Ferguson Intermediate (Otara)

Findings

1 Background and Context

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

Ferguson Intermediate (Otara), provides education for students in Years 7 and 8. The roll of 388 students comprises approximately 13 percent Māori, 39 percent Samoan, 22 percent Cook Island Māori and 17 percent Tongan. A further 9 percent of students belong to Niuean, Pākehā and other ethnic groups. Many staff and students have English as an additional language.

The 2019 ERO report identified significant areas for development related to improving educational leadership, curriculum development, and teaching and learning programmes. The report also identified that the school should continue to develop internal evaluation capability and capacity. ERO decided to carry out a longitudinal evaluation, over the course of one-to-two years, to support and evaluate the school’s progress. The non-compliance noted in the 2019 report has been addressed.

Throughout the time of this evaluation the school has received targeted support from the Ministry of Education (MoE) including the the services of an Advisor and Student Achievement Function (SAF) practitioners.

The Ministry and school leaders developed an improvement plan focused on personnel and curriculum management, student achievement and effective teaching. The board provides monthly reports to the Ministry on how well the school is progressing towards the priorities set out in this plan.

Leaders and teachers have benefited from professional development and learning (PLD) to strengthen assessment systems, processes and practices and build professional leadership capability for sustaining performance and ongoing improvement.

Since 2019 several classrooms have been upgraded. The school’s information communication and technology (ICT) infrastructure and capacity has been expanded and all students now have access to a board-funded ICT device to use at school. The school is currently managing a personnel issue.

Evidence collected through ERO’s longitudinal review process has been used to evaluate the progress trustees, senior leaders and teachers have made to address the recommendations identified in ERO’s 2019 report. The findings are outlined in the following sections of this report.

2 Review and Development

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

Priorities identified for review and development

ERO established the following priorities for the review:

• improving the quality of assessment, teaching and learning to raise student achievement
• strengthening relationships and connections with family, whānau, the community and other relevant agencies
• creating a responsive curriculum
• building a professional culture and improving educational leadership.

Progress

Despite the impact of numerous COVID lockdowns which interrupted embedding some initiatives started in 2021, the school has made good progress in relation to the priorities.

Improving the quality of assessment, teaching and learning to raise student achievement:

Assessment processes and systems, and teachers’ capability to understand and use achievement information to inform learning programmes has improved. Targeted improvement plans and appropriate systems have been developed to carefully track and monitor the progress of students who need to make accelerated progress.

Internal moderation processes have been strengthened and this has increased the validity and reliability of student achievement data. Continuing to build and sustain assessment systems and processes and leaders’ and teachers' data literacy capability is a focus of the Ministry improvement plan.

Schoolwide achievement data is reported regularly to the board. The 2020 achievement data indicates that approximately sixty-five percent of students achieved at curriculum expectations in literacy and numeracy.

The 2021 literacy and mathematics data indicate a drop in achievement and senior leaders attribute this to the ongoing COVID lockdowns and the disruption to students’ learning. The data show that approximately half of Year 8 students were achieving at or above expectation in literacy. Prior to COVID lockdowns, student attendance had improved to 95 percent.

Achievement disparity is evident for Māori and for boys in literacy and numeracy. School leaders acknowledge that increasing parity in achievement for these students is a priority. They have deliberately targeted initiatives to accelerate student progress and achievement. Improved systems are in place to monitor student progress, and achievement information shows most students are making progress. It would now be timely for leaders to evaluate the extent to which these initiatives are lifting overall achievement and improving student outcomes.

Key next steps for accelerating progress and lifting achievement include:

• leaders and teachers maintaining a deliberate focus on lifting student achievement
• continuing to implement the mathematics improvement plans to ensure students are achieving at expectation
• leaders inquiring into, and evaluating, the effectiveness of acceleration initiatives to increase equitable outcomes for all students.

Strengthening relationships and connections with family, whānau, the community and other relevant agencies:

Strengthening relationships and connections with family, whānau and the community is the area of development that the board and leadership team are most proud of.

Governance and leadership capability has strengthened. Trustees continue to build relational trust with the school community. Strategic resourcing of strategies and time are directed at improving outcomes for students.

School leaders and teachers continue to strengthen learning relationships with whānau. The ‘reconnecting the community’ initiative and the adoption of an online portal where parents can view their child’s learning, have the potential to further engage parents and whānau to participate in learning opportunities.

Although the COVID lockdowns disrupted the implementation of these initiatives, trustees and school leaders are continuing to promote a range of appropriate and effective communication strategies to constructively assist parents to support their children’s learning. Evaluating the effectiveness of these strategies to build reciprocal learning-centred relationships is a key next step.

