Remuera Intermediate

Education institution number:

1461

School type:

Intermediate

School gender:

Co-Educational

Definition:

Not Applicable

Total roll:

867

Website:

http://www.remint.school.nz/

Telephone:

09 522 9890

Address:

Ascot Avenue, Remuera, Auckland

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Remuera Intermediate - 17/07/2019

17 Jul 2019

School Context

Remuera Intermediate caters for students in Years 7 and 8. The school has a culturally diverse roll, including five percent who are Māori and eight percent who have Pacific heritage.

The board’s mission statement states that the school will provide a rigorous and enriching education that supports the unique social, emotional and academic needs of emerging adolescents. The board’s valued outcomes for students prioritise resilience, compassion and responsibility, as members of a global community.

School values are respect, excellence, diversity and service. The school’s belief statement focuses on five priority areas. These are:

positive and supportive relationships
a culture of high expectations that fosters individual strengths, needs and interests
student centred responsive curriculum
purposeful, timely and relevant assessment
focus on continuous growth and development.

The board consulted widely to develop the school’s strategic plan. The current strategic objectives align well with the school’s mission and belief statements.

Since the 2014 ERO report, there have been changes in the board, school leadership, and the teaching team. A new principal was appointed in July 2016. Leaders’ and teachers’ professional learning has related to building greater resilience to improve teacher and learner success. Developing a responsive local curriculum including the integration of information technology (ICT) to enhance learning and improving the ICT infrastructure. A new teaching block and property enhancements have been completed.

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

progress and achievement in reading, writing and mathematics
all curriculum areas and schoolwide initiatives
information about wellbeing and resilience.

The school is a member of the Auckland Central Community of Schools (ACCoS).

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 maintains a focus on ensuring equity and excellent outcomes for all its students.

The school’s information indicates that over two years, most students achieve well and some students make accelerated progress in literacy and mathematics. Students achieve well in local and international competitions, with some achieving distinction and high distinction awards.

Curriculum reports identify disparity for Asian boys and Māori, and persistent disparity for Pacific learners. Evaluating the effectiveness of strategies in place to support Pacific students particularly, is a next step.

Students who have English as an additional language receive targeted tuition. Students with additional learning needs are well supported. Over time, many students demonstrate significant improvement related to dispositional competencies such as confidence, interpersonal skills, and social skills.

End of year 2018 data show that most Year 8 students move on to secondary school achieving at or above curriculum expectation levels in literacy and mathematics. Year 8 information for 2018 shows a significant increase in parity for Māori learners, especially in mathematics.

Students achieve very well in relation to other valued student outcomes. They experience, and successfully achieve, in a broad variety of learning opportunities that provide a solid foundation for their social, emotional, intellectual and physical development. The school’s positive school culture helps students to:

have a strong sense of belonging based on inclusive school practices
develop skills that support them to be socially and emotionally confident
learn to show resilience and be optimistic about their future
have a willingness to, and interest in, taking up leadership opportunities.

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

The school has several worthwhile systems, processes and programmes in place to accelerate learning for those students who need this. Student Support Services provides a well-coordinated approach to ensuring students’ social, emotional and behavioural needs are catered for.

Teachers carefully identify and monitor the progress of students who are most at risk of not achieving well. There is an increasing focus on using responsive strategies that best support each learner. Some teachers are using personalised learning strategies that help students make choices about their learning.

Effective school processes, such as mentoring programmes and ‘teaching as inquiry’, give leaders and teachers an opportunity to think deeply about their priority learners. Leaders and teachers are then able to examine how well their teaching practices support the acceleration of students’ learning.

The board funds teacher aides who help students to experience success through specific programmes including in-class support. Learning support programmes are becoming more aligned to classroom programmes.

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?

Leaders and teachers prioritise building positive, collaborative relationships with students and their families. Inclusive practices and respectful relationships are well embedded. Students speak appreciatively about their teachers. Ensuring greater collaboration and cohesion, at all levels of the school, has been a strategic focus in recent times.

