Marist School (Mt Albert)

Education institution number:
1359
School type:
Contributing
School gender:
Co-Educational
Definition:
Not Applicable
Total roll:
296
Telephone:
Address:

14 Kitenui Avenue, Mount Albert, Auckland

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Marist School (Mt Albert)

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 14 months of the Education Review Office and Marist School (Mt Albert) working in Te Ara Huarau (impacted by Covid lockdowns), an improvement evaluation approach used in most English Medium State and State Integrated Schools. For more information about Te Ara Huarau see ERO’s website www.ero.govt.nz

Context

Marist School is a Catholic state integrated, culturally diverse school located in Mt Albert, Auckland. The school was established in 1927 by the Marist Sisters. Marist School works within an ILE (Innovative Learning Environment) and is a school for children in years 1 to 6.

The strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:

  • Whānaungatanga: to grow a strong sense of belonging for all learners and our Marist whānau striving for excellence in wellbeing.

  • Ako: deliver an engaging and innovative curriculum that empowers faith-filled, confident, and creative learners with a focus on excellence and equity in teaching and learning.

  • Whenuatanga: provide all ākonga with high quality facilities that promote engaging and innovative learning opportunities through a future focused localised culturally responsive curriculum.

You can find a copy of the school’s strategic and annual plan on the Marist School website.

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate the effectiveness of a continued focus on belonging and wellbeing across the school’s local curriculum to ensure equitable and excellent outcomes for all ākonga | learners.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

  • the school continues to develop a local curriculum with learners and equity at the centre

  • to recognise and meet the needs of changing cultural diversity through inclusive practice

  • to support whānau engagement in any innovation or curriculum development

  • a focus on sustained, highly effective programmes for academic success for all learners. 

The school expects to see:

  • a culturally responsive localised curriculum that ensures equity and excellence

  • high quality teaching and learning practices embedded within a robust inquiry model

  • a responsive approach to gathering and analysing data that ensures progress and achievement for all learners.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support it in its goal to evaluate the effectiveness of a continued focus on belonging and wellbeing across the school’s local curriculum.

  • a committed professional staff and learning community who promote a positive learning culture

  • engaged whānau and community who actively support the school

  • embedded Catholic school values and a rich history that supports a sense of belonging

  • effective academic and pastoral care that supports the wellbeing of all learners.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

  • collaborative practice, including reviewing student achievement information to identify, plan for and support for learners

  • effective targeted professional learning and development for teachers to support the implementation of the Aotearoa New Zealand Histories Curriculum and Digital Curriculum

  • continued effective academic and pastoral care support for all learners to ensure equity and excellence.

ERO’s role will be to support the school in its evaluation for improvement cycle to improve outcomes for all learners. ERO will support the school in reporting their progress to the community. The next public report on ERO’s website will be a Te Ara Huarau | School Evaluation Report and is due within three years.

Filivaifale Jason Swann
Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern)
Northern Region | Te Tai Raki

25 November 2022 

About the School

The Education Counts website provides further information about the school’s student population, student engagement and student achievement.  educationcounts.govt.nz/home

Marist School (Mt Albert)

Board Assurance with Regulatory and Legislative Requirements Report 2022 to 2025

As of April, 2022 the Marist School (Mt Albert) Board of Trustees has attested to the following regulatory and legislative requirements:

Board Administration

Yes

Curriculum

Yes

Management of Health, Safety and Welfare

Yes

Personnel Management

Yes

Finance

Yes

Assets

Yes

Further Information

For further information please contact Marist School (Mt Albert) Board of Trustees.

The next Board of Trustees assurance that it is meeting regulatory and legislative requirements will be reported, along with the Te Ara Huarau | School Evaluation Report, within three years.

Information on ERO’s role and process in this review can be found on the Education Review Office website.

Filivaifale Jason Swann
Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern)
Northern Region | Te Tai Raki

25 November 2022 

About the School

The Education Counts website provides further information about the school’s student population, student engagement and student achievement. educationcounts.govt.nz/home

Marist School (Mt Albert) - 29/06/2017

Summary

Marist School (Mt Albert) is a Catholic Integrated School in Mount Albert, Auckland. It offers faith-based learning programmes for children in Years 1 to 6. The school charism and ‘The Marist Way’ underpin the school’s culture for learning, where kindness and compassion are valued. Marist School, Marist College, the Parish centre, St Mary’s Church and the Marist Sisters’ Convent work closely together.

