St Albans School

Education institution number:
3518
School type:
Contributing
School gender:
Co-Educational
Definition:
Not Applicable
Total roll:
514
Telephone:
Address:

17 Sheppard Place, St Albans, Christchurch

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St Albans School - 21/02/2019

School Context

St Albans School is a large, inner city primary school that provides education and care for students in Years 1 to 6. The school has a roll of 609 students, 91 of whom are Māori. It also has a Māori bilingual unit,Te Tikanga Rua Reo. Programmes and practices across the school actively promote the learning of te reo and tikanga Māori.

The school’s vision and valued outcomes are for students to be: inquiring learners, creative thinkers, skilled communicators, committed team players and responsible citizens. The values St Albans School fosters for students are: respect, manaakitanga, creativity, excellence, initiative, community and fun.

The school’s strategic goals focus on collaboration for teaching and the use of assessment and reporting practices to meet the needs of students. Building culturally responsive practices for meaningful learning, meeting the unique needs of Te Tikanga Rua Reo (TTRR) and working with other schools to promote innovation in education provision are also strategically targeted.

The 2018 annual achievement targets are to raise achievement for students in specific year groups and improve outcomes for Māori students and boys who are achieving below expected levels in writing and mathematics. Kōrero and reading are additional targets for TTRR students.

Leaders and teachers regularly report to the board of trustees school-wide information about outcomes for students in the following areas:

  • achievement in reading, writing and mathematics for cohorts and groups

  • specific data for TTRR including achievement in kōrero (te reo-a-waha)

  • learning support programmes, such as English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL)

  • progress and achievement in relation to school targets.

While there have been few changes in board of trustees and senior leadership, the school has undergone a period of significant rebuilding and refurbishment of all learning areas. Teachers have been involved in professional learning to manage the new flexible learning environments. The school roll has increased, as has the number of students with additional learning needs and English Language Learners (ELL). These students represent 26% of the student population. There has been a change in staffing in TTRR.

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 very positive progress towards ensuring that all students experience equitable and excellent outcomes. School-wide achievement data clearly identifies and responds to children with additional needs, including ELL.

Achievement reports for end of 2017 and mid 2018 show that:

  • most students achieve at or above curriculum expectations in reading, writing and mathematics

  • most TTRR students achieve success in te reo-ā-waha (Māori oral language), with all TTRR students achieving at or above curriculum expectations in reading, writing and mathematics by the end of Year 6

  • leaders and teachers have been proactive in recognising and reducing disparity of achievement for groups of students.

The school’s responsiveness to an external report has increased equity and opportunities for excellence for ELL students.

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

The school is effectively accelerating achievement for targeted children. The 2018 mid year information showed high rates of acceleration in reading, writing, mathematics and kōrero.

The school’s annual targets differentiate for gender, cohorts, Māori, children with special needs and ESOL learners. Increasing the numbers of boys and Māori students in the annual targets would further promote acceleration for these students.

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?

There is a high level of professional capability and collective capacity amongst the board, leaders and teachers. Leaders and teaching staff actively promote the school’s vision, goals and targets for equity and excellence for every child. The school’s information systems and support processes help ensure every child’s learning and pastoral needs are known Those children needing additional support, such as those with diverse needs and , are identified, monitored and provided are highly committed and, shared with staff, regularly updated and responded to quickly.ELLwith adapted programmes.

School leaders build relational trust to ensure there is a supportive learning environment. High expectations for teaching and learning have been sustained during a time of significant challenge and change. The wellbeing of staff and students is closely monitored. 

Parents and whānau have frequent opportunities to be informed and/or involved in the life of the school and their child’s learning through effective communication and events.

School leaders continue to place a strong focus on developing collaborative practices to meet the needs, strengths and interests of all learners. Students benefit from systems and processes that encourage the sharing of knowledge about the learner and best practice for learning. Leadership and support for teaching and learning across the school utilises the strengths of teachers and support staff. Teachers have engaged in considerable professional learning. They are reflective and are provided with very effective systems to support them to inquire into their practice.

A sustained focus on providing students with a meaningful and responsive curriculum supported by is effectivelybuilding strong foundations for early learning. Students are well supported to be confident, connected, actively involved learners and leaders. Teachers and leaders have consulted widely to ensure the school curriculum is relevant to the lives of learners and their whānau. It provides sufficient breadth and depth of learning experiences.Teachers and leaders work in innovative ways to ensure students have maximum opportunities to experience success in their learning.They are proactively responding to and successfully meeting the emerging needs of the school’s diverse student population.

