Editor Simon Wilson wrote that academic results are critically important, but the best measure of a school is its character.

"In the sense that it takes a village to raise a child, good schools actively foster a community of home and school where each supports the other and they share each others' values."

Wilson cites Catholic schools as "the shining example".

"Pretty much every Catholic school in Auckland is doing remarkably well academically", he notes.

"One big reason is the ready-built home/school relationship they have through the church.

"It provides a set of shared values and an active commitment to each other."

Wilson writes that secular schools can achieve these things too and many do.

"But often it doesn't come so easily to them."

In considering the schools' academic performance, Metro grouped them in decile rankings or noted they were private.

Two Mercy schools, Carmel College on the North Shore and McAuley High School in Otahuhu, were singled out for praise.

Decile 10 Carmel was described as "outstanding", with special note taken that "almost nobody left school without at least [NCEA] level 2".

Decile one McAuley was labelled "a phenomenon", with three quarters of school leavers having level 3 NCEA qualifications.

"There's another pattern in these results. Most of the outstanding schools are Catholic," Wilson wrote.

The article stated there was no one reason for this, before citing the same deduction as its editorial - strong school/family/church ties make a difference.

Elsewhere in Metro, a columnist noted the editor's belief that their annual school edition is the monthly magazine's best selling one for the year.

Source

• Metro
• Image: stuff.co.nz

Catholic schools of all kinds dominate the top places in the latest Metro analysis of Auckland schools: boys' schools, girls' schools and co-ed schools; high decile and low decile schools. Wilson says these results are a stark contrast to a generation ago when Catholic schools were often at the bottom of performance standards.

But Waikato University Education professor Martin Thrupp said it was misleading to assume Catholic schools are better.

He says statistically modeling is a very sophisticated task, something that even academics have struggled with and the way Metro does it is "so crude and they're wrong to do it."

"Just because the school is top of the pops in the league tables doesn't necessarily mean it will be right for your child. They might not fit the culture of the school," he said.

"I wouldn't pay it too much attention myself, there's other more rounded forms of information like ERO reports."

The CEO of the New Zealand Catholic Education Office thinks that the Christian faith accounts for the academic success of Catholic schools.

Brother Patrick Lynch says that fundamentally a Catholic school "emphasises spirituality, faith, values, attitude, that builds a culture with the families to provide the youngsters a reason for living.

"Once you get those parameters in place it's easier to concentrate on high expectations - when you've got good leadership in schools you've got a better chance of actually delivering a better set of outcomes."

McAuley High School, a decile one school for girls in Otahuhu, has topped the tables this year. The magazine warns that this is not the same as saying it had the highest proportion of success in exams; it was the school most likely to improve its students' performance in exams

The highest proportion of success in exams according to Metro, belongs to three schools: St Cuthbert's College in NCEA exams, ACG Senior College in the Cambridge exams, and ACG Parnell College in University Entrance.

There are ten deciles and around 10% of schools are in each decile. Decile one schools have the highest proportion of students from low socio-economic backgrounds whereas decile ten schools have the highest proportion of students from high socio-economic backgrounds.