St Theresa's School (Invercargill)

School Context

St Theresa’s School (Invercargill), is a state-integrated, Catholic co-educational school for students from Years 1 to 6. The roll is 254 students, including 42 Māori and recently arrived children from Sri Lanka and the Philippines.

The school’s vision is: ‘to provide a learning community in a Catholic environment, where children can achieve their full potential and learn to be true to God, to others and to themselves’. Its valued outcomes for students include: academic achievement for all, growing leadership capability, and demonstrating the school values of truth (pono), respect (tapu), perseverance (hiringa), courage (maia) and love (aroha).

The current aims of the school’s strategic plan are:

• for all students to develop literacy skills

• to ensure the students experience a future-focused curriculum that engages and challenges them

• to strengthen and celebrate the positive nature of the school’s special character.

The achievement targets are: for all students to meet their expected levels by the end of the year.

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

• achievement in reading, writing and mathematics

• progress and achievement in relation to school targets.

The New Zealand Catholic Religious Education programme is taught as part of the curriculum and worship practices are integrated into the daily life of the school. Since the December 2015 ERO review, an external review was conducted by the Diocese of Dunedin Catholic Education Office.

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 working positively towards equitable and excellent outcomes for all students.

Over the past three years, school information shows that almost all students achieved at or above the school’s expectations for reading and mathematics. Most students achieved at or above expectations in writing.

Students achieve equitably in reading. There is a disparity in achievement between boys and girls in writing. This is being addressed through the use of strategies to engage boys in writing tasks.

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

St Theresa’s School is effective in accelerating learning for those students who need extra support to succeed in their learning. All students receiving support accelerated their learning appropriately.

All students who needed support to achieve, are tracked and monitored in terms of achievement and progress at a school-wide level.

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?

Children experience learning in a caring environment. The Catholic and school values are evident and modelled across the school. They contribute to a positive and supportive school culture. Children have many opportunities to develop and demonstrate these values in and beyond the school.

Students have a strong sense of belonging and regularly contribute to school-wide decisions. Older students enjoy many opportunities to develop leadership skills and are willing to serve their school and community. Tuakana teina relationships are highly evident.

Since the December 2015 ERO review, school leaders have improved school-wide systems and operations to provide clear and consistent expectations that support teaching and learning. Revised school policies reflect and support these practices.

A distributed leadership model is building capacity for teachers to make use of their areas of expertise and experience, and to sustain improvement. Leaders make strategic resourcing decisions directed at improving student outcomes, including specialist teacher aides and reading recovery programmes.

Teachers gather and use substantial evidence to improve individual and collective teaching practice. Reciprocal teaching practices model ako principles. Teachers work collaboratively to best meet the learning needs and strengths of their learners.

Recently developed guidelines for literacy, numeracy and to support students who are learning English as a second language, provide useful and clear direction for teachers. Expertise built through the development of these guidelines should be applied to the next stage of curriculum design.

Teachers have engaged in targeted professional learning and development, using both internal and external expertise. They have an increasing capacity to innovate in their practice for the benefit of learners, and are moving towards evaluating the effectiveness of these innovations.

The school and its community are engaged in reciprocal learning-centred relationships. Leaders make use of networks of local early childhood centres and schools to support transitions for students and to enhance extra-curricular opportunities.

Effective culturally responsive initiatives are supporting all students, their whānau and community to participate actively in school life. Teaching and learning reflects increasing confidence in te reo Māori and te ao Māori within the context of the school’s special character.

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

Leaders need to develop a useful framework for evaluation to better monitor and measure the impact of initiatives and interventions on student outcomes.

The board, leaders and teachers need to continue to build collective capacity in the use of evaluation for sustained improvement in the following areas:

• strategic and annual planning

• curriculum design and implementation

• data literacy including the analysis of data to inform internal evaluation.

Leaders need to make clear the reciprocal relationships between the principles and key competencies of the New Zealand Curriculum to define priorities for student learning.

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 St Theresa’s School (Invercargill) 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:

• distributed, collaborative leadership, including by trustees, staff and students, that supports working together for a common purpose

• cultural responsiveness within the context of the school’s special character

• strong learning-focused relationships between staff, students, whānau and community that enhance student outcomes.

Next steps

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

• embedding recent successful developments

• building evaluation capacity to measure success using a model of evaluation

• streamlining strategic planning.

Alan Wynyard

Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)

Te Waipounamu - Southern Region

17 April 2019

About the school

Findings

St Theresa’s provides good quality education. Students achieve to very good levels in literacy and mathematics. They value the caring, positive relationships they have with each other and their teachers. They learn through the breadth and depth of the New Zealand Curriculum in line with Catholic teachings and values. Teachers give timely and effective responses to students’ learning needs and monitor their progress carefully.

