Hamilton North School

Education institution number:

1732

School type:

Special School

School gender:

Co-Educational

Definition:

School for pupils with intellectual impairments

Total roll:

156

Website:

http://www.hamnorth.school.nz

Telephone:

07 849 3029

Address:

Warwick Avenue, Te Rapa, Hamilton

View on map

Hamilton North School - 17/12/2019

17 Dec 2019

School Context

Hamilton North School, located in Hamilton, provides special needs education for students aged five to twenty-one. The roll of 150 students includes 71 Māori. Students come from Hamilton and the surrounding region. Hamilton North School is the base school and has seven classes. There are satellite classes at Te Ao Marama, Crawshaw and Te Totara Primary Schools, and at Hamilton Junior and High Schools. All the students have high or very high needs and almost all receive ongoing resourcing funding (ORS) to provide additional learning support.

The school’s stated mission is to enable all students to develop their potential, and to foster skills and provide opportunities which allow them to successfully integrate into society. The school’s motto is Bridge to the community.

The school’s strategic goals for 2019 include:

having a curriculum plan, delivered through individual education plans (IEPs), with clear guidelines on the important learning outcomes to be achieved by each student
providing challenging educational programmes to ensure that the learning needs of students are being met
consulting with the school’s Māori community to share information and set targets to improve the achievement of Māori students
continuing to develop mainstream opportunities in the host school settings.

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

mathematics.

Since the previous ERO review in 2016, several building projects have been completed including the establishment of a satellite site at Rototuna Senior High School and the relocation of another satellite to Te Ao Marama School, which opened at the start of 2019. The long-standing leadership team remains unchanged and includes the principal and two deputy principals. There has been significant roll growth and some new teachers have been appointed. The board includes a mix of new and experienced trustees.

The school is a member of the Te Pae Here Kāhui Ako Te Raki Rāwhiti o Kirikiriroa.

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?

The school is highly responsive to Māori and other students’ learning and care needs. Teachers gather a wide range of achievement information linked to students’ individual learning and development goals.

A learning progression framework for numeracy is used to support teachers to identify students’ progress and achievement.

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

Teachers track students’ individual achievement goals and monitor progress over time. This information is shared with parents and used to inform next steps in learning and development.

The school has gathered achievement information in mathematics from 2017 to 2019. This shows that approximately 40% of students, including Māori, made progress in key aspects of numeracy.

The school has also trialled pilot programmes for targeted groups in fundamental and fine motor skills. Leaders reported that these programmes were successful in supporting the majority of students, and particularly senior students, to achieve identified benchmarks.

Leaders are yet to collate, analyse, and report schoolwide information to the board about other valued outcomes for 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?

The broad curriculum is highly inclusive. There is a holistic approach to meeting the needs of students, with a focus on the key competencies of the New Zealand Curriculum. A wide range of resources and learning opportunities provide increasing levels of challenge to support student development. The curriculum reflects the school’s philosophy and prepares students to transition into adult life and the community. There are a number of opportunities for students to participate in events and activities at host schools.

The teaching staff is knowledgeable and highly responsive to students’ needs. Leaders, teachers and teacher aides work collaboratively and regularly with an extensive team of external specialists. IEPs are used to identify and plan for a diverse range of short and long-term goals, and to track each student’s longitudinal progress and development. Teachers draw on a variety of effective methods to assist communication and support student learning. There are well-established routines and staff have caring and respectful interactions with students.

Leaders and teachers foster productive partnerships for learning. Parents are included in decisions about their children’s learning goals and participate in bi-annual IEP reviews. They receive regular communication about classroom activities and the progress of their children. Parents told ERO that the school is a whānau environment where they feel welcome. They have opportunities to attend relevant seminars to support their children’s learning and development at home, and participation in the community.

Leaders effectively support the enactment of the school’s vision and philosophy. Senior leaders are highly collaborative and are involved in all aspects of pastoral and curriculum support. They work across the satellite sites to ensure that school culture is sustained. Leaders are actively building middle leadership capability and support ongoing staff professional growth through the provision of a wide range of professional learning opportunities. They are working with an external provider to implement a teaching-as-inquiry process to further support teachers to understand the impact of their practice on outcomes for students.

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

Teachers collect and maintain detailed records of progress and achievement for each student. It would be useful to collate this data to analyse trends and patterns in relation to the goals set and other valued outcomes, and report these to the board. This should support internal evaluation of the impact of interventions and resourcing on student outcomes, and enable evidence-based decision-making by trustees and leaders.

