Marist Catholic School (Herne Bay) - 15/05/2017

Summary

Marist Catholic School (Herne Bay) is a state integrated school catering for children from Years 1 to 6. The roll of approximately 200 students includes 55 percent Pākehā, six percent Māori, 28 percent Pacific, five percent Filipino and a variety of other ethnicities.

Since the 2014 ERO review, a new principal has been appointed and the senior leadership restructured. Half of the teaching staff have been appointed since the beginning of 2015. Two-thirds of the current board of trustees were new to their governance role in 2016. School leaders and the board are successfully building on the connections and relationships established with the school community, and the wider Catholic education community, to support educational improvement.

The school has benefited from guidance from the Ministry of Education (MoE) to help leaders and the community establish a new vision and strategic plan. Teachers have taken advantage of MoE professional learning and development related to innovative approaches to teaching and learning. They are exploring different ways to support children to lead their own learning.

Publicly available achievement information indicates that since 2013 the school has sustained high levels of student achievement, with more than 85 percent of students achieving at or above the National Standards. All Māori students achieved at or above the National Standards in 2015 and 2016.

How well is the school achieving equitable outcomes for all children?

The school is making good progress towards achieving equitable outcomes for all children. At the time of this review most students were achieving very well. In addition, evidence indicates that most students whose progress needs acceleration are being well catered for.

School personnel are working collaboratively to sustain a school culture that supports all learners to succeed. School leaders and teachers know the children and their learning levels in relation to the National Standards. Relevant classroom-based initiatives and other support programmes are provided for children whose learning needs acceleration.

Processes are in place to improve the school curriculum and its delivery. Partnerships with parents are being strengthened. School leaders recognise the need to embed and sustain the improvements that have been introduced. Strengthening internal evaluation to monitor the impact of these improvements would support sustainability and ongoing development.

Most children are achieving well. The school demonstrates strong progress toward achieving equity in educational outcomes, supported by effective, sustainable processes and practices.

Agreed next steps are to:

continue to develop strong internal evaluation processes to guide planned self review
evaluate progress towards strategic goals to identify areas for on-going improvement
continue to develop teaching practices that support children to take ownership of their own learning
continue to refine assessment practices including through moderation with other schools.

ERO is likely to carry out the next review in three years.

Equity and excellence

How effectively does this school respond to Māori and other children whose learning and achievement need acceleration?

At the time of this review the school’s curriculum and teaching programmes were becoming more effective at supporting children to achieve the valued learning outcomes identified in the school’s charter and the New Zealand Curriculum (NZC). Children demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the school’s RICH values of respect, integrity, courage, and humility, the school’s Māori values of arohatanga, manaakitanga, whanaungatanga, and of the key competencies of the NZC.

The school reports to parents about their children’s learning in relation to the NZC key competencies. No information is gathered about trends and patterns related to learning beyond the National Standards.

Data from 2013 to 2016 show that the school has sustained overall levels of achievement in the National Standards in reading, writing and mathematics for most children, and especially Māori children, as they move through the year levels. All Māori students are achieving at or above the National Standards in reading, writing and mathematics.

The school is able to show that it is accelerating the progress of most children at risk of not achieving the National Standards through well targeted teaching and support programmes.

Pacific students achieve well in mathematics. The school has identified disparity for these children in writing achievement. Their achievement improves in reading and mathematics as they move through the year levels and all achieve at or above the National Standards in Years 5 and 6. In 2016 almost 90 percent of Year 6 Pacific students achieved the National Standards in writing.

There are good processes for ensuring that overall teacher judgements for the National Standards are reliable. Teachers use a variety of assessment information and share this information when confirming their judgements. This process will be further strengthened when teachers moderate assessment information with other schools.

School conditions supporting equity and excellence

What school processes are effective in enabling achievement of equity and excellence?

School leadership and sound partnerships with parents and the community are helping the school to achieve excellence and equity for all children. The board and school leaders are building on established connections and relationships with the school community, and the wider Catholic education community, to support educational improvement.

The school’s leaders promote and support equity and excellence. They know children and their achievement levels well. The principal monitors the progress of individual children as well as school-wide achievement trends and patterns.

Senior leaders have high expectations of children and teachers. They support teachers to know about the achievement of their students. They are systematically building a professional culture. Useful processes encourage teachers to reflect on their practice, share their knowledge of effective teaching and its impact on children’s learning.

Teachers are changing the way they use achievement information with children to increase children’s knowledge about their own progress and achievement. Children and teachers are making greater use of digital information and communication technologies to support learning.

The school’s curriculum is being reviewed and significant curriculum changes to support equity and excellence are being embedded. Some changes are likely to contribute to children being better placed to direct and manage their own learning.

Teachers are trialling a more collaborative approach to teaching and learning in preparation for the new learning environments that are currently being built. Relevant professional learning and development is being provided for teachers. Some useful quality assurance systems are in place to monitor the impact of these changes.

Sustainable development for equity and excellence

What further developments are needed in school processes to achieve equity and excellence?

Senior leaders are aware that they now need to embed recent significant developments in order to sustain and support equity and excellence.

Strengthening internal evaluation is a priority. This would help school leaders and teachers to determine the extent to which intended outcomes are being achieved and sustained. The ‘spiral of inquiry’ approach that is part of the school’s appraisal process is a useful tool to support internal evaluation. This approach is helping teachers to assess the impact of their teaching on the groups of children that need to accelerate their progress.

Board assurance on legal requirements

Before the review, the board and principal of the school completed the ERO board assurance statement and self-audit checklists. In these documents they attested that they had taken all reasonable steps to meet their legislative obligations related to the following:

board administration
curriculum
management of health, safety and welfare
personnel management
asset management.

During the review, ERO checked the following items because they have a potentially high impact on student safety and wellbeing:

emotional safety of students (including prevention of bullying and sexual harassment)
physical safety of students
teacher registration and certification
processes for appointing staff
stand down, suspension, expulsion and exclusion of students
attendance
school policies in relation to meeting the requirements of the Vulnerable Children Act 2014.

Provision for international students

The school is a signatory to the Education (Pastoral Care of International Students) Code of Practice 2016 established under section 238F of the Education Act 1989. The school has attested that it complies with all aspects of the Code.

No international students were enrolled at the time of the ERO review.

Going forward

How well placed is the school to accelerate the achievement of all children who need it?

The school is well placed to accelerate the achievement of all children who need it.