St Joseph's Catholic School (Matamata)

St Joseph’s Catholic School (Matamata)

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 14 months of the Education Review Office and St Joseph’s Catholic School (Matamata) 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 

St Joseph’s Catholic School is a state-integrated full primary located in the township of Matamata. The school’s vison is to provide future-focused education in a Catholic environment.

St Joseph’s Catholic School (Matamata)’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:

  • Living; the school community will be active members of society who work for the Common Good by caring for all of God’s creation.

  • Loving; the school community will demonstrate Faith in Action through service, compassion, and respect for human dignity.

  • Learning: akonga/learners will be curious, creative, and reflective problem-solvers with strong communication and collaboration skills

You can find a copy of the school’s strategic and annual plan on St Joseph’s Catholic School (Matamata)’s website.

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how effectively the focus on building learner agency has led to improved student outcomes.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

  • progressing the clear strategic goal that akonga /learners will be curious, creative, and reflective problem-solvers with strong communication and collaboration skills. The evaluation focus supports this annual target by closing the evaluative loop, linking student outcomes to the interventions in place

  • the evaluation will provide greater insight into some of the contributing factors to student progress.

The school expects to see:

  • learners setting clear, realistic and achievable goals

  • students’ voice articulating their goals, next steps and achievements

  • teachers supporting students to reflect effectively on their learning.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to improve student outcomes through increasing students’ understanding of their own learning.

  • clear strategic goals and annual targets that are student focused and promote the special character of the school

  • good use of student achievement data to inform teaching practice and curriculum development.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

  • building teacher capability to more effectively plan for differentiation to meet the learning needs of all students

  • clearly develop assessment practices to focus on students’ skills and progression.

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 July 2023 

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

St Joseph’s Catholic School (Matamata)

Board Assurance with Regulatory and Legislative Requirements Report 2022 to 2025

As of November 2022, the St Joseph’s Catholic School (Matamata) 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 St Joseph’s Catholic School (Matamata) 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.

Shelley Booysen
Director of Schools

21 July 2023 

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

St Joseph's Catholic School (Matamata) - 27/06/2017

Summary

St Joseph’s Catholic School (Matamata) is a state integrated full primary school catering for children in Years 1 to 8. The current roll of 24 includes six Māori children. Since 2014 the school roll has remained stable.

Since the previous ERO review in 2014 the principal has remained the same and a new teacher appointed. The chairperson continues in the role. Most of the other board members are new to their roles.

The board and principal have a clear picture of overall achievement in the school. There has been steady improvement in achievement in reading, writing and mathematics for all children from 2014 to 2016. Most children are achieving at or above national expectations.

The school is a member of the Matamata Community of Learning | Kāhui Ako.

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

St Joseph’s Catholic School responds well to children whose learning and achievement need acceleration.

Some school processes are effective in enabling the achievement of equity and excellence for all children.

Further development of internal evaluation and practices to build teacher capability is needed to achieve equity and excellence.

At the time of this review, the school’s achievement information shows that most children are achieving at or above the National Standards in reading, writing and mathematics. Proportionally Māori children achieve at similar levels to other groups of children in writing and mathematics, and slightly lower in reading.

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 build and consistently imbed teaching practice in relation to the teaching of literacy, mathematics and language, culture and identity for Māori

  • strengthen internal evaluation systems including appraisal and teaching as inquiry.

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?

St Joseph’s Catholic School responds well to children whose learning and achievement need acceleration.

School achievement information shows that most children achieve at or above the National Standards in reading, writing and mathematics. Proportionally Māori children achieve at similar levels to other groups of children in writing and mathematics, and slightly lower in reading.

The school has effective systems for the prompt identification of individual children requiring additional learning support. Individual education plans document specific learning needs, goals and programmes. Teachers track and report expected and accelerated rates of progress for these children.

The school has developed useful moderation processes to support teachers to make dependable judgements in relation to the National Standards. An appropriate range of assessment tools are used by teachers to identify children at-risk of not achieving and to monitor progress and achievement.

School conditions supporting equity and excellence

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

Some school processes are effective in enabling the school to achieve equity and excellence for all children.

The principal is knowledgeable and clearly focused on improving outcomes for children. Teachers work collaboratively to respond to the aspirations of children and their whānau. The principal successfully leads the implementation of the school’s special Catholic character. Leadership for learning is contributing to raising children’s levels of achievement.

Trustees use achievement information to inform decision making about resourcing to meet the needs of all children, and in particular those achieving below National Standards. Trustees engage and support children and their families to access all aspects of the curriculum. Responsive stewardship contributes to equitable and excellent outcomes for children.

The school’s curriculum is responsive to accelerating children’s learning. The school’s special character is highly evident and is underpinned by agreed values and virtues. The strengths of the school’s curriculum include:

  • the effective use of the shared learning space
  • appropriate emphasis on mathematics and literacy learning
  • opportunities for children to experience success in sporting activities and participate in the local and wider community
  • positive and respectful relationships among teachers, children and their whānau.

Children benefit from a personalised approach to their learning within a broad and rich curriculum. 

Sustainable development for equity and excellence

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

Further development of internal evaluation and practices to build teacher capability is needed to achieve equity and excellence.

The board and principal need to strategically plan to build teacher capability through the provision of targeted professional learning and development, teaching as inquiry and the appraisal process.

Internal evaluation practices are not well embedded. Leaders and teachers need to make better use of achievement information to identify and monitor the rates of progress for groups and individual children. Teachers need consistently to reflect on and share the effectiveness of their practices in accelerating the progress of at-risk learners.

The school’s appraisal process is not providing teachers with regular, formally documented feedback about the effectiveness of their teaching practices. The board and staff have not considered the principles of Ministry of Education document Tātaiako to support a more culturally responsive curriculum and teaching practices.

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?

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 build and consistently imbed teaching practice in relation to the teaching of literacy, mathematics and language, culture and identity for Māori
  • strengthen internal evaluation systems including appraisal and teaching as inquiry.

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

Lynda Pura-Watson

Deputy Chief Review Officer Waikato / Bay of Plenty

27 June 2017

About the school 

Location

Matamata

Ministry of Education profile number

1947

School type

Full Primary (Years 1 to 8)

School roll

24

Gender composition

Boys 13 Girls 11

Ethnic composition

Pākehā 14
Māori 6
Other 4

Provision of Māori medium education

No

Review team on site

March 2017

Date of this report

27 June 2017

Most recent ERO report(s)

Education Review May 2014
Education Review June 2011
Education Review June 2008