Hāwea Flat School

Hawea Flat School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within six months of the Education Review Office and Hawea Flat 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 

Established in 1882, Hawea Flat School plays a central role as a community hub, drawing its learners from Queensberry in the south to the neck of Lake Hāwea in the north. It is a rapidly growing state contributing school catering for Years 0-6. The school’s vision is for everyone “to be the best they can be”.

Hawea Flat School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:

  • placing Learners at the centre and empowering ākonga for the ever-changing world

  • quality teaching and learning through strengthening leadership, teachers and staff to deliver a future focused curriculum

  • providing a safe physical, emotional, and sustainable environment

  • providing barrier free access to learning through an inclusive, respectful and culturally responsive community and learning environment.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate the impact of the school’s learner profile on improving student agency and progress.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

  • achievement information has indicated an area for further development is to increase understanding of the learner progression pathway

  • a need to establish a clear and visible learning framework that provides the foundation for learning across the school

  • to increase students’ ownership of their learning, fostering intrinsic motivation and ensuring each student has a positive learning disposition.

The school expects to see:

  • ākonga actively and positively engaging in their learning pathways

  • teachers building their data literacy to inform understandings and transparency about learning progressions across year levels

  • all stakeholders working collaboratively towards a positive impact on individual learner progress.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to evaluate the impact of the school’s learner profile on improving student agency and progress:

  • innovative learning environments that are not bound by four walls and promote engagement through using learners’ strengths and interests

  • a collaborative team culture that is open to ongoing professional learning, has a clear direction for improvement for ākonga, and builds staff’s capability to develop consistent practice

  • active community connections with a shared commitment to enhance engagement and support student attendance and learning.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

  • gathering and analysing student achievement data to measure the impact of student agency on learning

  • reviewing the consistency of teacher practices and strengthening inquiry processes so teachers collaboratively work towards sharing best practice to meet the needs of all learners

  • partnering with parents and whānau to construct a collective view of learner agency and how together both school and family can contribute to building agency.

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.

Shelley Booysen
Director of Schools

9 August 2023 

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

Hawea Flat School

Board Assurance with Regulatory and Legislative Requirements Report 2023 to 2026

As of March 2023, the Hawea Flat 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 Hawea Flat School, 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.

Shelley Booysen
Director of Schools

9 August 2023

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

Hawea Flat School - 11/06/2019

School Context

Hawea Flat Primary School is a rural Year 1 to 6 school with a roll of 223 students, 14% of whom are Māori. Leaders and teachers have made good progress in responding to the recommendations in the 2014 ERO report.

The vision statement of the school is “to be the best we can be, whaia te iti kahurangi.” The school’s values are for students “to be responsible for myself, and my learning, and to show respect for others and for property”. The identified valued outcomes for students are to develop the competencies they need to be active seekers, users and creators of knowledge. They are supported to do this by:

  • learning to know

  • learning to do

  • learning to live together

  • learning to be.

The school’s current strategic priorities are focussed on continuing to embed new pedagogies for deeper learning through the global competencies of character, citizenship, collaboration, communication, creativity and critical thinking.

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

  • progress and achievement in reading, writing and mathematics
  • achievement in the global competencies and The New Zealand Curriculum
  • accelerated progress in reading, writing and mathematics
  • other valued outcomes related to the extension and enhancement of The New Zealand Curriculum provided by new pedagogies for deeper learning approaches.

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?

Hawea Flat School is highly effective in achieving equitable and excellent outcomes for almost all students in reading and mathematics and for most students in writing. Almost all students have achieved at or above curriculum expectations over the last two years.

There is sustained high achievement in writing. Most students have progressed to at or above during 2017-2018. There is slight disparity for Maori at the end of 2018, however the school has sustained high achievement overall in writing.

The school has also sustained very high achievement overall in reading and mathematics. There is no significant disparity in achievement for any group in mathematics. Almost all students have achieved at or above curriculum expectations over the last two years.

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

The school is very effective in responding to those learners whose learning and achievement need acceleration.

There is evidence to show that learners make accelerated progress over time, including those who move from at to above expected curriculum levels.

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?

