Alexandra School

Alexandra School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 12 months of the Education Review Office and Alexandra 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 

Alexandra School is for learners from Years 1 to 8 and is linked to the first school established in Alexandra. It places an emphasis on all learners, whānau and staff feeling that they belong, which is reinforced in its vision, “deep learning in a safe and diverse environment where everyone belongs.” As part of the Dunstan Kāhui Ako, Alexandra School has a shared cultural narrative learning and valuing the mana whenua history of the area.

Alexandra School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:

  • effective teaching and learning partnered with high expectations, ensuring that all learners experience progress and achievement

  • a unique and rich local curriculum that is responsive to the needs, identities, languages, cultures, interests, strengths and aspirations of learners and their families

  • a vibrant and inclusive school culture supporting learners to thrive in an environment which is stimulating, safe, diverse, inclusive and well-known in the community.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate the impact of the development of a responsive and inclusive local curriculum designed to ensure all learners’ achievement and progress is reflective of their individual needs, strengths and interests.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

  • achievement information and analysis over time have identified a need to develop an inclusive and responsive curriculum that will improve outcomes for all learners

  • a wish to strengthen the role of learners’ whānau and to actively involve ākonga in their learning.

The school expects to see:

  • that teachers know their learners well and hold high expectations about their achievement

  • effective assessment for learning is embedded so that teachers notice, recognise and respond to learning needs and aspirations

  • ākonga who know themselves as learners and are excited about their learning.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support the school in its goal to evaluate the impact of the development of a responsive and inclusive local curriculum:

  • designing and delivering quality teacher professional development that focuses on building a comprehensive understanding and use of effective assessment for learning practices

  • positive inclusive practices focused on the needs, strengths, interests and cultures of every learner

  • recognising, validating and celebrating the uniqueness of every learner and sharing this with the school community and whānau.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

  • to continue to analyse and respond to achievement information to develop clear, attainable goals for all learners so they can achieve sound foundation skills in language, literacy and numeracy

  • to develop assessment for learning practices that focus on knowing learners’ strengths, interests and cultures, how they are progressing and what new learning opportunities can be designed to accelerate achievement

  • to continue to develop learners’ self-awareness of their next steps, supported by strong learning-focused relationships with the wider school community.

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

11 October 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

Alexandra School

Board Assurance with Regulatory and Legislative Requirements Report 2022 to 2025

As of September 2022, the Alexandra 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 Alexandra 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

11 October 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

Alexandra School - 24/06/2019

School Context

Alexandra School is located in Central Otago. It is a Years 1 to 8 primary school with a roll of 224 students. Of these students, 22% identify as Māori.

The school states that its vision is for students to learn to know, learn to do, learn to be, and learn to live together. Its values are: respect|te whakaute, responsibility|kawenga, and ready to learn|rite ki te ako.

Current strategic goals for improvement are in building student success, leading learning, and building cultural competency.

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

  • achievement in reading, writing and mathematics in relation to curriculum expectations
  • engagement and wellbeing for success
  • outcomes for students with additional learning needs.

Since the 2015 ERO review, a new approach to organising learning and a future-focused curriculum have been implemented.

The school is a member of the Dunstan Kāhui Ako| Community of Learning.

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?

Alexandra Primary School is achieving equitable and excellent outcomes for many of its students. Overall achievement information provided by the school shows that from 2016 to 2018 the majority of students achieved at or above curriculum expectations in reading, writing and mathematics.

There was some disparity in outcomes for boys in reading and writing and an overall downward trend in achievement in reading and mathematics.

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

School information shows that it is effective in responding to those students whose learning and achievement need acceleration.

The majority of those students who received targeted interventions were able to accelerate their progress and sustain gains made in achievement for reading and mathematics.

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 curriculum is responsive, future focused and learner centred. Teachers and students work collaboratively to design real-world learning contexts and tasks through an innovative curriculum. They make effective use of community resources and agencies to enhance opportunities for learning and achievement. The aspirations of parents and whānau are meaningfully included. This collaborative approach to curriculum enactment provides opportunities for all students to experience active engagement, individualised participation and agency in their learning.

The board and principal have established a collaborative culture, characterised by high relational trust and shared school values. These values are visible throughout the school’s planning. There is a clear focus on student wellbeing and whanaungatanga. Students participate and learn in a caring, inclusive environment. Teachers are supported to build their professional learning and efficacy. Resources are in place to support innovation and improvement. Students benefit from learning in an inclusive environment where their strengths, needs and passions are responded to.

School leaders and teachers have built effective relationships with whānau and the community to achieve valued outcomes for students. Parents, whānau and the community are welcomed, included and informed. Communication through new digital technologies supports and strengthens reciprocal, authentic sharing of learning between the home and school. Teachers, leaders and the board actively participate in the community of learning. Students learn within a connected, learning-focused community.

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 some aspects of the school’s processes and practices are ready to be further strengthened and embedded in order to increase effectiveness in achieving equity and excellence for all students.

The school needs to establish explicit expectations for effective teaching in the essential learning areas, across Years 1 to 8, to ensure students’ learning pathways are consistent over time. This should include planned actions to scaffold the integration of te ao Māori across the curriculum.

The scope of internal evaluation should be widened by using a range of sources of evidence to evaluate the effectiveness of innovations and interventions, to know more about what is working best and for whom. Processes to measure, record and evaluate the sufficiency of students’ progress and acceleration should form part of this widened scope.

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 ERO’s Overall Judgement

On the basis of the findings of this review, ERO’s overall evaluation judgement of Alexandra 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:

  • its culture of collaboration and professional dialogue that leads to carefully considered innovations for improvement
  • its inclusive culture that promotes success by systematically responding to needs of students and their families
  • its purposeful connection with its community, through its people, places and digital platforms, that provide enhanced learning opportunities for all students.

Next steps

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

  • completing the work on the school’s future-focused curriculum, philosophy of teaching and assessment guidelines, to ensure a coherent and consistent pathway for students’ learning
  • building processes for measuring acceleration, and sufficiency of progress, so that trustees, leaders, teachers, whānau and students know that needs are being met in a timely manner
  • using achievement information from a range of sources, for internal evaluation, that better identifies the impact of innovations and interventions on students’ learning.

Alan Wynyard

Director Review and Improvement Services Southern

Southern Region

24 June 2019

About the school

Location

Alexandra

Ministry of Education profile number

3701

School type

Full primary (Years 1 to 8)

School roll

224

Gender composition

Male 54%, Female 46%

Ethnic composition

Māori 22%
NZ European/Pākehā 70%
Other ethnicities 8%

Students with Ongoing Resourcing Funding (ORS)

Yes

Provision of Māori medium education

No

Review team on site

May 2019

Date of this report

24 June 2019

Most recent ERO reports

Education Review December 2015
Education Review August 2011