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

1 Context

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

Students appreciate the many and varied opportunities they have within and beyond their school. They are proud of the Christian character of the school. Students value the caring and positive relationships they have with each other and their teachers. There are high levels of achievement in writing and mathematics, and even higher in reading.

St Theresa’s School provides good quality education for students in Years 1 to 6. It is an urban school and has an increasing diversity of ethnicities within the school community. The majority of staff have worked at the school for a number of years. A new principal started at the beginning of Term 4 2015.

The school’s vision is for all students to learn in a Catholic environment, reach their potential, and learn to be true to God, others and themselves. The Christian values of truth, love, courage, respect and perseverance are very evident throughout the school.

Since the last ERO review in 2011, teachers, syndicate leaders and trustees have made some progress in addressing the identified areas for improvement.

2 Learning

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

Teachers and leaders use achievement information well to inform their teaching, identify common areas of need, and closely monitor individual student achievement and progress over time. They give timely and effective responses to students at risk of poor educational outcomes. Teachers use achievement data well to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of their teaching.

The school is in the early stages of students taking responsibility for their own learning. This development includes students:

• leading the learning conferences with teachers and parents, and setting goals
• assessing their own work against criteria
• knowing their next learning steps.

ERO saw evidence of in-depth analysis of school-wide information leading to improved teaching and learning programmes. For example, the mathematics curriculum was adjusted to address concerns identified in numeracy.

School leaders acknowledge the need to extend the analysis of school-wide learning information. Teachers and leaders should use the analysed data to:

• determine if students are making sufficient progress
• evaluate the impact of programmes and interventions on students’ learning
• identify aspects of programmes that are going well and those that require improving.

3 Curriculum

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

The school’s curriculum continues to effectively promote and support students’ learning.

Students learn through the breadth and depth of the New Zealand Curriculum, in line with Catholic teachings and values. Te ao Māori has been given more emphasis in order to provide increased bicultural learning for all students. Leadership is fostered through the variety of roles carried out by the senior students in particular.

The curriculum has other positive features that support students’ learning such as the way:

• teachers respond to the needs of individuals and groups of students
• students are engaged in their learning in settled classrooms
• careful grouping, skilful teacher aides and specific interventions provide equitable opportunities for all to learn
• students’ opinions are used to help find out about the effectiveness of teaching and learning programmes
• the teachers are committed to establishing learning-centred relationships with parents.

For school-wide consistency, coherence, and sustainability, the school leaders and teachers need to complete the development of the school curriculum guidelines. These need clear statements that guide school and classroom teaching and learning. These should include:

• redeveloping, with the board and community, a child-centred vision that outlines the school’s desired student outcomes
• expectations of assessment practices, especially those relating to the National Standards
• developing the key competencies that are appropriate in this school’s context.

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

Since the last ERO visit in 2011 there has been an increased number of students identifying as Māori. These students achieve well in reading, writing and mathematics. They experience aspects of their identity, language and culture in school life and learning. For example, the school has a large kapahaka group that all students may participate in. The school welcomes new students and staff, and visitors with pōwhiri. Student leaders take an active role in these activities.

There is a greater awareness and reflection of te ao Māori throughout the school. Teachers’ appraisals and staff meetings show an increasing emphasis on developing culturally responsive practices.

Together with whānau Māori, the school should now define what success as Māori means at this school. The continued development of this area would be helped by an action plan that shows how success as Māori may be achieved.

4 Sustainable Performance

How well placed is the school to sustain and improve its performance?

The school is well placed to sustain and improve its performance.

Trustees have participated in effective training to improve their awareness of their roles and responsibilities. They are very committed to the continued improvement of student outcomes.

Leaders and teachers work within a culture of improvement. The leaders have introduced a useful appraisal process. It appropriately incorporates the teachers inquiring into and evaluating their teaching practices, and the impact they are having on student outcomes. Relevant professional learning from internal and external providers has lifted the teaching practices in mathematics and writing.

Trustees are aware of the need for alignment between the school’s vision, curriculum and the strategic and annual planning that supports school and curriculum development. To strengthen alignment between these key elements the principal and board need to put in place robust processes to ensure that the:

• strategic plan has purposeful links to the school vision
• strategic plan clarifies actual school priorities
• other plans are linked, such as budget and professional learning
• progress of planned actions is monitored and reported at key points throughout the year
• plans and actions are evaluated to show the difference made to student outcomes.

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.

Conclusion

St Theresa’s provides good quality education. Students achieve to very good levels in literacy and mathematics. They value the caring, positive relationships they have with each other and their teachers. They learn through the breadth and depth of the New Zealand Curriculum in line with Catholic teachings and values. Teachers give timely and effective responses to students’ learning needs and monitor their progress carefully.

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

Chris Rowe

Deputy Chief Review Officer Southern (Acting)

8 December 2015

School Statistics