Avonhead School

Summary

Avonhead School’s roll of 585 children has continued to grow, attracting children from diverse cultures and communities. An increasing number of children receive support for learning English as a second language. At the time of this review 8% of children were Maori, 3% Pacific and 31% of Asian descent.

The school has made good progress in addressing the next steps identified in its 2013 ERO report. This includes improvements to reporting, curriculum and monitoring of strategic planning.

How well is the school achieving equitable outcomes for all children?

The school has improved the levels of children’s achievement in reading, writing and mathematics over time. This includes improved achievement for Māori and Pacific children. School achievement information shows that many children achieve at or above the National Standards. The school is continuing to work to address areas of in-school disparity for some groups of children.

The school has many effective processes and practices that enable achievement of equity and excellence. These include:

• effective leadership of the school’s strategic priorities by senior leaders and the board of trustees, including effective relationships with parents and whānau
• focused use of data about children’s learning and achievement to guide change
• empowering children to take increasing responsibility for managing their own learning
• valuing and celebrating the many cultures within the school, and enabling all children to learn about aspects of each other’s language and culture.

The school needs to extend the use of internal evaluation across the school to continue to promote equity and excellence for all students.

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

Equity and excellence

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

Leaders and teachers respond well to children whose learning needs to be accelerated. The school has progressively improved the use of quality achievement information to promote equity and excellence. School leaders know where groups of children are underachieving and have strategies in place to address this.

There are many examples of teachers accelerating the achievement of children as a result of targeted teaching and a variety of in-class support. Achievement data is closely monitored and used to inform teacher planning, and to identify areas in which levels of achievement need to be raised across the school.

Teachers work collaboratively and innovatively within and across teaching teams. They share information about children in their teaching teams, and strategies to best support those children whose achievement needs accelerating.

School leaders have identified the need to prioritise the use of teacher inquiry to promote more equitable outcomes for those children whose learning needs to be accelerated. For Māori and Pacific children, this includes inquiring into teachers’ integration of cultural and family/whānau contexts within teaching programmes and practices.

The range of assessments used by leaders and teachers underpins the focus on improving learning and teaching practices.

School conditions supporting equity and excellence

What school processes are effective in enabling achievement of equity and excellence?

The school has many effective processes and practices that enable achievement of equity and excellence.

The school’s values and learner qualities are strongly embedded and well understood and used by teachers, children and school leaders. This helps children to develop the school’s GET attitudes and skills for life-long learning.

The school community’s vision for children is being capably promoted by senior leaders and monitored through the close scrutiny of the board of trustees. Teachers have a clear purpose and direction for achieving the school’s strategic priorities that include collaborative learning and involving families and whānau.

Teachers and leaders have high expectations for children’s learning, achievement and wellbeing. The principal and senior leaders are effectively building capability in teaching and learning and leadership within the teaching teams.

Children experience respectful, inclusive, whānau-like environments for learning. Teachers and children are enthusiastic learners, sharing their learning and expertise with their peers. Children are supported to learn confidently in and across learning spaces and areas in the school.

The board, teachers and senior leaders actively seek the involvement of parents, whānau and community in the life of the school and in children’s learning. The many cultures within the school are valued and celebrated in and out of the classroom. Children, including Māori children and their families are provided opportunities to learn about and celebrate aspects of each other’s language and cultures. Their opinions are regularly sought to inform decisions made to improve teaching and learning and for school improvement. 

Sustainable development for equity and excellence

What further developments are needed in school processes to achieve equity and excellence?

The school has good quality processes for addressing equity and excellence.

The school needs to extend its use of internal evaluation. Trustees should evaluate the extent of board processes and practices for sustainability. Senior leaders should continue to develop the quality of teaching and learning by:

• supporting teachers’ inquiry into the impact of their teaching on children’s learning
• continuing to refine the consistency and quality of evaluation and reporting by team leaders
• further developing robust appraisal
• continue placing a stronger focus on addressing disparities in achievement for groups of children
• evaluating the extent to which Māori language, culture and identity is progressively developed for teachers and children.

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
• 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.

Going forward

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

Children are achieving well. The school demonstrates strong progress toward achieving equity in educational outcomes, supported by effective, sustainable processes and practices.

Agreed next steps are to address the areas for development identified in this report. 

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

Dr Lesley Patterson

Deputy Chief Review Officer Southern/Te Waipounamu

29 June 2017 

About the school 

Location	Christchurch
Ministry of Education profile number	3287
School type	Full Primary
School roll	585
Gender composition	Boys: 54% Girls: 46%
Ethnic composition	Māori 8% Pākehā 43% Pacific 3% Asian 31% Other 15%
Provision of Māori medium education	No
Review team on site	May 2017
Date of this report	29 June 2017
Most recent ERO reports	August 2013 February 2010 March 2007

 

1 Context

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

Avonhead School caters for students from Years 1 to 8. The experienced senior leadership team knows the community and school well and effectively supports the staff in meeting the different strengths and needs of students.

Students benefit from the extensive range of learning experiences teachers plan for them in the school, in the wider community and beyond Christchurch. They confidently use information and communication technologies (ICT) in many aspects of their learning.

