Kaikohe West School

Findings

The school has made significant progress since the 2016 ERO review. Leaders have implemented a responsive curriculum, improved the quality of teaching, grown school leadership, and are progressing internal evaluation approaches. There is a meaningful learning culture in the school.

1 Background and Context

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

Kaikohe West School is a Year 1 to 6 integrated school in Northland. The school has 270 students on the roll, and most are Māori who affiliate to Ngāpuhi iwi. Because of concerns identified during the 2016 review of the school, ERO decided to continue monitoring the school’s progress through a longitudinal review process.

The school has had a Ministry of Education (MoE) Intervention with a Limited Statutory Manager (LSM) supporting the school. In June 2018 the MoE revoked the LSM intervention.

The school has worked with an MOE Student Achievement Practitioner (SAF), to develop different approaches to raising student achievement. The SAF programme ended in December 2018.

2 Review and Development

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

Priorities identified for review and development

Priorities for development identified during ERO’s 2016 review included:

• developing the school’s curriculum
• effective teaching and assessment practices to accelerate student achievement
• building school leadership
• developing effective internal evaluation.

Progress

The school has made very good progress in addressing the areas that ERO’s 2016 review identified as priorities for improvement.

Curriculum development

The school now has an effective curriculum to support teaching and learning. The curriculum provides authentic contexts for learning and is more meaningful for children. The school has established graduate and teacher profiles, and has clearly defined the learning processes to guide teaching and learning in the school.

The curriculum focuses on a Level 3 Māori bilingual approach schoolwide. The school continues to engage in external professional development for teachers, to support this bilingual pathway. Teachers participate in the Māori Achievement Collaborative (MAC). This strategy supports teachers to develop cultural competencies in teaching Māori students.

Effective teaching practices and student achievement

The quality of teaching and learning has significantly improved across the school.

Over the last two years ‘teaching as inquiry’ has been introduced and progressed. Teachers use achievement data to regularly evaluate the effectiveness of their practices. They share and talk about their practice with each other. Teachers participate in professional meetings and have become more outcome-focused. Their increased collaborative practices have helped to grow the professional culture of the school.

There is clear evidence that students’ learning progress in reading is being accelerated, as a result of a school focus in this area. Teaching practices now focus on acceleration rather than remediation. The school now has appropriate intervention programmes for students who are achieving below expectations. Good systems have been introduced for monitoring and tracking students’ progress regularly throughout the year.

School leadership

Leadership has been significantly strengthened and now supports the vision and direction of the school. It is supporting the implementation of effective systems and processes to improve student outcomes. The principal has built a culture of trusting relationships, where teachers share their practices and support each other, growing staff confidence. A distributed leadership model that enhances the professional culture is being promoted across the school.

Appraisal processes are now more appropriate and aligned with the requirements of the Teaching Council. Appraisals link to professional learning and effective teaching practices, and focus on improving outcomes for students.

Internal evaluation

The school has implemented effective strategies for internal evaluation.

The school has used the SAF process, ERO reports, and ‘teaching as inquiry’ approaches to support internal evaluation practices. The board has established an effective schedule for the review of school policies. Trustees have also developed a useful strategic plan with key priorities that provides a structure to monitor progress against the school’s strategic goals. The board should consider evaluating the school's health and safety polices more regularly.

Key next steps

School leaders have identified appropriate next steps to support ongoing improvement. Future priorities are:

• continuing professional development for teachers to strengthen their instructional capability, including literacy teaching, and their assessment capability
• growing the confidence and capability of middle leaders.

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 good practices and to continue evaluating and improving its performance.

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
• school policies in relation to meeting the requirements of the Vulnerable Children Act 2014.

Conclusion

The school has made significant progress since the 2016 ERO review. Leaders have implemented a responsive curriculum, improved the quality of teaching, grown school leadership, and are progressing internal evaluation approaches. There is a meaningful learning culture in the school.

4 ERO’s Overall Judgement

On the basis of the findings of this review, ERO’s overall evaluation judgement of Kaikohe West School's performance in achieving valued outcomes for its students is: Well placed.

