MANAWATU COLLEGE
National Qualifications Framework
Information for students and parents
Please retain this in a safe place!
National Qualifications Framework (NQF)
Levels 1 – 3
NCEA INFORMATION
National Certificates of Educational Achievement (Levels 1, 2 and 3) are the main qualification on the
National Qualifications Framework (NQF). They sit alongside other qualifications such as National
Certificates in Computing, Tourism, Retailing, Automotive Engineering and so on. Students at school
will be able to attain many of these specialist qualifications as they complete NCEA. Because the
NQF is benchmarked internationally, the NCEA qualifications are recognised overseas.
There are three NCEA qualifications:
NCEA Level 1 requires eighty credits. Of these, ten credits must be gained from either specified
achievement standards available through a range of subjects, or prescribed literacy standards, and
ten numeracy credits must be gained from either specified achievement standards available through
a range of subjects, or prescribed numeracy standards.
NCEA Level 2 requires eighty credits, sixty of which must be from level two standards or higher. The
other twenty credits may be credits the student used to achieve level 1. The Level 1 literacy and
numeracy requirements must also be met.
NCEA Level 3 requires eighty credits, sixty of which must be from level 3 standards or higher and
twenty from level 2 or higher. The Level 1 literacy and numeracy requirements must also be met.
A student will qualify for university entrance if they have met all the following requirements:
 At least 42 credits at Level 3 or higher. At least 14 of these credits must be from each of two
subjects from an approved list with another 14 from no more than two additional approved
subjects or domains
 At least 14 credits at Level 1 or higher in Mathematics
 At least 8 credits at Level 2 or higher which show reading (4 credits) and writing skills (4
credits) in English or Te Reo Maori.
Note: The UE requirements are changing in 2014 and will affect students still at school that year.
NCEA results show a student’s credits and grades for each standard. Students also request a
Record of Learning showing all the standards they have achieved and, when they have completed
NCEA at each level, they will receive a certificate.
An NCEA certificate is endorsed with Excellence where a student has fifty excellence credits at the
level of the NCEA certificate or above. Where the student has a combination of fifty credits of Merit or
Excellence at the level of the certificate or above they will be entitled to a Merit endorsement. Subject
endorsement is also available and requires fourteen merit or excellence credits in that subject at a
particular level, with at least three of those credits being from external assessment.
It is important to note that NCEA certificate endorsement can be gained retrospectively, meaning
merit or excellence credits gained in a subsequent year at the same level or a higher level, will be
combined with those gained in the current year to determine endorsement. This does not apply to
subject endorsement, where the credits must be gained in a calendar year.
Students also have the opportunity to gain a Scholarship, generally in their Year 13 year.. Scholarship
is a monetary award to recognise top students. It does not attract credits nor contribute towards a
qualification but the fact that a student has gained a Scholarship appears on the Record of Learning.
The Scholarship exams enable students to be assessed against challenging standards, and are
demanding for the most able students in each subject. Scholarship students are expected to
demonstrate high-level critical thinking, abstraction and generalization, and to integrate, synthesise
and apply knowledge, skills, understanding and ideas to complex situations. At Manawatu College
students apply to sit the scholarship exams and are vetted for suitability.
Within the framework, and as well as the NCEA, students are able to work towards achieving one of a
variety of ‘National Certificates’. Some of these are subject specific (eg Computing, Tourism) while
others are of a more general nature. Like NCEA, each National Certificate requires a student to gain
a specified number of credits. These credits contribute to both the National Certificate and NCEA.
The National Certificates currently available at Manawatu College (in addition to NCEA) are:
Agriculture (Level 2), Automotive (Level 2), Computing (Levels 2, 3 & 4), Hospitality (Level 1 & 2),
Maori Te Waharoa (Level 2), Mathematics (Levels 1 & 2), Mechanical Engineering (Level 1 & 2),
Tourism & Travel (Level 2)
Course Outline/Assessment Statement
Your teacher should have given you this for each subject you are doing. It includes details of the
following:
 subject name, level and year course aims


course description

course requirements

pre-requisites for studying the subject at the next level

whether the course is endorsable and/or counts as a UE subject

for each standard offered in the course:

the registration number and version

full title

number of credits
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mode of assessment – internal or external

form of assessment - eg test, practical, seminar, speech, open book, a
process of completing a portfolio of work etc.

