Glenavon School

Education institution number:
1290
School type:
Full Primary
School gender:
Co-Educational
Definition:
Not Applicable
Total roll:
342
Telephone:
Address:

340 Blockhouse Bay Road, Blockhouse Bay, Auckland

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Glenavon School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background 

This Profile Report was written within 12 months of the Education Review Office and Glenavon 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  

Glenavon School provides education for students in Years 0-8. The school is in Blockhouse Bay, Tāmaki Makaurau. The school vision is ‘for every child to be a young achiever, achieving the extraordinary’.

Glenavon School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are: 

  • the Glenavon Mindset and core values of ‘backing oneself, backing others, and backing the school’ underpins all that they value and do  
  • a holistic and sustained focus on hauora and wellbeing for all ākonga, kaiako, and whānau  
  • equity for all learners through a well-articulated localised and refined curriculum that has a focus on teaching, learning, and innovation    
  • the school demonstrates responsiveness towards whānau and ākonga learning aspirations and outcomes.   

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how effectively teaching practices, the local curriculum and whānau partnerships, collectively contribute to improving children’s learning outcomes. Explicit in the evaluation is a focus on oral language and learning pathway development, underpinned by inclusivity and wellbeing strategies.  

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is to:  

  • focus on oral development as a lifelong skill that supports ākonga resilience, problem solving and learning conversations and results in more equitable learning outcomes 
  • target and support all ākonga, including ākonga with identified learning needs, to experience and celebrate personal success  
  • explore networks of expertise, sustained collaboration, whānau engagement, and powerful community and industry partnerships that contribute to building ākonga learning outcomes   
  • engage dialogically with whānau to consider their aspirations for ākonga and determine how best school and whānau can collectively contribute to ākonga success; enabling them to achieve the extraordinary 
  • confirm the school’s internal evaluation processes and practices support in-depth analysis of the current conditions for learning and explore where to go next in the continuous improvement journey.  

The school expects to see positive impact evidence of: 

  • educationally powerful and reciprocal communication with whānau, iwi, parents, family, and community focused on value-added outcomes and improved oral development for their tamariki and rangatahi   
  • community and industry partnerships fostered to empower, strengthen, and provide multiple opportunities for ākonga learning pathways   
  • learning interventions, adaptive innovations, effective teaching strategies and evidence-based practices embedded in programmes to support ākonga feelings of success and wellbeing  
  • professional relationships and adaptive expertise underpinned by culturally sustaining practices that enhance the mana, identity, self-worth, and agency of all ākonga.    

Strengths  

The school draws upon the following strengths to support ākonga experiencing positive learning outcomes:  

  • a school vision based on all ākonga reaching their full potential and achieving the extraordinary   
  • a school culture that is inclusive, inspiring and involves whānau
  • a capable, innovative, and ambitious leadership team focused on ākonga learning outcomes
  • resilient ākonga and staff who support each other’s wellbeing and give back to the community   
  • an engaging, targeted, and localised curriculum.  

Where to next? 

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:  

  • establishing a collaborative, multi-faceted stakeholder evaluation team to develop and execute a review cycle with defined parameters and measurable outcomes 
  • the positive impacts of teaching and learning conditions on learner outcomes 
  • engaging with whānau and community around ākonga oracy development, learning pathways and wellbeing to ensure their aspirations for their tamariki are being realised 
  • continuing to monitor existing and identified best practices developed through a growth and high-performance coaching way of being 
  • providing qualitative and quantitative data to the school board, community, and school evaluation team, with a focus on continuous improvement.  

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.  

Filivaifale Jason Swann
Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern)
Northern Region | Te Tai Raki

3 October 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 

Glenavon School

Board Assurance with Regulatory and Legislative Requirements Report 2022 to 2025

As of May 2022, the Glenavon School Board 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 Glenavon School Board.

The next School Board 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.

Filivaifale Jason Swann
Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern)
Northern Region | Te Tai Raki

3 October 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

Glenavon School - 30/06/2016

1 Context

Glenavon School caters for children from Years 1 to 8. The school has children of many ethnicities, with those of Pacific heritage forming the largest group and those of Māori descent comprising about 18 percent. The school has experienced significant roll growth over the past year.

The school’s 2013 ERO report noted the consistently good standards of teaching practice and the strong focus on improving outcomes for children. The school had worked effectively with the Ministry of Education (MoE) and external providers and was making very good progress in raising student achievement in reading, writing and mathematics. The board was providing increasingly effective governance and self review was continuing to strengthen.

The board appointed a new principal in 2014 and a number of new teacher appointments have also been made since that time. Glenavon School has accessed MoE funding initiatives through the Innovative Learning Fund (ILF) and Community of Learning (CoL). This report identifies Glenavon School as a high performing school.

2 Equity and excellence

The vision and valued outcomes defined by the school for all children are focused on ‘Working together to make all of our students young achievers’. Values that are promoted through acronyms such as ABLE and CHOICE, include: attendance, behaviour, listening, excellence, caring and considerate, honesty and integrity. The school’s aspirations for students include being well mannered, ambitious learners who are proud of what they can achieve.

The school’s achievement information shows consistent gains in student achievement levels over the past three years. Overall achievement in National Standards is high with the school’s 2015 data showing about 80 percent of all children achieving at or above National Standards in reading, writing and mathematics. The school is able to show accelerated progress for children and, in particular, for those who have had their entire schooling at Glenavon.

Māori children’s achievement reflects the same positive trend as for school-wide data, with achievement levels in all three National Standards matching those of their peers.

