Principal’s Notes – Aug 2025

There have been several announcements from the Minister Of Education over the last couple of weeks that I think it would be fair to say go ‘against the grain’ here at Springs Waiōrea. The first of these announcements calling time on open learning/modern learning environments (MLE) has me particularly frustrated because all who visit and witness our wonderful new school in operation are frankly amazed and do not share the Minister’s disdain of these learning environments. We love them and remain passionate advocates for them at secondary school level. In contrast the new prefabs currently being established on-site are massively disappointing compared to the beautiful environment we have created with the MLE buildings.

The second major announcement abolishing NCEA is massive and the collateral damage to our young people could be massive. There has been much softening up via various media announcements before the big reveal earlier this week that took us all by surprise because of the extent of the change. The flexibility of NCEA is its greatest strength and shouldn’t be used to discredit it in my opinion. I liken it to university degrees in many ways which are made up of a number of, often disparate, papers. Just the same as NCEA with a range of standards. The aim has always been to broaden educational success, recognise diverse forms of learning and a shift towards recognising vocational learning as well as traditional academic learning. Dare I say too, that we are talking about children here, not graduates in universities or trades academies. They are on pathways – the next steps we talk about so much here. Look at what one of my colleagues has shared with me:

I think what I’m struggling with most is the message ‘scrapping NCEA’ sends to students – that our students have been made to feel like they are working towards a dud qualification. Yesterday I was grading Y11 Connections essays where they have to compare a few texts. One student drew on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to talk about human vulnerability in Great Expectations. Another independently read both Slaughterhouse Five and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy to consider the meaning of life – she is 15. They will both end up with an NCEA qualification. Our students work extremely hard and demonstrate high level thinking, and yet the public have been given the message they ‘filled out forms’ to get credits.

NCEA is a GREAT qualification and we need to tell our kids currently in Year 9 all the way through to Year 13 that it is!

Ivan Davis
Principal