Windwhistle School

School Context

Windwhistle School is a small rural school near Methven, for children in Years 1 to 6. It has a roll of 36 children. Students learn in two multi-level classes. At the time of this review a third class teacher was being funded by the board to better meet the needs of a growing roll.

The school’s vision is for students to be, ‘self-managing, inquiring and enterprising learners who contribute to their communities, seize opportunities, and strive to be the best they can be’.

Current school priorities for improvement and learner success are:

• raising achievement for all students, with a particular focus on boys’ writing
• building all students’ wellbeing and resilience
• developing and embedding the school’s bicultural curriculum
• developing the school’s sustainability curriculum.

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

• achievement and progress in relation to the National Standards (NS) in reading, writing and mathematics
• those receiving learning support.

The school has had stable leadership and staffing since its last review in 2013. At the time of this review, the board was in the process of appointing a new principal and due to elect a number of new trustees.

In recent years teachers have participated in professional development in: teaching mathematics, positive education, integrating digital technology into teaching and learning, and te reo Māori.

The school is a part of the Malvern District Kāhui Ako|Community of Learning (CoL).

Evaluation Findings

1 Equity and excellence – valued outcomes for students

1.1 How well is the school achieving equitable and excellent outcomes for all its students?

This school is effective in achieving equitable and excellent outcomes for most of its students.

School achievement information for the past three years shows that most students achieve at or above the National Standards (NS) in reading and writing. A very high proportion achieve at or above in mathematics. Over the past three years, an increasing proportion of boys have achieved at or above the NS in reading and mathematics. The school has yet to achieve equitable outcomes for boys in writing.

1.2 How effectively does this school respond to those students whose learning and achievement need acceleration?

This school responds very effectively to those students whose learning and achievement need acceleration.

School information shows that students who participate in a range of learning support programmes make accelerated progress.

2 School conditions for equity and excellence

2.1 What school processes and practices are effective in enabling achievement of equity and excellence?

Effective teaching practice supports and promotes all students’ learning. Teachers have high expectations that all students will progress in their learning and achieve at or above expected levels. They use assessment purposefully to closely monitor students’ progress and achievement and to identify their next learning steps. The students needing additional support receive relevant one-to-one and specialist help. Children learn specific strategies for managing their learning and their health and wellbeing. They benefit from opportunities to learn collaboratively. Teachers are active participants in professional learning and are researching and trialling new approaches to enhance students’ engagement and success in learning.

The school’s curriculum responds well to students’ interests, strengths and needs. Good use is made of the local environment and community to provide ‘real-life’ contexts for learning. All children benefit from a strong bicultural component to the curriculum that reflects New Zealand’s dual heritage well.

Productive partnerships with parents, community members and other schools, support effective teaching and enhance children’s opportunities to learn. Teachers have ongoing communication with parents and families about children’s learning and how this can be supported at home.  Parents and community members actively support children’s learning within the school and in the wider community and environment. Trustees, leaders and teachers share professional learning opportunities with their colleagues from local schools and are working together to develop coordinated student achievement goals, plans and strategies. 

Sound leadership and governance have supported positive outcomes for all children. The school’s goals and targets have been well focused on raising student achievement and accelerating the progress of those not yet at expected levels. Resourcing has been prioritised to ensure the needs of children are being met. The board and principal have worked collaboratively with students, teachers and the community to identify the future priorities for the school.

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

The school needs to develop more robust processes for knowing about children’s progress and achievement in learning areas other than reading, writing and mathematics. This should include developing ways of knowing how well children are achieving the valued outcomes identified by the school for its children, such as wellbeing, and children becoming self-managing and inquiring learners. To achieve this leaders and teachers will need to complete aspects of the school’s curriculum guidelines, develop appropriate assessment guidelines, and use curriculum review to monitor how well these are being implemented.

Teacher appraisal needs to be strengthened to ensure that teachers receive critical feedback on their practice to support their ongoing development.

Trustees need to strengthen processes for scrutiny of school achievement information. They need to ensure that decisions about student achievement are documented to support future decision making.

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. 

Areas for improved compliance practice

To improve current practice, the board of trustees should ensure that their policies and procedures reflect current practice, and improve consultation with the school community during policy review processes.

4 Going forward

Key strengths of the school

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

• effective teaching practice that responds well to individual learning needs, and the strengths and interests of learners
• its responsive curriculum, that makes good use of the local environment and community to make learning engaging and relevant
• its productive partnerships with parents, community members and other schools that build the capability of trustees, leaders and teachers and enhance children’s opportunities to learn.

Next steps

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

• improving processes for assuring the board that all children are making appropriate progress in the breadth of the New Zealand curriculum, and in relation to the school’s other valued outcomes for children
• ensuring development and review supports the above processes
• strengthening teacher appraisal to better support ongoing teacher development. 

ERO’s next external evaluation process and timing

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

Dr Lesley Patterson
Deputy Chief Review Officer Southern

Te Waipounamu - Southern Region

6 April 2018

About the school