Tuakau School

Tuakau School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 6 months of the Education Review Office and Tuakau 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

Tuakau School is located in the small rural community of Tuakau which borders on the Waikato and Auckland districts. It provides education for students in Years 1 to 6 in specialised learning areas. The school promotes the values of manaakitanga, tiakitanga and whanaungatanga.

Tuakau School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are to:

  • implement an innovative school curriculum that is personalised to the needs, interests and passions of children

  • support, foster and provide learning opportunities and acceleration for all

  • enhance identity, language, and culture for Māori students

build resilience and wellbeing through Te Whare Tapa Whaa.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate to how effectively data is used to inform and enhance teaching and learning programmes and accelerate learner progress and achievement.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is to:

  • maintain a focus on student progress to accelerate achievement

  • strengthen collaborative processes to improve outcomes for students across the school using an inquiry approach

  • investigate opportunities to support effective teaching to increase equity and outcomes for learners.

The school expects to see data used more effectively to inform teaching and learning programmes and increase ākonga progress and achievement.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to improve the way data is used to achieve equitable and excellent outcomes for learners:

  • well-established systems and practices that promote a collaborative school culture

  • leadership consistently encourages decision making across the school that embraces whanaungatanga, tiakitanga and manaakitanga

  • whaanau relationships, iwi and hapuu partnerships are valued, supported and nurtured to strengthen the wellbeing of the school and wider community

the poari (board) actively represents the whaanau, iwi, hapuu and the wider community, and participate in the strategic direction for continuous growth and improvement.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

  • refining and improving the use of data to inform and enhance teaching and learning programmes

  • improving kaiako efficacy and practice through relevant professional development and the professional growth cycle.

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.

Phil Cowie
Director Review and Improvement Services (Central)
Central Region | Te Tai Pūtahi Nui

10 February 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

Tuakau School

Board Assurance with Regulatory and Legislative Requirements Report 2022 to 2025

As of April 2022, the Tuakau 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 Tuakau School 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.

Phil Cowie
Director Review and Improvement Services (Central)
Central Region | Te Tai Pūtahi Nui

10 February 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

Tuakau School - 14/06/2019

School Context

Tuakau School is located approximately 10 kilometres from Pukekohe. The school caters for students from Years 1 to 6. The ethnically diverse roll of 240 students includes 58% Māori, 23% Pākehā and 12% from Pacific nations. The school has a Whare Manaaki for those students who choose to learn in a bilingual environment.

Since the previous ERO report in 2015 the school has opened a new collaborative learning space for Years 4 to 6 and implemented a learning through play philosophy in the New Entrant and Year 1 area. There has been considerable roll growth, however there continues to be a significant level of transience. A new principal started in 2019 and there have been several changes to the leadership and teaching team.

The school’s mission is, ‘Kia ako tahi tātou, kia tipu tahi tātou, kia puāwai tahi tātou,’ together we learn, grow and succeed.

The vision states, ‘We acknowledge, value and foster the unique abilities and attributes of our school community and challenge our students to achieve personal standards of excellence through a balanced education programme, within a safe and caring environment.’

Respect, integrity and responsibility for self, for others and for the environment, manaakitanga, tiakitanga and whanaungatanga are the core values.

The strategic aims are to:

  • accelerate the achievement of all learners
  • prepare students to be active, engaged, consciously critical members of an ever changing world
  • create educationally powerful partnerships with parents, family and whānau to encourage engagement in learning.

The teaching and leadership team have been involved in professional learning and development in mathematics, te reo Māori, the digital technology curriculum and learning through play.

The school is a member of Te Puaaha o Waikato Community of Learning|Kāhui Ako (CoL).

Leaders and teachers regularly report to the board school-wide information about outcomes for students in reading, writing and mathematics.

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?

The school is working towards achieving equitable outcomes for all students. Overall achievement information in 2018 shows that a large majority of all students, including Māori and Pacific are achieving at or above expected curriculum levels in reading, writing and mathematics.

