Ponsonby Intermediate - 03/05/2017

Summary

Ponsonby Intermediate caters for Year 7 and 8 students. The school has a positive profile in its community and has a growing roll. Six percent of children are Māori and six percent have Pacific heritage.

Since ERO’s 2011 evaluation the board has successfully managed a period of leadership change. A new principal was appointed in 2016. The new principal has created a wider senior leadership team, which has had a strong focus on developing a more strategic approach to responding to students’ hauora/wellbeing.

Wide consultation with school community has resulted in the development of a new vision statement ‘articulate, energised achievers, ready for the future’. This vision is highly evident in student outcomes. Learners demonstrate high levels of social and emotional competence and are achieving very well. They are curious, enjoy intellectual engagement and confidently tackle challenging learning tasks.

The school has established a specialist subject teaching model as a framework for implementing all of the learning areas of The New Zealand Curriculum (NZC). This comprehensive and useful model is well embedded in the school.

Since the 2011 ERO evaluation the school has revitalised its approach to responding to all children whose learning and achievement need accelerating. This approach is well planned and coordinated across all curriculum areas and is very well supported and implemented by school leaders and teachers.

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

The school is very effectively achieving excellent educational outcomes for children, including Māori, in relation to National Standards. School performance has been sustained over time through well-focused, embedded processes and practices.

The school has successfully addressed in-school disparity in educational outcomes for Māori. In consultation with the Pacific community, school leaders and teachers are also successfully supporting Pacific children to achieve well.

School leadership is strongly ethical and professional. Leaders have a strategic focus on ensuring all children have equitable opportunities to learn. School internal evaluation is robust and used well to drive school improvement.

Children experience personalised learning pathways where teaching approaches respond very well to their particular strengths and next learning steps. High levels of student engagement in learning are evident and contribute to children achieving excellent educational outcomes.

Agreed next steps are:

to continue monitoring the progress of all groups of students, including Pacific learners through refined target setting
to explore further how culturally responsive teaching practices can shape future curriculum developments.

ERO is likely to carry out the next review in four-to-five years.

Equity and excellence

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

The school’s curriculum and teaching programmes very effectively support children to achieve the valued learning outcomes identified in the school’s charter and the NZC. The school’s vision statement of ‘articulate, energised achievers, ready for the future’ is highly evident in student outcomes. The vision is explicitly taught through the school values of ‘growth through learning; experiencing ourselves; making connections and showing respect for other people’.

Children demonstrate high levels of social and emotional competence. They are curious, enjoy intellectual engagement and confidently tackle challenging learning tasks. They welcome the growing number of leadership opportunities they are offered and are well supported to be ethical decision makers as they prepare to be good global citizens.

As part of shaping exciting future curriculum developments it would be worthwhile for leaders and teachers to continue exploring how to infuse students’ language, culture and identity into curriculum programmes. This has the potential to promote further learning for students by building on, and bridging from what is familiar and relevant in their lives, to new learning.

Public achievement information shows that overall the school is very effectively achieving excellent educational outcomes for children, including Māori learners, in relation to National Standards. In reading and mathematics the school consistently has more than 85 percent of children achieving at or above the National Standards by the end of their senior primary year.

Data shows that overall achievement in writing has lifted and the school continues to make good progress in this area. Improving Māori learners’ achievement in writing has been a focus. In 2015 and 2016 more than 85 percent of Māori learners were achieving at or above the National Standards.

The school has identified the need to continue improving academic outcomes for Pacific students. There has been incremental improvement in their overall achievement in reading and writing, between 2013 and 2016. However, this group’s achievement levels in mathematics have remained the same. The school has good planning in place to address these matters.

The school has robust process for ensuring overall teacher judgements about student achievement in relation to the National Standards are robust. School leaders continue to evaluate assessment practices to ensure the school’s publicly reported data is dependable.

School conditions supporting equity and excellence

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

The school’s processes and actions are very effective in helping to achieve excellence and equity for all learners. This can be attributed to the school’s leadership for equity and excellence; a responsive curriculum, effective teaching and good opportunities to learn; and internal evaluation, inquiry and knowledge building for improvement and innovation.

Very strong ethical and professional leadership is evident. A new, energised, and broader leadership team is responsive, open to new learning and improvement focused. This team is consolidating the strengths of the school and establishing more consistent expectations to support the promotion of the school’s values. Leaders are strategic in ensuring all children are given equitable opportunities to learn. They have a strong focus on developing confident professional teachers as learners, within a collaborative learning community.

Children experience a broad range of learning opportunities that build on the ‘Ponsonby Experience’ and reflect the intent of the NZC. Priority is given to English, mathematics, and science with ‘Hauora’ at the centre of all curriculum decisions. Teachers are very well supported to deliver the curriculum . Children experience personalised learning pathways through effective differentiated teaching and learning approaches. Students are highly engaged and interested in their learning.

The board shows a long-term commitment to all Māori children benefiting from quality teaching and learning programmes and experiencing curriculum opportunities to achieve as Māori. The school has a vibrant kapa haka and offers enrichment learning opportunities through the Awataha Marae. Te reo Māori is a compulsory component of the school’s languages programme. The sustainability of these initiatives is supported by strategic personnel appointments, and the board’s monitoring of progress through the school’s Ka Hikitia: Accelerating Success 2013 - 2017 strategic plan.

School internal evaluation is robust and used well to drive school improvement. Multiple voices, including those of the community and students, contribute to evaluation processes. The outcomes of school review contribute to changes in thinking and behaviour and result in positive outcomes for children. High levels of trust are apparent at every level of the school, supporting collaboration, risk taking and openness to change.

Sustainable development for equity and excellence

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

The school has a revitalised approach to responding to all children whose learning and achievement need accelerating. The approach is:

well planned and coordinated across all curriculum areas
building learning partnership with parents and whānau
underpinned by Hautū: Māori Cultural Responsiveness Self Review tool for Board of Trustees and student wellbeing

supported by a strong multi layered approach to student transitions
supported by high levels of vigilance and monitoring by school leaders and teachers.

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 (the Code) established under section 238F of the Education Act 1989. The school has attested that it complies with all aspects of the Code. At the time of this review there were seven international students attending the school.

The school provides its international students with a very good standard of education that includes English language tuition. Students benefit from the school’s strong pastoral care systems and enjoy many opportunities to participate in school activities. A more systematic approach to policy review to ensure that the documentation of all practices is current, should support greater coherence and sustainable systems for the provision and care of international students.

Going forward

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

Children are achieving excellent educational outcomes. School performance has been sustained over time through well-focused, embedded processes and practices. This school has successfully addressed in-school disparity in educational outcomes.