Normanby School

School Context

Normanby School is a semi-rural school on the outskirts of Hawera. It caters for children from Years 1 to 6. At the time of this review, 173 students were enrolled and 52% identify as Māori.

Since the February 2016 ERO report, the school has undergone significant staffing changes, including a new principal appointed at the beginning of 2018, a new leadership team and some teaching staff.

The school’s vision and mission are ‘Titiro ki runga-Reach for the Stars’, and to provide high quality education. The espoused values for students to be ‘respectful, responsible, caring, honest, creative and successful and to persevere’, underpin teaching and school life.

The school states its key aims and goals for 2018 as reviewing and further developing the school’s curriculum with an emphasis on improving culturally responsive practice, to support positive learning behaviours and to raise student achievement in mathematics and writing.

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

• attendance
• progress and achievement in reading, writing and mathematics
• the reading intervention programme.

The school is a member of the South Taranaki Kāhui Ako. 

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?

School leaders continue to develop and implement practices and processes to build individual teachers’ capability and the school’s capacity to achieve equitable achievement outcomes for all students.

The school’s reported student achievement data at the end of 2017, show the small majority of students, including Māori, achieve at school expectations in reading, writing and mathematics.

Schoolwide writing and mathematics data in Term 4 2018 show more students are achieving at or above expected levels than the previous year. Reading shows a small increase in the numbers of students not meeting the school’s expectation. Writing has been the school’s greatest achievement challenge during 2018. Although schoolwide there has been some improvement, there is a disproportionate number of students in Years 4 to 6 in the underachieving group. This trend also appears in reading and mathematics data.

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

Leaders and teachers analysis of data in mid-2018 showed insufficient progress was being made for many targeted students, including Māori. This is particularly noticeable in writing in Years 4 to 6. A range of well-considered actions has been implemented to support improved teacher practice. The end of 2018 data indicates that some of the targeted students are showing acceleration in their progress in reading, writing and mathematics. However, further acceleration is required to ensure these students maintain a positive trajectory of learning and reach achievement expectations.

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, teachers and trustees articulate a shared vision for student success. The school’s strategic development goals and associated plans recognise continued improvements are needed to some school practices to achieve equity and excellence for all students. School leaders have strengthened practices to clearly identify where disparity in outcomes occur and to monitor, at risk learners’ progress better.

The school’s curriculum, currently under review, continues to evolve to better engage students in learning experiences of high interest to them. A focus on developing children‘s social and emotional competence and attitudes and attributes, conducive to student-led learning, is evident. These contribute to an inclusive and purposeful learning environment. The meaningful inclusion of te ao Māori is increasingly becoming an integral part of students’ schooling experience.

Students with identified complex needs are well supported. School personnel, external agencies, parents and whānau work collaboratively to support these learners. Individual plans identify actions for improved outcomes and track the implementation of plans to support these learners to actively engage in learning alongside their peers.

The new leadership team prioritised developing a culture of collaboration and distributed leadership during 2018. Professional learning and practice undertaken has resulted in improved assessment practice and increased confidence in the dependability of achievement data.

Practices to build teachers’ and leaders’ capability, including appraisal and professional inquiry, are robust. These contribute positively to building teachers’ capability and the school’s capacity to know individual and groups of students learning needs. External professional development and learning aligns to the school’s strategic improvement goals. Collaborating, through the Kāhui Ako, with other educational institutions further encourages shared curriculum and assessment practices.  

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

Leaders, teachers and trustees should further develop their understanding of their role in promoting equity and excellence. They need to continue to build their individual and collective capability to lead and carry out effective internal evaluation. This should assist them to: know what is working well in the school’s curriculum and who for; and define limitations and identify where further developments are necessary to improve outcomes.  

Review and development of the school’s curriculum is underway and will continue in 2019.  Staff are in the early stages of developing and articulating a shared vision for the curriculum that explicitly expresses expectations for effective teaching and student learning and wellbeing. This is particularly important where curriculum innovations are happening. This work should assist all teachers to purposefully pursue and achieve the school’s vision and goals.

Further development is required in some school processes to achieve equity and excellence, especially for learners in Years 4 to 6. These include:

• continuing to improve assessment practice to ensure an ongoing and comprehensive response to address the needs of learners
• revising annual achievement targets to better track and monitor the progress of individuals and groups of students at risk of underachieving
• regularly reporting target students’ progress and achievement to trustees, families and whānau.

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.

4 Going forward

Key strengths of the school

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

• leaders, teachers and trustees working cooperatively to pursue the school’s strategic aims and goals that focus on raising achievement
• the developing culturally responsive curriculum that encourages student agency in authentic learning experiences
• teachers collaborating to build their data literacy that identifies where students are at and what their next learning steps are.

Next steps

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

• embedding effective assessment practice to ensure an ongoing and comprehensive response to address the needs of target learners
• building leaders’ capability to lead and carry out effective internal evaluation practices to clearly know what is making the most difference to improving learner outcomes.

ERO’s next external evaluation process and timing

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

Phil Cowie
Director Review and Improvements

Central Region

20 February 2019

About the school