Waioneke School

Waioneke School - 22/06/2020

School Context

Waioneke School caters for students from Years 1 to 8. The roll of 89 includes eight percent Māori students and some with Pacific Island heritage.

The school has an established principal and a stable teaching staff. A new deputy principal has been appointed from the current staff.

The principal and board have recently reviewed the school’s vision and values. The vision now states the intention of “Developing confident learners with the knowledge, skills and understandings to perceive and achieve their lifelong dreams and aspirations”. The Waioneke’s Learners’ 6Cs – ‘Character, Citizenship, Collaboration, Communication, Creativity and Critical Thinking’ express the school’s valued student outcomes.

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

  • achievement and progress in reading, writing, and mathematics

  • localised curriculum developments

  • wellbeing and pastoral care.

The school’s strategic priorities for improving valued student outcomes and success include developing:

  • the school’s six competencies

  • assessment practices using the learning progressions framework (LPF)

  • Project Based Learning (PBL) as a model for designing the local curriculum.

The 2016 ERO report noted that leaders and teachers had made improvements to learners’ engagement, progress and achievement. They continue to work on the school’s future priorities of building a partnership with local iwi and Haranui Marae.

The school is a member of Te Kāhui Ako o Kaipara | Community of Learning.

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 equity and excellence in student achievement and valued outcomes.

School achievement data for 2018 and 2019 show most students, including most Māori and Pacific students, achieve expected New Zealand Curriculum (NZC) levels in reading, writing and mathematics. However, gender disparity continues in reading, writing and mathematics.

Students achieve well in relation to the school’s valued outcomes. They talk about the deep learning competencies and can explain what these are and what they mean for their learning.

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

Schoolwide processes are becoming more effective in identifying and accelerating learning for Māori and other students who need this.

School data indicate that some individual students have made accelerated progress. However, school leaders agree that there is a need for a greater focus on improving outcomes for children at risk of not achieving expected curriculum levels.

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?

Leadership is enabling and improving organisational conditions to achieve equity and excellence. The principal is innovative and builds strong relational trust across the school. A coherent approach to professional learning and the building of staff capacity through collaborative inquiry are resulting in positive outcomes for students’ learning.

Teachers identify children who need targeted support, and leaders and teachers know these students well as individuals. They use this knowledge to provide individualised support. Teachers are implementing new teaching practices and a localised curriculum. These reflect current good educational practice and focus on increasing children’s ownership of their learning.

Teachers’ commitment to the school’s vision is promoting a cohesive teaching team. They are encouraged to reflect together and be innovative. Teachers use their strengths to lead collaborative inquiries. These strategies are supporting consistency of practice across the school.

Partnerships with whānau through effective consultation and communication are strongly promoted and highly evident. These connections have an increasingly positive influence on children’s learning and wellbeing. The perspectives of students, whānau and staff are valued and contribute to evaluation that informs the school’s direction and builds ownership of the school’s strategic goals.

Trustees actively support the school’s vision of developing the whole child. They scrutinise school proposals and make informed resourcing decisions. Trustees are supportive of leaders’ future curriculum focus to improve outcomes for all students.

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

The board, leaders and teachers have focused on understanding and reflecting on how to better develop and implement a new local curriculum. A next step is to formally evaluate how effective these curriculum developments are on improving outcomes for all students.

To improve outcomes for students who need to make accelerated progress, leaders and teachers should focus their responsiveness by strengthening systems to make these students a priority.

The bicultural curriculum is at an early stage of development in classrooms. Initiatives are underway to further integrate te ao Māori in the curriculum. Leaders and teachers should prioritise these and continue to strengthen the school’ste reo and tikanga Māori programme.

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 Waioneke School’s performance in achieving valued outcomes for its students is: Well placed.

