Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report
Background
This Profile Report was written within twelve months of the Education Review Office and Sacred Heart School (Timaru) 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
Sacred Heart School is located in Timaru and provides education for students in Years 1 to 8.
Sacred Heart School (Timaru) School strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:
- growing a culture of learning that is student-centred and authentic
- building relationships with God, self, environment and people
- being an authentically Catholic school with hearts open to God and growing in the Catholic faith.
You can find a copy of the school’s strategic and annual plan on the Sacred Heart School (Timaru) school website.
ERO and the school are working together to evaluate the levels of progress for students in Years 4 to 8 by inquiring into the impact of the school’s ‘developing a structured literacy approach’.
The rationale for selecting this evaluation is to:
- enable students to continue to make accelerated progress, particularly in reading and writing, as they move through the senior school
- develop teacher knowledge and capability in providing effective literacy programmes
- support increasing numbers of Asian and English Language Learner (ELL) students, who are making good progress but require additional literacy support.
The school expects to see students, particularly those in Years 4 to 8 and ELL students, continuing to make significant progress in literacy. Teachers will know what is having the greatest impact for students’ learning and what supports them to maintain progress in achievement over time.
Strengths
The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to make significant progress in literacy:
- A clear strategic direction, that includes a shared vision for and definition of quality literacy outcomes.
- Strong leadership and highly experienced staff, with capacity to support quality teaching and learning across the school.
- Full support of the Board of Trustees, to resource the strategic goals.
Where to next?
Moving forward, the school will prioritise:
- continuing to build teacher knowledge and skill in the teaching of literacy
- ensuring there is a shared understanding and implementation of the structured literacy approach across the school.
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
8 July 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