Te Waka Unua School

School Context

This is a Years 1 to 8 school, with a roll of 491 students. About half of its students are of Māori descent. The school provides a bi-lingual learning option for students from Years 1 to 8. Students from a diverse range of ethnicities attend the school.

The school is new and purpose built as a modern learning environment. It was established in 2015, merging Phillipstown and Woolston primary schools. In this time the school has experienced many significant changes. These include new staff and teaching teams, significant roll growth and development of new facilities. This is the school’s first ERO external evaluation.

The school wants all students to have the knowledge and skills to empower themselves and others to explore, collaborate and be innovative. It aims to provide a positive environment for learning, incorporating collaborative approaches to teaching and learning, and integrating digital technologies. It also aims to recognise students’ cultures, particularly Māori and Pasifika, and ensure high quality care and support for students and their wellbeing. The school has been involved in a number of professional learning initiatives. These include collaborative teaching practice, digital learning and cultural responsiveness.

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

• trends, progress and achievement in reading, writing and mathematics
• outcomes in relation to engagement, wellbeing and success
• outcomes in relation to Māori student achievement.

The school is part of a Tamai Kāhui Ako | Community of Learning (CoL). The school’s principal is the lead principal for the CoL.

Evaluation Findings

1 Equity and excellence – valued outcomes for students

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

The school is effective in achieving positive outcomes for most of its children.

Teachers and leaders can show how well the school is achieving equitable and excellent outcomes for individual students and priority groups of students. The majority of children are achieving at or above expected levels in reading, writing and mathematics.

A 2017 student survey reported on the school’s and Kāhui Ako’s valued outcomes for inclusiveness, wellbeing and engagement. The survey identified that most children reported a sense of inclusiveness and belonging at the school.

Leaders and teachers have good processes for identifying children who are not meeting learning expectations. They are proactive in addressing the individual needs of these children.

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

Teachers, leaders and teaching teams are closely monitoring progress and support for individual and some groups of students whose learning and achievement need acceleration. A next step for the school is to analyse data in a way that better shows the sufficiency of progress made by all priority groups of students.

2 School conditions for equity and excellence

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

There is an intentional and concerted school-wide focus for ensuring students’ time at school is safe, enjoyable, beneficial and productive. The school’s vision for children is well integrated in the learning programmes and school-wide practices. This is evident in the strong emphasis placed on developing students’ skills, knowledge and key competencies for life-long learning.

Teachers and leaders have quickly built a collaborative and supportive culture in order to best meet students’ needs and interests. Teachers are enthusiastic about sharing and extending their teaching knowledge and expertise with one another. Teachers and students work well with and alongside their peers, according to their respective strengths, needs and interests. Teachers regularly reflect on the class programmes and their practices. They are well led and supported to build and extend their capabilities.

Across the school ERO observed students engaged in a variety of fun, meaningful and well-managed learning activities and differentiated learning. Students have voice, choice and opportunity to lead their own and support others in their learning. Digital technologies provide increased opportunity for students to access, extend or be supported in their learning, in class and/or at home. This is supported through productive relationships formed with businesses and tertiary institutions.

The individual learning and pastoral needs of students are closely monitored, quickly identified and responded to. Teachers and leaders work in innovative ways to ensure appropriate support is provided. For example, classroom programmes are tailored, individual programmes and wider experiences outside the classroom are provided, whānau support and expertise is utilised, and professional agencies and community support is sought. The board ensures support for students’ learning and wellbeing is well resourced.

The school demonstrates that it values the wide range of cultures in its community. The Whānau Ruru team effectively provides for students and whānau seeking a high quality Māori bi-lingual education. Teachers, leaders and trustees seek meaningful relationships with the school community, including with local iwi and other groups. Key staff are supporting culturally responsive practice.

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

School leaders have many processes and practices that contribute to equity and excellence and acceleration of learning. They now need to develop a clearer picture of accelerated progress being made by students in teaching teams across the school. This will better inform teaching teams and school leader evaluations about programme effectiveness.

Leaders and teachers now need to embed schoolwide practices and processes for evaluative thinking. Currently teachers and leaders are using a framework for evaluation, continually reflecting and responding to individual learning, and using these reflections and individual achievement data to inform programme planning.

In order for the board to be more fully informed about the impact of school programmes and practices, leaders should strengthen reporting on how well children are achieving the valued outcomes identified in its vision and values.

This is likely to further strengthen and better inform decisions about effectiveness of programmes and practices, and to continue to drive improvement.

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:

• its collaborative, collegial culture
• relational trust and care for students and whānau
• responsiveness to student needs.

Next steps

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

• the use of student achievement information to know about the amount of progress that groups of students are making over time
• continuing to improve internal evaluation processes and practices to better show the effectiveness of new initiatives and programmes.

ERO’s next external evaluation process and timing

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

Dr Lesley Patterson

Deputy Chief Review Officer

Te Waipounamu - Southern Region

2 July 2018

About the school