ERO’s Framework: Overall Findings and Judgement Tool derived from School Evaluation Indicators: Effective Practice for Improvement and Learner Success 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:

  • the principal’s leadership of the school’s new direction
  • teachers’ participation in reflective collaboration
  • the development of new teaching practices and curriculum to equip learners for their future
  • the board’s support of the school’s direction of developing the whole child through a connected and relevant curriculum.

Next steps

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

  • the board, leaders and teachers evaluating how effective the curriculum is on improving learning outcomes for all students
  • leaders and teachers increasing their responsiveness to focus on improving outcomes for students who need accelerated learning
  • leaders and teachers continuing to strengthen the school’s bicultural curriculum and building the partnership with local iwi.

Steve Tanner

Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern)

Northern Region - Te Tai Raki

22 June 2020

About the school

The Education Counts website provides further information about the school’s student population, student engagement and student achievement.

Waioneke School - 30/06/2016

Findings

Waioneke School has a clear new educational direction and is developing as a strong school community. A sound foundation of effective leadership and governance, and a developing school curriculum is improving positive outcomes for students. Leaders and trustees are establishing coherent and well aligned systems to guide learning and operations.

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

1 Background and Context

What is the background and context for this school’s review?

Waioneke School is a long established, small rural primary school situated in South Head Peninsula at the edge of the Kaipara Harbour. The school caters for children from Years 1 to 8.

Since the 2014 ERO report, the school roll has increased. It now has 77 percent Pākehā and 16 percent Māori students, as well as a small number of students from a range of other ethnicities.

At the time of the 2014 report, ERO noted that students were settled and appropriately focused on their learning. However, the report highlighted concerns with governance and management, student achievement and the use of achievement information. Curriculum planning, including strategies to promote Māori success as Māori were also identified as needing further development. These concerns were seen as negatively impacting on student achievement. For these reasons ERO decided to continue to monitor the school’s progress through a longitudinal review process.

Since 2014, Ministry of Education resource personnel have supported the school in developing the curriculum and increasing governance capability. The principal has worked effectively with a senior advisor and consultant to establish updated sustainable school-wide systems. These systems assist ongoing curriculum and assessment improvements, promote community engagement and establish self-review practices. In 2016, staff are participating in a Leadership and Assessment professional learning and development contract to support the improvement in teaching and assessment. This contract will continue into 2017.

The board has continued to increase its capability through ongoing training and mentoring, and induction for new trustees. They share more information with the community and, through external support, have begun a systematic review of policies and procedures.

The library has been updated and relocated and now provides a well-appointed and practicable place of learning. The swimming pool has been maintained and improved. It provides a valuable resource for the community.

Although there have been staff changes, there is a growing sense of staff stability and commitment to the school. A new deputy principal, appointed from the current staff, continues to work collaboratively with the principal to promote ongoing school improvement.

2 Review and Development

How effectively is the school addressing its priorities for review and development?

Priorities identified for review and development

ERO and school leaders developed the following priorities for the review:

  • increasing governance and management
  • improving the use of student achievement information
  • curriculum development
  • increasing Māori success as Māori
  • building strategies for sustainable performance.
Progress

The board of trustees works collaboratively with school leaders. They exercise responsible governance guided by a clear commitment to ensuring positive outcomes for students’ learning and achievement. The board has sought relevant advice and accessed resources to develop processes for understanding and implementing governance expectations. Through ongoing review processes the board is ensuring that the compliance issues outlined in the previous 2014 ERO report have been addressed.

The school is improving the use of achievement information to make positive changes to learners’ engagement, progress and achievement. School leaders collate and analyse a range of data related to National Standards, curriculum levels and target students. The development of longitudinal records of each student's learning progress while at the school should help ensure that rates of progress are maintained or improved over time. Teachers inquire into the effectiveness of practices and collaborate to support their target learners.

Coherence is being developed between all processes and systems to promote positive outcomes for all learners. Students’ writing is moderated to ensure overall teacher judgements are consistent across the school. Leaders are considering ways to further strengthen moderation practices between neighbouring schools. Useful achievement information guides learning information for families and whānau and helps foster productive home-school partnerships.

