Principal’s Report on Student Achievement 2014

In 2014 Mission Heights Junior College students continued to enjoy high levels of success across the four cornerstones, academic, cultural, sport and leadership through service. We enjoyed many successes in a wide range of regional, national and international competitions.

I am proud to present a summary of the school’s achievements in 2014.

Academic

NCEA

In 2014 results for our 150 Year 10 students in NCEA showed further gains on 2013 levels across all of the following indicators.

Unlike most other schools we offer all our Year 10 students an opportunity to attempt NCEA Achievement Standards in Year 10 as our key purpose is to prepare them as they transition into Year 11 in a new school. All students, regardless of ability, should be moving into Year 11 with an added degree of understanding and confidence about NCEA without compromising the opportunity for challenge in raising their achievement level further in Year 11.

For those who achieved credits or gained Merit and Excellence grades the achievement of these a year in advance is a great achievement.

• 133 students attained one or more Achievement Standard meaning that 88.6% of our Year 10s moved to their new school already having achieved credits at level 1.
• 89 students (59.3%) attained at least one or more Achievement Standard at Merit level
• 54 students (36%) attained at least one or more Achievement Standard at Excellence level
• 18 student (12%) gained more than 15 credits
• 29 students (19.3%) gained more than 20 credits – one quarter of the credits required at level 1
• 12 students (8%) gained 15credits or more, at Merit level (or better) toward the 50 required for Level 1 Endorsement with Merit
• In addition, a further 7 students (4.6%) gained15 credits or more at Excellence level toward the 50 required for Level 1 Endorsement with Excellence
• Two students gained 27 credits at Excellence level which means they already have over half the credits required for this Endorsement.

National Standards Achievement (Year 7 and 8)

Students in Years 7 and 8 are assessed against National Standards in Reading, Writing and Mathematics. At the end of 2014, 73.6% of Year 7 students were assessed as being at or above standard in Reading. At the end of Year 8 the percentage at or above standard was 77.9%

In writing Year 7 results were 70.5% at or above standard and in Year 8, 69.5%. In maths by the end of Year 7 68.1% of students were at or above standard and at the end of Year 8 70.8% of students were at or above standard.
National Standards results for all schools are reported in detail to and by the Ministry of Education.

E AsTTle Year 9 and 10

As students are not assessed against National Standards in Years 9 and 10 the following data is based on ly on E asTTle testing. The testing in mathematics was based on testing in two strands of the curriculum; algebra and number. Overall teacher judgements would take into account broader data sets including NCEA results, where applicable and a broader range of testing data.

In reading 77.9% of students tested at or above the curriculum level in Reading and 63.8% in maths. In Year 10 the figures were 47.6% and 42.9% respectively.

Progress

If student achievement levels are to be raised it is important to monitor the rate at which students are progressing. This is done by using “effect size” calculations based on E AsTTle pre and post testing. Overall students are making excellent progress.
These results show that in Year 7 Reading, 90.7% of students made at least the expected progress over the year and in maths 90.6% made at least the expected progress over the year. 74.8% made greater than expected progress in Reading and 68.6% in maths. 39.7% of students are actually made over 2 years progress in one year in Reading and 38.5% did so in Maths.

In Year 8 Reading, 87% of students made at least the expected progress over the year and in maths the figure was 86.6% . 67% made greater than expected progress in Reading and 64.4% in maths. 45.4% of students made over 2 years progress in one year in Reading and 29.8% did so in Maths.

In Year 9 Reading, 84.8% of students made at least the expected progress over the year and in maths the figure was 86.6% . 55.6% made greater than expected progress in Reading and 55.5% in maths. 28.1% of students made over 2 years progress in one year in Reading and 16.5% did so in Maths.

In Year 10 Reading, 74.7% of students made at least the expected progress over the year and in maths the figure was 78.4% . 43% made greater than expected progress in Reading and 43.8% in maths. 18.3% of students made over 2 years progress in one year in Reading and 18.8% did so in Maths.

Academic Competitions

We were very proud, as a school, to experience high level success in not one, but 8 different national and international academic competitions. This is amazing and is a credit to the ability and hard work of the students involved.

In June 2014 a group of Year 10 students represented us, and New Zealand, in the United States at the International Future Problem Solving Competition. The group not only one 1st place in their division but went on to win the “Beyonder Award”. This is the supreme award for Community Problem Solving and has only once before been won by a New Zealand team in the 40 year history of this competition.

