1 Context
Mahora School is in Hastings and caters for students in Years 1 to 6. Since the May 2013 ERO report, the roll has grown by 80 students. This includes increases in numbers of students identifying as Māori and Pacific. Due to this increase, staffing changes have occurred with several appointments since the last ERO review. There has been continuity in governance since 2013.
School leaders have sustained their focus on promoting a positive learning environment, based on respectful relationships between students and staff. The school enjoys strong community support. Students continue to learn in a well-resourced and maintained school. A major upgrade of classrooms and investment in resources has been implemented to develop innovative 21st century learning environments.
Since the previous ERO review, teachers have strengthened the processes used to assess writing. More work is underway in mathematics and planned for reading. The school still needs to continue its development of a cohesive school curriculum for guiding effective teaching and learning, with input from the community.
2 Equity and excellence
The vision and valued outcomes defined by the school for all children are reflected in the motto 'Piki Haere - Keep on Climbing'. The mission is to encourage all children to reach their potential. The vision seeks to provide high quality learning opportunities for students. These are underpinned by five recently developed values:
- self - mauri
- connected - whanaungatanga
- attitude - ngākaupai
- respect - kaitiakitanga
- responsibility - manaakitanga.
The school’s achievement information shows that there has been steady progress in reading achievement since 2013, with a notable increase in Māori students' progress compared with their peers. This includes a significant reduction in the number of students achieving well below the National Standard in reading, writing and mathematics.
Some cohorts have shown positive progress in literacy and mathematics. In these areas the achievement of all ethnic groups, particularly Māori and Pacific students, needs to be raised substantially to meet the Ministry of Education goal of 85% achieving at the Standard by 2017.
Target groups have been identified in reading, writing and mathematics. In 2015, mid-year reporting to the board indicated how well all students were tracking in relation to the Standard. The progress of targeted students should be specifically reported. In 2015, targets were achieved at year end.
The school considers Māori students' achievement information to set school improvement targets. New schoolwide processes for identifying and monitoring Māori students' progress have been introduced in 2016. During the external evaluation by ERO, the targets were reframed to provide greater clarity for accelerating, measuring and reporting the progress of Māori students.
Students with specific needs are appropriately identified and monitored by the Special Education Needs Coordinator. Some reports to the board indicate how successful interventions and programmes have been for assisting student learning. All reports should provide this information for board planning.
3 Accelerating achievement
How effectively does this school respond to Māori children whose learning and achievement need acceleration?
The board, leaders and teachers understand the need for reducing disparities in student achievement. Since August 2015, a Ministry of Education Student Achievement Function (SAF) practitioner has been working with a school change team to strengthen family and whānau partnerships to support and complement the cultural development plan and changes in ethnic composition.
Staff have increased their focus on improving Māori students' achievement and initiated annual whānau hui. This has included work and development around Ka Hikitia - Accelerating Success 2013 - 2017, Tātaiako: Cultural Competencies for Teachers of Māori Learners and the implementation of the cultural development plan. Further work to strengthen learning partnerships with families and increase teachers' culturally responsive practices is in action.
Equitable access to the curriculum is planned through resourcing decisions for innovative learning environments and the use of digital technologies.
Deeper analysis of achievement information is needed to determine the extent of improvement made through targeted actions.
How effectively does this school respond to other children whose learning and achievement need acceleration?
Pacific students are identified as a group and their achievement is reported to the board. Closer monitoring is now required to ensure successful learning outcomes for all. The 2016 charter goals include improvement targets for Pacific children, and ongoing reporting is planned.
Students requiring additional specific support with their learning benefit from sound systems and access to appropriate external agencies and in-school programmes.
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 priorities for equity and excellence?
The board is focused on meeting strategic goals and improving achievement in literacy and mathematics. Trustees have participated in appropriate training, including using Hautū - Māori Cultural Responsiveness Self Review tool for boards. Māori parent representation is highly evident. Trustees should continue to:
- increase their focus on promoting educational equity and excellence in strategic planning and through annual target setting
- strengthen governance practices to ensure sustainability and clarity about their roles and responsibilities
- review policies and procedures
- evaluate its success in promoting a positive learning environment
- develop a governance manual to support the succession of new trustees into their roles.