The current ‘Leadership and Assessment’ professional learning focus on students ‘learning to learn’ is supporting teachers to develop students’ capabilities in knowing themselves as learners. This is impacting positively on students’ engagement in learning and their relationships in the playground and classroom. An ongoing focus on formative approaches should continue to strengthen students’ knowledge of their own learning.

Curriculum development has been a major focus for school leaders. They have worked in collaboration with an external advisor to document a new school curriculum. It incorporates the school’s vision and values and reflects the overarching essentials of The New Zealand Curriculum (NZC).

The school’s graduate student profile helps students’ recognise their progress towards becoming Waioneke School graduates. Teachers will review and adapt the student graduate profile as students develop and extend their capabilities as learners. Teachers now have more access to guidance about curriculum expectations within the school. School leaders have consulted with the school community about the health programme and provided additional information to parents. Staff have made progress with the introduction of ICT devices to support student learning and will continue to focus on ways to more directly integrate these resources into class programmes.

A recent strategy to support Māori student success includes actions taken to survey and consult whānau on raising Māori student achievement and to build more effective learning partnerships. The school plans to increase opportunities for kapa haka and tikanga Māori through connections with a local Marae, Haranui.

To extend these positive developments, leaders and trustees should continue to work with families of Māori students so that whānau goals and aspirations can contribute more fully to the development of goals for promoting the achievement of Māori students. Further use of Ministry of Education resources and support through the new local Community of Learning may be helpful to guide review and development in this area. ERO affirms the school’s self-identified future priorities of building a partnership with school whānau, local iwi and Haranui Marae.

3 Sustainable performance and self review

How well placed is the school to sustain and continue to improve and review its performance?

The school is well placed to sustain and continue to improve and review its performance.

A positive and effective working relationship is evident between the board and the principal. They work closely together to implement a strategic plan which identifies future priorities and is setting a new direction for the school. The plan is being used to monitor progress and evaluate the effectiveness of outcomes. Collaborative approaches to managing challenges is supporting the growth of leadership and governance capability and capacity.

The principal has a clear focus on enacting the school vision and curriculum and works collaboratively with staff. Good progress has been made in establishing appraisal processes that meet updated requirements and reflect formalised reflection and inquiry into practice.

The school is building stronger relationships with its community through a variety of approaches. Parents, families and whānau are increasingly involved in school activities and events as valued partners in learning.

Self-review has been used to review the school’s policies, procedures and to increase teacher and board capability. The findings from these reviews help support ongoing school improvement.

Board assurance on legal requirements

Before the review, the board of trustees 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:

  • board administration
  • curriculum
  • management of health, safety and welfare
  • personnel management
  • financial management
  • asset management.

During the review, ERO checked the following items because they have a potentially high impact on student achievement:

  • emotional safety of students (including prevention of bullying and sexual harassment)
  • physical safety of students
  • teacher registration
  • processes for appointing staff
  • stand-downs, suspensions, expulsions and exclusions
  • attendance.

Conclusion

Waioneke School has a clear new educational direction and is developing as a strong school community. A sound foundation of effective leadership and governance, and a developing school curriculum is improving positive outcomes for students. Leaders and trustees are establishing coherent and well aligned systems to guide learning and operations.

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

Graham Randell

Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern

30 June 2016

About the School

Location

South Head Peninsula, Helensville

Ministry of Education profile number

1553

School type

Full Primary (Years 1 to 8)

School roll

104

Gender composition

Boys 57% Girls 43%

Ethnic composition

Māori

Pākehā

German

Indian

Chinese

other

16%

77%

2%

2%

1%

2%

Review team on site

May 2016

Date of this report

30 June 2016

Most recent ERO report(s)

Education Review

Education Review

Education Review

April 2014

November 2010

November 2007