A strong commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi partnerships is visible across the school. This is highly evident in provisions made for TTRR in supportingstudents and whānau who seek quality bi-lingual education.The school’s mantra, “One school, one kura”, appropriately captures the school’s inclusive approach to its diverse learners.The school highly values the wide range of cultures in its community.

The board is committed to ongoing improvement. Trustees make well informed decisions to prioritise resourcing that will improve outcomes for students.

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

ERO agrees with the school’s plans to strengthen:

  • students’ understanding and ownership of their own learning

  • culturally responsive practice across the school, particularly in relation to Māori achieving success as Māori in English medium hubs.

The school agrees with ERO’s recommendation to adjust its annual achievement targets and aspects of evaluation to better support students in achieving excellent and equitable outcomes.

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.

Provision for international students

The school is a signatory to theEducation (Pastoral Care of International Students) Code of Practice 2016established under section 238F of the Education Act 1989. The school has attested that it complies with all aspects of the Code.

No international students were enrolled at the time of the ERO review.

4 Going forward

Key strengths of the school

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

  • its provision of a caring and inclusive school culture, with a positive, supportive environment for learning that is underpinned by a forward-focused vision and well-embedded values

  • collaborative practice focused on meeting students’ learning and wellbeing needs

  • distributed leadership, building strengths and sharing best practice.

Next steps

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

  • increase student involvement in their own learning

  • build on existing culturally responsive practices

  • use evaluation to continue to decrease disparity for learners through targeted action.

ERO’s next external evaluation process and timing

ERO is likely to carry out the next external evaluation in four-to-five years.

Alan Wynyard

Director Review & Improvement Services

Te Waipounamu - Southern Region

21 February 2019

About the school

Location

St Albans, Christchurch

Ministry of Education profile number

3518

School type

Contributing (Years 1 to 6)

School roll

609

Gender composition

Boys 47% ; Girls 53%,

Ethnic composition

Māori 15%

Pākehā 60%

Indian 7%

Pacific 3%

Other ethnicities 15%

Students with Ongoing Resourcing Funding (ORS)

Yes

Provision of Māori medium education

Yes

Number of Māori medium classes

2

Total number of students in Māori medium (MME)

35

Total number of students in Māori language in English medium (MLE)

35

Number of students in Level 2 MME

35

Review team on site

November 2018

Date of this report

21 February 2019

Most recent ERO report(s)

Education Review February 2013

Education Review November 2009

St Albans School - 08/02/2013

1 Context

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

The school provides students with a positive learning environment. The board, school leaders and staff actively promote the school values. Students have a strong sense of belonging at the school. They are well supported in their learning and encouraged to do their best to achieve excellence.

The school has a well-established Māori bilingual unit, Te Tikanga Rua Reo. Programmes and practices in the unit and across the school actively promote the learning of te reo and tikanga Māori. School leaders are giving suitable emphasis to making sure this unit, and its staff and students, are a well-integrated part of the school.

Students come from a wide variety of backgrounds and cultures. The way leaders and teachers acknowledge, respond to and celebrate students’ differences promotes an inclusive school culture.

A feature of the school is its constructive relationship with its community. Good communication helps parents and teachers to work in partnership to foster students' learning and wellbeing. Parents, including the school’s Parent Teacher Association (PTA) and many community members, support the school and its students in a wide variety of ways. Community groups make good use of the school’s facilities.

Since the school’s 2009 ERO review, students have benefited from improvements to:

  • school facilities, the environment and teaching spaces
  • the quality of teaching through ongoing professional development and support
  • the way teachers evaluate and make ongoing improvements to their teaching programmes.

The board, leaders and staff have responded very well to the challenges resulting from the Christchurch earthquakes. The school’s roll has increased as some students have moved from other parts of Christchurch and enrolled at the school. The board and school leaders have supported and continue to actively help their students and staff during this time.

2 Learning

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

This school makes very good use of student achievement information to help make positive changes to learners’ engagement, progress and achievement.

School leaders report overall patterns of student achievement to the board. The quality of information used to complete these reports has improved as teachers have developed better assessment practices.

Appropriate use is made of achievement information at all levels of the school. For example:

  • teachers accurately identify students’ strengths and needs and regularly monitor their ongoing progress
  • team leaders identify possible targets for lifting students' achievement and what needs to be done to help students make faster progress
  • senior leaders identify groups of students with similar gaps in their learning and areas where more staff training may be needed to help these students improve
  • the board uses this information to work out how they can best support students and teachers to foster excellence.

