St Patrick's School (Inglewood)

School Context

St Patrick’s School (Inglewood) has students in Years 1 to 8. The school is supported by a strong Catholic community. At the time of this ERO review there are 83 students on the roll and 11 are Māori.

The school’s mission, to ‘create children prepared for the future’, is supported by the school’s values and linked to the key competencies of the New Zealand Curriculum.

The first-time principal took up her position in Term 3, 2017. There have been changes of staff and to the board of trustees since the July 2015 ERO report.

The 2018-2020 strategic plan gives priority to ongoing improvement in student outcomes. Current goals and targets include a strategic focus on raising achievement and accelerating learning in reading, writing and mathematics.

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

• reading, writing and mathematics in relation to the levels of theNew Zealand Curriculum
• target learners’ progress
• intervention programmes, including reading recovery
• wellbeing.

For leaders’ and teachers’ professional learning and development, the major areas of focus in 2018 is mathematics.

St Patrick’s School is part of the Inglewood Kāhui Ako. Its current areas of focus are mathematics, transitions, partnerships and children with additional needs.

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?

School reported information identifies a successful response to supporting all students in achieving equity and excellence. Reading is a strength, with most students achieving at and above expectation. In writing both Māori and girls achieve higher than their peers. Data shows declining achievement for Māori and girls in mathematics.

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

The school is developing its effectiveness in responding to Māori and other children whose learning and achievement need acceleration. Target students are clearly identified in reading, writing and mathematics. Almost all students, including Māori, identified at the start of 2018 for targeted teaching in mathematics are making significant progress towards achievement of school expectations by the end of Term 2.

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?

The new principal has appropriately given priority to building effective processes and practices for teaching and learning. A collaboratively developed strategic plan with goals and targets strongly focuses on equity and excellence. The plan appropriately aligns schoolwide goals with teaching practices, appraisal and staff professional development.

Leadership has established a supportive environment with trust, participation and collaboration evident at many levels of the school community. The learning and teaching environments are characterised by respect, empathy, cooperation and teamwork, reflective of the school’s special character. The school enjoys high levels of parent support and participation at events and celebrations.

Leaders and teachers are strongly focused on ensuring schoolwide practices and processes promote students’ voice and enable them to learn and achieve at appropriate levels. Needs and strengths of children are identified and responded to through relevant interventions and a range of internal and external supports. Specific plans are developed for children with more complex needs.

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

The school should continue to review and develop the curriculum and delivery guidelines, to support the enactment of its vision for successful learning. Review should prioritise the role of the learner in relation to the vision, values and key competencies of the New Zealand Curriculum. The focus for strengthening teaching and learning should include development of opportunities for students to lead and assess their own learning.

Te ao Māori is promoted well through the special character of the school. Acknowledgement of culture, language and identity is being further strengthened. The reviewed curriculum should reflect the commitment to ensuring te ao Māori is valued and interwoven throughout learning.

Practices and processes for tracking and monitoring students are now in place. Further development of teachers’ understanding of new assessment practices, combined with focused teaching and interventions should strengthen outcomes in equity and excellence. These developments should be underpinned by ongoing internal evaluation to systematically determine what is working well to promote valued outcomes, what is not, and what needs to change.

The school’s appraisal process has undergone a number of changes over the past year. Trustees should ensure appraisal is completed annually to a satisfactory level.

There are coherent, aligned, organisational processes and practices in place, that when embedded should lead to sustained improvement in learning and teaching. Trustees continue to seek relevant advice and resources to support them and strengthen their understanding of roles through training and sharing responsibilities.

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:

• a positive and respectful learning environment and conditions that support students’ engagement
• regular identification of, and support for, the learning needs of individual students to promote achievement of equitable outcomes
• lifting collective capability through teacher inquiry and professional development.

Next steps

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

• effective implementation of a curriculum that enacts its vision for teaching and learning
• strengthening collective understanding and effective use of systematic evaluation to support leaders, trustees and teachers to know what is working well and what needs to change to improve outcomes for all children. [ERO will provide an internal evaluation workshop for trustees and senior leaders.]

ERO’s next external evaluation process and timing

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

Patricia Davey

Deputy Chief Review Officer Central (Acting)

Te Tai Pokapū - Central Region

6 July 2018

About the school