Northern Health School

Findings

The Northern Health School provides effective education for students who are not attending their school of enrolment due to high health or wellbeing needs. Collaborative and skilled teachers provide personalised teaching and wellbeing support for students. The school is well managed and resourced by school leaders and an experienced board.

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

1 Context

What are the important features of this school that have an impact on student learning?

The Northern Health School (NHS) provides education for students in Years 1 to 13 who are not attending regular school due to their high heath and/or wellbeing needs. Students come from diverse backgrounds across a wide geographical area. The school has continued to experience significant roll growth, particularly in Years 9 to 13.

The school is led and administered from Auckland. It caters for students from the central North Island to the Far North. Staff operate from hospital and community based units in Whangarei, Auckland, Thames, Hamilton, Tauranga, Whakatane, Rotorua, Gisborne, Taupo and New Plymouth. Eleven sites were visited as part of this review. Staff have developed strategic partnerships with a wide range of health and social agencies and medical professionals.

Students enter the NHS based on medical or specialist verification. They remain on the roll of their school of enrolment. While at NHS, students may complete school work provided by The Correspondence School, Te Kura. Many students have short term involvement with NHS, which aims to successfully transition students back to their school of enrolment when their wellness improves.

NHS teachers provide education programmes to students in hospitals, community support units, students’ homes and other suitable environments. Individual learning plans (ILPs) are developed with the students, whānau, medical teams, caregivers and the school of enrolment. A focus on transition to employment and tertiary education is often a focus for senior students.

The NHS mission statement is “through partnership and innovation we inspire and enrich quality continuous individualised learning”. This intention is clearly evident in the caring and compassionate ways that NHS teachers manage students’ learning. Learning and development opportunities for teachers are regular and relevant, purposefully meeting school and individual teacher goals.

2 Learning

How well does this school use achievement information to make positive changes to learners’ engagement, progress and achievement?

The school is continuing to develop effective ways for leaders, teachers and trustees to use achievement information and improve outcomes for learners.

Teachers use achievement information meaningfully to inform Individual Learning Plans (ILPs). Students’ learning goals are becoming more specific and challenging. Teachers consult purposefully with students and their families to promote student engagement and success in learning.

ILP goals focus on helping students to develop self-belief as learners and optimism for their future. Students are well supported to develop as socially and emotionally confident leaners. Teachers provide effective support to promote student wellbeing and self-esteem. Careful monitoring shows that students make good progress towards meeting their personal goals.

Students make good progress in literacy and mathematics. They could make further use of their own achievement information to identify their next learning steps. Teachers are well placed to broaden the use of assessment in literacy and mathematics to help students extend their understanding of learning. New Ministry of Education (MoE) resources would support this work well.

Māori students achieve well in the senior school. They are known and supported effectively by teachers. Leaders and teachers are continuing to increase the challenge in Māori students’ learning goals to accelerate their success. Reviewing how well Māori students as a group progress and achieve across the school could help inform strategic goals and enable more specific target setting for these learners.

School information shows that many students who are enrolled by NHS in National Certificates of Educational Achievement (NCEA) make good progress towards achieving national qualifications. Carefully considered assessment choices enable senior students to access tertiary education and employment opportunities.

NHS is working closely with the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) to better evaluate the progress and achievement of students entered in NCEA through their school of enrolment. This will help leaders and teachers to evaluate the overall NCEA achievement outcomes for students who have received NHS support.

Students who are with NHS for longer periods of time develop a strong sense of belonging and connection that contributes to their learning success. Leaders could consider developing tools to evaluate the outcomes of their partnerships with students to see how much progress students make over time in their wellbeing and key learning skills.

Leaders work collaboratively and deliberatively to strengthen the use of the NHS data management system to assist with the review and reporting of student success. The board receives useful curriculum reports to inform strategic planning. It could now be useful for unit teams to use this strategic planning to identify unit-based goals that could be used as a basis for determining how successfully units have contributed to the achievement of school-wide performance.

3 Curriculum

How effectively does this school’s curriculum promote and support student learning?

The NHS curriculum promotes and supports student learning effectively. It is well aligned withThe New Zealand Curriculum (NZC) and includes a strong focus on promoting literacy and mathematics. High expectations and holistic approaches help students to engage in education.

