Dargaville Primary School

Dargaville Primary School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 18 months of the Education Review Office and Dargaville Primary 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 

Dargaville Primary School is in the town of Dargaville in the Northern Wairoa area. The school provides education for students in Years 1 to 6. Since the previous ERO report, school leadership has changed with a new principal appointed in Term 3 2019.

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

  • strengthen students’ and staff hauora

  • implement a future-focused curriculum

  • design and build creative physical spaces within the school.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how well the school’s newly developed Graduate Student Profile promotes student engagement to impact positively on learner outcomes.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is to:

  • create a shared understanding of student engagement within the context of the school’s Graduate Student Profile for learners, teachers, parents and whānau

  • develop shared expectations about what equitable and excellent outcomes are for all learners, with a focus on Māori and Pacific students

  • know how effectively teachers integrate the Graduate Student Profile into their practice to promote student engagement and improve learner outcomes.

The school expects to see students demonstrating increased engagement and agency in their learning that will result in improved outcomes for all learners. Teaching and learning will reflect students’ strengths and support the development of students’ hauora. Teachers will consistently use effective teaching strategies and practices that ensure students experience success and are actively engaged in their learning.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to promote student engagement to impact positively on learner outcomes:

  • learners experience a consistently positive and culturally responsive school learning environment

  • the school continues to strengthen inclusive practices, with diverse and high needs learners experiencing integrated and effective support

  • effective and collaborative leadership that promotes and enacts the school vision and values, prioritising and planning for school improvement.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

  • integrating the Graduate Student Profile across the school curriculum to ensure equitable and excellent outcomes for all learners

  • embedding a shared understanding of student engagement to enable learners to be confident and actively involved in their learning

  • building teaching practice that consistently uses effective strategies to promote student engagement and agency.

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.

Filivaifale Jason Swann
Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern)
Northern Region | Te Tai Raki

19 August 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

Dargaville Primary School

Board Assurance with Regulatory and Legislative Requirements Report 2022 to 2025

As of May 2022, the Dargaville Primary 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 Dargaville Primary 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.

Filivaifale Jason Swann
Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern)
Northern Region | Te Tai Raki

19 August 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

Dargaville Primary School - 09/03/2016

Findings

Students at Dargaville Primary School are confident, articulate and respectful. They are generally progressing and achieving well in reading, writing and mathematics. Positive learning and working relationships among trustees, school leaders, teachers, students and community members are supporting ongoing school development.

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?

Dargaville Primary School is located in the main township of Dargaville in the northern Wairoa district. It caters for children from Years I to 6. The school’s well maintained buildings and spacious, attractive grounds show the respect that the board, principal, staff, parents and whānau have for children’s learning and development. Community support for the school is strong.

The majority of children attending the school are Pākehā and about a third are Maōri. Te Wahi Manawa is a recently renovated space specifically for students with special educational needs. Children mix together well in an inclusive environment where they feel they belong and have a sense of confidence and security.

The long-serving, experienced principal has been part of the Dargaville community for a number of years. The leadership team now includes a newly appointed curriculum leader. Many middle managers and teachers have taught in the school for some years. They know the children, families and locality well.

The 2014 ERO review reported that the school was facing some challenges. Most trustees were new to the board in 2014 and there have been further changes to board personnel in 2015. A key recommendation in the ERO report was to build more effective, collaborative and professional relationships within the senior leadership team and board of trustees in order to move the school forward. A further recommendation was for the school to work in partnership with Māori whānau to promote equitable outcomes for Māori students.

The 2014 ERO report also noted that strong curriculum leadership was a priority to improve learning programmes and build teacher capability. An additional priority was to develop a community-driven strategic plan to review and refine the school’s vision for continuing success and sustainability.

2 Review and Development

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

Priorities identified for review and development

In 2014 the school’s leaders, the Ministry of Education and ERO agreed to the following priorities:

  • review and refine the strategic direction of the school in partnership with the board of trustees, school leaders, staff, parents, Māori whānau and children
  • improve the quality of sustainable governance in the school
  • improve the quality of professional relationships and personnel management within the school
  • provide leadership to improve the design and planning of the curriculum and its delivery
  • undertake school-wide professional development to promote culturally responsive teaching and leadership practices
  • work strategically with Māori whānau to promote success for Māori children as Māori.

