Newfield Park School

Education institution number:
2118
School type:
Contributing
School gender:
Co-Educational
Definition:
Not Applicable
Total roll:
220
Telephone:
Address:

82 Wilfrid Street, Newfield, Invercargill

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Newfield Park School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 10 months of the Education Review Office and Newfield Park School working in Te Ara Huarau, an improvement evaluation approach used in most English Medium State and State Integrated Schools. For more information about Te Ara Huarau see ERO’s website. www.ero.govt.nz

Context 

Newfield Park School is situated in south Invercargill. It provides education for students in Years 1 to 6. The mission statement is: ‘a vibrant learning community, who work together to empower children to succeed through learning.’

Newfield Park School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:

  • to be active participants in their own wellbeing

  • to be active participants in their own success.

You can find a copy of the school’s strategic and annual plan on Newfield Park School’s website.

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how effectively the school’s curriculum provides opportunities for students to strengthen their assessment capabilities.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

  • leaders wish to enact the community’s aspiration to empower their students to be active participants in their wellbeing and success, including success as learners

  • the school has developed a Matrix for Assessment Capability, which identifies the knowledge and skills that students will require to be assessment capable learners.

The school expects to see:

  • increasingly consistent teaching practice that supports all students to be active participants in decisions about their learning, including setting their own learning goals, understanding how they might best achieve them and how they will know when they have been successful

  • all students strengthening their ability to identify their own strengths and limitations and use this awareness to improve learning outcomes.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to evaluate how effectively its curriculum provides opportunities for students to strengthen their assessment capabilities:

  • a culture of collective ownership, where school leaders, staff, students, trustees and the wider community are working together with a shared purpose to support children’s wellbeing and success

  • leaders have taken a strategic approach to developing and aligning key curriculum documents that clearly identify their aspirations for assessment capable learners.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

  • develop an implementation plan with teachers to grow their shared knowledge, understanding and use of the Matrix for Assessment Capability and Ako

  • clarify and embed the teaching practices that will strengthen learners’ assessment capability and develop the resources to give effect to the matrix in classrooms

  • fully utilise the functionality of the school’s Student Management System to support teachers to make and record judgments about students’ assessment capability progress.

Kathy Lye
Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini

22 March 2023

About the School

The Education Counts website provides further information about the school’s student population, student engagement and student achievement.  educationcounts.govt.nz/home

Newfield Park School

Board Assurance with Regulatory and Legislative Requirements Report 2022 to 2025

As of June 2022, the Newfield Park School Board of Trustees has attested to the following regulatory and legislative requirements:

Board Administration

Yes

Curriculum

Yes

Management of Health, Safety and Welfare

Yes

Personnel Management

Yes

Finance

Yes

Assets

Yes

Further Information

For further information please contact Newfield Park School Board of Trustees.

The next Board of Trustees assurance that it is meeting regulatory and legislative requirements will be reported, along with the Te Ara Huarau | School Evaluation Report, within three years.

Information on ERO’s role and process in this review can be found on the Education Review Office website.

Kathy Lye
Acting Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini

22 March 2023

About the School

The Education Counts website provides further information about the school’s student population, student engagement and student achievement. educationcounts.govt.nz/home

Newfield Park School - 28/11/2019

Findings

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

1 Background and Context

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

Newfield Park School is a socially and culturally diverse Year 1-6 school in Invercargill. This report evaluates the progress the school has made in addressing the areas for review and development in ERO’s April 2018 Education Review report.

Over the last 18 months the school has worked constructively with ERO and a Ministry of Education advisor. School leaders have made very good progress in addressing ERO’s recommendations.

2 Review and Development

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

Priorities identified for review and development

The April 2018 ERO report identified that the school needed to:

  • address disparities in achievement for some groups of students

  • strengthen strategic and annual planning and reporting, including the quality of the school’s targets to lift the achievement of students working below expected levels

  • improve analysis and reporting to the board of trustees about student progress and achievement

  • strengthen aspects of inquiry and internal evaluation

  • improve school culture, student wellbeing and engagement outcomes

  • build stronger partnerships with parents to enhance student learning

  • deepen trustees’ understanding of their governance role.

Early in 2019, ERO’s Midway Progress review found that the school had made good to very good progress against most of the recommendations. The Midway Progress report recommended that the school continue to:

  • refine and embed improvements

  • address disparities in achievement, especially for Māori, boys and some year groups

  • strengthen learning-focused partnerships with parents.

ERO also recommended that the school:

  • over time extend assessment and reporting to the board to include student achievement across the wider curriculum

  • plan for changes in the board and the induction of new trustees.

Progress

This review (September 2019) found that school leaders, teachers and trustees have continued to build on the progress noted in ERO’s Midway Progress review. School leaders have led a relentless focus on raising student achievement, especially for boys and Māori students. As a result, there is no longer a significant disparity in achievement for these students.