Creating a responsive curriculum

The school has documented a culturally responsive curriculum relevant to Ferguson Intermediate (Otara) learners. The curriculum design makes connections to learner’s lives, prior understandings, out of school experiences and real-world contexts. It promotes greater opportunities for the cultural knowledge and expertise of parents and whānau to support student learning.

New curriculum teams plan collaboratively each term. Clear expectations for teaching have been developed and documented. With the high number of new teaching staff, school leaders need to ensure that all teachers have high and equitable expectations for student learning, achievement, progress and wellbeing. School leaders are aware that building teachers’ professional capability and collective capacity is a priority. This will require senior leaders to lead systematic and focused professional learning opportunities to improve outcomes for all students.

Learning progressions written in user-friendly language support students’ learning through the online portal. These progressions should provide greater opportunities for students to identify next learning goals and self-assess how well they are progressing.

Key next steps for curriculum development include continuing to:

• revisit and embed the mathematics professional learning to build consistency of teaching practice
• increase opportunities for students to have a greater role in their learning.

Building a professional culture and improving educational leadership:

School leaders have benefitted from Ministry support. They have engaged very well with the SAF project and are committed to progressing the Ministry plan to improve student wellbeing, learning and achievement.

Leaders have high expectations and place an emphasis on deliberate acts of leadership. They engage in appropriate PLD focused on building their collective leadership capability and capacity.

The new leadership structure has increased relational trust with staff. Professional learning groups have been established consisting of teachers, specialist teachers and teacher aides, and led by a senior leader. This should contribute to building more consistency of quality teaching practice across the school.

Appraisal processes have been reviewed. An external appraiser is used to appraise the senior leadership team. Leaders could now include in the appraisal process feedback on how well they work collaboratively to achieve the school’s valued student outcomes.

Key next steps for building a professional culture and improving educational leadership include:

• building leaders’ and teachers’ professional capability and collective capacity to increase equity and excellence for all students
• evaluating the effectiveness of programmes designed to lift student achievement and accelerate the progress of all students who require this.

3 Sustainable performance and self review

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

The school has made positive shifts in its leadership and professional culture. Leaders’ and teachers' professional capability and collective capacity has grown. Processes and systems to sustain and continue improvement are in place, but due to the COVID 19 disruptions these are at the early stages of development. Together with whānau and the community, school leaders and teachers are now beginning to provide the educational and organisational conditions that support student wellbeing and success.

Internal evaluation processes and capability continues to develop. Ongoing priorities to support the school to make further progress include improving the consistency and quality of teaching practice and using internal evaluation to further build professional accountability.

Leaders collate and analyse a range of information. They now need to take a more strategic approach to evaluation to ensure that improvement initiatives are making a difference for all learners.

Key Next Steps

Priorities are to:

• continue lifting student achievement, particularly for Māori and boys in literacy and numeracy
• evaluate the impact of recently introduced initiatives focused on accelerating progress and achievement
• continue leadership development initiatives to build on the collective and individual capability of staff
• continue to embed systems for ensuring the consistency and quality of teaching practice
• continue to strengthen whānau participation in students’ learning
• build students’ role in their learning
• strengthen and use systematic internal evaluation to support continuous improvement and accountability.

4     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 Children’s Act 2014.

5 Recommendations

Recommendations, including any to other agencies for ongoing or additional support.

ERO recommends that the school continue to work with the Ministry of Education to implement, monitor and evaluate the Ministry’s improvement plan to achieve equity and excellence for all students.

Conclusion

On the basis of the findings of this review, ERO ‘s overall evaluation judgement of Ferguson Intermediate (Otara)’s performance in achieving valued outcomes for its students is:

• the school will transition into ERO’s Evaluation for Improvement process.

Filivaifale Jason Swann
Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern) 
Northern Region - Te Tai Raki
30 May 2022

About the school

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

1 Background and Context

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

Ferguson Intermediate, Otara caters for students from Years 7 to 8. The roll of close to 450 students comprises approximately 23 percent Māori students, 45 percent Samoan and a further 32 percent made up of Tongan, Niuean, Pākehā and other students.

The 2015 ERO report identified serious concerns regarding leadership, governance, student achievement, the quality of teaching and learning, and community engagement. The ERO report recommended external support from the Ministry of Education (MoE), and a Limited Statutory Manager (LSM) was appointed to assist with personnel, finance and other governance matters. Additional concerns highlighted in ERO’s report related to the handling of some student health and safety matters, curriculum development, assessment and internal evaluation processes.

Since 2015 the school has had three principals, and in late 2018 a permanent principal was appointed to the role. Throughout this time the MoE has provided a wide range of support for the school. In addition to the services of a Student Achievement Function (SAF) advisor, teachers’ capability has been grown through professional learning and development (PLD) about teaching literacy and mathematics and curriculum development.