This year again, a number of students students from our Year 9 and Year 10 Accelerate classes participated in the Transpower Neighbourhood Engineers Awards competition.

For the second consecutive year, a group of our Year 9 students won the top prize nationally being named as overall winners in the Senior Section- Year 9 to 13 of the competition. The majority of students competing in this senior category are much older, which makes the success all the more impressive. In addition another group of students received a Highly Commended Award in this competition.

The winning group were given the opportunity to represent New Zealand at a Science & Technology Symposium for Youth in Singapore in January 2015 where they presented the results of their work.

Year 10 students from the Business Studies option placed 2nd in New Zealand in the Young Enterprise Trust, EPIC Challenge.

Mission Heights Junior College students won both the individual and the team sections of the Codeworx Challenge. This coding competition is again open to students in Years 9-13 and to win both divisions is a major achievement. The CEO of Orion Health, which sponsors the competition visited the school to present prizes and our success was featured on 3 News.

Two Year 9 Media Studies students placed in the top 3 nationally of the “Words Hurt” video competition run by the Mental Health Foundation and a Year 8 student was a national category winner in the “Outlook for Someday” silent short film competition with his animated film relating to deforestation.

Two Year 10 Graphics students took first and second place respectively in the National Young Designers Awards with their original designs of book covers.

Our students once again achieved Distinctions and High Distinctions in every single ICAS competition, whether it was spelling, writing, computing, mathematics or science with 33 individual students being recognised for achieving this level. Students also participated with success in the Junior Mathematics Competition the Otago University Problem Challenge and the Big Science Competition. One student achieved 6 Distinction or High Distinction results overall and another achieved 7. Students achieving Distinction and High Distinction are in the top 1-10% of all students who sat nationally.

The MHJC mathex was once again a highlight of our academic calendar and was supported by staff, students and parents from all whanau. This year some Ormiston Senior College students competed against the parents.

In the 2014 NIWA Regional Science and Technology Fair, where 25 schools and over 100 participants from our region compete, Mission Heights Junior College again received top award across a range of science and technology categories in both Year 9 and Year 10. An MHJC student again won the IET Award for Innovation and the top prize in the technology section.

In 2014, 28 students were awarded Primary Crest Awards, 26 Bronze Crest Awards and 22 Silver Crest Awards as a result of scientific and technological investigations they had undertaken. To achieve Silver Crest Awards in Year 10 is very unusual with most recipients being in Year 12. MHJC was one of only 20 schools nationally to achieve this level of award.

We value the ability to speak a number of languages and in In the 2014 Language Perfect Competition MHJC finished 3rd school overall internationally. MHJC was 1st in New Zealand overall and 1st for Maori, Italian and Indonesian. We were 2nd in the world for Samoan.

30 of our students reached the highest possible individual award level gaining Elite awards. Only 606 of these awards were allocated internationally to the 300,000 competitors from 20 countries world wide.

MHJC Students also participated in ALC examinations in a range of foreign languages, gaining Distinction and High Distinction awards in both oral and written examinations.

This year we celebrated the achievements of our students in the Year 10 options Showcase and the Celebration of Maori and Pasifika Achievement. These were both wonderful opportunities to acknowledge the work and success of students across a range of subjects and extra curricular activities.

Sport

Once again participation and success increased in sporting activities in 2014 across a broad range of sporting competitions. Students have opportunities to participate in the sporting cornerstone through both extra curricular opportunities and very effectively through our personalised DEEP programme.

Cricket

Our Year 7 and 8 Boys cricket team placed 3rd in the South eastern Zone competition. Our Year 9 and 10 Cricket team once again were undefeated this season and were therefore winners of the Term 1 competition.

Netball

Our Year 7 and 8 girls netball team attended the AIMS games in Tauranga for the first time and at the end of the grading round were placed in the A grade. This was a big achievement and a challenge for our team who played with passion and commitment at this high level.

At year 9 and 10 our teams enjoyed success. Our Year 9 and 10 B Teams was placed third in their division. Our MHJC Yr 9 and 10 A team won their division and our Premier team excelled, being not only the top Year 10 team in the tournament but also the top team overall, winning in the final against Pakuranga College Senior A team..

Football

Our Year 7 and 8 boys football team also attended the Aims Games for the first time and enjoyed a number of hard fought games. Our Year 9 and 10 girls took third place in their competition and our Year 9 and 10 Boys team won their competition, beating a previously undefeated team in an exciting final.

