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:
Leaders and teachers regularly report to the board, schoolwide information about outcomes for students in the following areas:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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;
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 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.
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:
To improve current practice, the board of trustees should ensure:
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:
Dr Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services Te Tai Tini
Southern Region
10 March 2020
Location |
Duvauchelle, Banks Peninsula |
Ministry of Education profile number |
3332 |
School type |
Contributing (Years 1 to 6) |
School roll |
58 |
Gender composition |
Girls 30, Boys 28 |
Ethnic composition |
Māori 5 NZ European/Pākehā 44 Other Ethnicities 9 |
Students with Ongoing Resourcing Funding (ORS) |
No |
Provision of Māori medium education |
No |
Review team on site |
October 2019 |
Date of this report |
10 March 2020 |
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education review October 2015 Education review May 2012 |