Consideration should also be given to refining and implementing frameworks for literacy to support the identification of individual student learning pathways and assessment processes.

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 Hamilton North School’s performance in achieving valued outcomes for its students is: Well placed.

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:

an adaptive curriculum that supports holistic development
responsive teaching practices that skilfully provide for a wide range of diverse needs
collaborative relationships that promote student wellbeing and development
a shared understanding of and commitment to the school’s philosophy that provides positive outcomes for students.

Next steps

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

collation and analysis of schoolwide achievement information to support internal evaluation processes.

Areas for improved compliance practice

To improve current practice, the board of trustees should:

review health and safety policies and procedures to ensure that these refer to relevant legislation and reflect best practice.

Phillip Cowie

Director Review and Improvement Services Central

Central Region

17 December 2019

About the school

Location	Hamilton
Ministry of Education profile number	1732
School type	Special School
School roll	150
Gender composition	Male 67% Female 33%
Ethnic composition	Māori 47% NZ European/Pākehā 38% Pacific 3% Chinese 3% Indian 3% Other Asian 3% Other ethnicities 3%
Students with Ongoing Resourcing Funding (ORS)	Yes
Provision of Māori medium education	No
Review team on site	October 2019
Date of this report	17 December 2019
Most recent ERO report(s)	Education Review December 2016 Education Review April 2012 Education Review January 2009

Hamilton North School - 14/12/2016

14 Dec 2016

Findings

Hamilton North School continues to successfully provide specialist services to students with intellectual and/or multiple disabilities. Its students enjoy active and successful engagement in a holistic curriculum that meets their individual needs. Leaders and staff work collaboratively with a wide range of external agencies, specialists and community organisations.

ERO is likely to carry out the next review in three years.

1 Context

What are the important features of this school that have an impact on student learning?

Hamilton North School is a specialist service provider and caters for students between the ages of 5 and 21 with intellectual and/or multiple disabilities. The base school is on a site adjoining Hamilton Junior High School, and there are satellite units at Waipa, Te Totara, Crawshaw and Rototuna Junior High Schools. The roll has increased since the 2011 ERO review and is now 126. A very high proportion of students are transported to the school in a fleet of minibuses from a wide area of central and northern Waikato.

The principal and senior management team continue to provide experienced leadership that ensures a shared, positive sense of purpose and direction for the school and its community. Staff turnover is low and this promotes continuity of care and support for students and their families. A new chairperson was appointed after the 2013 trustee elections.

The vision statement for the school is to be ‘A Bridge to the Community’. The mission states the aim to enable all students to develop their potential with regards to their ability, to foster skills and provide opportunities, which allow them to successfully integrate into our multicultural society.

Hamilton North has a very positive reporting history with ERO and is committed to sustaining high quality service provision as it expands its roll and the number of additional satellite units.

2 Learning

How well does this school use achievement information to make positive changes to learners’ engagement, progress and achievement?

The school makes highly effective use of a broad range of academic, medical, emotional and social information to develop Individual Education Plans (IEPs) for every student. These IEPs normally involve input from families/whānau, therapy teams, teachers and support staff, and senior managers. Additional outside agencies may contribute knowledge or expertise as appropriate.

The IEP guides teacher and support staff planning and strategies to ensure the positive potential of each student is identified, shared and realised. Achievable and challenging goals are agreed for each student, with observable criteria to guide the assessment of their progress. Teachers establish comprehensive progress records and these are used to review each IEP at least twice a year. Each student also has a Curriculum Achievement Folder for Evaluation (CAFÉ) folder which presents an illustrated evaluative record of their engagement and enjoyment in the curriculum. CAFÉ folders make specific reference to areas of The New Zealand Curriculum and key competencies, and include realistic future directions for learning.

A feature of these planning, assessment and evaluation processes is the ongoing communication to build partnerships of trust and mutual respect with families/whānau. Teachers keep a daily notebook for anecdotal comments and observations to share with parents/whānau. Staff often use telephone calls and text messages to keep parent/whānau informed and assured of the high quality care and support being provided for their child. School managers and teachers are readily accessible to parents/whānau and they arrange formal meetings and written reports to complement the extensive individual progress records kept.

While IEPs are central to planning and programme delivery, senior leaders establish school-wide achievement targets. 2015 and 2016 targets have centred on developing the Foundations Skills of Literacy and aim to improve students’ ability to engage successfully in learning by identifying and promoting growth around their deficiencies in perceptual motor development. School achievement against targets are reported to trustees and shared with the community.

