Elmwood Normal School

Education institution number:
3334
School type:
Contributing
School gender:
Co-Educational
Definition:
Normal School
Total roll:
471
Telephone:
Address:

Aikmans Road, Merivale, Christchurch

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Elmwood Normal School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within twelve months of the Education Review Office and Elmwood Normal School working in Te Ara Huarau, an improvement evaluation approach used in most English Medium State and State Integrated Schools. For more information about Te Ara Huarau see ERO’s website. www.ero.govt.nz

Context 

Elmwood Normal School is located in Merivale, Christchurch and provides education for students in Years 1 to 6.

Elmwood Normal School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are to promote:

  • inspirational teaching and learning with learners at the centre

  • an environment that supports future focused teaching and learning

  • an engaged community and associated partnerships.

You can find a copy of the school’s strategic and annual plan on Elmwood Normal School’s website.

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how effectively all learners have equitable access to a culturally responsive, localised curriculum.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is to:

  • continue to develop and ensure the Elmwood Normal School’s curriculum is culturally responsive and localised to meet the needs of all learners, to address in-school variance, and to affirm students’ different cultural identities

  • ensure effective planning, co-ordination and evaluation of the school’s curriculum and teaching

  • support collaboration at every level of the school community.

The school expects to see classroom and curriculum programmes and planning that respond to students’ identified strengths, needs and prior learning. Teachers and leaders will effectively communicate with and support the positive engagement of all students and whānau.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support the school in its goal to ensure all learners have equitable access to a culturally responsive, localised curriculum:

  • high levels of stakeholder engagement, with a commitment to individual student success

  • strong leadership that builds relational trust and actively promotes a culture of collaboration and commitment to ongoing improvement, and builds leaders across the school

  • a rich curriculum that enhances students’ learning through a broad range of targeted learning opportunities and experiences.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

  • continuing to develop students’ learning-to-learn capabilities

  • building teachers’ data literacy capability and evaluative thinking.

ERO’s role will be to support the school in its evaluation for improvement cycle to improve outcomes for all learners. ERO will support the school in reporting their progress to the community. The next public report on ERO’s website will be a Te Ara Huarau | School Evaluation Report and is due within three years.

Dr Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini

18 August 2022 

About the School

The Education Counts website provides further information about the school’s student population, student engagement and student achievement.  educationcounts.govt.nz/home

Elmwood Normal School

Board Assurance with Regulatory and Legislative Requirements Report 2022 to 2025

As of February 2022, the Elmwood Normal School Board of Trustees has attested to the following regulatory and legislative requirements:

Board Administration

Yes

Curriculum

Yes

Management of Health, Safety and Welfare

Yes

Personnel Management

Yes

Finance

Yes

Assets

Yes

Further Information

For further information please contact Elmwood Normal School Board of Trustees.

The next Board of Trustees assurance that it is meeting regulatory and legislative requirements will be reported, along with the Te Ara Huarau | School Evaluation Report, within three years.

Information on ERO’s role and process in this review can be found on the Education Review Office website.

Dr Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini

18 August 2022 

About the School

The Education Counts website provides further information about the school’s student population, student engagement and student achievement. educationcounts.govt.nz/home

Elmwood Normal School

Provision for International Students Report

Background

The Education Review Office reviews schools that are signatories to the Education (Pastoral Care of Tertiary and International Learners) Code of Practice 2021 established under section 534 of the Education and Training Act 2020.

Findings

Elmwood Normal School has attested that it complies with all aspects of the Code and has completed an annual self-review of its implementation of the Code.   

At the time of this review there were two international students attending the school and no exchange students.   

The school has detailed policies, procedures and documentation that provide very clear guidelines and practices to support international students' wellbeing and learning. Parents and caregivers are provided with comprehensive information to guide the enrolment process and what to expect regarding the provision of care and learning for their children. 

There is a thorough process for reviewing the provisions for pastoral care for international students, with clear roles and responsibilities to ensuring that international students’ learning and wellbeing needs are effectively met. 

International students are well integrated within the school’s learning programmes and activities. They are provided with additional in-class support as needed to ensure they can participate fully in all learning programmes.

Dr Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini

18 August 2022 

About the School

The Education Counts website provides further information about the school’s student population, student engagement and student achievement. educationcounts.govt.nz/home

Elmwood Normal School - 29/11/2016

1 Context

Elmwood Normal School is a large contributing school that has a long, close affiliation with teacher training providers. The school's community is highly interested in and supportive of children's learning and achievement. Teachers and senior leaders work closely with local early learning services and schools in local and national clusters.

There have been some changes in the board. A new deputy principal was appointed in 2016.

2 Equity and excellence

The vision and valued outcomes defined by the school for all children are to strive to be the best they can be. The vision is that children will be successful in tomorrow's world. The school's values are excellence, creativity, empathy, collaboration and independence.

