Whenuapai School

1 Context

Whenuapai School caters for children in Years 1 to 8. Since ERO's last review in 2013 the school's Māori roll has grown to 15 percent. Pacific students make up 1 percent of the roll. Recently the school has experienced significant staff changes. The board appointed a new permanent principal in July 2015. The new principal has created a different leadership structure that includes a broader senior leadership team and four leaders of learning. This leadership team is consolidating the strengths of the school and has a focus on improvement.

2 Equity and excellence

The vision and valued outcomes defined by the school for all children are to be part of a school community where all children are successful, confident and connected lifelong learners. The school vision is reinforced through a set of values based on '6 Kinds of Best'. The six kinds of best are to be kind to yourself, be kind to others, be kind to the environment, be the learning kind, be the achieving kind, and be the community kind.

School achievement information for reading, shows a significant increase over the last three years in the number of Māori, and other children achieving the National Standards. Data also show a positive trend in mathematics achievement for all children. In reading and mathematics the school meets the government achievement goal for 2017 of 85 percent of students achieving at or above the National Standards. The school's data for writing, show that the proportion of Māori students, achieving at or above National Standards has remained steady since 2013, with a slight increase for other children. The school is working towards meeting the government achievement goal in writing.

The cohort of Pacific children is too small to report overall achievement in relation to the National Standards or to identify trends over time. The school monitors the achievement of these children individually.

The new leadership team has prioritised the development of schoolwide processes that support teachers to make robust and consistent achievement judgements against the National Standards. This has improved the consistency in teachers' interpretation of achievement data.

Since the last ERO evaluation the school has:

• raised school expectations about effective teaching and learning practices
• focused on teachers using achievement data as evidence for measuring learning outcomes
• set more focused strategic goals to guide school improvement.
• restructured leadership and classes into four teaching and learning teams
• invested in professional learning on literacy, assessment, and growing leadership capability to lead learning
• started reviewing and redesigning the school curriculum to provide better for the modern learner
• initiated learning partnerships with parents that provide further support for children's learning at home.

3 Accelerating achievement

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

The school is increasingly effective in responding to Māori children whose learning and achievement need acceleration.

Reviewing school enrolment information and an open door policy with the community are helping teachers to gain a broad and holistic understanding of individual Māori children and their learning. Deeper analysis and reliability of data at the team level is resulting in documented information of Māori children's strengths, and where learning needs acceleration.

The leadership team places a priority on responding to the learning of all Māori children. Their commitment is further underpinned by increased teacher accountability for the progress of children who are not yet achieving National Standards. Teachers use data analysis information to provide teaching programmes that specifically support children at their point of learning need.

Recent tracking of data for Māori students who are below the National Standards show positive shifts in achievement for many students and some accelerated progress.

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

The effective strategies and practices used by leaders and teachers to support Māori learners are similar to those used to help other children who need to make accelerated progress.

Leaders are building collective staff responsibility for children's learning progress. Team leaders in Years 1 to 6 are responding appropriately to data by leading team inquiries into how to raise achievement in writing. The Year 7 and 8 team is focused on raising achievement in mathematics. Teaching teams meet to discuss samples of student assessment and strategies for better supporting individual children's learning progress in these areas.

The school is making good progress in developing learning partnerships with parents and whānau, with a particular focus on families of Māori children and children whose learning and achievement need acceleration. There are increased opportunities for parents and whānau to discuss their children's learning, and teachers sometimes provide families with resources and strategies to assist with children's learning at home.

The school charter includes annual targets aimed appropriately at accelerating the progress of all groups of children including Māori learners. Progress towards these targets is closely monitored by teachers, teaching teams, school leaders and the board.

Children have an increasing understanding of their own achievement and next learning steps. Teachers and leaders have recently developed progressions of literacy and numeracy learning that children themselves can use to monitor their learning progress.

Recent tracking of other students who are below National Standards shows positive shifts in achievement for many students and some accelerated progress.

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, processes and practices are effective in promoting equity and excellence for children.

