Derived Grade Examinations will take place between Wednesday 9 September and Friday 18 September.

In Week 8 of Term 3, on Wednesday, our derived grade examinations will commence. This is a very important week for our senior students and it is vital that they prepare adequately. Should a student be unable to sit their NCEA examination(s) in November, these school examinations will be used to derive a grade for them. They are also a timely snapshot into where students can make further progress before the end of the year. Please see the timetable below.

This examination series is predominantly for Year 12 – 13 students, but Year 10 will sit their Reading and Numeracy Co-Requisite Common Assessment Activities (CAAs) and Year 9 – 11 students who take NCEA Level 2 or Level 3 subjects will also sit exams.

2026 Derived Grade Exam Timetable

A more detailed timetable, including exam venues, will be available to students closer to the time. Examinations will, in most cases, be 3 hours in length and start times will be 9 am and 1 pm.

Students are expected to attempt all standards in all of their scheduled derived grade exams, unless otherwise agreed with their teacher. Voiding papers is not permitted.

Preparation is the key to minimising anxiety and stress. Failing to prepare is preparing to fail. Feeling a little bit anxious is very normal. It means that you are aware of something potentially challenging and is a signal to you to take action. If they haven’t already done so, senior students should be using the upcoming school holidays to organise their learning resources and create study plans to follow for the next 8-10 weeks. Ask your teacher if you need ideas about what effective study looks like in each of your subjects.

If you would like information and strategies to support your young person with NCEA exams, please consider attending our Parent Information Evening on Wednesday 1st July at 7 pm in the AGC – Supporting Your Son Through Externals: Proven Study and Exam Strategies. See newsletter article here.

Absences and Clashes

We do have the ability to catch up a missed derived grade exam but students need to do everything in their power to attend their exams as scheduled – rearrange work commitments, make medical appoints around your exam timings, don’t book a driving lesson when you’ve got an exam scheduled, etc. If you do need to do a catch-up exam, please arrange this with your teacher and let Miss Vreeburg know.
Note:In the November NCEA exams, there are no catch-ups!

Students who have exam clashes will have exams rescheduled and this will be reflected on their examination entry slip which will be issued in August. Once entry slips are issued, any student who has a clash or thinks there is an error with their exam schedule needs to see or email Miss Vreeburg, j.vreeburg@wc.school.nz.

Order of precedence for sorting out exam clashes:

1. Common Assessment Activity (classified as an NZQA external)

2. Language exam with a listening component

3. Digital exam

4. Paper exam containing 2 or 3 standards

5. Paper exam containing just 1 standard

6. Art or Technology portfolio workshop

7. Scholarship trial exam (scholarship exams take precedence in the November NCEA exam period but there are no derived grades available and there is no requirement for students to sit a practice exam, hence the lower order of precedence here).

Study Leave

Year 12 and Year 13 – students will have study leave (no timetabled lessons) between Wednesday 9 September and Friday 18 September, inclusive. Timetabled lessons will resume on Monday 21 September.

Year 10 – there are no timetabled lessons on Wednesday 9 September and Tuesday 15 September. Students are to work from home on these days and only come into school for their scheduled CAA. Lessons run as normal throughout the remainder of the examination period.

Year 11 – students who are reattempting CAAs will attend classes as normal in the morning and will sit their CAA in the afternoon (1 pm). When they have finished, they are expected to return to their period 5 class.

Year 9 to 11 students who take an NCEA Level 2 or 3 subject – Year 9 to 11 lessons will run as normal throughout the examination period. However, because NCEA Level 2 and 3 lessons will not be running, any students who are in these classes are to study independently in the library when their senior class would normally run. 12MCA will still run as normal throughout the examination period.

Year 9, 10 and 11 accelerated students to be given the following study leave provisions prior to sitting an NCEA Level 2 or Level 3 derived grade exam:

• 9 am exam – students to be granted study leave for period 4 and 5 on the day prior to the exam.

• 1 pm exam – students to be granted study leave for period 1, 2 and 3 on the day of the exam.

This study leave is optional and students may choose to attend their morning or afternoon classes as normal.