Titahi Bay School

Titahi Bay School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within two years of the Education Review Office and Titahi Bay 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 

Titahi Bay School serves the community in the northwestern suburb of Titahi Bay, Porirua City. It delivers learning opportunities to children in Years 1-6.

Titahi Bay School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are to grow:

  • relationships with children, whānau and the community

  • student and teacher love of and engagement in learning

  • improve attendance levels to pre Covid levels

  • a curriculum that engages learners, incorporates local history and utilises new technologies.

You can find a copy of the school’s strategic and annual plan on Titahi Bay School’s website.

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate the effectiveness of the school’s refreshed local curriculum and how well it is enriching student wellbeing, engagement and achievement of all students. 

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

  • to increase the engagement of students in learning opportunities

  • to provide curriculum experiences that raise students’ awareness and knowledge of their local stories, histories, places and people

  • for students to know and understand where they are culturally located

  • to raise the achievement of students across the school, especially in reading and writing.

The school expects to see leaders, trustees, teachers, students and whānau actively engaged in learning the local stories and histories of the area, allowing students to develop an understanding of how stories affect people and place. It also expects staff to utilise information and modern teaching strategies to plan and implement programmes to improve student engagement, achievement, and wellbeing.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support the school in its goal to develop and implement an engaging local curriculum.

  • Positive relationships with students and whānau that support engagement in learning.

  • School values that are well known and consistently enacted to support the wellbeing of all.

  • Engagement with local iwi that supports the understanding the area’s history has guided the local curriculum and strengthening learning opportunities.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

  • the refinement and implementation of the revised curriculum that identifies meaningful learning opportunities using Titahi Bay as a context

  • developing a shared understanding of the importance of local stories and their place in the curriculum

  • review assessment practices and use of achievement information to better inform teaching practice and improve outcomes for learners across the curriculum.

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

20 September 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

Titahi Bay School

Board Assurance with Regulatory and Legislative Requirements Report 2021 to 2024

As of November 2021, the Titahi Bay 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

Further Information

For further information please contact Titahi Bay 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

20 September 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

Titahi Bay School

Board Assurance with Regulatory and Legislative Requirements Report 2021 to 2024

As of September 2021, the Titahi Bay School 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 Titahi Bay School Board of Trustees.

The next Board of Trustees assurance that it is meeting regulatory and legislative requirements is due in December 2024.

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

13 December 2021 

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

Titahi Bay School - 26/07/2017

Summary

Titahi Bay School caters for 434 students in Years 1 to 6. This includes 174 Māori students and another 61 learners with Samoan, Cook Island Māori or Fijian heritage.

The principal, leadership team, teachers and staff are long serving. The board retains three experienced trustees and designated representatives from the school’s Māori and Pacific communities.

The school continues to be involved in a Ministry of Education initiative, Positive Behaviour for Learning (PB4L). During 2015-16, teachers were involved in professional learning and development (PLD) in the use of the writing Progress and Consistency Tool (PaCT). This has been extended to reading in 2017, and mathematics is planned for 2018. Further mathematics teaching and learning work is underway in 2017.

The school is a member of the Western Porirua Community of Learning|Kāhui Ako. The Kāhui Ako is in the process of establishing a shared achievement challenge to focus its collaborative teaching and learning activities.

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

The school has made significant progress in achieving increased equitable outcomes for Māori and Pacific students. Systems clearly focus on tracking and monitoring targeted learners.  There is a deliberate focus on accelerating the progress of Māori, Pacific and other learners that require targeted support.

Overall, most students achieve at and above in relation to the National Standard in literacy and mathematics. Those not yet at the Standard are clearly identified by teachers and school leaders. These students are closely monitored for accelerated progress. More students are exceeding the National Standards over time. Addressing the disparity of boys in literacy and girls in mathematics is an ongoing focus.

There is a sustained focus on reducing disparity in outcomes of learning programmes school wide. Assessment practices have strengthened and impact positively on student achievement data, particularly in writing. Ongoing work with the PaCT tool in reading and mathematics contributes to the increased dependability of achievement information.

A supportive school environment contributes to purposeful engagement in learning. Students display a strong sense of belonging. Ongoing information sharing with families supports learning partnerships.

