Kirwee Model School

Kirwee Model School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within twelve months of the Education Review Office and Kirwee Model 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 

Kirwee Model School caters for learners in Years 1 to 6 and is located in the Selwyn district of central Canterbury. The school is a member of Te Hū o Kākāpōtahi Kāhui Ako | Community of Learners.

Kirwee Model School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are for all to make:

  • positive choices

  • meaningful relationships

  • connected communities.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how students’ wellbeing and learning benefit from a focus on building educationally powerful connections and relationships.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

  • there is a strategic focus on growing culturally responsive relationships to enhance learner outcomes, and promote equity

  • the school’s data identifies that a particular focus on literacy, particularly for boys’ engagement, should add value to learning, engagement and wellbeing

  • the vision and strategic goals centre on re-establishing connections and relationships.

The school expects to see responsive teaching practices and enhanced connections with whānau and families, supporting equity in wellbeing and achievement. The focus will define and promote shared understandings and expectations of quality literacy practices. Pedagogy and practice will be coherent, underpinned by current research and informed by a variety of perspectives, including all staff, students and whānau.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support the school in its goal to enhance wellbeing and learning:

  • staff share a commitment to know and understand each learner’s strengths, in partnership with whānau, to support success

  • embedded values and the Positive Behaviour for Learning (PB4L) ethos underpin an evidence-based school culture and teaching practices

  • responsive professional development is supporting staff to implement strategies that foster learner engagement, self-regulation and relationship building.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

  • continuing to develop and refine a localised curriculum

  • identifying opportunities to further enhance literacy teaching and learning, which draws on student and whānau perspectives and staff expertise

  • formalising a coherent approach to leading and growing literacy practices that promotes wellbeing and success for all learners.

ERO’s role will be to support the school in its evaluation for improvement cycle to improve outcomes for all learners. ERO will support the school in reporting their progress to the community. The next public report on ERO’s website will be a Te Ara Huarau | School Evaluation Report and is due within three years.

Dr Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini

12 September 2022 

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

Kirwee Model School

Board Assurance with Regulatory and Legislative Requirements Report 2021 to 2024

As of December 2021, the Kirwee Model 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 Kirwee Model 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.

Dr Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini

12 September 2022 

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

Kirwee Model School - 24/08/2018

School Context

Kirwee Model School (KMS) provides education for children from Years 1 to 6 in the rural town of Kirwee. At the time of this ERO review the roll was 141.

The school’s motto is ‘A model of excellence.’ Its mission statement is ‘KMS provides quality education in an innovative, dynamic and family-like learning environment where a Model of Excellence is implemented through all aspects of school life. This enables our students to be equipped with the knowledge, skills, attitudes and qualities for the future’.

The school’s key strategic goals are based on the theme of ‘Ourselves, Our People, Our Place’. The goals include:

  • nurture potential and excellence in learning and hauora
  • innovation in teaching and learning through reflective practice
  • building positive, reciprocal community partnerships
  • innovative and inclusive learning spaces.

In recent months, trustees and school leaders have consulted widely to update the school values to ensure these are relevant and meaningful for today’s students.

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

  • reading, writing and mathematics

  • progress towards annual targets.

Since ERO’s 2014 review, there have been many changes in staff and trustees. Only one current teacher was at the school at the time of the last review.

A limited statutory manager (LSM) was appointed in May 2016. She assumed all responsibility for the board’s functions, powers and duties as an employer and for all communications. The LSM worked with the board until the trustees reassumed these responsibilities in October 2017. All of the parent representatives on the board of trustees are new to the role in the past year. A new principal was appointed in September 2017.

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 are successfully developing systems and processes to better promote equity and excellence. The school’s 2017 data shows:

  • most students, including almost all Māori students, are achieving at or above national expectations in reading
  • a significant group of boys did not achieve as well as girls in literacy
  • most students and almost all girls are achieving at or above national expectations in writing and in mathematics.

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

The school’s systems are beginning to show that teachers’ strategies to raise achievement are leading to success. In the first six months of 2018, data shows substantial positive progress and some accelerated progress for students who are at risk of not achieving.

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?

Recent improvements have resulted in effective systems and practices in stewardship, leadership and community connections, that are supporting the achievement of equity and excellence.

The board actively represents and serves the school and education community. Student learning, wellbeing, achievement and progress are the board’s core concerns. The trustees, while new to the role, have worked hard to develop effective systems and processes to guide their work. They are actively seeking to ensure their representation reflects the growing diversity of the community, and to plan for the recruitment and induction of new trustees in the future. Trustees are gaining confidence in the quality of progress and achievement data, as school leaders are developing more effective curriculum assessment and monitoring practices.

The new leadership team is building relational trust and effective collaboration at every level of the school community. The school’s strategic and annual planning is strategically focused and appropriately prioritised. Meeting the needs of all learners through high quality teaching and learning is the key focus of school leaders. Teachers are working together more effectively to focus on continuous improvement and building shared understandings as a new team. The current school-wide professional learning and development in mathematics is providing a focus for exploring useful innovations in teaching and learning. Leaders regularly seek feedback from teachers on how things are going, and what could be done better.

A range of appropriate and effective communication strategies is improving learning partnerships and community confidence. Building positive reciprocal relationships with the community is a key strategic priority. Trustees and school leaders take part in many community activities, and invite parents into the school in a variety of ways. Increasing use of technology is enabling parents to get regular up-to-date information about their children’s learning.

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

Further developments in curriculum and evaluation will support the school to move towards more consistently achieving equity and excellence.

Leaders have identified, and ERO agrees, that they need to continue to develop shared understandings of:

  • expectations for teaching and learning, and for what children will achieve at each level of the school
  • assessment, tracking and reporting of student progress and achievement
  • an appropriate, culturally responsive curriculum for Kirwee Model School.

Trustees, leaders and teachers need to further build their internal evaluation capabilities through:

  • developing teachers’ knowledge and ability to reflect on and inquire into their practice
  • the collection, analysis and use of a range of sources of data for continuous improvement
  • empowering trustees to make informed decisions based on careful scrutiny of reports from senior leaders.

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:

  • dedicated stewardship that is effectively governing the school’s operations

  • strong leadership that provides a clear vision and pathway for continuous improvement

  • rebuilding community trust and relationships so that the school continues to be a hub of the community.

Next steps

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

  • the school’s local curriculum so that it is responsive to all students’ cultures, language and identity, and that students, parents and the community have a better understanding of how well students are progressing with their learning

  • internal evaluation that better identifies what is working well for students’ learning and where improvements need to be made.

ERO’s next external evaluation process and timing

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

Alan Wynyard

Director Review & Improvement Services Southern

For Chief Review Officer

24 August 2018

About the school 

Location

Kirwee, Canterbury

Ministry of Education profile number

3397

School type

Contributing (Years 1 to 6)

School roll

141

Gender composition

Boys:  60%

Girls:   40%

Ethnic composition

Māori:                    18%

Pākehā:                  80%

Other ethnicities:   2%

 

 

Students with Ongoing Resourcing Funding (ORS)

Yes

Provision of Māori medium education

No

Review team on site

July 2018

Date of this report

24 August 2018

Most recent ERO reports

Education Review

Education Review

Education Review

July 2014

May 2011

January 2008