Teachers complete plans that identify how they will meet the needs of students not achieving as well as expected. They monitor the success of these plans, and their impact on student progress regularly and adjust their programmes accordingly.

Reports to, and interviews with, parents and their children, provide clear information about student achievement in regard to the National Standards and provide a useful basis for discussion and future planning.

Students with special learning needs, and those who are gifted and talented, receive well-managed, targeted additional support and learning opportunities. Appropriate ongoing changes are made to support as needed.

The principal and senior leaders continue to raise the expectations of students and set targets that are aimed at making sure identified students make faster progress. The board actively supports initiatives aimed at lifting student achievement.

ERO agrees with the next steps identified by the principal and senior leaders to continue to make sure that teachers’ judgements about student achievement are accurate and provide more training for staff in teaching mathematics. It would be also useful to share more widely the best practices being used by teachers to improve student achievement in written language.

3 Curriculum

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

The school’s curriculum promotes and supports student learning very well.

The effectiveness of the school’s curriculum in promoting and supporting students’ learning is most evident in:

  • students’ progress and achievement in reading, where 38.4% are achieving at the National Standards and 47.2% are achieving above the National Standards
  • the progress made by Māori students who are now achieving at levels closer to those of their peers
  • students’ positive attitudes to learning along with their growing confidence and independence.

The school’s curriculum provides students with a well-balanced and wide range of interesting learning opportunities. Teaching programmes successfully reflect the community’s wishes about giving priority to fostering student achievement in English, mathematics, science, sports and the arts.

Students’ enjoyment and interest in learning is fostered through the ways teachers make learning meaningful, link current learning to previous experiences and help students learn how to learn. The strong focus placed on school values creates an environment where students are often prepared to take risks to extend their learning. Some of the common features of teaching programmes described by senior leaders and confirmed by ERO are:

  • purposeful, well-paced and clearly focused teaching
  • the significant efforts teachers are making to make sure that teaching is matched to student strengths and needs, particularly in reading and mathematics
  • the priority teachers give to providing students with a varied mix of activities that take into account, and build on, their interests
  • the positive relationships between adults and students, and among students, and the way students learn from, and support one another
  • the increasing emphasis teachers are giving to both students and themselves celebrating and reflecting on their learning.

Students appear well motivated and often spoke enthusiastically with ERO about how much they enjoy their learning.

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

The school promotes educational success for Māori and as Māori, well. Factors that support such success include:

  • the way students' cultural backgrounds are acknowledged and celebrated
  • the role models provided by key Māori staff members
  • the supportive relationships between Māori students and their families
  • the growing variety of strategies teachers are using to promote success for Māori students.

Initiatives to make sure the bilingual unit and students are an integrated part of the school benefits Māori students both in the unit and mainstream classes.

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. The principal and other school leaders provide strong professional leadership and support. Their expectations are high and clear. They lead by example. Management practices promote teamwork and collaboration amongst staff.

Other leadership and management practices that are leading to ongoing improvements to the quality of education for students include:

  • the good use made of staff strengths and the provisions made to grow and support school leaders
  • some useful improvements to self review that leads to well-considered decision making.

The board governs the school very well. A strong partnership exists between the board, principal and other school leaders. They work together towards meeting the goals outlined in the charter and plans. Good use is made of the mix of skills trustees bring to their governance roles.

The board is kept well informed by the principal. Trustees are responsive to requests that focus on raising student achievement and supporting teachers to do this.

Areas for review and development

The board, principal and other school leaders have identified that a next step for them is to build on the best of current self-review practices to increase their quality. ERO agrees with this priority.

Refining some aspects of the school’s annual plans would make these more useful for promoting and evaluating school improvement.

Provision for international students

The school is a signatory to the Code of Practice for the Pastoral Care of International Students established under section 238F of the Education Act 1989. No international students were enrolled at the time of this ERO review.

The principal has met the annual review requirements and this has been acknowledged formally by the Ministry of Education.

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 four-to-five years.

Graham Randell

National Manager Review Services Southern Region

8 February 2013

About the School

Location

St Albans, Christchurch

Ministry of Education profile number

3518

School type

Contributing (Years 1 to 6)

School roll

523

Number of international students

0

Gender composition

Girls 50%; Boys 50%

Ethnic composition

NZ European/Pākehā

Māori

Samoan

Other Pacific

Asian

Other European

Other ethnicities

70%

13%

1%

1%

10%

2%

3%

Review team on site

December 2012

Date of this report

8 February 2013

Most recent ERO report(s)

Education Review

Supplementary Review

Education Review

November 2009

November 2006

November 2005