Te Raekura Redcliffs School

Education institution number:
3483
School type:
Full Primary
School gender:
Co-Educational
Definition:
Not Applicable
Total roll:
215
Telephone:
Address:

113 Beachville Road, Redcliffs, Christchurch

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Te Raekura Redcliffs School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within ten months of the Education Review Office and Te Raekura Redcliffs School working in Te Ara Huarau, 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 

Te Raekura Redcliffs School is a full primary school located in Christchurch. It provides education for learners in years 1 to 8. The school’s values are ako | learn, tipu | growth, puāwai | flourish which aim to develop excellence, manaakitanga, resilience and responsibility. A first-time principal began at the school in 2023.

Te Raekura Redcliffs School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:

  • a localised curriculum to identify an aligned pathway through the school
  • a focus and evaluation of mathematics
  • developing digital fluency.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate the impact of its school-wide, localised curriculum development on student achievement and engagement.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is: 

  • to establish an aligned localised curriculum pathway throughout the school which is engaging for students and informed by its values, connection to its local environment, and cultural narrative
  • address disparities in achievement which have been identified for some students
  • to make learning more visible to whānau so they are engaged in and understand their child’s learning and progress across the school.

The school expects to see:

  • a localised curriculum which clearly defines learning pathways and progressions for each student
  • students engaged in their learning, able to articulate what they are learning and why, their progress and next steps
  • accelerated progress for those students identified as needing it
  • whānau connecting and engaging in their children’s learning across the school.

Strengths 

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to evaluate the impact of its school-wide, localised curriculum development on student achievement and engagement.

  • Connection to its location and environment through partnerships with Kāhui Ako and local iwi.
  • Ongoing professional learning has prioritised growing and embedding cultural capabilities in teaching and in the ways the school operates.
  • Strategic gathering of achievement and progress data identifies students’ needs and informs teachers’ practice.
  • Established wellbeing and pastoral care practices support learning.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

  • targeted professional learning to strengthen teaching practices and inform localised curriculum development and pathways
  • establishing a flexible, timely, and ongoing internal evaluation cycle to measure the impact of teaching and learning, community engagement, student achievement and progress towards equitable outcomes
  • developing a school-wide inquiry framework which engages students in learning through the values, local area, and gifted cultural narrative.

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.

Shelley Booysen 
Director of Schools

21 February 2024 

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

Te Raekura Redcliffs School

Board Assurance with Regulatory and Legislative Requirements Report 2023 to 2026

As of October 2023, the Te Raekura Redcliffs School Board 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

Actions for Compliance

ERO and the board have identified the following areas of non-compliance during the board assurance process:

  • the school needs to provide career education and guidance for all students in Year 7 and above [Section 103, Education and Training Act 2020]
  • notices prohibiting smoking and vaping at all times must be displayed in the school premises [Section 7a, Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Act 1990]

The board has since taken steps to address the areas of non-compliance identified.

Further Information

For further information please contact Te Raekura Redcliffs School, School Board.

The next School Board 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.

Shelley Booysen
Director of Schools

21 February 2024 

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

Redcliffs School - 04/09/2018

School Context

Redcliffs School is a full primary school with a roll of 189 students, 16% of whom identify as Māori. Since the 2011 earthquake, the school has been operating on the Van Asch Deaf Education Centre campus in Sumner. It will be moving back to Redcliffs to a purpose-built school on a new site in 2020.

The school’s vision, which has been recently reviewed, is Learn/Ako, Grow/Tipu, Flourish/Puawai. This is supported by the values of Manaakitanga, Responsibility, Resilience and Excellence, and by seven principles. These are the Treaty of Waitangi, Cultural Diversity, High Expectations, Inclusion, Learning to Learn, Community Engagement and Coherence.

The school’s strategic goals relate directly to its vision. These include goals focusing on preparing staff, students and the community for the new school environment. For 2018 there are five specific cohort-based achievement targets, two in mathematics and three in writing.

The school is an active member of the Aupaki Kāhui Ako|Community of Learning (CoL).

The school has a stable board and senior leadership team.

Leaders and teachers regularly report to the board schoolwide information about outcomes for students in the following areas:

  • achievement in reading, writing and mathematics
  • students with special/additional learning needs, including gifted and talented
  • progress and accelerated progress in relation to school targets
  • wellbeing
  • achievement for Māori students.

