1 Context
Waianiwa School is a rural school close to Invercargill city. Children learn in three multilevel classes. Most children are from local farming families and travel by bus to attend the school. Children come from many different cultural backgrounds.
A new principal has been leading the school since 2015. There have also been changes in the teaching staff.
Staff have participated in Ministry of Education (MoE) professional development programmes focused on lifting children's achievement in writing and promoting positive behaviour. The school has made a commitment to work with a student achievement MoE advisor in 2017 to further support effective teaching.
2 Equity and excellence
The school's vision is for students to be `confident, actively involved learners with the necessary skills to succeed in a global environment'. The school community, including parents, children and teachers, has recently revised its values which are now: respect, responsibility, cooperation, perseverance, friendship, kindness and honesty.
The school’s achievement information shows that more than 70% of children achieve the National Standards in reading. Achievement in writing and mathematics has improved over recent years with more than 66% achieving the National Standards in writing and fewer achieving them in mathematics. Children with high needs make good progress against individual goals.
Achievement trends for groups of children, such as Māori learners and English language learners have fluctuated over the last three years. This is in part due to small numbers and children moving into and on from the school.
The new principal and board are aware of the need to lift achievement levels in writing and mathematics. The school has had a focus on lifting achievement in writing over the last two years and there is evidence to show this has been effective in accelerating the achievement of individual learners. The school is extending this focus to the teaching of mathematics in 2017.
It is likely that staff changes in recent years have had an impact on achievement levels. The principal is working on developing clear guidelines and expectations for teaching and learning, including for the moderation of teachers' judgements about achievement.
Since the last ERO evaluation, the school has had changes in leadership and staffing. The new teaching team is in the process of developing and embedding shared understandings of many aspects of teaching and learning. Key developments are described in the following sections of this report.
3 Accelerating achievement
How effectively does this school respond to children whose learning and achievement need acceleration?
This school responds effectively to children whose learning and achievement need acceleration.
The school has reviewed and strengthened its guidelines and systems for identifying children who need additional support with their learning. Teachers are making better use of a range of learning information to identify children's specific learning needs. They use this information and their knowledge of children's interests and strengths to plan targeted teaching and learning support to help children make progress.
The school provides a wide range of learning. The school works collaboratively with families and external specialists to design individualised programmes for children with high needs.
Teachers and teacher aides participate in professional learning and development (PLD) to build their capability to respond to children's learning, and social and emotional needs. As a result of recent PLD in writing, the school information shows improvements in some children's achievement levels.
Leaders and teachers regularly review children's progress and make changes to teaching plans accordingly. They critically reflect on the effectiveness of their teaching and share and discuss ideas for how they can better support children's learning.
The principal, together with trustees and staff, has focused on strengthening relationships with parents and families to support children's learning. They have reviewed and improved the way they report on children's progress and achievement. They have also provided a number of opportunities for parents to learn about their children's learning goals, how the school is addressing these and how parents can support learning at home.
The board's commitment to improving student achievement and progress is evident in the number of children receiving additional help and the extra resources the board is providing for this.
The school and ERO agree that next steps are to:
- ensure student achievement targets are specific and measureable
- develop systems to more effectively monitor and know about the rate of progress individual children are making.
These steps will enable trustees, the principal and teachers to be better placed to evaluate the effectiveness of programmes to accelerate children's progress.
4 School Conditions
How effectively do the school’s curriculum and other organisational processes and practices develop and enact the school’s vision, values, goals and targets for equity and excellence?
The board, principal and teaching staff are in the process of reviewing and embedding many aspects of the school's curriculum and other organisational processes and practices. The work they are doing effectively promotes the school's vision, values, goals and targets for equity and excellence.
Children have many opportunities to enjoy a broad range of experiences within and beyond the classroom. They regularly take part in sporting, cultural, technology and other learning opportunities alongside children from other schools. Senior students lead a number of day-to-day school activities and take responsibility for caring for younger children. Children play an active part in discussions with their teacher and parents about their learning goals and progress. The principal and staff acknowledge that they can improve the way they support children to understand their learning and to have a greater say in what and how they learn.
The principal and teachers believe that every child can succeed. They seek to acknowledge children’s strengths and interests and use these to motivate children to learn. Teachers are developing practices that recognise and value children's cultural identity, including Māori culture. This is becoming more evident in the school environment and incorporated in learning programmes. The school needs to continue to build shared understandings about cultural responsiveness and ensure these are well documented and embedded in systems and practices.
The principal is working in collaboration with teachers to build shared understandings of effective teaching practice and how this relates to the school’s vision, values and identity. She has high expectations for students and staff to succeed in their learning and teaching. To support this she has:
- improved appraisal practices
- strengthened the way teachers reflect on and evaluate their teaching
- purposefully set about building teachers’ and teacher aides' professional capability
- given teachers opportunities to build their leadership skills.
The principal has focused on building relationships with staff, parents and the wider community so that together they can give the children the best chances to learn well. She has strengthened governance guidelines and encouraged trustees to take advantage of training so that they can effectively govern the school. She keeps the board well informed about programmes, activities and student achievement. This enables them to make well-considered decisions that benefit all students and take a more active role in setting the strategic direction.
The board consults widely with stakeholders, including students, staff, trustees and parents to ensure they are acting in the best interests of the children and for the school’s future.
The board and principal agree that a deeper understanding of internal evaluation would lead to the implementation of more robust processes.
5 Going forward
How well placed is the school to accelerate the achievement of all children who need it?
Leaders and teachers:
- know the children whose learning and achievement need to be accelerated
- respond to the strengths, needs and interests of each child
- regularly evaluate how teaching is working for these children
- need to systematically act on what they know works for each child
- need to have a plan in place to build teacher capability to accelerate the achievement of all children who need it.
The board and principal are strongly focused on improving student achievement and are putting in place the necessary guidelines, expectations, systems and practices to support this. With further changes in staffing expected in 2017, they will need to ensure all staff are well supported to implement these expectations. The external support of the student achievement advisor will contribute to this.
ERO is likely to carry out the next full review in three years.
6 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 the following:
During the review, ERO checked the following items because they have a potentially high impact on student safety and wellbeing:
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emotional safety of students (including prevention of bullying and sexual harassment)
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physical safety of students
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teacher registration
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processes for appointing staff
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stand down, suspensions, expulsions and exclusions
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attendance
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compliance with the provisions of the Vulnerable Children Act 2014.
7 Recommendation
ERO recommends the school implement the next steps identified in this report which are to:
- ensure student achievement targets are specific and measureable
- develop systems to monitor and report on the rates of progress children make in their learning
- continue to develop practices to support children to know about and have a greater say in their learning
- continue to build culturally responsive practices and guidelines
- build school-wide understandings of internal evaluation and use these to develop more robust processes.
Dr Lesley Patterson
Deputy Chief Review Officer Southern (Te Waipounamu)
23 February 2017
About the school
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Location
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Southland
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Ministry of Education profile number
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4034
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School type
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Contributing (Years 1 to 6)
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School roll
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46
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Gender composition
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Girls: 29
Boys: 17
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Ethnic composition
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Māori
Pākehā
Asian
Melanesian
Other
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6
28
7
4
1
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Review team on site
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November 2016
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Date of this report
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23 February 2017
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Most recent ERO reports
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Education Review
Education Review
Education Review
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August 2013
March 2010
November 2006
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