approximate timing of assessment
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whether the standard counts for literacy or numeracy
whether a further assessment opportunity is available
Authenticity Declaration and Privacy Act Waver
At the start of each course, you are required to sign an “Authenticity Declaration” and a “Privacy Act”
waver. By signing the “Authenticity Declaration” you promise that all work you hand in for
assessment purposes will be your own original material and the “Privacy Act” waver allows the school
to keep your work and show it to other teachers to make sure it is marked fairly, or show it to other
students as an example of what is needed. You may also be asked to reiterate that work is your own
for some standards.
Attendance Requirements
You are expected to attend class and explain absences appropriately.
Internal Moderation
After you hand in assessment material for marking, teachers are required to have the results of their
marking verified before the results are given back to you and sent to NZQA. This is to check the
accuracy of the marking and ensure only accurate results are sent to NZQA. Teachers may tell you
assessment results during this process but those results will always be “subject to moderation” and
can change, until the work has been moderated and confirmed by another teacher.
External Moderation
While you can see your marked work, your teacher has to keep your work until NZQA publish their
external moderation requirements, as it may then need to be sent off for checking by an NZQA
National Moderator. Generally, work cannot be returned to you until the next school year.
Opportunities to Demonstrate Achievement
In order to assess whether you have achieved a particular standard, teachers will gather evidence
though testing, portfolios like in Art, and so on. If you don’t achieve the standard at first, your
teachers will sometimes offer you at most one further assessment opportunity to provide other
evidence to see whether you have met the standard. This will involve a different test or assignment
or other authenticated work that you have done. Each course will show how this will be done.
If you nearly gain credit for a standard, and your teacher thinks you can gain credit by looking at your
work again without receiving any further help, they may give you the opportunity to have a
resubmission.
Appeals
You are able to lodge an appeal in the following situations:
 if you feel that your assessed or recorded result is unfair or inaccurate
 if you have not being given an opportunity to produce further evidence of achievement when
that opportunity is available to other students .
 if you believe there has been an alleged moderation inconsistency.
 any other assessment related decision such as those relating to authenticity or alleged
breaches of the rules.
To make an appeal you must firstly approach the teacher conducting the assessment (normally the
subject teacher) and discuss the problem. By mutual agreement, a satisfactory solution can usually
be worked out at this stage.
If the problem still exists, you can approach the HOD who is responsible for overseeing assessments
for that course, who will investigate the appeal. The HOD will notify you of the result in writing.
If you are still unhappy with the HOD’s decision, an appeal may be lodged with the Principal’s
Nominee (Mr Webb) who will investigate the appeal and report the results of his findings to all
concerned.
If you are still unhappy with the decision reached, an appeal may be lodged with NZQA.
Late or Missed Work
If you miss an assessment for a good reason you may be able to do the assessment task at a later
date if this is possible, or further evidence of achievement gathered by your teacher could be used to
demonstrate achievement.
Good reasons could include documented medical problems such as attending a doctor or hospital,
death of a close relative, exceptional family problems, etc.
If you are sick on the date work is due, it is your responsibility to get the work handed in on time or to
contact the college and make alternative arrangements with your teacher/Head of Department.
In special circumstances, extensions to the due date of assessment work may be granted. This may
be for either a group of students or individual students. Your teacher will make these details clear to
you. An extension will not normally exceed 3 days beyond the original deadline.
A wilful absence will be considered as intent to avoid assessment. A further assessment opportunity
will not be provided to a student who wilfully misses an assessment. If other valid, authentic standard
specific evidence is not available, a result of Not Achieved will be reported.
Derived Grades for External Standards
It is possible to apply for a derived grade if you miss sitting an external standard for a legitimate
reason, but it does require that you have sat an assessment similar to the external standard during
the school exams. You need to see the Principal’s Nominee (Mr Webb) urgently to apply for a
derived grade and collect a comprehensive form that must be completed by yourself, your doctor and
finally the school. NZQA make decisions on any derived grades.
Breaches of Rules
If you breach the authenticity rules, disrupt an assessment, cheat or pretend you are another student
you are considered to have breached the rules for NCEA.
Any incident where a student is considered to have breached the rules for internally assessed
standards is referred to the Principal’s Nominee (Mr Webb) who will investigate the situation and take
any necessary action. A breach could include being unable to verify that the work you submit for
assessment is your own.
Should the breach of the rules be upheld, you are likely to have your credits for the assessment in
question withheld until alternative evidence is available of achievement. Where more than one
student is involved in the incident, each student is likely to have his/her credits for the assessment in
question withheld. In addition, the normal school disciplinary procedures will apply.
Any incident where you are considered to have breached the rules for externally assessed standards,
will be referred to NZQA by the Exam Manager or the Principal’s Nominee. NZQA will investigate the
situation and report back to you using their procedures for breaches.
Records of your Achievement
You will be given individual copies of your results each term for checking and “signing off”, to ensure
the accuracy of results held at Manawatu College and NZQA.
NZQA Learner Login
Each student entered for NCEA has access to their results on the NZQA web site –
www.nzqa.govt.nz To access these results you first need to register on the web site using your
National Student Number (NSN) and your birth date. Your NSN is available from your teacher or will
be on your NCEA entry slip. NCEA results are only available online, and you need to order any paper
copies you want online as well. You can also check the results the school has submitted to NZQA
during the year with your learner login.
Student Portal
Students also have almost immediate access to their results via the student portal. Results are
available on this from our student management system (KAMAR) within 15 minutes of being entered
by teachers. The student portal can be assessed from the desktop icon on each school computer, or
by access www.kamar.manawatucollege.school.nz. Students use their normal login to access this
site. Parents can also have a separate login which also gives access to further information such as
attendance.
Special Assessment Conditions
Some students are eligible for special assessment conditions because of disabilities. These students
are identified by the HOD Learning Support and Special Education Service and are assisted
throughout the year for internals and in the external examinations.
Financial Assistance
Financial assistance to pay the NCEA entry fee is available to students whose parents are on a
benefit or hold a community services card. Details of eligibility are sent to each student around the
middle of the year when NCEA fees are requested.
Sources of Information and Contact
You are encouraged to see your Administration Dean or Careers Advisor at any stage to discuss
matters regarding subject choice or career advice. Your parents are encouraged to do the same.
The people to contact are:

Year 11 dean

Year 12 dean

Year 13 dean

Distance Learning Dean

Careers Advisor

STAR Co-ordinator

Principals’ Nominee
Mr S Parrant
Mrs J Richards
Mrs C Allan
Mr A Webb
Mrs S Brown
Mrs S Brown
Mr A Webb