Hinds School

School Context

Hinds School has a roll of 129 Year 1-8 students. This includes 15 students who identify as Māori, 16 as Filipino and seven as South American. A significant number of students are English Language Learners (ELLs).

The school is responsible for the governance and management of the Mid-Canterbury Technology Centre (MCTC) in Ashburton. This provides technology education for Year 7 and 8 students from Hinds and other local schools.

The school’s vision is for its students to be ‘the best that we can be’. Desired outcomes are that students will become lifelong learners, build positive relationships, be ready to meet the challenges of a changing world and experience success. Current strategic priorities are to ensure the wellbeing of staff and students, provide a rich curriculum, continue to strengthen effective teaching practices and build positive partnerships with parents and the wider community.

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

• progress and achievement of students across the school, including for different groups
• progress of students in interventions to accelerate their achievement in literacy
• wellbeing.

The school is part of the Hakatere Kāhui Ako | Community of Learning (COL). Leaders and teachers have been involved in significant professional learning (PL) to improve literacy achievement and to embed culturally responsive practices. Since the 2017 ERO review, many teachers are new to Hinds School and the MCTC, and there is a new deputy principal.

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?

The school is making progress towards achieving equitable and excellent outcomes for all of its students.

Most students achieve at or above the curriculum expectations for reading. The majority achieve at or above in writing and mathematics, with most of these students at the expected level. Over the last three years achievement levels have been consistent.

Māori student achievement was better than other groups in reading, writing and mathematics. For ELLs who have been in the school for at least two years, over 80% achieved at or above in reading and writing and about 75% in mathematics.

Girls’ achievement is better than boys’ achievement in reading and significantly better in writing. A recent wellbeing survey shows that students feel safe, care about each other and relate well with students from different cultures.

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

The school has had variable success in accelerating learning for children below expected curriculum levels.

For students who were part of an intervention to raise their reading and writing achievement in 2019, most accelerated their progress in writing and almost all in reading (by the end of the intervention).

Schoolwide information that tracked all students who began 2019 below expected levels in reading and writing showed less evidence of accelerated progress. About a quarter of these students had accelerated their progress by the end of the year.

The school has been very successful with its work with ELLs. After two years of additional support, most of these students are at expected curriculum levels in reading, writing and mathematics.

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?

Students benefit from the caring and supportive school culture. Students are welcoming and inclusive of others from different cultures and of those who transfer from other schools. Staff take shared responsibility for all students’ learning and wellbeing. They deliberately plan and adapt their teaching to best meet the individual needs, strengths and interests of students. English language learners and students with additional needs are very well supported. As a result, they are enthusiastic about their learning and ready to learn.

Hinds School provides a broad and responsive curriculum. Across the school community, there is a clear and shared vision as to what kind of learning matters. Teachers make very good use of local people, places and contexts to enrich the curriculum and provide regular opportunities for authentic, ‘hands on’ experiences. Aspects of te ao and te reo Māori are meaningfully integrated. Students’ views and choices are responded to. These factors contribute to a relevant and engaging curriculum.

A culture of evaluative thinking and a strong commitment to PL are very evident. Teachers inquire deeply into which practices and strategies make the most difference for their students. Leaders and teachers engage in relevant PL and explore innovative practices that align with the school’s vision for learning. Leaders analyse in detail students’ progress and achievement, and from this, identify what improvements are needed. As a result, staff are reflective, well informed and open to new strategies to improve outcomes for students.

The school is effectively led and well governed. The principal has built a culture of trust and collaboration, values staff strengths in deliberate ways and ensures leadership is shared. With staff support, she has implemented well-considered school structures, systems and processes.

The board is well informed about its governance role. Trustees and school leaders make sound resourcing and strategic decisions. Strong leadership and effective governance have resulted in ongoing improvements for students.

The MCTC is very well supported by the Hinds School board and principal. The principal provides extensive professional support for the teaching team and liaises with other schools to ensure that MCTC programmes are relevant to their students. With MCTC staff input, useful strategic plans have been developed. MCTC staff participate in and benefit from appropriate professional development opportunities.

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

To ensure equity for all students, boys’ achievement in reading and writing needs to be lifted. To address this, charter targets and associated planning for school improvement need to explicitly focus on addressing this disparity. Part of this could include in-depth inquiry into what is and is not working for boys and exploration of alternative strategies to lift achievement.

Leaders and teachers have identified the school’s valued learning outcomes and collect a range of information about students’ progress towards these. The next step is to extend internal evaluation to include progress across the integrated and wider curriculum, including valued learning dispositions and competencies.

Parents are very well informed about their children’s learning and their views are sought and responded to. The next step is to investigate how the partnership between school and home could have a stronger focus on supporting children’s learning, especially for those who need extra help to succeed.

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 Children’s Act 2014.

4 ERO’s Overall Judgement

On the basis of the findings of this review, ERO’s overall evaluation judgement of Hinds 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.

5 Going forward

Key strengths of the school

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

• caring, supportive and inclusive learning environment that contributes to the positive school culture
• detailed analysis of student progress and achievement information that provides useful information for leaders and teachers about how to best support students’ learning
• broad and responsive curriculum that helps excite and engage students
• culture of evaluative thinking and deep professional learning that results in teachers continuing to adapt and improve how they meet the needs of their students
• very effective leadership and sound governance practices that contribute to ongoing improvement for students.

Next steps

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

• undertaking an in-depth inquiry into what is and is not working for at risk learners, particularly boys, in order to lift their achievement
• extending internal evaluation to include review of the school’s stated valued outcomes, including progress over time of student learning across the wider curriculum
• strengthening learning partnerships between teachers and parents to ensure that support for children’s learning is more collaborative and effective.

Dr Lesley Patterson

Director Review and Improvement Services Southern

Southern Region

15 June 2020

About the school

The Education Counts website provides further information about the school’s student population, student engagement and student achievement.