Alfredton School is a small rural school in northern Wairarapa. Students from Years 1 to 8 attend from the local farming community. Currently there are 58 students, with 17 who identify as Māori.
The school’s vision and aspirational aims are to inspire learning for a lifetime and to grow students to be confident, broad-minded, innovative learners who are community orientated and culturally aware. Strategic goals are focused on ensuring the provision of quality teacher practice and opportunities for students to learn to support this vision and aspirational aim. The valued outcomes are for students to be: ‘motivated, imaginative, respectful, happy, adaptable and confident’.
Leaders and teachers regularly report to the board, schoolwide information about outcomes for students in the following areas:
progress and achievement in reading, writing and mathematics in relation to school/curriculum expectations
progress for those identified in school targets
progress and achievement of children with additional learning and/or wellbeing needs
the school’s values.
Since the July 2016 ERO report, there have been changes to staffing, with a new principal appointed mid-2018 and all teachers new to the school over the past year.
The school is a member of the Tararua Kāhui Ako.
The school is working towards building capability to support the achievement of equitable and excellent outcomes for all students.
School reported data for 2018 indicates that overall, most students achieved at or above expectation in reading, writing and mathematics. Data for the beginning of 2019, using more consistent assessment practices, has indicated some inaccuracies in previous years’ data. There is significant disparity for Māori students, with just over half achieving at or above in literacy and the majority in mathematics.
Trustees, leaders and teachers need to further develop their capability to better respond to those students whose learning and achievement need acceleration. The principal and teachers have identified those students achieving below expectation and are beginning to implement strategies that focus on supporting their learning. Māori children remain over represented in the group of students needing acceleration.
Strong relationships and positive interactions between students and staff contribute to good levels of engagement in learning. Teachers know the children and their families well and take a collaborative approach to supporting all learners.
The principal has been effective in the focus on providing an organised and supportive environment to promote student learning and wellbeing. She has deliberately established collaborative practices that enable teachers to have a shared responsibility for student learning and progress across the school.
Systems and processes are in place to gather information that more reliably shows the learning levels and needs of all students. In response to student achievement data, the principal and teachers have identified writing as the area of greatest need. They are participating in professional learning and development to improve their practice and promote enhanced outcomes for students.
Teachers, the principal and trustees should strengthen their focus on accelerating the progress of those Māori students and others achieving below expected levels. This includes the need for improved target setting by leaders to assist in relentlessly pursuing goals for accelerating the progress of target students.
Trustees need to make greater use of dependable achievement information to know what is working well, what is not and what needs to change. This should help those in stewardship positions to make evidence-based decisions and more strongly focus on their core role of raising student progress and achievement.
The development of a coherent and culturally responsive local curriculum that responds to students’ strengths, interests and needs is a key next step. This should encompass: students have challenging, purposeful and authentic learning opportunities well matched to identified strengths and needs; students receiving explicit instruction in strategies that enable them to take control of their learning and recognise their progress; and actively involving parents and whānau in learning-centred relationships.
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:
During the review, ERO checked the following items because they have a potentially high impact on student safety and wellbeing:
On the basis of the findings of this review, ERO’s overall evaluation judgement of Alfredton School’s performance in achieving valued outcomes for its students is: Developing.
ERO’s Framework: Overall School Performance is available on ERO’s website.
For sustained improvement and future learner success, the school can draw on existing strengths in:
For sustained improvement and future learner success, priorities for further development are in:
ERO identified non-compliance in relation to:
In order to address this, the board of trustees must:
Since the onsite stage of review the principal has provided documented evidence that the following policies and procedures have been reviewed and developed to address the areas of: career education; child protection; physical restraint; and search, surrender and retention.
To improve current practice, the board of trustees should:
Phillip Cowie
Director Review and Improvement Services
Central Region
13 June 2019
|
Location |
Eketahuna |
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
2801 |
|
School type |
Full Primary (Years 1 – 8) |
|
School roll |
58 |
|
Gender composition |
Female 29, Male 29 |
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori 17 |
|
Students with Ongoing Resourcing Funding (ORS) |
No |
|
Provision of Māori medium education |
No |
|
Review team on site |
April/May 2019 |
|
Date of this report |
13 June 2019 |
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review July 2016 |