St Paul's School (Massey)

1 Context

St Paul's School Massey is a state integrated Catholic school situated in a semi-rural environment in west of Auckland. The school serves the parishes of St Paul's and the surrounding districts. The roll reflects its ethnically diverse community. Twenty-nine children identify with Māori heritage and 69 are of Pacific Island descent. Since ERO's 2013 external evaluation a new senior leadership team has been appointed by the existing principal.

2 Equity and excellence

The school vision is for all children to be "faith-filled, confident, respectful students, who work towards independence, achieve excellence as learners and are happy." The community values of St Paul's School are "Unity, Wisdom and Knowledge" and the desired valued outcomes include "Respect, Trust in God, and Servant leadership." These outcomes stem from the school's mission of being a school that "provides quality education for children in a Catholic community committed to Gospel Values."

The school's achievement information shows that 90% to 96% of learners achieve at or above National Standards in reading, writing and mathematics with the greatest majority achieving at National Standards.

Since the last ERO external evaluation, the school has continued to embed its assessment for learning practices. Targeted professional development has supported teachers to reflect on their teaching practice. Staff have also been involved in professional learning about teaching English as a second language.

Parents and teachers have participated in the "Reading Together Programme". The subsequent success of this initiative has led to the piloting of a "Mathematics Together Programme" for parents. These programmes continue to be offered to help support learning at home.

Since the last ERO evaluation the school has continued to use good moderation practices to form overall teacher judgements of student achievement. It has included other primary schools and secondary schools in these processes.

3 Accelerating achievement

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

St Paul's Massey School responds well to the learning requirements of Māori children whose progress and achievement needs accelerating. There is a developing school-wide understanding of what acceleration looks like and leaders identify and respond to the needs of specific Māori children whose achievement needs to be accelerated.

The board of trustees has used the school's achievement information to set school-wide strategic goals that focus on raising the achievement of targeted children in reading, writing and mathematics.

Leaders and teachers at the team and classroom level clearly identify Māori children who are at risk of not achieving. Teachers have successfully used remedial approaches to accelerate children's progress. Some teachers are beginning to use teaching strategies to accelerate the progress of Māori children who are at risk of underachieving. Teachers meet regularly to support each other with their identified target children. Some teachers use ongoing monitoring and evaluative documents to carefully track their targeted children.

Parents and whānau are supported by leaders and teachers to develop learning partnerships and to support their children with their learning at home.

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

The school has good systems to help identify other children who are at risk of not achieving equitable outcomes. Teachers use the same strategies, systems and processes in place for Māori students to respond to children of Pacific Island heritage, and other children with specific learning requirements, whose learning and achievement needs accelerating.

Teachers regularly monitor the progress of their target children and reflect on the effectiveness of teaching practices to lift achievement. Leaders and teachers trial different strategies and interventions with their target children to accelerate their progress.

School leaders have identified where they need to re-strategise and evaluate the success of initiatives to accelerate progress for identified groups of children. They are refining ways to document children's progress. This should better inform them of the effectiveness of these new approaches.

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 effectively enacts its vision, values, goals and priorities for equity and excellence through its curriculum.

Children and parents are valued and the pastoral care approaches shown by leaders and teachers help promote children's the sense of belonging.

The board of trustees has a strong trust-based relationship with the school community and works closely with the principal to support the school's direction. Trustees receive timely information from the principal. They make informed decisions based on reports and their own proactive community networks.

Leaders and teachers have successfully established a positive and orderly environment conducive to supporting children's learning and wellbeing. Children and families are welcomed into and cared for in the St Paul's School community with joy and enthusiasm.

Children have a sense of optimism about their learning. They demonstrate social competencies and confidence with children and adults. Children show good self-esteem and are happy in their learning and interactions. The revised student management approach is more positive and affirming of desired learning behaviour.

Leaders and teachers actively involve children, parents, families and whānau and the community in learning centred relationships through reciprocal communication. Parents successfully take on training to support their children at home and continue to grow their skills alongside their children.