Pacific children also achieve well, with many demonstrating very good gains in their progress and learning over time.

School leaders are building shared responsibility for accelerating student achievement. The principal has useful systems and processes to gather, analyse and moderate student achievement information. Teachers have participated in targeted professional development to further build their knowledge and understanding of assessment. This is helping to ensure that overall judgements about student achievement in reading, writing and maths are consistent across the school and with other schools.

Since the 2013 ERO evaluation, leaders have introduced “Step up the talk”, a school-developed programme focused on increasing children’s voice in their learning. This is resulting in high levels of engagement in class programmes and school-wide initiatives. Children have opportunities to share their ideas and leadership skills across all aspects of their school life.

Further actions that support children's academic progress have included a significant focus on: 

  • lifting teachers’ expectations of children’s capabilities
  • improving the quality of teaching and learning
  • aligning the school's charter and curriculum
  • improving teacher performance appraisals through targeted discussions with school leaders
  • teachers modelling and sharing effective practice
  • specific goal and target setting for children’s learning
  • engaging parents in their children’s learning
  • improving trustees’ participation in decision-making about in children’s learning. 

3 Accelerating achievement

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

School leaders and teachers have developed very effective processes and practices that respond well to Māori children whose learning needs accelerating. Processes include early identification of children at risk of not achieving; implementing action plans to target their progress; ongoing monitoring; and well considered analysis by teachers to identify children's next steps.

Effective teaching strategies complemented by relevant learning support programmes contribute to children's accelerated progress. School achievement information is well analysed and used by leaders, teaching teams and individual teachers to provide programmes that support children's individual learning needs. The school's achievement information shows that by Year 8, the majority of Māori children have made accelerated progress.

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

Pacific children comprise more than 60 percent of the school’s roll. School leaders and teachers use the same high quality practices for Pacific, and other groups of children, whose learning and achievement needs to be accelerated as they do for Māori children.

Teaching teams develop well documented action plans. These plans identify the names, learning needs and numbers of children who need to make accelerated progress. The plans are well linked to the board's strategic plan. The school has also developed a Pacific plan that sets specific goals and targets for children’s learning, and for parent and community participation. The board has a strategic goal that all children will achieve national standards by the time they leave the school at the end of Year 8. Almost all Year 8 children, including Pacific children, achieve this goal.

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 priorities for equity and excellence?

School policies, systems and processes align well to achieve the school's vision, values, goals and priorities. The board works collaboratively with the principal to ensure resourcing is strategically allocated to support ongoing improvement to children's learning and wellbeing. Trustees are working together to carefully scrutinise and discuss the analysis of school data.

The school has a strong culture of professional learning. School leaders and teachers deliberately focus on improving teaching practice to create better learning opportunities for children. Teacher appraisal processes and teachers' inquiry into the effectiveness of their practice have been strengthened. Leadership is distributed across teaching teams to build individual and collective leadership capacity. Teachers value being able to develop their own talents and trial innovative strategies to identify and develop practices that effectively bring about positive outcomes for children. They work actively to provide equitable opportunities for children to participate in high quality learning experiences.

Children are enthusiastic about their learning and benefit from school conditions that foster positive attitudes to lifelong learning. The board and staff promote a well maintained and inclusive learning environment. School values are well known by children and their families. These values foster respectful and productive relationships among children, and calm and settled classrooms.

Children participate in a broad curriculum that includes a strong emphasis on literacy and mathematics. Children enjoy a sense of belonging and connection to school and know that their views and ideas are a valued part of the learning process.

Parents are involved in discussions about purposeful goals for their children and these inform teachers' learning plans. Parents receive a range of relevant information about their children's progress and achievement.

5 Going forward

How well placed is the school to achieve and sustain equitable and excellent outcomes for all children?

Leaders and teachers: 

  • know the children who need their 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 board is committed to resourcing programmes that promote equity and excellence for learners. The new principal, along with senior leaders, has made significant progress across the school over the past two years. Trustees, teachers and families share positive relationships and are working well together to ensure that all children have access to a range of learning experiences.

High levels of trust and respect at all levels of the community support collaboration and openness to change and improvement. The school's collective capacity to reflect and use evaluation well results in inquiry and knowledge building that contributes to sustained and learner-focused improvement.

School leaders have discussed and planned how they could strengthen bicultural elements of the curriculum in ways that are specific to the school’s context and would promote children’s culture, language and identity. Leaders agree it is timely to provide a wider range of opportunities for Māori children to experience success as Māori, and for all children to benefit from a richer bicultural curriculum.

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 children (including prevention of bullying and sexual harassment)

  • physical safety of children

  • teacher registration

  • processes for appointing staff

  • stand down, suspensions, expulsions and exclusions

  • attendance

  • the school’s policy and procedures in relation to the application of the Vulnerable Children Act 2014.

7 Recommendation

ERO recommends that the school continues to use internal evaluation to consolidate, monitor and report on its progress towards achieving equity and excellence in outcomes for all children. 

Graham Randell

Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern

30 June 2016

About the school

Location

Blockhouse Bay

Ministry of Education profile number

1290

School type

Full Primary (Years 1 to 8)

School roll

251

Gender composition

Girls 48% Boys 52%

Ethnic composition

Māori

Pākehā

Samoan

Tongan

Niue

Cook Island Māori

Indian

African

Chinese

other ethnicities

18%

4%

32%

18%

5%

4%

4%

3%

2%

10%

Review team on site

May 2016

Date of this report

30 June 2016

Most recent ERO report(s)

Education Review

Education Review

Education Review

May 2013

May 2011

January 2008