Leaders build relational trust through consultative and collaborative processes that are guiding change management. Leaders are committed to ensuring an orderly and supportive environment for student learning and wellbeing. Distributed leadership opportunities proactively build internal professional leadership capacity. Internal and external expertise is helping to promote well-paced change for better outcomes for students.

The school is very well resourced to enable students to learn and achieve in the breadth and depth of The New Zealand Curriculum (NZC). Curriculum design and school organisation ensure sufficient and equitable opportunities. A new localised curriculum is being developed. Difference and diversity are valued and parents regularly contribute to the curriculum, which supports further learning experiences for students. Science is a particularly positive feature of the school curriculum.

The board actively represents and serves the school community in its stewardship role. Trustees work with the school community to develop and refresh the school’s vision, values and strategic direction. They are committed to ongoing engagement, through information sharing and consultation, with parents/whānau. Trustees actively engage with other local school boards involved in ACCoS. Effective consultation that proactively seeks multiple perspectives is impacting positively on a new strategic direction for the school.

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

The school is currently experiencing change as many areas of school operation are being reviewed. The board and leaders have recently introduced new initiatives that align closely to the board’s strategic plan. Leaders agree that it is timely to consider how they might evaluate progress made with the initiatives, in relation to the school’s priorities, plans and programmes, particularly for those learners at risk of not achieving. This evaluation should help the board with further decision making.

The board’s strategic plan identifies further developments that include the local curriculum, effective teaching practices, and assessment processes. Additional priorities that align with these areas are:

improving bicultural provision and multicultural perspectives that will strengthen school practices and support students’ language, culture and identity
using research and resources such as Tapasā, to strategically plan for and accelerate the learning of Pacific students
further developing assessment capabilities and teaching approaches that help teachers adapt and respond to students’ specific learning needs and support learners to understand their learning progress, achievement and next steps
reviewing school structures, roles and responsibilities relating to access to and use of achievement data, particularly for those students most at risk of not achieving.

Leaders have identified that it is timely to access professional learning in relation to schoolwide assessment practices and processes that support learning, as this could assist with further curriculum developments.

3 Other Matters

Provision for international students

The school is a signatory to the Education (Pastoral Care of International Students) Code of Practice 2016 (the Code) established under section 238F of the Education Act 1989. The school has attested that it complies with all aspects of the Code. At the time of this review there were 20 international students attending the school.

Remuera Intermediate has very good monitoring processes in place to ensure the school is meeting the requirements of the Code. Students are very settled and well integrated into the life of the school and the community. Students’ progress is monitored and parents’ aspirations responded to positively.

A key next step, as noted in ERO’s 2014 report, is for the board to receive information about international students’ progress and achievement. This reporting would assure the board of effective provision for these students.

4 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 Children’s Act 2014.

5 ERO’s Overall Judgement

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

ERO’s Framework: Overall School Performance is available on ERO’s website.

6 Going forward

Key strengths of the school

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

a positive school culture that promotes respectful reciprocal relationships and a strong sense of belonging
leadership that builds relational trust through consultation and collaboration, to promote well-paced change
a well-resourced school curriculum that enables students to learn and achieve in the breadth and depth of the New Zealand Curriculum
the board actively representing and serving the school community.

Next steps

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

evaluating the effectiveness of the board’s identified goals and priorities in achieving positive outcomes for learners, particularly for those students at risk of not achieving
improving bicultural practices and incorporating multicultural perspectives to further support students’ cultures, languages and identity in the school.

