Qualifications

NCEA (National Certificate of Education Achievement) is the national secondary school qualification, run by NZQA (New Zealand Qualifications Authority).

Courses may be assessed by:

Achievement Standards
For some standards there is an external exam at the end of the year and others are internally assessed during the year based on national standards.
Assessment is at 4 levels 

• Excellence
• Merit
• Achieved
• Not Achieved

Unit Standards
All Unit Standards are internally assessed based on national standards.
Assessment is at 2 levels 

• Achieved
• Not Achieved

 Both Unit and Achievement Standards give credit towards NCEA. In most subjects a course will consist of 16 – 24 credits. Some courses are a mixture of Unit and Achievement Standards. Others are a mixture of Levels 1 and 2.

Students need to seek advice from Careers staff, House Leaders or other senior teachers, to ensure that they have chosen courses which meet their needs and keep future options open.

Level 1 NCEA Certificate
To get a Level 1 NCEA Certificate, students need to gain 80 credits, including at least 8 in English or Te Reo Maori (the literacy requirement) and 8 in Mathematics (the numeracy requirement).

This can be accumulated over more than one year, so students who missed out at Year 11 may continue to work towards a Level 1 Certificate in Year 12.

Level 2 NCEA Certificate
To get a Level 2 NCEA Certificate, students need to gain 80 credits. 60 must be at Level 2, but the remaining 20 can be made up of Level 1 credits.

Level 3 NCEA Certificate
To get a Level 3 NCEA Certificate, students need to gain 80 credits. 60 must be at Level 3.

University Entrance
University Entrance requirements are based on NCEA. The school helps students plan their Year 13 course to meet the requirements at Level 3, but students in Year 12 who are planning to go to university should make sure that their courses will enable them to meet the minimum requirements in mathematics, reading and writing as follows:

• 14 credits in Mathematics at Level 1 or better
• 4 credits of reading in English or Te Reo at Level 2 or better
• 4 credits of writing in English or Te Reo at Level 2 or better

Students also need to gain 42 credits at Level 3 in up to 4 subjects.

NCEA Student Guidelines
All NCEA students are given an explanation and issued with a set of guidelines which explain the school’s policies and procedures for NCEA (for example, what to do if a student is ill on an assessment day).

Other Qualifications offered by Waitakere College:

• ASDAN (Award Scheme Development and Accreditation Network – Youth Award Scheme) qualification (at Year 11)
• New Zealand Certificate of Employments Skills (at Year 12)
• National Certificate of Business Administration (at Years 12 and 13)
• Gateway programme – a government funded pilot scheme where students gain Unit Standards which doing work experience
• Access to some tertiary qualifications in Food Technology, Child Care and Tourism