Evidence collected through ERO’s ongoing longitudinal review of the school has been used to evaluate the progress trustees, leaders and teachers have made to address the concerns and recommendations identified in 2015. The findings are outlined in the following sections of this report.

2 Review and Development

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

Priorities identified for review and development

ERO established the following priorities for the review:

• improving the quality of assessment, teaching and learning in order to raise student achievement
• strengthening relationships with family, whānau, the community and relevant support agencies
• creating a responsive curriculum
• building a professional culture and improving educational leadership
• strengthening governance, particularly in relation to student health and safety, personnel, and finance
• developing, implementing and using internal evaluation across school operations.

Progress

Despite the impact of a number of changes of principal over the past four years, there has been progress in relation to most of the review priority areas. However, in a number of areas this progress is yet to be embedded, and in other areas further progress is required to ensure that improvements are sustained and can be built upon. In all of the areas of priority, further strengthening of internal evaluation is necessary.

Improving the quality of assessment, teaching and learning to raise student achievement

Clear and shared expectations about teaching have been established. There is greater collegiality and professionalism amongst teaching staff, and more consistent classroom teaching practices across the school are evident. Students are enjoying more positive learning environments.

The school’s assessment processes have improved markedly. The scope and number of assessments have been rationalised. This is helping to ensure that assessment information is being better used by teachers and leaders at the classroom and schoolwide levels.

Teachers’ assessment judgements are becoming more accurate and consistent as a result of PLD and moderation processes. This is helping teachers to tailor instruction to meet the needs of individuals and groups of students, engage in more meaningful learning discussions with students, and report to parents.

While overall achievement has improved, achievement levels are below those of similar schools and do not yet meet the school’s charter goals and targets. Disparity in achievement also continues to be evident, with girls’ achievement generally exceeding that of boys. Individual students are making some good progress. However, teachers acknowledge that they need to expand their knowledge and use of teaching strategies that help students to make accelerated progress.

The priorities for continuing to improve the quality of assessment, teaching and learning to raise student achievement are to:

• embed and expand on effective teaching practices and approaches that promote students’ active learning and accelerate their progress
• continue assessment PLD to build teachers’ data literacy capability
• refine schoolwide targets to more clearly focus on students who need to make accelerated progress
• increase the range and depth of assessment moderation processes to support students’ learning progressions into, through and from the school
• build “teaching as inquiry” approaches to increase teachers’ capability to accelerate, promote and evaluate students’ learning.

Strengthening relationships and connections with family, whānau, the community and other relevant agencies

Relationships and connections with family, whānau, the community and relevant agencies have been considerably strengthened. The community is increasingly involved in a wider range of school initiatives and events. Communication with, and opportunities for parents to be involved in, and partner in their children’s learning, have also improved. This is enhancing their confidence in the school and the learning programmes it offers.

The school’s improved liaison and relationships with other educational support and community agencies mean that students and family/whānau now have good access to a range of programmes and resources that support their education and wellbeing. Students who require additional support are being better served, and teachers are being assisted to meet students’ holistic needs.

The priorities for continuing to strengthen relationships and connections with family, whānau, the community and other relevant agencies are to:

• continue building links and communication with local contributing and pathway schools to share information and enhance students’ transitions and learning progressions
• develop strategies for further strengthening engagement with parents and whānau in setting their children’s learning goals and next steps, developing local curriculum priorities, and designing strategies to address underachievement.

Creating a responsive curriculum

The school has recently made good use of external expertise to help leaders and teachers develop a set of curriculum guidelines connecting the school’s vision, charter and goals to valued outcomes for students. The guidelines are appropriately aligned to the school’s graduate profile which outlines the knowledge, competencies and attitudes to be promoted through teaching programmes. Leaders and teachers acknowledge that they are only in the initial stages of using the school’s curriculum guidelines.

Teachers are making increased use of their knowledge of students and learning to plan relevant and interesting programmes. There is greater use of student-centred and active learning approaches. As a result of these developments, students are more motivated, engaged and able to discuss their learning, progress and achievement.

The priorities for continuing to create a responsive curriculum are to:

• explicitly localise the curriculum to ensure it is responsive to the needs, languages, cultures, interests, strengths and aspirations of the school’s diverse students and their families/whānau
• build alignment with the curricula of contributing and pathway schools to enhance curriculum quality and coherence, and ensure more seamless transitions for students
• embed curriculum understandings and effective teaching approaches using ‘teaching as inquiry’ and evaluation to gauge the quality of teaching and the impact on student outcomes
• increase students’ understanding of the role they play in their learning, and opportunities for them to identify their own learning goals, and to self-assess and evaluate their progress and achievement in relation to those goals.