Achievement over time (2016-2018) shows significant improvement for all students in reading, writing and mathematics. However, the school is yet to address the disparity of achievement for Māori, Pacific and boys.

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

The school is accelerating the progress of some Māori and other students who need this. Achievement information for 2017-18 shows acceleration for nearly one third of students achieving below curriculum expectations in reading and mathematics and about one fifth in writing.

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 school culture effectively supports student learning and wellbeing. Students learn in a respectful, caring and collaborative school environment. Their language, culture and identity are valued and reflected in the school. Leaders effectively build high levels of trust with whānau and the community. They seek family and whānau feedback and incorporate their contributions into the vision for the school. Social expectations to support teaching and learning are modelled by leaders and staff. The approachability of staff is valued by the community and active community relationships are evident.

Children benefit from a broad curriculum. Opportunities for students to grow their leadership skills are promoted. Some students can identify their own learning goals and use self-management skills to achieve them. Learning through play in the junior school builds on the interests of students and provides an integrated learning experience. The use of digital devices is evident to support the learning in well-resourced classrooms. Classroom teachers know students and their families well.

There is a clearly defined vision and a range of specific objectives for Whare Manaaki (bilingual classes) to support student learning. These relate to te reo Māori, Tainui tikanga, the values of aroha and manaaki along with whānau engagement. Students in these classes learn in a settled and focused environment where their needs are catered for and well understood.

Teacher learning and development is supported by both internal and external expertise to build capability.

Parents and whānau of children whose learning is at risk feel well supported by the school. There are wide-ranging resources both in school and in the community which support and enhance student learning, achievement and wellbeing.

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

The new leadership team should give priority to:

  • developing and embedding shared expectations for high-quality teaching and learning to build consistency of practice school wide
  • strengthening appraisal to give regular feedback to teachers
  • reviewing and strengthening assessment and moderation practices to ensure the ongoing reliability and validity of achievement information
  • developing school-wide systems for effective tracking and monitoring of achievement and acceleration which should support effective data analysis and the evaluation of initiatives and interventions
  • continuing to develop effective systems and processes to support the learning and achievement of students with identified needs
  • reporting on the progress and achievement of students learning in the Whare Manaaki.

The board of trustees should give priority to:

  • the review of current target setting to more specifically focus on those students whose learning requires acceleration.

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 Children’s Act 2014.

4 ERO’s Overall Judgement

On the basis of the findings of this review, ERO’s overall evaluation judgement of Tuakau School’sperformance in achieving valued outcomes for its students is: Developing.

ERO’s Framework: Overall School Performance is available on ERO’s website.

5 Going forward

Key strengths of the school

For sustained improvement and future learner success, the school can draw on existing strengths in:

  • positive relationships in the school community that promote learning and wellbeing
  • a school culture that is supportive and inclusive of all.

Next steps

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

  • developing guidelines to support school-wide consistency in teaching and learning

  • reviewing assessment and moderation practices to ensure ongoing reliability of achievement information

  • building school-wide systems to gather and analyse data to enable the evaluation of what is working and what is not

  • developing and embedding systems and processes to support children with additional needs

  • developing specific targets for those students whose learning needs acceleration to raise achievement.

Areas for improved compliance practice

To improve current practice, the board of trustees should:

  • monitor and analyse trends and patterns in attendance

  • extend processes and procedures for education outside the classroom to include all excursions, including local visits and activities. 
    [Health and Safety at Work Act 2015]

Phil Cowie

Director Review and Improvement Services

Central Region

14 June 2019

About the school

Location

Tuakau

Ministry of Education profile number

1539

School type

Contributing (Years 1 to 6)

School roll

240

Gender composition

Male 55% Female 45%

Ethnic composition

Māori 58%
NZ European/Pākehā 23%
Other 19%

Students with Ongoing Resourcing Funding (ORS)

Yes

Provision of Māori medium education

Yes

Number of Māori medium classes

2

Number of students in Level 2 MME

45

Review team on site

April 2019

Date of this report

14 June 2019

Most recent ERO report(s)

Education Review December 2015
Education Review December 2012
Education Review November 2009