The board is increasingly well informed about children's rates of progress and their overall achievement. Trustees use this information to make appropriate resourcing decisions. A particular focus for the board is resourcing teachers' and leaders' professional growth. This is a key aspect of the school's change and improvement plan. The board can be confident about the contribution they are making to the progress and achievement of all children.

Professional leadership that focuses on improving outcomes for children is highly evident. The principal has been a catalyst for improvement and is promoting a sense of urgency to do with responding to children whose achievement needs accelerating. Teacher appraisal processes and teachers' inquiry into the effectiveness of their practice have been strengthened. Leadership is distributed across teaching teams to build individual and collective leadership capacity.

School leaders are reviewing and redesigning the school curriculum to support children's engagement in the learning process. The key focus areas for the school are:

• promoting teaching practices that support children's ownership of their learning
• connecting students to broader and meaningful learning opportunities
• increasing children's opportunities to learn through digital technologies.

School leaders promote a bicultural curriculum. Māori contexts are evident in class programmes and the environment. The school is building on the expertise in the school and the community to provide opportunities for Māori children to experience success as Māori and for all children to learn about NZ's bicultural heritage.

A review and reorganisation of how the school provides equitable learning experiences for children with special needs is resulting in very good provision. An inclusive and responsive approach to individual needs ensures children participate fully in appropriate learning programmes and classroom activities. There is a shared commitment and responsibility for children's progress on the part of teachers and learning assistants. Learning assistants are supported and valued as members of the teaching team.

The school has a comprehensive transitioning into school programme that involves getting to know the learner and their family. This supports early identification of children at risk of not achieving. School leaders are improving ways to support transitions within and out of the school to help teachers to sustain and accelerate children's progress.

Internal evaluation is used well to sustain improvement and innovation. The growing professional learning culture supports collaboration and openness to change and improvement. The school's collective capacity to reflect and use evaluation, results in inquiry and knowledge building that contributes to sustained learner-focused improvement.

5 Going forward

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

Leaders and teachers:

• know the children whose learning and achievement need to be accelerated
• respond effectively to the strengths, needs and interests of each child
• regularly evaluate how well teaching is working for these children
• act on what they know works well for each child
• build teacher capability effectively to achieve equitable outcomes for all children
• are well placed to achieve and sustain equitable and excellent outcomes for all children.

The school is well placed to sustain progress made in teaching practice and to make ongoing improvements that impact positively on all children's learning.

Leaders have identified relevant priorities for further development. These include:

• continuing to strengthen transition process in and out of the school to help sustain and accelerate children's progress and achievement
• developing a guiding school curriculum document that captures recent initiatives and approaches in response to the modern learner
• deepening engagement with the Māori community to develop a strategy plan that will support and fulfil their aspirations of the school's graduate profile for the Māori learner.

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

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 Recommendation

ERO recommends that the board continues the process it has begun to undertake a broad and consultative review to help guide the future direction of the school. 

Graham Randell

Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern

22 September 2016 

About the school

1 Context

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

Whenuapai School is located adjacent to Whenuapai Air Force Base in a semi-rural community.

The long serving principal leads the school well. He knows children and their families well and helps maintain a positive and affirming school culture. He is well supported by a unified board with a clear sense of purpose. New staff have been appointed who add to the richness of professional thinking within the school. A model of distributed leadership has evolved that recognises values and teachers' skills and interests.

Significant changes have occurred since the 2010 ERO review. Regular professional development helps teachers to work as a team focused on improving teaching and learning. Teachers are keen to promote children’s thinking about their learning and to integrate computer technologies into learning programmes.

2 Learning

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

The school uses achievement information effectively to make positive changes to students’ progress and learning. Children of all abilities are supported well to progress in their learning.

Achievement information indicates ongoing improvements, with most students achieving at or above National Standards in reading, writing and mathematics. The overall achievement of Māori children, who comprise nine percent of the school roll, is slightly higher than that of their non-Māori peers throughout the school. There is evidence of accelerated progress for children receiving specific learning support in reading, writing and mathematics.