Steve Tanner

Director Review and Improvement Services Northern

Northern Region

17 July 2019

About the school

Location	Remuera, Auckland
Ministry of Education profile number	1461
School type	Intermediate
School roll	909
Gender composition	Boys 51% Girls 49%
Ethnic composition	Māori 5% NZ European/Pākehā 43% Chinese 14% Indian 10% Pacific 8% Sri Lankan 4% other Asian 8% other ethnic groups 8%
Students with Ongoing Resourcing Funding (ORS)	Yes
Provision of Māori medium education	No
Review team on site	May 2019
Date of this report	17 July 2019
Most recent ERO report(s)	Education Review August 2014 Education Review May 2010 Education Review May 2007

Remuera Intermediate - 08/08/2014

08 Aug 2014

Findings

Students at Remuera Intermediate School receive a high quality education that prepares them well to make choices for their future. The school is committed to providing an inclusive environment where students experience success as learners. A strong culture of high expectations for students and staff pervades the school.

ERO is likely to carry out the next review in four-to-five years.

1 Context

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

Remuera Intermediate School, a large multicultural intermediate school in Auckland, continues to provide high quality education for its local and international students in Years 7 and 8. Since ERO’s 2010 review, the Māori roll has remained constant and constitutes nine percent of the school roll. The number of students with Pacific heritage has grown to nine percent. Chinese and Indian students make up a further twenty-two percent of the school roll. Approximately thirty-nine percent of students come from outside the school zone.

Respect for and inclusion for all continue to be features of this school. Students enjoy their learning and respond well to the school’s high expectations for their progress and achievement. Close relationships between the school and its community benefit students’ learning.

Over the past four years, the school has continued to demonstrate its focus on improvement. An important development has been how leaders and teachers use a systematic yet flexible approach to identify and promote students’ individual learning. Other initiatives have provided students with greater access to new and interesting learning opportunities. The school curriculum continues to increase its responsiveness to the school’s diverse population.

2 Learning

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

Student achievement information is used very effectively to inform decision making for teaching and learning. It is well used to make and review resourcing decisions, particularly for students who are at risk of not achieving. Leaders and trustees are very aware that they have only two years to make a difference for the learners in their care. This sense of urgency promotes timely support interventions for students.

Student enjoyment and engagement in learning is highly evident. Their interest in learning and their motivation to succeed contribute to the school’s high levels of student achievement. It is further evident in the students’ success in individual and group sporting, artistic and cultural competitions.

School achievement information shows that, overall, students are achieving well above National Standards in reading, writing and mathematics. The school is very well placed to achieve the government target of eighty-five percent of students at or above National Standards by 2017. The board uses achievement information to set charter targets that are appropriately focused on improved outcomes for students.

Māori and Pacific student achievement is above national comparisons. School information clearly shows that Māori and Pacific students respond well to the high levels of support to make good progress over their two years at this school. School leaders are intent on achieving parity between Māori and Pacific students’ achievement results and those of the whole school.

The school has good evidence of the success of its support programmes and initiatives. Data show that most of the students involved in these programmes are making good progress, and that the progress of some students is significantly accelerated. Individual learning plans for students with high learning needs show the school’s commitment to the progress and achievement for these students.

Teachers have worked consistently to develop valid and reliable assessment processes. Reports give parents good information about their child’s learning in relation to the National Standards and to their achievement across the curriculum. These reports continue to be refined over time.

ERO and school leaders discussed next steps to further enhance the use of achievement information. These included:

continuing to build student knowledge and ownership of their own learning
analysing of student achievement information more deeply, particularly with regard to ethnicities and cohorts, to identify trends and patterns over time.

3 Curriculum

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

The curriculum is highly effective in engaging students in learning. Factors that promote and support student learning and enrich the curriculum include:

a strongly coherent curriculum where students experience a wide variety of opportunities to participate and show leadership in academic, sport, art and cultural activities
ongoing curriculum review that is strongly aligned with the principles of The New Zealand Curriculum
the capacity of teachers to collaborate and inquire into their own practice to provide effective teaching and learning
the board’s commitment to resourcing an environment that prepares students for future learning, including provision of digital technologies as a teaching and learning tool.

