Baverstock Oaks School

1 Context

Baverstock Oaks School caters for children in Years 1 to 6. The school continues to serve a growing multicultural and diverse community and many children are English language learners. Since ERO's 2013 review the Māori roll has remained at six percent. Pacific children make up 16 percent of the roll. In 2014, the board, with support from the Ministry of Education, conducted a review of the school's inclusive practices. Children work in modern learning environments and have opportunities to bring their own digital devices.

2 Equity and excellence

The vision and valued outcomes defined by the school for all children are focused on the school being a learning community. The school motto of 'Learning to Grow; Growing to learn' is reinforced through a set of six values where diversity is identified as a strength and the wellbeing of the whole person is a priority. Other values reflect the school's focus on building learning partnerships with families and learning how to learn.

The school’s achievement information shows that by the end of Year 6 nearly 70 percent of children achieve at or above the National Standards in reading, writing and mathematics. The levels of attainment have remained similar for the last three years. School literacy data shows disparity between boys' and girls' achievement. There is a small disparity between Māori and Pacific children's achievement and the rest of the school population. Over the last three years the disparity is lessening in mathematics for both groups of children and in writing for Pacific children.

School leaders continue to improve school wide systems and processes that support teachers to make robust and consistent achievement judgements against the National Standards. School leaders are beginning to gather information of children in Years 1 to 3, about their progress and achievement in relation to National Standards at the time of their anniversary of starting school, and reporting this information to parents and whānau.

Since the last ERO evaluation the school has:

• developed whānau leader roles to support the close monitoring and promotion of children's progress and achievement
• created specific education plans to further support success for Māori and Pacific learners
• strengthened learning partnerships with parents that provide further support for children's learning at home
• implemented a variety of teaching strategies to increase children's ownership of their learning, progress and achievement
• considered more inclusive practices for learning support to cater for the diverse needs across the school.

3 Accelerating achievement

How effectively does this school respond to Māori children whose learning and achievement need acceleration?

The school is effective in responding to Māori children whose learning and achievement need acceleration.

Very good systems at the class and whānau levels help teachers to keep a clear line of sight on the progress and achievement of individual Māori children. Leaders and teachers use data analysis well to support the early identification of children who are at risk of not achieving and whose progress requires acceleration. Teachers use this information to develop class profiles and action plans that target children's progress, support ongoing monitoring, and give consideration to their next learning steps.

The school has implemented a Māori education plan that guides school initiatives to develop the potential of all Māori children. The planned strategies include taking a strengths-based approach to supporting the learner whose progress needs accelerating by building on the child's interests and strengths. This is helping teachers to gain a broad and holistic understanding of individual Māori children and their learning. The increased use of the resource Tātaiako: Cultural Competencies for Teachers of Māori Learners, is helping teachers to reflect on the effectiveness of their practice in making a positive difference to children's progress.

Recent tracking data for Māori learners who are below the National Standards show positive shifts in achievement for many children and some accelerated progress.

How effectively does this school respond to other children whose learning and achievement need acceleration?

The effective strategies and practices used by leaders and teachers to support Māori learners are similar to those used to help Pacific and other children who need to make accelerated progress.

The board resources an inclusive learning support department that uses a variety of intervention approaches and programmes to support children who are below the National Standards in reading, writing and mathematics. School tracking of the achievement of children receiving learning support is extensive and shows positive shifts for many children. Ongoing monitoring of these children to ensure progress is sustained over their time at the school is a strength of the department's systems.

The board sets specific and relevant improvement achievement targets that enable the school to focus on and measure progress and achievement for different groups of children. Recent charter targets focus on lifting literacy achievement in the first two years of school, and for Māori and Pacific children across the school who are below the National Standard. Senior leaders continue to refine strategic ways of reporting achievement information to the board that will support trustees in scrutinising the effectiveness of the school in achieving valued outcomes for children.

A school management system change in 2014 is supporting school leaders to gather a wider variety of achievement information about different groups of children and their progress over time. Staff are making use of this new data to focus on the progress of Māori and Pacific children. It could also be beneficial to consider other ways to disaggregate the data to provoke inquiry about the impact of initiatives to increase equity and excellence in learner outcomes.

Leaders are effectively encouraging collective responsibility amongst staff for children's learning and progress. Whānau leaders oversee team development plans that focus on how to raise achievement. Teaching teams meet to discuss samples of children's assessment and consider strategies for better supporting individual learning progress. Teachers' improved evaluation of their actions, and discussions that focus on what can be done differently to support individual learners, are making a positive difference to children's progress and achievement.

Children have an increasing understanding of their own achievement and next learning steps. They are engaged in the learning process and have some ownership of their learning. Teachers use different approaches to sharing assessment information with children and supporting them to further improve their achievement.

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 school's curriculum, processes and practices are effective in promoting equity and excellence for children.

The school has very good learning-centred relationships with parents and whānau, with a particular focus on families of children whose learning needs accelerating. Parents, whānau and teachers have shared understandings of curriculum goals and engage in productive learning conversations. Parents and whānau receive information and resources, and participate in learning opportunities that enable them to constructively support their children's learning.

Experienced school leadership is focusing on building professional capability and collective capacity for promoting equity and excellence. In 2016 the school is working with a more distributed leadership structure that is supporting greater continuity and coherence across curriculum and assessment practices. A staff culture of shared professional dialogue, reflection and collaboration supports teachers to engage effectively in evidence informed professional inquiry to improve outcomes for children.

Some good progress has been made to strengthen the bicultural curriculum. A relationship with Umupuia Marae has recently been established and has potential to strengthen opportunities for Māori children to experience success as Māori and for all children to learn about the bicultural heritage of Aotearoa New Zealand.

Strong relationships of care (manaakitanga) and connectedness (whanaungatanga) are a feature of the school. The school's promotion of, and response to, children's wellbeing is extensive. Teachers have a good understanding of the whole child as a learner and priority is given to creating a settled environment that supports learning to take place.

Self review is used well. Outcomes of school-wide review provide clear rationale for positive change. Children, staff and the school community are consulted as part of review processes, and develop a shared ownership of outcomes to support the school's overall improvement focus. It would be beneficial to frame curriculum review around what the school knows is working best for children. This would contribute to building a shared understanding of good practices that accelerate learning progress and build organisational capability.

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 effectively to the strengths, needs and interests of each child
• regularly evaluate how well teaching is working for these children
• act on what they know works well for each child
• build teacher capability effectively to achieve equitable outcomes for all children
• are well placed to achieve and sustain equitable and excellent outcomes for all children.

The school is well placed to sustain progress made in teaching practice and to make ongoing improvements that impact positively on all children's learning.

ERO and school leaders agree that priorities for further development include:

• making use of external expertise to improve the dependability of teacher judgements in relation to the National Standards
• continuing to grow the bicultural curriculum within this community's multi-ethnic setting
• developing shared agreements on pedagogy and structures to support the continuity of learning for children.

ERO is likely to carry out the next 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:

• board administration

• curriculum

• management of health, safety and welfare

• personnel management

• 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

• processes for appointing staff

• stand down, suspensions, expulsions and exclusions

• attendance

• compliance with the provisions of the Vulnerable Children Act 2014

• provision for international students.

7 Recommendation

ERO recommends that school leaders continue to build coherent organisational conditions that promote evaluation, inquiry and knowledge building, and engagement in evidence-based decision making, to further promote positive outcomes for all children.

Graham Randell

Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern

11 November 2016

About the school