Evaluation Findings

1 Equity and excellence – achievement of valued outcomes for students

1.1 How well is the school achieving equitable and excellent outcomes for all its students?

Assessment data shows that the school is highly effective in ensuring that consistently over time, a very high number of children achieve at and above the school’s expectations in writing, reading and mathematics. All children are actively supported to achieve success in areas of ability and interest and there are equitable opportunities for all to learn.

A holistic approach to achievement ensures that the school’s values, linked to character strengths and key competencies, are part of the integrated assessment picture.

1.2 How well is the school accelerating learning for those Māori and other students who need this?

All children whose learning requires additional support are effectively identified, assessed and tracked. They receive tailored interventions and programmes, and almost all of these children achieve acceleration in their learning. Children with special learning needs are very well supported.

2 School conditions for equity and excellence – processes and practices

2.1 What school processes and practices are effective in enabling achievement of equity and excellence, and acceleration of learning?

Throughout a time of considerable post-earthquake uncertainty for the school, the board and leaders have maintained a positive, unrelenting focus on improving outcomes for children, and on the wellbeing of staff and children. Trustees and leaders are strongly aligned in their vision. This has ensured well-considered planning and change management based on a clear direction for the school and its community. The vision, values, principles and the developing graduate profile are firmly at the centre of all decision making. The board funds additional resources to implement the strategic goals and meet the needs of staff and children.

The senior leaders have adopted a distributed leadership approach that enables the building of capacity across the staff, and the acknowledgement of staff strengths. An emphasis on respectful relationships and trust is evident within the school and in the reciprocal, learning-centred partnerships that the leaders and teachers have built with parents and whānau. Parents and whānau are empowered to be actively involved in their own children’s learning and to contribute to wider school programmes.

Leaders and teachers have a holistic focus on children’s learning and wellbeing. As a result, children are engaged, confident and feel valued in a caring, collaborative and inclusive learning community. They have a strong sense of belonging and ownership. A cohesive and comprehensive wellbeing and character strength programme is in place.

Curriculum decisions are based on consultation, research and children’s feedback. Authentic contexts provide rich opportunities for learning and children are supported to develop skills and understandings to increasingly shape and direct their own learning. Learning is shared digitally with parents. The school has a strong focus on building bicultural understandings, including te ao Māori and te reo Māori. This is supported by an active whānau group.

Leaders and teachers gather, analyse and use evidence of children’s learning and outcomes to improve individual and collective practice and outcomes for children. Teaching and learning is well resourced and supported through a professional development programme that links with the school’s goals.

Strong, embedded evaluative practices are evident at board, leadership and teaching levels. Staff seek to understand and improve processes and programmes. Data is used effectively to inform decisions, and systematic internal evaluation is aligned to the school’s strategic priorities. Leaders recognise the importance of multiple voices, and in particular those of children and parents, as key resources in evaluating and planning.

2.2 What further developments are needed in school processes and practices for achievement of equity and excellence, and acceleration of learning?

The school has identified that children need to have increased ability and opportunities to direct their own learning. Teachers are working collaboratively to establish the foundations for this to happen. Leaders and teachers need to continue to develop understandings, processes and practices that enable effective student self-directed learning.

3 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
  • finance
  • 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.

4 Going forward

Key strengths of the school

For sustained improvement and future learner success, the school can draw on existing strengths in:

  • governance and leadership that sustains best outcomes for students
  • teaching and learning processes and understandings that respond to learner needs
  • an embedded culture of internal evaluation that ensures continuous improvement is prioritised.

Next steps

For sustained improvement and future learner success, priorities for further development are in:

  • continuing to develop understandings and practices that enable students to direct their learning.

ERO’s next external evaluation process and timing

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

Alan Wynyard

Director Review & Improvement Services

Te Waipounamu - Southern Region

4 September 2018

About the school

LocationChristchurch
Ministry of Education profile number3483
School typeFull primary
School roll189
Gender compositionBoys 57% : Girls 43%
Ethnic compositions

Māori 16%

Pākehā 82%

Other ethnicities 2%

Students with Ongoing Resourcing Funding (ORS)Yes
Provision of Māori medium educationNo
Review team on siteJuly 2018
Date of this report4 September 2018
Most recent ERO reports:

Education Review March 2013

Education Review October 2009