Aggregated evidence from individual IEPs, teacher and family feedback, and regular reports from support agencies indicate that the curriculum is being highly successful in developing each student’s abilities and talents to their potential.

3 Curriculum

How effectively does this school’s curriculum promote and support student learning?

The school’s planned and emergent curriculum is highly responsive to the holistic learning and care needs of each individual student, and their family/whānau. IEPs are developed to reflect the intellectual, social, spiritual, emotional and cultural contexts of each student. Additional consideration is given to planning for their physical health and well-being needs, life skill challenges and citizenship responsibilities. The importance of developing literacy and oral language skills for communication, mathematics and other core areas of The New Zealand Curriculum is planned for, at an appropriate level for each individual or in small groups. Effective teaching practice ensures that students are actively and successfully engaged in the curriculum.

The successful delivery of the holistic curriculum is only possible through a highly collaborative approach from a wide range of school and community based providers that reflects the philosophy of ‘Bridge to the Community’. Students enjoy learning and social experiences that include:

Education Outside the Classroom through a series of camps targeted to cater for different groups
individual fitness training and competitive sport, swimming, Project Energize and participation in Special Olympics
riding for the Disabled
excursions into the community such as entertaining interactions with residents at a retirement village, visiting the supermarket and other real life experiences
ongoing interactions with students at the mainstream schools where satellite classes are located.

Senior leaders establish, model and sustain the inclusive, respectful and caring culture in the school community. They build high levels of relational trust and effective collaboration at every level of the school family. Effective formal and informal communication supports and strengthens reciprocal, learning-centred partnerships that include appropriate external agencies. School staff work with patience, humour and respect as they work with a proportion of students who present with complex and challenging behaviours.

A strategic and planned approach to human resource management continues to build professional capability and collective capacity in the staff. Internal processes include well-considered induction of new staff, the sharing of relevant information about students and effective strategies and a focus on developing students’ foundations skills. Relevant external professional development has included teachers reflecting on their practice, supporting students with dyslexia, brain development and cultural responsiveness. These high quality development programmes are complimented by a robust performance management system that provides feedback and constructive feedforward for staff.

How effectively does the school promote educational success for Māori, as Māori?

Māori students are benefitting from the holistic learning and cultural opportunities provided by the school. The valuing of language, culture and identity is evident in both teaching and programme planning. The aspirations of whānau are consistently sought during the development of, and reporting on, IEPs. Care is taken with student’s names and basic tikanga Māori practices are respected during routines of sharing food, meeting and greeting.

Appropriate levels of te reo Māori are taught and included in daily communication. Students have the opportunity to participate in kapa haka.

4 Sustainable Performance

How well placed is the school to sustain and improve its performance?

The school is well placed to sustain and improve its performance. Supporting factors are:

trustees who are focussed on working effectively with senior management and staff to achieve the school vision of being a bridge to the community
senior leadership team continue to provide effective and well-informed leadership for the provision of specialist services
staff at all levels who focus on caring for and supporting each individual student
a wide range of specialist agencies and community organisations that continue to ensure the holistic curriculum can be planned and delivered
internal evaluation is leading to improvements in aspects of school operations and curriculum.

School leaders and the board should continue their development of:

the effective use of digital technologies to support teaching and learning, and aspects of administration and record keeping
leadership at various levels of the school.

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:

board administration
curriculum
management of health, safety and welfare
personnel management
financial management
asset management.

During the review, ERO checked the following items because they have a potentially high impact on student achievement:

emotional safety of students (including prevention of bullying and sexual harassment)
physical safety of students
teacher registration
processes for appointing staff
stand-downs, suspensions, expulsions and exclusions
attendance.

In order to improve practice the board should:

work collaboratively with the board of Waipa School and the Ministry of Education to address the urgent maintenance requirements of the satellite unit situated there
ensure policies reflect current legislative requirements.

Conclusion

ERO is likely to carry out the next review in three years.

Lynda Pura-Watson

Deputy Chief Review Officer

14 December 2016

About the School

Location	Hamilton
Ministry of Education profile number	1732
School type	Special School
School roll	126
Gender composition	Boys 65% Girls 35%
Ethnic composition	Pākehā Māori Other Asian Pacific Chinese Other European Other	60% 28% 5% 3% 1% 1% 2%
Special Features	Therapists and Specialist Teachers Regional base for Blennz and Kelston School for the Deaf
Review team on site	October 2016
Date of this report	14 December 2016
Most recent ERO report(s)	Education Review Education Review Education Review	April 2012 January 2009 March 2006