St Peter's School (Beckenham)

St Peter's School (Beckenham)

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within twelve months of the Education Review Office and St Peter’s School (Beckenham) 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 Peter’s School (Beckenham) is a Catholic primary school located in Christchurch and caters for students in Years 1-8.

St Peter’s School (Beckenham)’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are to:

  • enable students to access the New Zealand Curriculum and the New Zealand Religious Education Curriculum as evidenced by their progress and achievement in relation to their relevant curriculum levels

  • strengthen and embed the Catholic/RNDM values within the school community and to nurture each student's faith journey so that they are confident in the practices of the Catholic Church

  • develop a responsive and inclusive curriculum that supports all students to become confident, connected, actively involved, lifelong learners and which includes whānau involvement.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate to what extent changes in assessment practices at St Peters lead to improved excellence and equity in achievement outcomes for all students. 

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

  • teachers would like to refine and use assessment for learning to clearly establish next steps in learning for students and inform deliberate acts of teaching

  • the school would like to further develop its use of the Student Management System to track and monitor assessment information

  • teachers wish to build their capability around expectations for learning across curriculum levels 1-4, assessment, and moderation processes.

The school expects that enhanced teacher moderation of students' work against expected outcomes for learning and in-depth analysis of assessment information, will enhance teachers' capability to describe student achievement against curriculum levels and provide students with well-defined next steps for future learning. 

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support the school in its goal to achieve excellent and equitable achievement outcomes for all students:

  • school leadership supports building teacher capacity to carry out evaluation and inquiry for sustained improvement related to the school’s vision, goals and targets for equity and excellence

  • school wide commitment to growing the capability of the staff to support and promote student achievement and engagement

  • students’ background, culture, strengths, knowledge, and interest are known, valued, and affirmed.  

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise building teacher capability and capacity related to:  

  • curriculum content, levels, and progression  

  • assessment and moderation practice 

  • reporting against curriculum levels

  • identifying next steps for learning 

  • developing robust systems for the analysis of achievement data and reporting. 

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.

Dr Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini

25 July 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

St Peter's School (Beckenham)

Board Assurance with Regulatory and Legislative Requirements Report 2022 to 2025

As of March 2022, the St Peter’s School (Beckenham) 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 Peter’s School (Beckenham) 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.

Dr Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini

25 July 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

St Peter's School (Beckenham) - 20/11/2017

Summary

St Peter’s School is a Year 1 to 8 Catholic school with a roll of 165 children. It is culturally diverse, and includes a small number of Māori and Pacific children.

The school has made significant progress in some of the areas identified for review and development in the 2013 ERO review. These include improved principal appraisal, curriculum provision, strategic planning and community consultation. There have been several changes of board chair and trustees since the last ERO review. Some trustees are new to their roles.

The school is part of Te Mara Akoranga Katorika Kāhui Ako | Catholic Community of Learning (CoL).

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

The school is achieving many equitable educational outcomes for children.

At the time of this review, the school was responding well to those children whose learning and achievement needed acceleration. The school has the capacity and capability to accelerate learning for all children, including those with additional needs. However, girls continue to achieve better in writing than other groups of children.

The school has many effective processes to enable the achievement of equity and excellence. The school’s inclusive, caring culture helps children to have equitable opportunities to learn. Religious education is a key part of the curriculum and Catholic values are promoted throughout the school.

School leaders agree that the next steps are to better analyse and report the sufficiency of progress to the board and further develop a systematic internal evaluation process.

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 school responds well to those children whose learning and achievement need acceleration. Teachers are effective in accelerating the progress of many learners.

Over time, most children (80%+) have achieved consistently at or above the National Standards in reading. Three quarters of children are at or above the National Standards in writing. In this area, there is ongoing disparity regarding boys’ achievement. In 2016 there was an improving proportion (77%) of children achieving at or above the National Standards in mathematics. All Māori children achieved well against the National Standards in reading, writing and mathematics.

Children with additional learning needs are well supported towards achieving their goals. All children are actively encouraged to develop self-management skills and contribute their views and ideas to help leaders and teachers make purposeful changes to school processes and practices.

Teachers use comprehensive assessment practices to make dependable judgements about achievement against the National Standards. They regularly moderate these judgements within and beyond the school.

School conditions supporting equity and excellence

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

The school has many effective processes to enable the achievement of equity and excellence.

The school’s inclusive, caring culture helps children to have equitable opportunities to learn. Religious education is a key part of the curriculum and Catholic values are promoted throughout the school.

Leaders and teachers closely monitor the progress and achievement of individual children. They purposefully implement successful, targeted interventions to accelerate children’s progress. The well - analysed assessment information is intentionally used to further promote children’s learning.

Leaders and teachers are reflective and improvement focused. They adapt programmes and practices after careful consideration, in response to children’s feedback and progress. The staff are working together in increasingly collaborative ways to support children’s learning. They promote the special character of the school and a wide range of leadership opportunities through the broad, responsive curriculum. Teachers purposefully encourage tuakana-teina relationships in many areas of the school.

Leaders and teachers foster meaningful community connections and relationships with families to positively support children’s learning. They provide an increasing range of opportunities for children to learn about and show how they value te ao Māori.

The board has a number of useful processes to guide them in their stewardship role.

Sustainable development for equity and excellence

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

The school has a range of good quality processes and practices that contribute to the achievement of equity and excellence for all children.

The board now receives curriculum and achievement reports throughout the year. Progress and achievement reports to the board need to provide more comprehensive learning information. Leaders and teachers need to ensure greater alignment with the board’s priorities so that reporting clearly evaluates the sufficiency of progress that individuals and groups of children are making towards identified goals. This reporting should include evaluation of progress towards meeting school-wide targets, the goals for children with additional needs, and strategic goals. In addition, board minutes should clearly show decisions made on the basis of this information.

Internal evaluation processes and practices need to be further developed. The board, leaders and teachers need to ensure that internal evaluation is appropriately recorded. This was an area for review and development in the 2013 ERO report. An agreed next step is to strengthen internal evaluation so that it is systematic and well understood throughout the school.

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 has capacity and capability to accelerate learning for all children. However, disparity in achievement for boys in writing remains.

Leaders and teachers:

  • know the learners whose progress and achievement need to be accelerated

  • develop and implement approaches that meet the needs of each child

  • need to improve the analysis and evaluation of sufficiency of progress.

The school agrees to:

  • better analyse and report the sufficiency of progress

  • further develop systematic internal evaluation.

ERO will:

  • provide an internal evaluation workshop in response to a request from the school.

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

Jane Lee

Deputy Chief Review Officer (Acting)

Te Waipounamu - Southern Region

20 November 2017

About the school

Location

Christchurch

Ministry of Education profile number

3542

School type

State Integrated Full Primary (Years 1-8)

School roll

165

Gender composition

49% Females

51% Males

Ethnic composition

Māori: 6%

Pākehā: 65%

Filipino: 6%

Other: 23%

Provision of Māori medium education

No

Review team on site

September 2017

Date of this report

20 November 2017

Most recent ERO report(s)

Education Review December 2013

Education Review August 2010

Education Review May 2007