Building a professional culture and improving educational leadership

There has been a steady growth in staff professionalism and confidence in school leadership. This is attributable to the commitment of staff to rebuilding a collaborative professional culture. PLD has been well targeted and resulted in shared understandings about effective teaching approaches and increasingly up-to-date and consistent practices. Of particular note are some of the more collaborative and transparent approaches to leadership that have had a positive impact on staff morale. These have included the use of anonymous staff surveys to help identify concerns and set priorities for development.

There have been progressive improvements to the staff appraisal process. Documentation is now formatted and stored in line with Teaching Council requirements. An appraisal process for the senior leadership team and principal is being conducted by an external provider. This should result in objective developmental feedback for leaders. It should also provide them with a model of how a rigorous and useful appraisal process can be implemented to support professional growth.

The school’s new principal was previously the deputy principal and has strong and well established links to, and relationships with the community. He is working together with a broader leadership team which brings new knowledge, energy and commitment to improving outcomes for all students. This “team leadership” structure is a positive development for guiding and growing teaching capability schoolwide.

The priorities for continuing to build the school’s professional culture and educational leadership are to:

• ensure staff continue to benefit from ongoing well targeted PLD and an increasingly robust appraisal process
• maintain open and clear professional communication to build staff trust and confidence
• create a systematic leadership programme to support and evaluate the professional growth and impact of the principal and the team of new and emerging leaders.

Strengthening governance particularly in relation to student health and safety, personnel, and finance

The MoE appointed LSM has worked over the past four years to develop and manage personnel systems and issues, and establish a sound financial footing for the school. With the support of the board, school leaders, teaching staff and PLD and other providers, progress has also been made with systems to promote student health and safety.

The board’s trustees have a good range of relevant governance and other skills and experience, are representative of and well linked to the school and wider community, and are positive about the school’s direction and progress. Their focus is on creating a strong values-based learning culture, and continuing to strengthen the school’s partnership with whānau, parents and links to the community.

Currently, key governance responsibilities, including those for finance and personnel, sit with the LSM. The board is united, has confidence in school leadership, and is now well placed to take up its complete range of governance responsibilities.

The priorities for continuing to strengthen governance are to:

• support the board to take up its full range of governance responsibilities with some initial and targeted advisory support
• establish strong systems for reporting to the board and for strategic evaluation, including the evaluation of governance
• complete the policy and accountability development work noted in the compliance section of this report.

3 Sustainable performance and self review

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

Although some good progress has been made in relation to the priorities identified for development and review, there are still considerable areas for further development. In some cases, developments are in the early stages and it is not yet possible to gauge the likelihood of them being sustained.

The school has re-engaged with its community and the community’s confidence in the school is growing. Students are benefitting from the principal, teachers and board’s strong focus on student success and lifting overall achievement. Teacher professionalism and collegiality have improved and are having a positive impact on the quality of teaching, assessment and learning.

Governance and leadership capability have been strengthened. ERO affirms the board’s readiness to take up its full range of governance responsibilities and its intention to access targeted support in key areas of governance.

Key next steps

The board, school leader and teachers should:

• use the priorities and next steps for development identified in this report as the basis for the school’s annual and strategic planning
• continue to develop their understanding and use of internal evaluation to track progress towards their objectives, targets and goals for improving educational outcomes for students and determining actions for ongoing 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.

ERO identified the following areas of non-compliance. The board must ensure that:

• all non-teaching staff are regularly police vetted 
  [Vulnerable Children (Requirements for Safety Checks of Children’s Workers) Regulations 2015]
• the school’s EOTC policy is followed particularly with respect to the procedures for documenting and approving risk analysis management (RAMs) for all excursions safety 
  [National Administration Guidelines, 5]
• the school develops comprehensive cyber safety procedures for promoting online safety and behaviour management policy/procedures to guide teachers and students and promote their emotional and physical safety.
  [National Administration Guidelines, 5]

In order to improve current practice, the board should:

• establish a set of procedures and guidelines that align to the Vulnerable Children’s Act to underpin processes for appointing staff.

Conclusion

On the basis of the findings of this review, ERO‘s overall evaluation judgement of Ferguson Intermediate’s performance in achieving valued outcomes for its students is: Needs development.

ERO will maintain an ongoing relationship with the school to build capacity and evaluate progress.

ERO’s Framework: Overall School Performance is available on ERO’s website at: www.ero.govt.nz

Steve Tanner

Director Review and Improvement Services Northern

Northern Region

11 April 2019

About the School