St Paul's Massey has deliberately spent the last six years concentrating its efforts on teaching literacy and mathematics and raising the achievement levels to meet all National Standards. Assessment activities are generally inclusive, authentic and fit for purpose, providing relevant and meaningful evidence to assess children's achievement and progress and to identify next steps.

The school has successfully consulted with its community and reviewed the school's vision, values and the future direction of its local curriculum. It is now reviewing ways to further deepen children's engagement with learning through extending and challenging learning opportunities.

The new leadership team is engaging in external professional development to establish a more coherent performance management process to build teachers' practice. The school's culture is conducive to developing reflective practice by teachers. A strategic approach is being implemented to grow professional capability and collective capacity across the school. Leaders and teachers are implementing new teaching practices as they move together through this time of change. Induction and mentoring for new staff continues to be refined and adapted to meet their needs.

Leaders and teachers are developing systems and processes to promote inquiry, knowledge building and evaluation. Leaders gather and analyse information to prioritise and to make decisions about appropriate school goals and targets. They could develop their evaluative practice further by making more use of current research and continuing to use external expertise and networks to grow their evaluation and inquiry.

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 to the strengths, needs and interests of each child
• regularly evaluate how teaching is working for these children
• need to systematically act on what they know works for each child
• need to have a plan in place to build teacher capability to accelerate the achievement of all children who need it. 

St Paul's Massey is successful at supporting most children to achieve National Standards in reading, writing and mathematics. Leaders and teachers know the individual child and families well, and support each child's wellbeing. Through developing a plan to raise achievement, school leaders can support all teachers to raise achievement, especially for Māori and Pacific learners who remain below National Standards.

ERO and school leaders agree with the following priorities for increasing the quality of outcomes and for sustainability and continuous capability building could include:

1. Deliberately focusing on accelerating learning and equitable outcomes by:
   
   - explicitly stating acceleration goals in strategic plans
   - monitoring children's progress using a consistent approach to documentation
   - accelerating children's progress through increasing the pace, challenge and richness of learning tasks
   - using evaluation opportunities to continuously improve teaching for diverse learners.
   
   
2. Evaluating the success of the curriculum through evaluations focused on:
   
   - more personalised learner approaches
   - ensuring relevance for all learners, including a more culturally connected curriculum
   - using further opportunities for exploration and prompting curiosity, with open ended learning that supports discovery and investigation
   - increasing children's involvement in, and ownership of, their learning.

Action: The board, principal and teachers should use the findings of this evaluation, the Effective School Evaluation resource, the Internal Evaluation: Good Practice exemplars and the School Evaluation Indicators to develop a Raising Achievement Plan to further develop processes and practices that respond effectively to the strengths and needs of children whose learning and achievement need to be accelerated.

As part of this review ERO will continue to monitor the school’s Raising Achievement plan and the progress the school makes.

ERO is likely to carry out the next full 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

• provision for international students.

To improve current practice, the board of trustees should:

• develop a Crisis Management Plan

7 Recommendations

ERO recommends that St Paul's Massey continues to develop and embed school-wide effective teaching, assessment and evaluation practices and systems that promote equity and excellence in outcomes for children. 

Graham Randell

Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern

28 September 2016

About the school

Findings

1 Context

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

St Paul’s School Massey, is an integrated, multicultural, Catholic school which caters for students from Years 1 to 6. The school is well supported by the local parish community. Gospel values of honesty, respect, compassion and charity are integrated throughout the school. Added physical features, including artworks and a reflection space, enhance the Catholic Character of the school and reflect the bicultural heritage of Aotearoa/New Zealand.

Students have opportunities to contribute to the life of the school. An inclusive school setting encourages students to show respect for others and for the environment.

Since the 2010 ERO review, teacher participation in professional learning and development has focused on improving outcomes for students. Teachers are more aware of teaching strategies that contribute to students becoming managers of their own learning.

The school provides an environment where the St Paul’s charism of ‘unity, wisdom and knowledge’ is evident in word and deed.