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 has made significant progress in achieving increased equitable outcomes for all children. There is a sustained focus on improving achievement and strengthening school processes that accelerate the progress of target learners.This is particularly evident for Māori, Pacific and students involved in learning support programmes.

The school is able to demonstrate many targeted students made accelerated progress during 2016. Recently strengthened termly tracking and monitoring of students who are at risk of under achieving has been implemented.

Good progress is evident in accelerating the progress of Māori learners since 2013. Trustees, school leaders and teachers continue to address the remaining disparity in learning outcomes in literacy and mathematics.

The trajectory of improvement for Pacific students’ achievement is considerable since 2013. This includes increases in the numbers achieving above the National Standards.

School conditions supporting equity and excellence

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

The school’s ‘KURA’ values of kindness, unity, respect and achieve underpin school operation and are highly evident. Students have warm, caring and respectful relationships between each other and staff. PB4L is seamlessly embedded into learning programmes and responsively monitored.

Collaborative teaching practices encourage students to use their expertise and share their thinking. This contributes to purposeful student engagement in learning.

Significant progress in developing a culturally responsive and local school curriculum has occurred. This has resulted in meaningful integration of te ao Māori in school programmes under the guidance of local Ngāti Toa kaumatua and iwi. Students learn te reo Māori as part of this. Partnerships with whānau Māori and local iwi continue to evolve and are increasingly reflected in the school’s strategic planning.

Pacific families are increasingly sharing their aspirations to inform the school’s future direction.

Students involved in learning support programmes are appropriately tracked and monitored. External expertise and additional programmes are used to assist these learners. Inclusive and respectful practices are evident. 

Professional leadership and teaching practices are firmly centred on accelerating the achievement of learning through growing the effectiveness of practices and intervention strategies. High expectations of staff contributes to critical reflection on teaching practice. Improved reporting within syndicates identifies what is contributing to students’ progress and achievement.

School stewardship is centred on improving equity and excellence in learner outcomes. Appropriate priority is placed on growing professional practices and school leadership to improve teaching and learning.  A focus on ongoing information sharing with families supports learning partnerships.

Stewardship is focused on developing collaborative wider community networks through its involvement in the Kāhui Ako.

Sustainable development for equity and excellence

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

A number of key areas have been identified by trustees and school leaders to sustain the improved trajectory of achievement for all groups of students. This work is central to the school’s readiness to enact the pending Community of Learning|Kāhui Ako achievement challenges. Areas include:

  • good progress reviewing the strategic plan in conjunction with the redevelopment of the school curriculum, to further integrate specific strategies for improving success for Māori students and their whānau and Pacific students and their families
  • revising curriculum guidelines to reflect progress in culturally responsive practices, learning approaches, assessment practices and teaching as inquiry linked to targeted learners
  • strengthening the role of students in leading their learning to further reduce disparity in achievement, particularly for Māori and boys
  • continuing to embed, extend and align internal evaluation practices to support accelerated achievement, including reporting on the impact of special programmes.

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. 

Appraisal audit

The revised appraisal process meets the Education Council guidelines. A particular focus on teacher reflection on their goals, observations and monitoring of target students is evident. Continuing to strengthen evidence in relation to the Practising Teacher Criteria should support growth in teaching practice.

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:

  • ·complete the planned review of the strategic plan and curriculum to develop an integrated approach towards supporting Māori and Pacific students’ success and students leading their learning
  • continue to embed and extend internal evaluation processes within school systems to support accelerated learning
  • continue to embed teacher appraisal and teaching as inquiry.

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

Alan Wynyard
Deputy Chief Review Officer Central (Acting)

26 July 2017

About the school

Location

Porirua

Ministry of Education profile number

3045

School type

Contributing Primary (Years 1 to 6)

School roll

434

Gender composition

Male 51%, Female 49%

Ethnic composition

Māori                                  40%
Pākehā                               45%
Pacific                                 12%
Other ethnic groups        3%

Review team on site

June 2017

Date of this report

26 July 2017

Most recent ERO report(s)

Education Review February 2015
Education Review November 2011
Education Review November 2008