The value the school places on student wellbeing is strongly evident through:

the emphasis given to the inclusion of, and provision for, all learners and their interests
the high levels of pastoral support
the very effective learning support network that caters for students with moderate and high needs.

Next steps for curriculum development include:

expanding the student wellbeing survey to include all students in Years 7 and 8
developing a programme of digital citizenship to enhance curriculum and relevant learning experiences.

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

Trustees, leaders and teachers strongly support and accept shared responsibility for educational success for Māori, as Māori.

This commitment to Māori success is demonstrated through:

the value placed on Māori students’ language, culture and identity
the involvement of Māori students in relevant aspects of school direction and decision making
the promotion of success for Māori students through leadership roles
the inclusion of Māori perspectives in all teachers’ planning and classroom programmes.

Māori students spoken to during the review shared their sense of pride in being a Māori student at Remuera Intermediate School.

The board and senior leaders value the positive relationship they have with Māori parents, whānau and the community. They are keen to extend and investigate their parent and student feedback to further evaluate the extent to which they are meeting the aspirations that Māori parents and family/whānau have for their children.

4 Sustainable Performance

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

The school is very well placed to sustain its current good practices and continue to grow its performance on the basis of:

a highly inclusive learning environment and practices that value involvement from students, their parents and families/whānau, and teachers
a focus on ongoing improvement, that is informed by reliable evidence from self review
strong alignment between strategic and annual plans, curriculum implementation, and programmes and initiatives that lead to positive outcomes for students
effective professional leadership by the principal, the senior management team, and other leaders with management responsibilities
experienced and supportive trustees who are committed to school improvement and are knowledgeable about their governance responsibilities.

Contribution to, and working with, the wider educational community is a strength of the school. School leaders are active in smaller cluster groups that place priority on improving educational opportunities for students. They are building stronger relationships with contributing schools and destination high schools to facilitate good transitions for students.

To enhance their practice, trustees are now considering further ways to evaluate the board’s effectiveness in line with the school’s inquiry process.

Provision for international students

The school is a signatory to the Code of Practice for the Pastoral Care of International Students (the Code) established under section 238F of the Education Act 1989. The school has attested that it complies with all aspects of the Code.

The school generally has an average of 20 international students enrolled at any one time. However, as a result of long and short-term enrolments, there have been occasions over the past five years where up to 100 international students have enjoyed care and education at this school. The majority of these students come from Asian countries and, whilst in New Zealand, live mainly with their parents or relatives.

International students affirm the school’s highly inclusive and broad educational programme. Their wellbeing is strongly supported by effective pastoral systems. The director for international students closely monitors international student welfare and accommodation. When numbers are high, this can be a complex task. School leaders agree that additional staffing could enhance the sustainability of this role.

International student achievement is closely monitored. Students make very good progress in English language learning and are successful in a large variety of academic, sporting and cultural endeavours. Leaders agree that it would be useful to specifically report to the board about the progress and achievement of international students across the curriculum.

High quality record keeping and ongoing review of care and provision for international students helps ensure that these students are well catered for. Their parents regularly share their appreciation for the positive experiences the school provides for their children.

ERO’s investigations confirmed that the school’s self-review process for international students is thorough.

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

ERO is likely to carry out the next review in four-to-five years.

Dale Bailey

National Manager Review Services Northern Region

8 August 2014

About the School

Location	Remuera, Auckland
Ministry of Education profile number	1461
School type	Intermediate (Years 7 to 8)
School roll	912
Number of international students	27
Gender composition	Boys 50% Girls 50%
Ethnic composition	NZ European/Pākehā Māori Chinese Indian Samoan Tongan South East Asian African Middle Eastern Other Asian Other European Other	42% 9% 13% 9% 4% 3% 2% 1% 1% 7% 5% 4%
Review team on site	June 2014
Date of this report	8 August 2014
Most recent ERO report(s)	Education Review Education Review Education Review	May 2010 May 2007 August 2003