- ERO evaluates and reports on the education and care of children and young people in early childhood services and schools.
Christ The King Catholic School (Owairaka) is a small, inner-city school catering for approximately 102 students from different cultures. Six percent of students identify as Māori and 52 percent have Pacific heritage. Sixty percent of students have English as an additional language.
The school’s mission is to foster excellence and build community within a Catholic environment. The vision is to grow a community of compassionate, confident and connected learners. Stated values are respect, love and service, justice, peace and joy.
At the beginning of 2020 the school employed a new principal, a deputy principal, established a new leadership team and employed new staff. There is also a newly formed board of trustees.
Leaders and teachers regularly report to the board, schoolwide information about outcomes for students in the following areas:
The school is part of the Ako Hiko outreach of the Manaiakalani Trust and is a member of the Auckland Central Catholic Community of Schools | Kāhui Ako.
The new board and senior leaders are working towards achieving equity and excellence for all students.
Reported school information for 2019 states that overall, most students are achieving at or above curriculum expectations in reading, writing and mathematics.
Māori, Pacific and Asian students achieve similar results in reading and writing. Reading and mathematics achievement data for early 2020 indicate gender parity in mathematics. However, there is wide disparity for Māori students and non-Māori students in mathematics and reading. There is also significant gender disparity in reading.
Leaders and teachers should continue to identify and report to the board on achievement disparity with a focus on increasing equity for all students.
The school’s 2019 achievement information indicates that some targeted and priority students are making accelerated progress. However, this information does not clearly identify or report on rates of accelerated student progress for individuals or groups of students. It would be useful for teachers to develop a shared understanding of what acceleration looks like at this school and use this information to continue to monitor individual student progress.
The school has a positive culture sustained by the school’s inclusive environment and the focus on Catholic values and beliefs. Community relationships are strong, and teachers know their students and families very well. Senior leaders are implementing ways to enhance learning-focused partnerships with parents.
Senior leaders and the board are implementing strategies to increase student equity and excellence. These include:
the employment of a Special Education Needs Coordinator (SENCO)
tracking individual students whose progress needs acceleration to move towards achievement parity
reported achievement information that is differentiated by year level, gender and ethnicity
targeted teacher professional development.
The senior leadership team is considering further ways to enhance the school’s localised and responsive curriculum. Current learning programmes are related to students’ real-world experiences, their language, culture and identity. Teachers are implementing ways to increase students’ understanding of their progress and next steps for ongoing improvement.
There is an emphasis on enhancing students’ digital fluency in Years 4 to 8 focused on current issues through research and presentation. Students are confident and positively engage in their learning.
The newly established leadership team has complementary skills and a positive vision for ongoing learning and curriculum direction.
Senior leaders agree that next steps include:
In order to improve stewardship practices, the board should:
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 Christ The King Catholic School (Owairaka)’s performance in achieving valued outcomes for its students is: Developing.
ERO’s Framework: Overall Findings and Judgement Tool derived from School Evaluation Indicators: Effective Practice for Improvement and Learner Success is available on ERO’s website.
For sustained improvement and future learner success, the school can draw on existing strengths in the:
For sustained improvement and future learner success, priorities for further development are in:
ERO identified areas of non-compliance in relation to providing the New Zealand Curriculum (NZC), implementing current employment and personnel legislation, and providing a safe physical and emotional environment.
In order to address these, the board of trustees must:
To improve current practice, the board of trustees should:
ERO recommends that the New Zealand School Trustees Association consider providing support for the school in order to bring about improvement in stewardship to build trustees’ understanding of their roles and statutory responsibilities.
Steve Tanner
Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern)
Northern Region - Te Tai Raki
25 June 2020
The Education Counts website provides further information about the school’s student population, student engagement and student achievement.