Kaimai School is an established rural country school catering for students in Years 1 to 8. The school is located approximately 20 kilometres from central Tauranga. The current roll of 108 includes 15 students who identify as Māori. The roll has grown significantly since the last ERO review in 2015. A new principal started in Term 4 2018 and there have been several changes to the teaching team.
The school’s mission is, ