Tena koutou katoa. Nga mihi nui atawhai.

Ridiculously good – yet again! While there was concern about student achievement because of 2020 being such a disruptive year and our Auckland schools enduring two lockdowns, our incredibly resilient students and our dedicated staff have ensured that our NCEA results continue to be nothing short of spectacular.

Our Level 1 literacy (100%) and numeracy rates (99.2%) showed that all the students achieve a very solid educational foundation. The percentage pass rates of L1 (96.9%), L2 (97.1%), L3 (96%) and UE (86.4%), when compared to same decile schools, show we exceed those results by 12% and up to 22%.

With our Excellence endorsed NCEA certificates (students have to gain 50 credits or more at Excellence), L1 = 61.6%, L2 = 52.6% and L3 = 50.8%, showed that in L1, L2 and L3, over half of our students gained this Excellence endorsement. At all levels, this endorsement rate was more than double the comparative Decile 8-10 schools.

With endorsed NCEA certificates (students have to gain 50 credits or more at Excellence and Merit), L1 = 88.6%, L2 = 89.4% and L3 = 79.1%. That means, for L1 and L2, nearly 9 out of 10 students gained an endorsement and at L3, 4 out of 5 students gained an endorsement.

23 of our Year 13 students gained 29 scholarships, 3 of them Outstanding (in the top 5% of NZ).

We are especially proud of these academic achievements for 2020 – these students worked particularly hard to overcome a very difficult year.

A HUGE thank you to all the staff at Carmel who dedicated countless additional hours to supporting all of our students, not just academically but also pastorally and spiritually.

We also know that our wider Carmel community, especially the whanau of these students, gave additional love and care to enable our girls to focus on their learning when it really mattered. Thank you.

‘Gratitude and hard work: these are the two pillars of the spiritual life ….’ Pope Francis.