Hawea Flat School’s board of trustees actively represents and serves the school community, and provides strong and thoughtful stewardship. The board actively seeks ways to serve and build partnerships with the school community. Trustees and staff share a strong commitment to the school and work collaboratively. Trustees are well informed and have a good understanding of achievement data. They prioritise learner wellbeing, achievement and initiatives that make a positive difference for students.

There is collective responsibility for supporting learners’ progress and achievement across the school. School leaders and teachers place priority on providing all students with optimum opportunities to learn. They meet regularly to discuss students’ progress, and develop strategies to support those whose learning needs acceleration. Students benefit from the in-depth knowledge their teachers have of them as learners.

Students are well supported through deliberate classroom teaching practices as well as through specialist teaching and well-supported interventions. Achievement information is collated regularly to track their progress.

There is strong pedagogical leadership clearly focused on ensuring ongoing improvement. A newly- developed distributed leadership structure is helping to build and sustain internal expertise. Leaders actively promote evidence-based practices, with a focus on student’s wellbeing, confidence and engagement in their learning. Leaders provide high quality internal, and externally facilitated, professional development. They use professional expertise from the wider education community well to support ongoing improvement, build teacher capacity and positively impact on outcomes for students.

Students benefit from the high relational trust between the board, principal, teachers and the community. Leaders and teachers value positive and purposeful community partnerships as essential to support authentic learning for students. They use multiple strategies to communicate and build learning-centred relationships with parents and whānau, and engage and support students and their families with responsive and individualised approaches.

The design of the curriculum is future focused and responsive to students’ strengths, interests, identity and needs. Respect for students’ cultural heritage, identity and language is increasingly evident. Leaders and teachers plan and integrate bicultural practices within the school in meaningful ways. Students are given explicit instruction in learning strategies that enable them to be leaders of their learning and develop self-efficacy and agency. Digital tools and technology are integrated effectively to promote multiple opportunities for students to access the curriculum and engage in rich learning experiences. Students with additional needs experience a high level of care that supports their wellbeing and achievement.

Highly effective school processes and practices provide a strong foundation for effective teaching and learning. Students experience consistently high quality teaching that contributes to high levels of achievement. Leadership opportunities for all students are evident. They have multiple opportunities to learn from and with each other across a variety of interesting contexts.

The school is participating in and contributing to the wider education community through innovation and a willingness to share knowledge and learning.

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

Leaders and teachers make good use of a range of data to inform decisions and guide changes in learning programmes and teaching practice. Their next step is to refine the process of curriculum management to ensure students access coherent opportunities that extend their skills and knowledge across the learning areas of The New Zealand Curriculum.

Leaders and teachers could make better use of the range of good quality information they collect about student progress and achievement to further show the impact of interventions and the adaptive, differentiated approaches. This includes building in more evaluative judgements about rates of students’ learning progress.

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 Vulnerable Students Act 2014.

4 ERO’s Overall Judgement

On the basis of the findings of this review, ERO’s overall evaluation judgement of Hawea Flat School’s performance in achieving valued outcomes for its students is: Strong.

ERO’s Framework: Overall School Performance 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:

  • achieving outcomes for children that are increasingly equitable for all groups and show consistently high levels of achievement
  • strong leadership that has established a high trust collaborative school culture that places the wellbeing and success of all students at the centre
  • a highly responsive, rich and authentic curriculum that gives all students equitable and sufficient opportunities to learn
  • effective teaching practices that respond effectively to individual children’s needs, promote their wellbeing and support their learning success.

Next steps

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

  • the completion and implementation of systems that enable the tracking of individualised and curriculum pathways over time
  • refining systems for school-wide monitoring and reporting about student progress to ensure that sufficiency and rates of learning progress are clear.

Alan Wynyard

Director Review and Improvement Services Southern

Southern Region

11 June 2019

About the school

Location

Hawea Flat, Central Otago

Ministry of Education profile number

3747

School type

Contributing

School roll

223

Gender composition

Girls 45%, Boys 55%

Ethnic composition

Māori 14%

NZ European/Pākeha 75%

Other ethnicities 11%

Students with Ongoing Resourcing Funding (ORS)

No

Provision of Māori medium education

No

Review team on site

April 2019

Date of this report

11 June 2019

Most recent ERO reports

Education Review October 2014

Education Review August 2009