Glenbervie School

School Context

Glenbervie School caters for students in Years 1 to 6. The school has just over 200 children, of who 19 percent are Māori, and 77 percent Pākehā.

Since ERO’s 2015 evaluation the school has had a strategic focus on re-visioning the school’s mission, promoting experiential learning approaches where children learn through doing, and creating distributive leadership opportunities.

Consultation with the school community has resulted in a new vision statement ‘actively creating sustainable future pathways to excellence’. The vision for learning identifies three key pathways namely innovation, engagement and challenge, and identifies the windows to opportunity being learning, leadership and fun. The values of respect, resilience, integrity, perseverance and self-discipline underpin the vision.

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

• achievement in reading, writing and mathematics

• achievement in relation to school targets in writing and mathematics.

Since the 2015 ERO report there has been continuity in school leadership. A new board was elected in June 2016. Staff have participated in a Ministry of Education (MoE) professional learning and development contract in mathematics to increase their capability to make positive changes for learners. Staff have also worked with an external facilitator to grow understanding and affirm Māori success and potential.

Glenbervie School is part of the Ngā Kura mo te ako o Whangarei (Raki Whangarei) Group 3 Community of LearningIKāhui Ako (CoL), comprising 11 schools and 16 early childhood services from the surrounding area. The focus is on raising the achievement of students in the CoL.

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 effective in achieving excellence and equity for its learners.

Data over the last three years indicate that the school has maintained high levels of achievement in reading, writing and mathematics. During this time the school has successfully addressed previous in-school disparity in educational outcomes for Māori in writing and mathematics.

The cohorts of Pacific children remain too small to report overall achievement in reading, writing and mathematics or to identify trends over time. The school monitors the achievement of these children individually.

School writing data show some gender disparity, with girls achieving at higher levels. This disparity is a new trend over the last two years.

Students achieve very well in relation to other school valued outcomes. Children:

• have strong relationships of care and connectedness

• display high level skills to self-manage and show self-efficacy

• collaborate with, learn from and support the learning of others

• confidently articulate their ideas and opinions

• consistently demonstrate the five school values in their everyday school life.

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

The school responds very effectively to Māori and other students whose learning and achievement need acceleration. Māori children achieve high levels of academic performance. The school achieves this success through a holistic approach, which has a focus beyond literacy and mathematics.

The school is very successful in realising Māori learners’ potential and this collective strength is highly evident through whanaungatanga and many tuakana/teina learning opportunities. The leadership team places attention on knowing the learner and creating strong relationships with parents and whānau, especially on school entry. Māori trustees are visible role models for Māori learners to be confident in their culture, language and identity, and have high expectations for learners.

The effective strategies and practices being used to support Māori learners are similar to those used to help other children grow as a learner and reach their potential.

A very effective intervention in 2017 has accelerated the progress and lifted achievement levels for a group of Year 3 and Year 4 learners. This intervention has also increased children’s self-confidence as learners, and led to new ways of engaging parents in learning partnerships. As a result teachers are now improving the way learning happens in mathematics for all students.

Teachers are working towards improved writing outcomes for boys. They are trialling different approaches that range from using drama to support literacy learning and everyday contexts for learning new writing skills. Teachers are setting criteria for children to monitor their learning progress. Early indications show increased motivation and engagement for boys.

Leaders, teachers and well qualified teacher aides respond well to students with additional learning needs within an inclusive environment. There is a school and community responsiveness, with a team approach around each child. Positive shifts in children’s wellbeing, confidence and engagement help them to improve and sustain their learning over time.

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?

Children experience an extensive and innovative curriculum that engages them and contributes to their high levels of achievement. The active playground space is thoughtfully designed to provide children with opportunities for physical challenge, problem solving, creative thinking and fun. Children make links to their learning in real world contexts through the integrated inquiry learning model and experiential learning opportunities.

Māori perspectives are reflected in classroom programmes, the environment, and everyday school life. This provides opportunities for Māori children to experience success as Māori and for all children to learn about New Zealand’s bicultural heritage.

The school has strong relationships with parents, whānau and the community, that enhance student achievement and wellbeing. Teachers, parents/whānau and community members work together to provide children with regular, high quality learning experiences such as kapa haka, sporting codes, and school camps. The longstanding relationship with Pehiaweri marae gives the school a wider range of resources to support environmental education and New Zealand’s bicultural heritage. Parents and whānau are respected and valued partners in their children’s learning.

The shared work through distributed leadership practices contributes to achieving equity and excellence. The school has a compelling vision for learning and the school community including staff and children have a collective ownership of, and lead, in the ongoing improvement of programmes. High levels of relational trust exist between school leaders and staff. Leaders and teachers foster children’s confidence and skills to be active members of influence within school and their wider community.

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

Strengthening the school’s internal reporting and evaluation practices will help to further lead school improvement. The school currently uses a variety of approaches for internal evaluation that focus on sharing leaders’ reflections of what worked well.

Ways that internal evaluation could be used more meaningfully to inform the board of the effectiveness of school practices and resourcing decisions include:

• collecting a wider variety of perspectives, such as children’s voice

• being more explicit about what is going to happen next as a result of the evaluation

• identifying the purpose and its significance to improving teaching and learning,

• including outcomes for students that maintain the momentum for learning.

Leaders could consider further ways to be assured that the inquiry and experiential learning curriculum builds cognitive challenge and deeper learning for children as they move through the school. Identifying expectations at different year levels, and tracking the outcomes for children of programmes that heighten critical and creative thinking and problem solving, may be useful.

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.

Appraisal audit

The school has an annual staff appraisal system that meets the compliance requirements of the Education Council. Opportunities for peer feedback and professional discussion which promotes collaboration of practice, are strengths of the school system. Implementation of the system needs to be strengthened to ensure leaders have a clear line of sight of the appraisal process. This would help them to guide the improvement of the quality of teacher and leader capability.

4 Going forward

Key strengths of the school

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

• achieving outcomes for students that are equitable for all groups and show consistently good levels of achievement

• a culture of respect that systematically responds to individual students’ needs, promotes their wellbeing and supports their learning success

• a curriculum that offers innovative and meaningful learning opportunities

• educationally powerful connections and relationships with parents, whānau and community that positively impact on children’s academic and wellbeing.

Next steps

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

• continuing to develop a curriculum that ensures cognitive challenge and deep learning for children from Years 1 to 6

• strengthening internal evaluation practices to improve the oversight of the effectiveness of school programmes and systems, and outcomes for students.

ERO’s next external evaluation process and timing

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

Julie Foley

Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern (Acting)

Te Tai Raki - Northern Region

11 April 2018

About the school