Steve Tanner

Director Review and Improvement Services Northern

Northern Region

11 March 2019

About the School

1 Context

Kaikohe West School offers education for children in both a Māori bilingual/immersion setting, and mainstream English classrooms. Since ERO's 2013 report the bilingual facility, Whānau Whakaiti has increased to five classrooms and provides for children at all year levels. As 90 percent of children and many staff and trustees at the school are Māori, the school is strongly positioned in Ngāpuhitanga. The school supports children and whānau to stand tall in Māori language, culture and identity.

2 Equity and excellence

The vision and valued outcomes defined by the school are for all children, staff and the community to be empowered as successful learners together. The school's overarching value is whanaungatanga, which is enacted through living the values of responsibility, collaboration, respect and care. The school's strategic goals are to offer both bilingual and mainstream choices, and to use modern teaching and learning practices. Key aims are for children to be positive citizens and to promote whānau participation.

The school's achievement information shows that 74 percent of children achieve at or above the National Standard in mathematics, 64 percent in reading, and just under 60 percent in writing. Between 2013 and 2015, achievement levels in all three areas remained consistent, with a small increase in overall achievement in mathematics.

Achievement information for Ngā Whanaketanga shows that at the end of 2015, 66 percent of children were achieving at and above in pangarau, 19 percent in pānui, and 50 percent in tuhituhi. The 2016 achievement targets for Ngā Whanaketanga are to have 65 percent of children achieving at or above the standards in pangarau, and 60 percent in both pānui and tuhituhi.

Teachers have moderated their assessment of children's writing with other local schools. However, school leaders recognise that there is variability in the quality of achievement information and overall teacher judgements (OTJs) throughout the school. It is unclear whether achievement information for National Standards or for Ngā Whanaketanga over the last three years is reliable.

Since the last ERO evaluation, professional development initiatives have included e-learning, teaching as inquiry, inquiry learning, Positive Behaviour for Learning (PB4L), oral language, literacy, and coaching and mentoring. However, most of these initiatives are very recent. The board of trustees has reviewed the school's charter in consultation with the community.

3 Accelerating achievement

How effectively does this school respond to Māori children whose learning and achievement need acceleration?

The school is not responding effectively to Māori children whose learning and achievement need acceleration.

The board of trustees and senior leaders are aware of the urgency in relation to accelerating the achievement of Māori and other children who are achieving below the National Standards and Ngā Whanaketanga. Senior leaders collect mid and end-of-year data about achievement. They report this information to the board and appropriately identify their concerns about teaching and learning.

Senior leaders are supporting teachers to improve the way they collect, analyse and use data to respond to children's learning needs. However school leaders should access external expertise in supporting teachers and leaders to accelerate children's achievement levels. This support should aim to help them to:

• develop a school wide understanding of accelerated progress and achievement in relation to the National Standards and Ngā Whanaketanga
• moderate data and improve its reliability and accuracy
• use achievement information to strengthen learning programmes for children at risk of not achieving the National Standards
• report children's learning progress more regularly to the board
• align the board's achievement targets with teachers' professional work and appraisal goals
• develop leadership strategies that support the transformation and implementation of initiatives across the school.

These next steps should align with work currently underway to improve monitoring and will be supported by better evaluation of the impact of teaching and learning programmes on achievement levels.

How effectively does this school respond to other children whose learning and achievement need acceleration?

The school is not responding effectively to other children whose learning and achievement need acceleration, including the school's small number of Pacific children. Areas that need to be addressed to improve teaching and support accelerated learning have been reported above.

4 School conditions

How effectively do the school’s curriculum and other organisational processes and practices develop and enact the school’s vision, values, goals and targets for equity and excellence?

The school's curriculum and marautanga are not yet supporting improvements for children, or enacting the vision, values, goals and targets to promote equity and excellence.

At the time of the 2013 ERO report, the principal had recently been appointed. Since that time, there have also been staff changes and the leadership team has been extended to include three team leaders.