The school is strongly inclusive and both students and staff benefit from the school’s caring culture. Older students use the tuakana teina model of supporting their younger peers with their learning.

The board has developed sound procedures for effectively governing the school. Trustees and the principal work collaboratively to support teachers in meeting the needs of students.

Strong relationships between the school and the community continue to be a feature of this school.

2 Learning

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

Staff use student achievement information very well to make positive changes to students’ engagement, progress and achievement. Many students achieve well in relation to National Standards in reading, writing and mathematics.

Areas of strength

Students observed by ERO were highly engaged and well motivated to learn. Most students assess their own learning, set their own goals and can confidently talk about their learning.

Highly reflective teachers work together in teams to share good quality practices and consider the effectiveness of their teaching on outcomes for children. They are willing to make changes to what they are doing in order to better meet students’ needs.

Senior leaders monitor student progress well and provide the board with comprehensive reports about student achievement. The board uses this information to guide decisions about resourcing and future planning for the school.

Students at risk of not achieving are targeted by teachers for additional learning support and close monitoring throughout the year. Māori students are achieving well in reading and mathematics. Teachers are focused on improving outcomes for all students who are not achieving at the National Standards in writing.

Area for development and review

Parents are regularly informed of how well their children are achieving in relation to the National Standards. The next step is for teachers to report more clearly to parents in plain language that they can readily understand.

3 Curriculum

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

The school’s curriculum guidelines need further development to assist teachers to more effectively promote and support students’ learning. Further work is required to make the curriculum more cohesive and useful to staff.

Areas of strength

Teachers develop well-planned programmes to support student learning, particularly in reading, writing and mathematics. They are reflective and regularly consider the best practices to lift students’ engagement, achievement, and progress. Guidelines set suitable expectations for student learning and provide useful direction for good quality teaching practice.

An inquiry-approach to teaching and learning has been recently introduced across the school. This provides students with further opportunities to develop independent skills to support their own learning. The board and senior leadership team encourages all teachers to follow their passions and be innovative. Although not all teachers are using the inquiry approach to the same extent, results show that student achievement is still at very good levels across the school.

Students experience a wide range of learning opportunities in the arts, sport, science, education outside the classroom and through extension challenges. Many students are well involved in kapa haka where they are meaningfully learning te reo and tikanga Māori and the stories behind the waiata and haka that they are learning.

Teachers regularly gather reliable assessment information of students’ learning in reading, writing and mathematics. They are working together with appropriate external support to lift student achievement in writing.

Area for development and review

The school’s curriculum documentation contains a considerable amount of information. The senior leadership team recognises the need to review and consolidate the curriculum and its supporting documents so that together they provide a useful guide for teachers.

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

Māori students are able to enjoy success as Māori in this school. There have been good developments in promoting te reo and tikanga Māori. The school has access to expert support from a Māori tutor and a kaumatua and has strong links with a local marae.

All students are able to learn waiata, te reo and tikanga Māori through powhiri, karakia and himene and further their cultural knowledge through kapa haka. They enjoy positive relationships with their peers and their teachers.

How effectively does the school promote educational success for Pacific?

Pacific students are achieving less well than their non-Pacific peers. They are well supported in their learning and some have made good progress in reading and mathematics. Closer ties with the Pacific community have led to a good working relationship between teachers and parents of Pacific students.

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.

Areas of strength

The board includes experienced trustees and is well led by the board chair. Trustees are focused on achieving the best outcomes for students. Good quality strategic and annual planning guides the board’s procedures and practices. Self-review processes are sound and include board and curriculum reviews.

The school is focused on making ongoing improvements to all aspects of the school’s operation. The appraisal procedures are robust and contribute positively to improvements in both teaching and learning.

The board has maintained its focus on continuing close relationships with its community.

Area for review and development

The board has identified, and ERO agrees, that its next step is to monitor the leadership team and school performance against the objectives set out in the strategic and annual plans.

Provision for international students

The school is a signatory to the Code of Practice for the Pastoral Care of International Students (the Code) established under section 238F of the Education Act 1989. At the time of this review, there were four international students attending the school.

Avonhead School provides high-quality care and education for its international students. Student progress and achievement is closely tracked over time. Relevant support for in-class and out-of-class learning is provided. The teacher with responsibility for the international students provides well-planned English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) lessons.

Students and their families are well integrated into the school and community.

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.

When is ERO likely to review the school again?

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

Graham Randell

National Manager Review Services Southern Region

9 August 2013

About the School

Location	Christchurch
Ministry of Education profile number	3287
School type	Full Primary (Years 1 to 8)
School roll	544
Number of international students	4
Gender composition	Boys 52%; Girls 48%
Ethnic composition	NZ European/Pākehā Māori Cook Island Samoan Other Pacific Asian Chinese	59% 6% 1% 1% 2% 23% 8%
Review team on site	June 2013
Date of this report	9 August 2013
Most recent ERO reports	Education Review Education Review Education Review	February 2010 March 2007 March 2003