At a board level, trustees are more knowledgeable and confident in their governance role. Thoughtful succession planning and support for new trustees have enabled the board to maintain effective governance through a time of change.

Leaders and trustees, in consultation with the school community, have developed useful strategic and annual plans that are known and ‘owned’ across the school. There is clear alignment between these and other school foci, systems and practices. Charter targets now prioritise groups of students who need to accelerate their learning in literacy and mathematics. Leaders ensure detailed action planning as to how the strategic priorities, annual goals and targets will be achieved.

There is strong evidence of improvement in the school’s culture as a result of well-planned and implemented programmes and initiatives. These, and improved behaviour management practices, mean that students are learning in a more settled environment. Effective pastoral systems support students’ wellbeing and enable equitable access to the curriculum.

Parents are better involved in their children’s learning. For example, they are informed in advance of planned inquiry topics and invited to contribute ideas and share their expertise. In the junior class, teachers build parents’ knowledge and confidence as to how they can best support their children’s literacy and mathematics learning, and are provided with relevant resources. Through a variety of media, leaders and teachers regularly share students’ learning and useful information with parents.

School leaders have researched and implemented practices to increase students’ agency and engagement. Innovations include a focus on positive learning dispositions and an integrated-inquiry approach to topics where learning is built around important concepts or big ideas. Increasingly, students’ voice is sought when planning and evaluating their learning. Teachers are beginning to implement meaningful ways to assess students’ learning across the wider curriculum.

Regular and very effective internal evaluation practices inform ongoing improvement in the school. Leaders have deliberately built staff understanding and use of evaluation to identify what is working well, what is not and what changes are needed. All leaders and teachers engage in inquiries into aspects of their practice, share their findings and adapt practices accordingly.

Leaders have significantly improved the quality of analysis and reporting (to the board) about student progress, achievement and wellbeing. At all levels there is better use of this information to inform decision making. Leaders have intentionally built teachers’ capacity to analyse and use assessment information.

Key next steps

ERO’s evaluation affirms the progress the school has made over the last 18 months. Trustees, leaders and teachers should continue to embed and build on 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 is well placed to sustain and continue to improve and review its performance.

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.

Conclusion

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

ERO’s Framework: Overall Findings and Judgement Tool derived from School Evaluation Indicators: Effective Practice for Improvement and Learner Success is available on ERO’s website.

Dr Lesley Patterson

Director Review and Improvement Services Southern

Southern Region

28 November 2019

About the School

Location

Invercargill

Ministry of Education profile number

2118

School type

Contributing (Years 1 to 6)

School roll

253

Gender composition

Male 55%

Female 45%

Ethnic composition

Māori
NZ European/Pākehā
Pacific
Other ethnicities

15%
77%
4%
4%

Review team on site

September 2019

Date of this report

28 November 2019

Most recent ERO reports

Education Review
Education Review
Education Review

April 2018
October 2014
August 2011

Newfield Park School - 12/04/2018

School Context

Newfield Park School is a contributing school for students from Years 1 to 6. The school’s current roll is 225 students. Children come from a diverse range of backgrounds, some of whom receive specific tuition in learning English as a second language.

Since the last ERO review in 2014, the senior leadership team has been restructured, including a new deputy principal position. There are now three teaching and learning teams. All trustees at the time of this review began their role on the board in 2016.

The school aims for students to ‘graduate’ with the needed skills and attitudes for lifelong learning such as:

  • being skilled readers, writers and mathematicians
  • being creative, critical thinkers and confident problem solvers
  • accepting and valuing diversity
  • connecting to others and being secure in themselves
  • being curious about and finding joy in the world they live in.

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

  • achievement in reading, writing and mathematics and trends in this achievement for Māori and Pacific learners
  • achievement in relation to school targets for reading, mathematics and positive behaviour
  • progress against their goals, for students with additional learning needs
  • achievement and progress within some learning support programmes
  • rates of progress in reading, writing and mathematics, for students identified as gifted and talented. 

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?

Newfield Park School is yet to achieve equity and excellence for all its students.

Outcomes for students in reading, writing and mathematics across the school and over time (2015-2017) show that approximately 60% are achieving at the levels expected by the school, with slightly higher overall achievement in reading than in writing.

Disparity for Māori learners and boys is ongoing. Boys are not achieving as well in reading, and less well in writing, in relation to the school’s expectations. Māori children overall have not been achieving as well as their peers at the school in reading and writing. This disparity is also evident for Pacific learners in mathematics.

Overall levels of achievement for students in reading, writing and mathematics are low. School leaders and ERO agree this achievement needs to be lifted significantly. The school’s focus on raising achievement in mathematics has resulted in greater proportions of learners achieving above the school’s expectations.

Students with additional learning needs achieve well in relation to their goals.