The school has good quality systems for monitoring, tracking and using student achievement information. These systems include:

• a well chosen set of assessment tools that provide useful information on student progress and learning
• good quality data analysis and reporting to the board by the principal
• teachers using achievement information in team discussions to inform decisions about teaching
• the appointment of a specialist teacher to provide in-class learning support for students requiring additional learning support
• effective target setting for identified individuals and groups of students not achieving National Standards, with ongoing monitoring and reporting to the board about progress against these targets.
• Senior leaders have also identified that further work to strengthen the analysis and use of achievement data would be useful. This work could include:
• strengthening assessment moderation processes
• developing assessment strategies for monitoring learning across the curriculum
• enhancing the clarity of reporting to parents on children’s progress against National Standards.

3 Curriculum

How effectively does this school’s curriculum promote and support student learning?The school’s curriculum promotes and supports student learning well. The curriculum is well designed and based on thoughtful self review. It is balanced and broad based, fostering students’ academic, cultural, artistic, sporting and social development. It is responsive to the needs of both students and the needs of the community and closely aligned to The New Zealand Curriculum (NZC).

Students benefit from a broad and interesting curriculum that provides opportunities for children to be actively involved in 'learning for life'. Classrooms are focused learning environments where positive relationships are valued and children are encouraged to take increasing responsibility for their work. The curriculum aims to give children the best start to learning now and for the future. A newly developed profile that identifies the desired attributes of a Whenuapai School graduate also helps teachers to determine the way they teach.

School values are woven through the curriculum and school priorities help maintain a dynamic and progressive curriculum structure. Literacy and mathematics provide a sound basis for the curriculum and inquiry approaches to learning help promote a broad coverage of learning areas. Literacy learning and teaching has undergone considerable development in the last two years and mathematics is a priority for 2013.

Strategic staff appointments have stimulated the review of many aspects of learning and teaching. The new management structure offers new leadership opportunities for staff and is building more cohesive teaching teams. Teachers’ specialist skills and knowledge in information and communication technologies (ICT), literacy, mathematics, science, te reo Māori and music are recognised and well used.

There are clear expectations to guide teacher planning and monitoring of student progress. Significant progress has been made in raising the quality of teaching in the school since the 2010 ERO review. Improvements have resulted from a planned approach to teacher professional development and an accompanying review of the teacher appraisal system. The school’s development goal for 2013 is to promote children’s thinking about learning and to establish a consistent 'language for learning' throughout the school.

The improved quality of teaching and learning at Years 7 and 8 has resulted in greater retention of students at these senior levels. Other factors that have influenced this retention include more effective team leadership, curriculum review, greater use of student feedback, review of technology education and improved communication with parents. Senior students spoken to during the review enjoy the wide range of opportunities the school provides for them. The ongoing development of the school’s on-line communication technologies has potential to further enhance home and school partnerships for learning.

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

The school has made good progress in promoting educational success for Māori since the 2010 ERO review. A significant factor has been the appointment of a teacher to lead the development of te reo Māori learning in Years 1 to Year 6. Kapa haka has been introduced and school understanding of tikanga is beginning to evolve. ERO and school leaders agree that a next step is to strengthen the visibility of things Māori within learning environments. The principal and board also agree that there is a need to explore ways in which they can further connect with Māori parents and demonstrate a commitment to supporting their children’s success as Māori.

4 Sustainable Performance

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

The school has the capacity to sustain and continue to improve its performance.

The board has some good systems for improving school performance. Features that are likely to contribute to improvement include:

• a well informed board of trustees
• an experienced principal who maintains positive relationships and promotes collegiality
• a strategic approach to growing distributed professional leadership
• a collaborative teaching culture
• relevant teacher professional learning and development driven by teachers
• the development of transparent, open and consultative practices
• sound self-review processes that have resulted in continued curriculum review and development
• good quality reporting on student progress and achievement to the board
• formative appraisal systems to support teacher development.

Self review has had a significant impact on school development. This is particularly evident at school management level, where review has impacted positively on curriculum provisions, teaching and learning and policy review. The ongoing review of board performance and the implementation of strategic goals are further priorities for development.

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.

To improve current practice, the board of trustees should strengthen the review of policies and procedures, particularly those concerning education outside the classroom and employment matters.

When is ERO likely to review the school again?

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

Dale Bailey

National Manager Review Services

Northern Region

17 May 2013 

About the School