The school’s achievement information shows that Māori children are achieving well, particularly in reading and mathematics. The high rates of achievement in reading, mathematics and writing have continued over time. Writing has been identified as an area for ongoing improvement.

Teachers focus on accelerating children's progress towards and beyond the National Standard and use a range of ways to assess children's learning. They regularly share the strategies that have proven most effective in supporting children's engagement and progress in learning. Teachers have robust processes for moderating their judgements across the school and cluster.

Since the 2013 ERO review, the school has developed the school-based curriculum. This has included redefining the vision and values. Greater emphasis has been given to the use of digital technologies within learning programmes and increased access to digital devices.

3 Accelerating achievement

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

The school is highly responsive to Māori children whose learning and achievement need acceleration. Teachers know Māori children very well as individuals. They have regular and meaningful communication with children's whānau about their learning and wellbeing.

Teachers have high expectations for children's learning and progress. They make very good use of achievement information to plan for the learning needs, interests and strengths of individual children. They use a wide range of highly effective teaching practices to assist the accelerated progress of children most at risk of not achieving. Teachers regularly reflect on their teaching practices and consider ways they can adapt their programmes to best support children with their learning.

Children identified as needing additional help are provided with well-organised, targeted learning support programmes. Highly experienced teacher aides participate in regular and appropriate training to enable them to assist children's learning needs. The board are given detailed information about the progress of each intervention.

The focus and increased use of digital technology is having a positive impact on the ways children learn. Children regularly use technology meaningfully to encourage and engage in learning and to receive regular and purposeful feedback. They are also able to easily share learning with their whānau.

Māori children have many opportunities to use and hear te reo Māori and learn about Māori culture. The school employs a Māori tutor with expertise to work with groups of children. The school is currently considering how to ensure bicultural aspects are visible and integrated across learning programmes.

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

The school responds very effectively to other children whose learning and achievement need acceleration. They use the same thorough systems and practices outlined above for identifying and monitoring learning, progress and achievement for all children.

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 very effectively supports the school's processes and practices in enacting the vision, values and goals for equity and excellence. The school's values are well known by the children, who are clearly able to articulate what they mean to them.

Children are highly engaged in learning. They have many opportunities to extend their abilities and interests. Teachers provide a wide range of fun learning experiences that encourage children's engagement in learning. Parents are well informed about their children's learning. They are provided with useful information that enables them to contribute to and support class and individual programmes.

The school provides a supportive environment. Teachers, children and parents share positive relationships. There are many opportunities to regularly communicate about children's learning and wellbeing. Children's transitions into, within and beyond the school are well managed and responsive to individual needs.

Teachers participate in well-targeted, relevant professional development. They work closely together and regularly reflect on how they can improve outcomes for children. Senior teachers provide teachers with helpful feedback about their teaching practices.

Senior leaders provide effective leadership. They ensure a culture of shared decision-making. Good use is made of individual teacher's strengths and abilities. The board is presented with regular, useful information to inform decision-making.

Senior leaders and teachers have developed a useful framework and process for internal evaluation that strongly focuses on priority learners. They place a significant emphasis on ongoing improvement. The principal has identified that this process could be further strengthened by ensuring that reviews are more evaluative.

Trustees bring a useful range of experience and expertise to their governance role. They have a good understanding of their responsibilities. The board has thorough systems in place to monitor school operations. The school's community is kept well informed.

Senior leaders and teachers have identified, and ERO agrees, that the next step for the school is to continue to develop the school's curriculum. The board and senior leaders should also give greater emphasis to regular reporting against the school's strategic goals.

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.

Senior leaders and teachers make very good use of achievement information. They are highly reflective about children's learning and what programmes and resources will best support these. Senior leaders could now consider increased reporting of learning and achievement across all learning areas. The board is kept very well informed and considers the reported information in their resourcing to meet the needs of children and staff.

ERO is likely to carry out the next review in four-to-five 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.

7 Recommendations

For the school to continue to improve its performance, ERO recommends that the senior leaders and teachers:

  • continue to develop the school's curriculum
  • extend internal evaluation practices to ensure they are evaluative and cover all areas of the curriculum. 

Dr Lesley Patterson

Deputy Chief Review Officer Te Waipounamu/Southern

29 November 2016

About the school

Location

Christchurch

Ministry of Education profile number

3334

School type

Contributing (Years 1 to 6)

School roll

532

Number of international students

0

Gender composition

Boys 47%; Girls 53%

Ethnic composition

Māori

Pākehā

Asian

Pacific

Other ethnicities

7%

79%

11%

1%

2%

Review team on site

October 2016

Date of this report

29 November 2016

Most recent ERO reports

Education Review

Education Review

Education Review

October 2013

August 2010

September 2007