2 Learning

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

Achievement information is well analysed and used to design class programmes. The board uses this information effectively to set school priorities and annual achievement targets. There is a commitment at all levels to ongoing improvement in students learning. Senior leaders and teachers monitor the progress of students during the year and track groups of students over successive years. The academic achievement of Māori and Pacific students is analysed separately and reported to the board.

Students are achieving well in relation to the National Standards for reading and writing and mathematics. Students engage well in learning and have opportunities to set learning goals and identify their next steps. They take the lead in sharing their progress with parents during annual reporting conferences. Senior leaders recognise the need to further develop teachers’ capability to make overall teacher judgements about achievement and to report this information to parents twice a year.

Teachers use achievement information to accelerate the progress of students who are underachieving. Students with high learning needs are well catered for in classrooms. Teacher aides work alongside students in the classroom and are skilled at supporting these students to progress.

3 Curriculum

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

The school curriculum aligns well with The New Zealand Curriculum principles and the school's Catholic Character. It promotes and supports student learning very well. Students have opportunities for leadership, to give service and to contribute to the life of the school. The school embraces the idea that the school and community are all learners and that the child is central to this. Opportunities for Māori and Pacific students to develop their language, culture and identity are evident. Teachers are considering ways they can effectively use available resources that represent different student's cultures.

The curriculum builds on the notion that all students will succeed. Since the 2010 ERO review, school leaders and teachers have developed a more student-centred curriculum. Respect for students and valuing them as individuals are the cornerstones of curriculum delivery.

Teachers have implemented learning strategies to encourage students to be managers of their own learning. Teachers meet regularly to discuss and reflect on their professional practice. They share responsibility for raising student achievement. This professional practice contributes to enriching teachers’ leadership and capability in curriculum development. The teaching of reading and writing has improved as a result of strategic curriculum leadership.

The school’s culturally responsive and inclusive environment supports diversity and promotes students' engagement and participation in learning. Senior leaders know all children and their families well. A school-wide initiative on ‘learning-focused-relationships’ promotes student voice and engagement. ERO and senior leaders agree that behaviour management practices could be more aligned to this initiative.

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

The school has twenty-seven students who identify as Māori. Senior leaders and teachers support Māori students to achieve well and experience educational success as Māori. Māori students benefit from an inclusive school culture where Māori spirituality and te reo and tikanga Māori are part of the curriculum. Māori students are represented in leadership roles in the school. School karakia are used daily, students create prayers in te reo, and kapa haka is well supported by staff and students.

Strong links are maintained with the school kuia who has supported the school for the past ten years. The principal consults with the school’s Māori whānau through formal and informal discussions to gain an understanding of their aspirations for their tamariki.

The school has used the Ministry of Education’s Māori Education Strategy – Ka Hikitia: Managing for Success, as a means to review how well the school is developing the potential of all Māori students. Teachers are committed to exploring more ways to include resources that support the growth of Māori students’ culture, language and identity.

4 Sustainable Performance

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

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

The board provides effective governance. Strategic planning and decision making focuses on improving outcomes for all students. The board and senior school managers have a clear understanding of how strategic planning aligns with annual planning and curriculum delivery. There is unity of purpose and a good working relationship between the board, management of the school and the Catholic Diocese.

There is strong professional leadership in the school. The principal is building leadership capability throughout the school. Competent senior leaders, team leaders and curriculum leaders work together effectively to ensure consistency of systems and expectations for teachers. Teachers are committed to achieving the school’s clearly articulated goals. Ongoing professional learning helps teachers to reflect on their practice and develop their capability.

The school has established sound self-review processes that support ongoing improvement. It is well placed to sustain the significant improvements in student-led learning. The board, senior leadership team and staff should use the school’s very good self-review processes to embed these improvements.

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.

During the review ERO identified one area of non-compliance. To address this the board of trustees must:

• report twice yearly in plain language to students and parents about students’ progress and achievement in relation to the National Standards[National Administration Guidelines 2A (a)].

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

29 April 2013

About the School