School Context
Whataroa School is a small rural primary school for students in Years 1-8, in South Westland. It has a current roll of 35 students from a diverse range of ethnicities. Students learn in two multi-level classrooms.
The school’s vision is to ‘Educate for the 21st Century’. Its mission is ‘To gift our children the passion to be the best they can be in all areas of learning’. This mission statement is underpinned by the values of Manaakitanga|Respect, Ako|Study and Advise, Titiro whakamua|Looking forward, and Ahuareka|Celebration.
Leaders and teachers regularly report to the board, schoolwide information about outcomes for students in the following areas:
- reading, writing and mathematics in relation to the school’s expectations
- wellbeing for success.
Since the 2014 ERO review the school has had several changes in teaching staff. The principal teaches full time. The board has had a number of changes through this period of time.
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?
Overtime the school is achieving equitable and excellent outcomes for many of its students
The school is effective in achieving positive outcomes in relation to school expectations for most students in reading and for the large majority of its students in writing and mathematics. There has been sustained improvement over time in reading and writing with a downward trend in overall achievement in mathematics. The school has developed a range of targeted responses to raise achievement in mathematics.
Disparity for boys in literacy from 2016 to 2017, has been eliminated in 2018.
The school is achieving equitable outcomes in the areas of student wellbeing for success.
1.2 How well is the school accelerating learning for those Māori and other students who need this?
The school is effective in accelerating the progress of those students who are achieving below school expectations. All students who need to make progress in their learning are identified, planned for and closely monitored within their class and by the principal.
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?
The principal builds relational trust and effective collaboration at every level of the school community to the achieve the school’s valued outcomes.
The principal ensures:
- an orderly and supportive environment that is conducive to student learning and wellbeing
- that community and cultural resources are integrated into relevant aspects of the school curriculum
- that the school’s teaching programme is structured so that all students have maximum opportunity to learn and achieve at or above the appropriate standard.
The board actively serves and represents the school and community. The board’s relationship with the principal is positive and productive; this collaborative approach ensures that identified priorities are effectively resourced.
The school proactively identifies and draws on community resources and expertise to increase learning opportunities and enhance student achievement and wellbeing. Curriculum design and enactment is responsive to the aspirations of students, parents and whānau. Leaders and teachers recognise the importance of student and community voice and use it as a key resource when deciding priorities for inquiry and improvement. Opportunities are provided for students to participate in and experience learning opportunities outside their local community.
Students participate and learn in a strong, caring, collaborative, and inclusive learning community. The learning environment is managed in ways that support student participation, engagement and engagement in learning. Teachers and students construct challenging but realistic goals and success criteria. The school provides parents and whānau with information that encourages family participation in learning opportunities and enables them to constructively support 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?
The school has identified and ERO’s evaluation confirms, that the school’s internal evaluation processes should be strengthened. Specifically analysing school-wide and group achievement and progress information should enable leaders and teachers to better know the impact of learning programmes and specific actions to raise achievement and accelerate students’ progress.
The school should continue to develop culturally responsive practices that increase school-wide understanding of te ao Māori, with particular reference to the use of tikanga and te reo Māori.
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 Whataroa School’s performance in achieving valued outcomes for its students is: Well placed.
ERO’s Framework: Overall School Performance 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:
- a broad, localised curriculum that effectively uses the resources of the community
- a strong collaborative and collegial culture and positive learning environment that supports students’ wellbeing and engagement.
Next steps
For sustained improvement and future learner success, priorities for further development are in:
- strengthening the rigour of internal evaluation to better know what is working and what is not
- analysing and using student achievement and progress information to better know the impact of learning programmes and targeted actions to raise achievement
- increasing school-wide understanding of te ao Māori and use of tikanga and te reo Māori.
Dr Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services Southern
Southern Region
13 August 2019
About the school
| Location | Whataroa |
| Ministry of Education profile number | 3592 |
| School type | Full Primary (Years 1-8) |
| School roll | 35 |
| Gender composition | Boys 16, Girls 19 |
| Ethnic composition | Māori 5 NZ European/Pākehā 27 Other ethnicities 3 |
| Students with Ongoing Resourcing Funding (ORS) | No |
| Provision of Māori medium education | No |
| Review team on site | May 2019 |
| Date of this report | 13 August 2019 |
| Most recent ERO reports | Education Review November 2014 Education Review November 2011 |