going to be absent, tell the teacher – you might be able to do the assessment early – or later. The reason for your absence must be made clear and must be accepted by the school. You must outline the situation early on and definitely not at the last-minute.

• Where you miss an assessment because of illness etc., you may be able to sit it later. The same assessment may be able to be used otherwise an assessment of a similar standard will be. You’ll need a medical certificate to explain illness. If an assignment hand-in is affected in this way, provided you supply a medical certificate (for example), you may be able to submit it late, upon your return to school.

• If you’re deliberately absent from an internal (or you don’t hand in an assignment even though you started

working on it) you’ll receive a Not Achieved grade for that Standard. It’s possible that you could sit a further assessment opportunity should one be a part of the course (you must have been informed about the assessment programme at the start of your course for this to happen).

• If you don’t complete an assessment task, we’ll inform your parents officially in writing. • If you’re ill or absent for long periods during the year, this may affect your ability to complete your course. In

this case you might not be entered for assessment for one or more Standard/s.

HANDING IN WORK FOR AN INTERNAL LATE…. Late work is any work not handed in by the due time and date that has been set

• A request for an extension on a hand-in date just because you have a lot of work on (even if that’s true!) will most likely not be approved. You may, however, still make such a request.

• Late work won’t be accepted for marking unless approved by the Head of Department (not the teacher). • You must tell the teacher if you can’t hand in work on time due to unforeseen circumstances and must fill out

the appropriate ‘Late Submission’ form that your teacher will give you. • Any extension must be approved by the Head of Department – and before the deadline of course!

9 | P a g e

MISCONDUCT AND AUTHENTICITY IN AN INTERNAL

• Handing in work which is not your own and/or which isn’t referenced to other sources will lead to a ‘Not Achieved’ grade.

• In this situation, you may not be entitled to any further assessment opportunity at a later date if such is

available. • In the above cases, parents will be informed in writing by the Head of Department of the action

taken.

WHEN THE TECHNOLOGY FAILS…. • Failure of your technology won’t be a valid reason for an extension to a deadline unless in exceptional

circumstances. • Problems with emailing, backing up your work, a hard drive crashing, a printer running out of ink, are not

normally acceptable reasons.

RESUBMISSION • The teacher may offer a resubmission opportunity to students only when a minor error prevents them from

reaching an ‘Achieved’ grade. The only change in grade boundary available for resubmissions is from ‘Not Achieved’ to ‘Achieved’. On this basis, this highest grade that can be awarded as a result of a resubmission of an internal assessment is limited to ‘Achieved’.

APPEALING A GRADE FOR AN INTERNAL • If you believe that your grade is unfair, you can appeal using the school ‘Appeals’ form. You have 3 days to

submit that appeal and it must come from you, not from your parents. • If you decide that you disagree with the decision on an appeal, you can appeal to the Head of Teaching and

Learning who will make the final decision. • An appeal may also involve:

o The treatment of a student with regard to an absence from an assessment. o Decisions about breaches of the rules (eg. authenticity)

• When you sign to accept your result, you give up your right to appeal.

NOTIFYING CAREGIVERS AFTER AN INTERNAL • Caregivers are informed officially in writing in any of the following circumstances:

o you didn’t complete a summative assessment and received a ‘Not Achieved’ grade o you missed an assessment and received a ‘Not Achieved’ o You broke a rule for internal assessment.

STUDENT ASSESSMENT RECORDS

• You have to see and sign for each of your internal results.

PRIVACY

• All of your assessment results are private and should not be shared with other students. • When you’re asked to sign to accept results and to confirm grades on final results printouts, this has to be

done so that other students’ results aren’t able to be seen.

10 | P a g e

SPECIAL ASSISTANCE IN ASSESSMENT

• The Learner Support Department applies official guidelines when making application for special assessment assistance on behalf of students.

• Any application for special assessment assistance has to have specialist support and documentation.

• The way that students use their assistance entitlement is checked by Mrs Broad and students who don’t use it in a regular way may lose their entitlement including for external examinations.

DERIVED GRADE APPLICATION FOR EXTERNAL ASSESSMENT

• If you can’t sit an external exam or complete a portfolio because of illness or ‘trauma’ or some other form of misfortune you can apply for a derived grade to NZQA.

• The school gives a grade for each Standard you apply for and that is based on performance in formative assessment work during that year, usually, the school Prelim exams in September.

• For a portfolio if you want to make a derived grade application you will have to provide evidence of

achievement from another type of assessment work that was done during the year.

• If you don’t have derived grades from school and also missed the external exam, you will not gain a grade in the Standards affected.

2021 EXAMINATION TIMETABLE Exams available digitally shown in blue

Date Time Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Scholarship

Mon 8 Nov

9.30 am Te Reo Rangatira Physics Business Studies Agricultural & Horticultural Science

2.00 pm Chinese Media Studies Dance Calculus

Tue 9 Nov

9.30 am Agricultural & Horticultural Science

Art History

Statistics

2.00 pm Geography Spanish Earth & Space Science Cook Islands Māori

Drama

Wed 10 Nov

9.30 am Lea Faka-Tonga Mathematics & Statistics

Biology

2.00 pm Music Accounting History French

Thu 11 Nov

9.30 am Mathematics & Statistics

Te Reo Māori

Classical Studies

2.00 pm Korean Drama Samoan Statistics

CANTERBURY ANNIVERSARY DAY (Fri 12 Nov)

WEEKEND Mon 15 Nov

9.30 am Media Studies Earth & Space Science

Drama Lea Faka-Tonga

Chemistry

2.00 pm Chemistry Classical Studies Economics

Tue 16 Nov

9.30 am French Te Reo Māori Calculus

2.00 pm Economics Korean Cook Islands Māori

Accounting

Wed 17 Nov

9.30 am Cook Islands Māori English Religious Studies

2.00 pm History Chinese Biology German

Thu 18 Nov

9.30 am English Lea Faka-Tonga English

2.00 pm Drama History Health Physics

Fri 19 Nov

9.30 am Business Studies Chemistry Agricultural & Horticultural Science Chinese German

Te Reo Rangatira

2.00 pm Biology Music Media Studies Accounting

WEEKEND Mon 22 Nov

9.30 am Art History Te Reo Māori

Japanese Latin Social Studies Psychology

Samoan

2.00 pm Classical Studies Health Economics

Tue 23 Nov

9.30 am Science Making Music History

2.00 pm Samoan Spanish

Geography Chemistry

Wed 24 Nov

9.30 am Accounting English

2.00 pm Home Economics Economics Korean Media Studies

Thu 25 Nov

9.30 am German Biology Geography

2.00 pm Dance Te Reo Rangatira

Physics

Fri 26 Nov

9.30 am Physics Home Economics Classical Studies Te Reo Māori

2.00 pm German Home Economics Art History

WEEKEND Mon 29 Nov (Westland Ann. Day)

9.30 am Japanese Latin Japanese

2.00 pm French Spanish Latin

Tue 30 Nov

9.30 am Business Studies French Japanese

2.00 pm Latin Agricultural & Horticultural Science

Geography

Wed 1 Dec

9.30 am Health Education for Sustainability Samoan

Te Reo Rangatira

Chinese

2.00 pm Social Studies Music Studies Spanish

Thu 2 Dec

9.30 am Social Studies Dance Art History Earth & Space Science