Progress

During 2015 the board of trustees and school leaders began community consultation to formulate a new strategic plan for 2016 – 2018 and a revised School Charter. In 2016 the principal plans to undertake professional development about strategic planning and this is likely to help shape the strategic development and review processes. To make the planning and review processes more rigorous good use should be made of available self-review and planning resources, including ERO’s School Evaluation Indicators.

The new chairperson of the board is encouraging current trustees to make a more long-term commitment to their governance obligations. The board has participated in some useful board training. As a result, the board is more confident and assured about its governance role, processes and responsibilities. The board is also making better use of self-review information to help with planning and decision-making.

Personnel management policies and procedures have been improved. Changes in school staffing have also led to improved relationships between trustees and the board and senior leaders. Most teachers now report that the professional climate and work culture in the school are supportive. Students and teachers enjoy positive learning relationships.

The senior leadership team is now better placed to lead school development. They have clearly defined and well understood roles. A new deputy principal has also been recently appointed with responsibility for curriculum development. The leadership team should now develop a shared strategic overview of the school’s direction with a focus on providing high quality educational outcomes for all children. To achieve this they will need to build a coherent curriculum that is well aligned to the national curriculum document. This represents a major goal for the school’s strategic planning.

Early steps towards consultation with a newly formed group of Māori whānau have commenced. The board and senior leaders are supportive of a whānau partnership developing, where bicultural approaches in the school curriculum can continue to be explored. The board sees clearly the value of reporting back regularly to Māori parents about children’s progress and achievement. Developing strategic goals and a supporting framework would help this partnership and ropu to become effective and purposeful.

Māori children are progressing and achieving in National Standards at levels comparable to others in the school, in both reading and writing. Over 70% of all students are at or above the National Standard in reading, and more than 65% are at or above the writing standard. However, in mathematics there is an achievement gap for Māori students with 66% of them at or above the standard compared with 73% of all students at or above.

Recent lifts in students’ achievement in writing, particularly at Years 5 and 6, are in part attributable to recent professional development for staff. Writing was also a priority for School Charter targets during 2014 and 2015. It may be timely to plan some similar initiatives to raise student achievement in mathematics.

Teacher performance, appraisal and registration systems should be reviewed and updated to reflect recent Education Council changes. An audit, undertaken as part of this ERO review, identified the need for teachers to keep a current evidential file to document their own teaching practice reflection and development goals.

Communication within the school is becoming more transparent and purposeful. To continue this positive development a next step is record the quality of educational discussions and rationales for decisions in leadership and management meetings rather than just recording tasks and events.

Key next steps

ERO, the board of trustees and school leaders agree that the priorities for the next phase of school development are to:

  • review the School Charter
  • continue the upskilling of the board so that trustees consolidate their governance and stewardship role
  • encourage and support Māori whānau to become part of board consultation processes and school partnerships in learning
  • develop teachers’ and leaders’ bicultural competencies through goals in the school’s appraisal system linked to the Ministry of Education’s document - Tātaiako : Cultural Competencies for Teachers of Māori Learners
  • continue developing systems for school leaders and teachers to monitor and track Māori students’ progress and achievement, particularly in mathematics
  • develop and extend the school curriculum to reflect the vision and underpinning principles of The New Zealand Curriculum
  • make self-review at all levels of the school more evaluative.

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 improve its performance. The board of trustees now expects effective, collaborative and professional relationships school-wide.

ERO has confidence in the current board. Trustees are making significant progress in understanding their governance responsibilities and obligations. More evaluative, strategic self-review would now support focussed and efficient school leadership. The formulation of the 2016-2018 Strategic Plan will be a key document in the school’s future success.

The development of a responsive school curriculum continues to be a significant school priority. The Dargaville Primary curriculum should consider and explore more ways to foster student-centred learning. This should aim to provide more varied opportunities for students’ to think critically and creatively.

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

Students at Dargaville Primary School are confident, articulate and respectful. They are generally progressing and achieving well in reading, writing and mathematics. Positive learning and working relationships among trustees, school leaders, teachers, students and community members are supporting ongoing school development.

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

Graham Randell

Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern

9 March 2016

School Statistics

Location

Dargaville, Northland

Ministry of Education profile number

1009

School type

Contributing (Years 1 to 6)

School roll

358

Gender composition

Boys 196 Girls 162

Ethnic composition

Māori

Pākehā

Tongan

others

35%

59%

2%

4%

Review team on site

December 2015

Date of this report

9 March 2016

Most recent ERO report(s)

Education Review

Education Review

Education Review

December 2014

December 2011

December 2008