While the school’s growing roll of 298 is predominantly Pākehā, it includes low numbers of Māori children and a variety of diverse cultures. The school’s small Pacific communities are represented mainly by Samoan and Tongan children, and there is a similar-sized Indian community.

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

Marist School responds effectively to support children whose progress needs acceleration. Teachers and leaders identify children who require additional support and successfully accelerate their learning progress over time. Children are well supported in their learning, and almost all achieve the National Standards by the end of Year 6.

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 include enhancing leadership systems and structures and promoting greater consistency in teaching and learning. School leaders need to take more deliberate actions at all levels. Strengthening the school’s approach to evidence-based evaluation will help with this development.

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?

The majority of children achieve well and make appropriate progress. Well analysed achievement information guides the board and leaders’ resourcing of interventions, and contributes to further progress over time. There is a clear focus on promoting the key competencies of TheNew Zealand Curriculumand on developing skills for lifelong learning. Very few children achieve below National Standards by the end of Year 6.

The school fosters and celebrates a range of positive educational outcomes stated in the charter. The ‘Marist Way’ vision guides all aspects of learning, underpinned by the school’s special character. Children demonstrate a strong sense of belonging and confidence in their Catholic identity. They have many formal and informal opportunities to act with care and empathy within the school, parish and wider global environments. All those in Year 6 also have specific school-wide leadership roles.

School conditions supporting equity and excellence

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

As stewards, the board of trustees demonstrate a deep commitment to serving the school within the parish community. Collectively, trustees also bring significant professional expertise to their role. They are proactive in requesting and questioning information from leaders and suggesting further improvements to policy and practice. Trustees are strongly supportive of learning and wellbeing priorities, and are keen to refine parent consultation in upcoming internal evaluations.

Strong Marist values of equity, excellence, integrity and respect underpin the school culture, and are a key foundation for practice at all levels of the school. Guiding charter and strategic documents set direction, goals and priorities to promote children’s achievement of their potential as confident lifelong learners. The board plans to review the charter and guiding documents in 2017, to reflect newly implemented approaches to teaching and learning as a result of teachers’ professional learning (PLD).

Senior leaders have worked proactively to further develop the curriculum since the 2014 ERO review. Good quality whole-staff PLD has impacted positively on practices at all levels and has had a strong impact on the use and reliability of assessment. There is a greater focus on teachers and children sharing and discussing goals, with an expectation that teachers inquire more deeply into their practice to help accelerate the progress of children who need targeted support. These developing approaches are still variable across the school.

New systems and structures have been created to develop staff leadership, capability and consistency. A more robust teacher performance appraisal process is now in place. A ‘teaching as inquiry’ approach is also being trialled and developed in 2017. These initiatives are at an early stage and need now to be fully enacted.

Sustainable development for equity and excellence

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

While teaching practices continue to evolve and provide greater opportunities for children to develop ownership over their learning, guiding documents have not kept pace with change. Consistency in the implementation of these new teaching practices also varies across the school. Leaders need to enact systems that are designed more purposefully to grow professional capability, and to develop, embed and evaluate change.

Leadership of more systematic, deliberate and tailored actions at team and class levels would enhance the quality and consistency of classroom programmes for priority learners. These actions would include a greater consideration of children’s languages and cultural identity in planning responsive programmes. An increasedfocus on analysing data to show achievement trends and patterns over time would help senior and middle leaders to hone planning and target setting. It would be worthwhile to formalise opportunities for teams to work collaboratively, using data to plan, assess and evaluate teaching and learning for target students.

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.

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 achievement.

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:

  • enhance leadership systems and structures to grow professional capability and promote consistency in teaching and learning with more deliberate, planned and purposeful actions

  • increase student involvement in goal setting and assessment

  • increase the extent to which internal evaluation is planned and evidence based.

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

Violet Tu’uga Stevenson

Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern (Acting)

29 June 2017

About the school 

Location

Auckland

Ministry of Education profile number

1359

School type

Integrated Contributing Years 1 to 6

School roll

298

Gender composition

Boys 50% Girls 50%

Ethnic composition

Māori
Pākehā
Indian
Pacific
Filipino
other

3%
66%
8%
8%
5%
10%

Provision of Māori medium education

No

Review team on site

May 2017

Date of this report

29 June 2017

Most recent ERO report(s)

Education Report
Education Report
Education Report

June 2014
May 2010
May 2007

 ERO has also published an exemplar report on Marist School (Mt Albert): Exemplar Review - Marist School (Mt Albert) - June 2018