The board, in conjunction with teachers, recently developed a graduate profile for Year 6 students. The upcoming community consultation, for developing the school's next three-year strategic plan, should help inform curriculum development and seek parents' views about the graduate profile and school developments, such as innovative learning environments.
Students are becoming more independent in how they learn, as part of a school initiative focused on self-directed learning. Initial progress with teaching in innovative learning environments is positive and beginning to help students to self-manage their learning. Students enjoy opportunities to use digital devices to increase their engagement in learning tasks. The next step is to evaluate how well processes are embedded and impacting on teaching and learning, for informing curriculum review.
Parents are actively involved in school life. They have had input into the school values. There are annual Māori whānau hui and Pacific fono. The Reading Together programme provides support for younger students and their parents. A planned programme assists children's transition to school.
Parents receive informative reports about their child's progress and suggestions for how they can help learning at home.
Teachers have strengthened their assessment of writing achievement through moderation across classes and with other schools. Work to improve assessment in mathematics and reading continues. Leaders should continue to ensure that teachers' overall judgements in relation to the National Standards are consistently robust. The current professional development in mathematics should assist with this.
Teachers evaluate how well their practices accelerate student achievement. A sound framework supports this process. The result of teachers inquiring into and adapting their teaching practice was that many students in target groups accelerated progress. However, monitoring for impacts and strengthening the quality of processes schoolwide, is a next step.
The teacher appraisal process has recently been reviewed. It aims to provide a greater focus on coaching and mentoring and opportunities for teachers to share successful strategies in smaller groups. Leaders should continue to develop their system to ensure appraisal is cohesive, individual improvement goals are appropriately challenging and that teachers gather clear evidence in relation to the Practising Teacher Criteria.
Internal evaluation to know about effectiveness requires strengthening. Current practices are mainly reflective, based on surveys and reporting actions taken against plans. The board, senior leaders and teachers should develop and implement an internal evaluation framework. This is a key next step for increased knowledge-building to improve student outcomes.
5 Going forward
How well placed is the school to achieve and sustain equitable and excellent outcomes for all children?
The board, school leaders and teachers are trialling approaches and working towards being well placed to achieve and sustain equitable and excellent outcomes for all children. They recognise the need for urgency around equitable achievement for all children.
Leaders and teachers:
- know the children whose learning and achievement need to be accelerated
- respond to the strengths, needs and interests of each child
- are developing systematic approaches that work for each child
- are building teacher capability to achieve equitable outcomes for all children.
Action: The board, principal and teachers should participate in an internal evaluation workshop. They should use this workshop, ERO exemplars of good practice and the School Evaluation Indicators to address the findings of this evaluation and develop a Raising Achievement Plan that includes a significant focus on building teacher capability to accelerate learning and achievement.
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:
During the review, ERO checked the following items because they have a potentially high impact on student safety and wellbeing:
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Emotional safety of students (including prevention of bullying and sexual harassment).
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Physical safety of students
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Teacher registration
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Processes for appointing staff
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Stand down, suspensions, expulsions and exclusions
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Attendance
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Compliance with the provisions of the Vulnerable Children Act 2014.
7 Recommendations
The board, leaders and teachers should continue to:
- further develop schoolwide systems to better support, monitor and report accelerated progress of Māori and Pacific learners and other learners at risk of poor educational outcomes
- strengthen governance practices
- consult with the school community and develop a cohesive school curriculum to guide effective teaching and assessment practices
- improve assessment practices by strengthening moderation and overall teacher judgements in relation to the National Standards
- more clearly align students' learning needs, teachers' professional learning goals and teacher appraisal to improve student outcomes
- improve knowledge-building through developing internal evaluation processes.
Joyce Gebbie
Deputy Chief Review Officer Central
24 May 2016
About the school
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Location
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Hastings
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Ministry of Education profile number
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2592
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School type
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Contributing (Years 1 to 6)
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School roll
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360
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Gender composition
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Male 52%, Female 48%
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Ethnic composition
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Māori
Pākehā
Pacific
Other ethnic groups
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35%
52%
7%
6%
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Review team on site
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March 2016
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Date of this report
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24 May 2016
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Most recent ERO report(s)
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Education Review
Education Review
Education Review
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May 2013
April 2009
February 2006
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