Duvauchelle School - 10/03/2020

• On this page:

• School Context
• Evaluation Findings
• 1 Equity and excellence – achievement of valued outcomes for students
• 2 School conditions for equity and excellence – processes and practices
• 3 Board Assurance on Legal Requirements
• 4 ERO’s Overall Judgement
• 5 Going forward
• About the school

Duvauchelle School is a small rural school in Banks Peninsula for students in Years 1 to 6. They learn in three classrooms which have small student numbers. At the time of the review, the school had a roll of 58 students.

The school’s vision is ‘To embrace learning, explore possibilities, realise potential and be unique’. The mission of the school is ‘Learners today...Leaders tomorrow’.

The values of the school are to display whanaungatanga, manaakitanga and kaitiakitanga.

The school’s current priorities are to:

• increase the number of target students achieving at the appropriate curriculum level in writing and mathematics
• equip students as 21st century learners by improving achievement through the use of e-learning tools and strategies.

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

• student achievement in reading, writing and mathematics.

Recent changes in staffing include the appointment of a new principal in April 2019. Schoolwide professional development is focusing on mindfulness and the Ministry of Education Accelerated Learning in Literacy contract (ALL). The school has been recently refurbished.

Duvauchelle School is part of the Banks Peninsula Learning Cluster.

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?

Achievement information provided by the school during the onsite stage of the review shows that it is yet to achieve equitable outcomes for all students.

School data for 2015 to 2018 shows that most students achieve at or above expected curriculum levels. Over time, this data shows a decline in reading achievement.

Achievement information provided to ERO does not include outcomes for all groups of students each year.

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

ERO is not able to evaluate how effectively the school is accelerating learning for those Māori and other students who need this. Achievement information provided during the onsite stage of the review did not clearly identify the rate and sufficiency of accelerated progress for these students.

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?

There is a strategic approach to building relationships and enhancing wellbeing to support student learning and their sense of belonging to the school. Parent and community knowledge and resources are valued and used within the school.

Students with additional learning needs are well supported. Individual student needs are responded to through access to external resources and agencies, individual education plans and differentiated learning. Targeted resourcing by the board of trustees allows for one-to-one support for students.

Students have access to a broad and responsive curriculum. The recent re-development of the curriculum provides clearer guidelines for teaching and learning. The use of local community resources further enhances the curriculum. Students are able to learn within a range of curriculum experiences that provide opportunities for them to achieve the school’s valued outcomes and experience success in a variety of contexts.

Focused and strategically-aligned professional development has an emphasis on supporting priority learners. Professional capability and capacity is being further developed through effective use of the Banks Peninsula Learning Cluster resources. The use of staff strengths in curriculum leadership supports an increasingly collaborative teaching team who have a shared responsibility for improving outcomes for their students.

The new principal and board of trustees are focused on improving teaching and learning. They have identified and prioritised a number of actions, including engaging with training to develop governance knowledge and renew the strategic plan. The school’s policy framework has been revised and a regular review cycle is now in place.

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

Internal evaluation remains a significant area for development, as identified in the previous ERO reports of 2012 and 2015. Leaders and teachers must ensure that they develop an understanding of internal evaluation and how to use it in order to evaluate how effectively initiatives and innovations are improving outcomes for children.

Schoolwide record keeping needs to be improved so that leaders are assured that they are meeting their legal requirements and that school documentation is useful for supporting school improvement. This includes:

• appropriate storage of board minutes, including sufficient information about the decisions the board makes, and appropriate record keeping for in-committee minutes
• records of teachers’ appraisal, including an annual summary of progress against the teaching standards, being retained and stored onsite
• meetings within the school being formalised to ensure agreed actions are undertaken, monitored and evaluated for effectiveness and impact on student outcomes
• schoolwide tracking and monitoring of student progress and achievement to gain an understanding of sufficiency of progress, achievement and acceleration for all groups of students in the school.

The school is not yet making effective use of achievement data. Leaders and teachers need to continue to strengthen data management systems and processes for collecting, moderating, analysing and reporting student achievement across the curriculum. This is likely to improve the setting of goals and targets to accelerate achievement, and allow for more informed and regular reports to the board about student progress in relation to goals and targets.

The redeveloped curriculum guidelines need to be further developed to ensure clarity of expectations for teaching and learning. Guidelines that promote effective bicultural practices and teaching and learning should be prioritised as areas for development.

The new appraisal system does not meet Teacher Council requirements. Leaders must ensure that all teachers are appraised and that all Teaching Council requirements are met.

The school has not made effective progress on most of the recommendations of the previous ERO report (2015) including;

• internal evaluation
• teacher appraisal
• reviewing board minutes to ensure they effectively support board decisions
• strengthening student ownership and understanding of their learning
• strengthening moderation practices to ensure accurate judgements on student achievement.

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 Children’s Act 2014.

4 ERO’s Overall Judgement

On the basis of the findings of this review, ERO’s overall evaluation judgement of Duvauchelle School’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.

5 Going forward

Key strengths of the school

For sustained improvement and future learner success, the school can draw on existing strengths in:

• a broad and responsive curriculum that provides many opportunities for students’ learning
• positive relationships with parents, whānau and community.

Next steps

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

• professional development in understanding and using internal evaluation for the board of trustees, leaders and teachers
• formalising record keeping and storage throughout all areas of the school
• using internal evaluation to identify the impact of initiatives and innovations on improving student outcomes
• strengthening achievement data gathering, analysis, use and reporting
• ensuring that robust processes are in place for the moderation of assessment practices and decision making
• continuing to develop and embed the new curriculum document.

Actions for compliance

ERO identified non-compliance in relation to:

• consultation with Māori
• appraisal of teachers.

In order to address this, the board of trustees must:

• in consultation with the school’s Māori community, develop and make known to the school’s community, policies, plans and targets for improving the progress and achievement of Māori students
  [NAG 1(e)]
• be a good employer as defined in the State Sector Act 1988, and complied with the conditions contained in employment contracts applying to teaching and non-teaching staff.
  [NAG 3; s 77A State Sector Act].

Areas for improved compliance practice

To improve current practice, the board of trustees should ensure:

• the school’s policy on physical restraint, as it relates to staff training, reflects current practice within the school
• a complaints register is available and being used effectively
• they receive regular reports on student attendance trends and patterns
• all governance practices meet good practice requirements.

ERO recommends that the Ministry of Education and/or New Zealand School Trustees Association provide support for the school in order to bring about needed improvements in:

• internal evaluation
• assessment and moderation practices
• development of the school’s curriculum.

Dr Lesley Patterson

Director Review and Improvement Services Te Tai Tini

Southern Region

10 March 2020

About the school