Thirteen Schools with the Secret Sauce for Improvement
Looking at the University Entrance for Leavers Data for every high school in NZ it becomes clear that there are some good things happening.
The following shows significant improvement in outcomes for thirteen schools. For schools that are struggling, Ministry officials, policy makers, etc – it would be well worth beating a path to the doors of these schools to find out what has helped so much.
| School | 2018 % of Leavers with UE | 2024 % of Leavers with UE |
| Craighead Diocesan School | 73.1 | 92.4 |
| Marist College | 69.2 | 91.7 |
| Liston College | 60.2 | 85.3 |
| St Peter’s School (Cambridge) | 62.5 | 83.1 |
| St Dominics College | 58.1 | 81.4 |
| St Catherines (Kilbirnie) | 55.6 | 80.5 |
| Auckland Girls Grammar | 41.7 | 73.8 |
| St Paul’s Ponsonby | 55.8 | 72.9 |
| Ruawai College | 18.8 | 66.7 |
| St Thomas of Canterbury | 29.7 | 63.6 |
| Francis Douglas Memorial | 41.2 | 62.6 |
| Golden Bay High School | 22.5 | 56.5 |
| Amuri Area School | 12.5 | 51.4 |
Each year I process a full data set that cover every high school in NZ. It is their leavers data and shows the qualifications their students left with in 2024 (whatever level they leave at).
It presents a far more accurate picture than the year level data schools publish in February.
For every high school the process looks at in ranked order (including their Equity Index Number – which replaced “deciles”)
– School size
– NCEA Level 2 and 3 for Leavers (for all schools)
– University Entrance (UE) for Leavers (for all schools)
– The gap between L3 and UE (for all schools)
– The gaps – by school and aggregate – between ethnicities.
– Retention until 17 years of age (for all schools)
– Progression to Degree Level study (for all schools)
– Data split between the EQI 10ths (for all schools)
– Data that shows which schools are thriving above their demographics
– Case study data on the Super 8 Boys’ Schools and the 13 Boys’ Schools in the South Island seeking improvement
– System wide data gender, ethnicity, etc.
(NB: The UE statistics include equivalents for Cambridge and IB).
For those who would like the data set please email me: [email protected]
- if it is for personal use – a donation is appreciated.
- if it is for professional/business/school use – the costs is $350 (plus GST) I will send the data set with an invoice.