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Exciting Changes to our Year 11 Programme from 2024
St Cuthbert’s is announcing an important change to the Year 11 programme from the start of 2024 – the introduction of our own Year 11 St Cuthbert’s Diploma.
By creating our own in-house Year 11 Diploma programme, St Cuthbert’s will deliver a world class comprehensive curriculum which is intellectually rigorous, well-rounded and more challenging than what is being implemented by NZQA next year. With its deep conceptual focus, the new St Cuthbert’s Diploma will better equip our students for higher learning, both in Year 12 and 13, and also for their future study.
The St Cuthbert’s Year 11 Diploma will replace the change to NCEA Level 1 being introduced by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority for the 2024 academic year.
Over the past 18 months, several of our senior academic staff have taken part in Government advisory panels discussing NZQA’s proposed changes to NCEA, and have become increasingly concerned at what was being proposed.
NZQA has now confirmed its changes to NCEA Level 1 for 2024, and we do not believe that these changes will provide sufficient, in-depth learning for our students, and will leave them under-prepared, and at worst completely unprepared, for the current Levels 2 and 3 of NCEA, the International Baccalaureate Diploma, and NZQA Scholarship.
Our internal NCEA team of senior subject specialists, has thoroughly researched alternative overseas Year 11 qualifications, and has also examined the various programmes being introduced at other New Zealand secondary schools.
Working closely with our Heads of Faculties and Senior School leaders, our NCEA review team has developed a bespoke, rigorous, and future-focused Year 11 St Cuthbert’s Diploma, to replace NCEA Level 1 from 2024. These changes do not impact our 2023 Level 1 students who are well prepared for higher learning within the current programme.
This change is part of our strategic focus on ensuring we teach for the future, and is an exciting step change in our academic offering, and one which we know will support our students to achieve their potential.