The school currently operates a dual curriculum approach using The New Zealand Curriculum for mainstream, and Te Marautanga for the bilingual/immersion classes. The curriculum is based largely on reading, pānui, writing, tuhituhi, and mathematics, pangarau with thematic topics for children to research. Digital devices are used by children in most classrooms for research and presentation, and to build on numeracy and literacy skills. Some teachers use technology to promote children's engagement and skills for self-management, and to support parents to view their children's work at home.

Te Marautanga is delivered in the five Te Whānau Whakaiti classes. To determine achievement targets, these classes use the Māori factor funding level 2 resource, which expects 51 to 80 percent fluency in te reo Māori for teachers and students. However, the school should now use Ngā Whanaketanga and Te Marautanga levels to determine student achievement targets. Leaders should seek professional support to develop assessment practices that align with Nga Whanaketanga and Te Marautanga, to ensure achievement information is reliable.

Some classroom programmes show the impact of teacher professional development. In these rooms, teachers motivate children and encourage them to enjoy their learning experiences. However, children do not yet have good access to all areas of the curriculum, and Te Marautanga.

In most classrooms, learning programmes are not meeting children's diverse needs. Many teachers have a focus on managing children's behaviour, which results in children missing out on valuable learning time.

An external specialist has been contracted to facilitate a curriculum review and design process. School leaders aim to develop a curriculum that celebrates Kaikohe and children's cultural identity, is framed around broad concepts, and promotes children's thinking. Leaders acknowledge that the school's curriculum should:

• provide differentiated classroom programmes based on children's interests, strengths, talents and needs
• include opportunities for children to think critically, problem solve, and lead their own learning
• have a consistent and positive approach to promoting children's behaviour for learning.

In addition, the school could access external support for teachers to implement Te Marautanga and Ngā Whanaketanga. In consultation with whānau, the board should consider developing a strategy that outlines their aspirations, vision and philosophy for bilingual or immersion education. The aim should be to ensure the objectives and goals of Te Marautanga are achieved and delivered through the school's bilingual and immersion learning approaches. It should include guiding policies, procedures, practices and resourcing, to support Māori students succeed as Māori, and be confident in their language, culture and identity.

School leaders could reconsider how change is being managed throughout the school. The principal and board agree that to build relational trust as a basis for accelerating children's learning and achievement, school leaders should:

• refine the professional learning model and promote a strengths-based approach in leading teachers to change and improve their practice
• provide varied opportunities for teachers to be curriculum leaders and to contribute to strategic change
• build capability and capacity in leadership to implement change and transformation in the school.

The board of trustees is committed to promoting positive outcomes for children at the school and in the Kaikohe community. Trustees have a clear role in the school's strategic planning process and consult with whānau, most recently about the school's charter. Greater scrutiny of student achievement data would help the board in its decision making in relation to children whose learning needs to be accelerated.

5 Going forward

How well placed is the school to accelerate the achievement of all children who need it?

Leaders and teachers:

• have not yet adequately built their knowledge of the children whose learning and achievement need to be accelerated
• have not yet adequately established necessary conditions to effectively accelerate learning and achievement
• are not well placed to achieve and sustain accelerated achievement for all children who need it.

ERO intends to carry out a process of ongoing evaluation to support development over the course of one-to-two years.

Improvements are needed in all areas of school operations. In order to address under achievement and disparity, trustees and school leaders require external support to help them attend to the areas identified for development.

6 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 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

• processes for appointing staff

• stand down, suspensions, expulsions and exclusions

• attendance

• compliance with the provisions of the Vulnerable Children Act 2014.

7 Recommendations

ERO recommends that the Ministry of Education considers providing support for the school to:

• assist teachers to accelerate children's progress in relation to the National Standards and Ngā Whanaketanga
• develop Te Marautanga and The New Zealand Curriculum in the school
• develop policies and strategic direction for the bilingual/immersion classes
• implement an effective appraisal system across the school
• build leadership capacity and capability.

ERO recommends that the board of trustees access support from New Zealand School Trustees Association (NZSTA) to increase its governance capacity.

Graham Randell

Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern

25 November 2016

About the school