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

The school identifies students, including Māori learners, whose progress needs to be accelerated. For Māori learners who were not achieving at the school’s expectations in reading, writing or mathematics during 2017, over half made accelerated progress in reading. Approximately one third of these students made accelerated progress in mathematics and writing.

The school can show accelerated progress for most students targeted in reading. It is beginning to show how effectively it is accelerating progress for these learners. However, the overall sufficiency of progress students are making is not clearly evident.

A significant proportion of Pacific learners made accelerated progress in reading and writing.

Most students identified as gifted and talented made expected or better progress in reading and mathematics.

The school can show a positive shift in some of the student behaviour information it monitors.

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?

The school is supportive of its families and whānau. Very caring relationships between adults and children are evident.

The school provides some specific support for learning, and for children who need their achievement accelerated. Some of this is provided in a range of well-coordinated programmes. Teachers’ and teacher aides’ capacity to deliver this targeted support has been strengthened by targeted professional learning and development.

Leaders are effectively building a collaborative staff culture. They are using systematic, deliberate, well communicated approaches to empower staff to achieve positive outcomes for learners. These approaches are providing good opportunities for professional growth. Staff value sharing and coaching one another in their teaching practice. The introduction of these improvements has been well-managed and is building capacity and capability across the school.

School leaders and teachers have strengthened aspects of appraisal, developed areas of curriculum, and increased the quality and use of evaluation for improvement. They have also undertaken targeted professional learning though external support and advice.

Teachers’ inquiry into the effectiveness of their teaching practice has been significantly enhanced. Useful frameworks support this.  Individual teachers and teams are using inquiries to reflect on the effectiveness of their practice and to focus team approaches. The principal fosters an environment of inquiry, and models evaluative reasoning.

The school’s performance management system, including teachers’ appraisal, is good quality.

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

While this review has found that the school has progressed a number of areas for review and development identified in the last ERO evaluation report, there is an urgent need to further strengthen a number of conditions to address an ongoing pattern of poor outcomes for some students’ learning, engagement and aspects of wellbeing.

The learning environment for some students needs to be significantly improved. The board must ensure the school provides a positive learning environment for all of its students. Trustees are actively responding to this. The school’s current focus on positive behaviour for learning is being extended to include a bullying prevention and response programme.

The board needs more comprehensive achievement information to inform its decision making. Trustees need to know more about progress and the impact of school learning support for all children whose progress needs to be accelerated. Teachers and leaders now need to extend their analysis, evaluation and reporting of the sufficiency of progress learners are making. Charter targets should include all children whose progress needs to be accelerated.

The board would benefit from further external support in this area, and in governance practice.

It is timely for the school to confirm and formalise its strategic goals for 2018 and beyond. This should include the key priorities for the school and learners. These goals should be supported by a coherent annual plan which is closely monitored. It will be important for this planning to be closely linked to the school’s valued outcomes for its learners. Some of the school’s current valued outcomes for its learners are not clearly reflected in the vision.

The board, leaders and staff have identified, and ERO agrees, that connections with family and whānau should continue to be strengthened. Partnerships in supporting children’s learning need to be a primary focus.

3 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 Vulnerable Children Act 2014. 

Areas for improved compliance practice

To improve current practice, the board of trustees should make its policies and procedures more accessible to families and whānau.

4 Going forward

Key strengths of the school

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

  • the school’s support for learners and families that is based on caring relationships
  • the positive way staff are working together focusing on learner outcomes and building staff capacity
  • a culture of inquiry and evaluation that is being built.

Next steps

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

  • improving outcomes for students to enhance their engagement and wellbeing
  • continuing to build a culture of inquiry that includes well-analysed information on the sufficiency of children’s progress with improved data literacy
  • strengthening strategic and annual planning that is closely linked to the school’s valued outcomes and school priorities
  • continuing to build home and school partnerships to enhance student wellbeing, achievement, learning opportunities and progress
  • using external expertise to continue to build board capability and capacity. 

ERO recommends that the school seeks support from the Ministry of Education (MoE) in order to bring about improvements in:

  • school culture
  • the use of learning information to evaluate progress.

ERO recommends that the Ministry of Education and the New Zealand School Trustees Association continue providing support for the school in order to bring about the improvements outlined in this report. 

ERO’s next external evaluation process and timing

ERO intends to carry out a process of ongoing external evaluation to support development over the course of one-to-two years. 

Dr Lesley Paterson
Deputy Chief Review Officer Southern

Te Waipounamu - Southern Region

12 April 2018

About the school 

Location

Invercargill

Ministry of Education profile number

2118

School type

Contributing (Years 1-6)

School roll

225

Gender composition

Boys: 55%
Girls: 45%

Ethnic composition

Pākehā: 64%
Māori: 23%
Pacific: 7%
Other: 6%

Provision of Māori medium education

No

Review team on site

February 2018

Date of this report

12 April 2018

Most recent ERO report(s)

Education Review                  October 2014
Education Review                  August 2011