Basketball

In 2014 we hosted a regional Year 7 and 8 competition and fielded a high number of developing players.
Our Year 7 and 8 girls were South Eastern Zone Champions in 2014 and our U15 Girls team reached the top 4 in the Auckland competition, which is an outstanding achievement. In a 3 on 3 competition a Mission Heights Team were B grade winners.

Swimming

We were again well represented at the SEZ swimming competition and this year two of our swimmers competing in the NZ Secondary Schools Swimming Championships won gold and bronze medals.

Athletics

In the Eastern zone Athletics MHJC students took 3rd place in long jump, 2nd in shotput and 1st in the 100m and 200m. Tyrell Green set new records in winning the running events.

MHJC students were named as regional reps in netball, basketball, rugby athletics and Tag football..

Culture

Performing Arts

At MHJC we have many talented students and we once again enjoyed our annual talent quest and the ever popular Santa Show. This year it was very exciting to add to these opportunities to enjoy performances with new initiatives, our Year 10 Options Showcase and the Celebration of Maori and Pasifika Achievement.

Dance Sport

In 2014 Year 7 and 8 students had an opportunity to compete in an MHJC Dance Sport competition as well as participating at the regional level.

Visual Arts

Work by our art students was showcased in a public exhibition at MOTAT. The exhibition attracted considerable attention both for the quality and variety of work displayed.

Cultural Celebrations

We once again enjoyed celebrating Diwali and Chinese new Year and also International Languages day. These opportunities for students and staff to proudly wear traditional dress are a wonderful aspect of our school.

Mission Heights Junior College were inaugural winners of the School Award at the Festival of Cultural Sharing.

Wearable Arts

Once again our students participated in a Wearable Art competition designing and creating entries in their DEEP classes. This year the event included both students and adults. We were proud of the two third placings won by our students. Given that our students compete against senior students taking Fabric Technology as a senior option subject, this success is outstanding.

Public Speaking

Our strength in public speaking continues to grow. In 2014, for the first time, we had an entry in the UN Assoc of NZ Northern Secondary Schools Speech competition. Our Year 10 student was the youngest entrant among mainly Year 12 and 13 speakers and did outstandingly well to be awarded 2nd place.

In the Eastern Zone Speech competitions, we were placed 2nd in Year 9 and 3rd in Year 10. Our entrant in the APPA Eastern Zone Year 7 and 8 competition was placed 2nd and our Year 7 student was placed 3rd in the impromptu speeches.

An MHJC student was also placed 2nd in the Year 7 and 8 regional Hindi speaking competition.

Debating

Our debating teams once again raised the bar in 2014. MHJC teams were placed 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the Southern zone competition and two of our teams progressed to the Auckland Octo finals in the Auckland Junior Open Debating competition. One of our teams went on to compete in the Auckland Finals. To reach the final two in Auckland for two consecutive years is a great achievement and the judge described the final as the best he had seen in 5 years.
Two other MHJC speakers were also recognised at a very high level. At the prize giving for the Auckland open Junior debating competition, they were named as the best individual speakers in the southern zone.

Calligraphy

This year for the first time there was an opportunity for students to participate in a Chinese Calligraphy competition. The winner of this was subsequently placed third in a national competition and his work was published as a result.

Origami

Another new event was held in 2014, an origami competition. The sophistication of the entries was amazing and we hope that this will become an annual event.

Service Leadership

The 2014 Executive Council chose the design and creation of a new trophy as their legacy project. This trophy is presented to a student who is awarded a Champions Award in all 4 cornerstones in a single year. At the end of year Prizegiving it was awarded for the first time.

The Council runs the discos which are held each term and were active in promoting other leadership opportunities in the school.

Our whanau councils take the lead role in organising whanau assemblies and, in some whanau in 2014 student curriculum committees actively conributed to ideas for learning contexts.

We value the service of our road patrollers, our librarians, ICT crew, and our sports and cultural councils. Other opportunities to lead and serve are available through Wai Care, the Enviro Council, Travelwise and Trees for Survival. The school received a Trees for survival Kowhai Award in 2014, making it one of only 12 schools to achieve this status.

5 Year 10 students once again represented Mission Heights Junior College at the Singapore Young Leaders Convention where they worked with other students from across the globe to address issues affecting youth.

The school continued to support a wide range of community organisations including SPCA, Habitat for Humanity, World Vision, Starship Hospital, and the Cancer Society. MHJC students took a leading role in planning and organising events for the Uxbridge Kids Festival.

A number of students again had the opportunity to attend the Outdoor Pursuits Centre in Turangi.