Students clearly benefit from positive relationships with highly skilled leaders, teachers and support staff. Teachers promote learners’ independence and confidence. The community units provide settled and inclusive student-centred learning environments.

The curriculum is highly responsive. Programmes are flexible to meet students’ individual learning and wellbeing requirements. Students have many opportunities to make informed decisions about what they learn and how they learn. They have a variety of meaningful and relevant learning experiences.

Teaching programmes are effective and based on students’ individual strengths, talents and aspirations. They also promote and develop the NZC key competencies and affirm students’ effort, success and progress. Good use is made of Te Kura to extend and support students’ learning in specialist curriculum subjects.

Students benefit from teachers who work closely with their whānau. This collaboration helps develop positive relationships and offers good opportunities for families to share in decision making about their children’s education. Parents who spoke to ERO deeply appreciate these learning partnerships. They feel “affirmed” and “valued” by the whanaungatanga and manaakitanga that teachers promote.

A broad range of agencies support the educational success of learners. The curriculum includes a relevant and clear focus on supporting students’ transition back to their school of enrolment. Teachers use a wide variety of approaches to develop relationships with students’ schools of enrolment. A challenge for NHS is to maintain these partnerships through staffing changes in secondary schools.

Teachers use effective teaching practices in contexts that are diverse and often challenging. They work skilfully in collaborative and complementary teams. Leaders provide helpful and useful professional support and guidance for teachers. Performance management systems are well structured and focused on supporting improvement.

School leaders agree that they could further consolidate teachers’ understanding of the highly effective and innovative teaching practices that exist across the organisation. Finding additional ways to connect personnel in the units could help to build consistency and capability. ILPs could more consistently include information about students’ home language capabilities, long-term aspirations and cultural heritage. This could further support the learners’ sense of identity and future learning success.

How effectively does the school promote educational success for Māori, as Māori?

NHS promotes and supports educational success for Māori effectively. Māori students benefit from positive, close relationships with their teachers.

Leaders are developing teachers’ understanding of culturally responsive teaching approaches. The school has a number of staff who have experience and expertise working in a Māori context. The school has appointed a leader with responsibility for promoting Māori success. The school has developed:

• useful on-line resources to support te reo Māori me ōna tikanga
• a self-review tool for teachers to evaluate their teaching practice for Māori students
• organisational and teacher professional development through hui, marae experiences, partnerships with iwi and links with Māori health providers.

Over time, it would be useful to evaluate how well these initiatives benefit Māori students and help them transition back to their school of enrolment and on to further education.

4 Sustainable Performance

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

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

NHS has experienced leaders who share a clear educational vision and focus. They model high expectations and empathy for learners and staff. A well designed new management structure is distributing leadership through the organisation and building staff capability. Management systems are effective and the use of communication technologies has improved.

The NHS leadership philosophy is clearly underpinned by respect. Leaders and teachers model a positive attitude and considerate, inclusive approaches that contribute to high levels of relational trust. Leadership decisions support students to become more resilient through their challenging life experiences and medical needs.

The board is appointed by the Minister of Education. Trustees are highly skilled and capable. They work collaboratively with school leaders in the best interests of the students they serve. They manage property and personnel matters well. Trustees are especially responsive to the school’s unique context, increasing student numbers and complex needs.

The board and leaders manage the pace of change through effective consultation and communication. Increasing ways to consult with groups of parents about specific school goals could add value to the quality of self review. This could also help leaders to develop and document bicultural values and perspectives in the school charter. The New Zealand School Trustees Association (NZSTA) resource, Hautū, could be very helpful in this process.

With the current roll growth and the expansion of the school, it is timely for leaders and trustees to strengthen the quality of self review. To sustain success, they could consider:

• developing a self-review process to guide inquiry and evaluation
• introducing annual planning and reporting processes for larger units or groups of smaller units that identify specific student learning goals and clear measures for success
• finding ways to meaningfully evaluate the quality of student wellbeing outcomes.

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

The Northern Health School provides effective education for students who are not attending their school of enrolment due to high health or wellbeing needs. Collaborative and skilled teachers provide personalised teaching and wellbeing support for students. The school is well managed and resourced by school leaders and an experienced board.

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

About the School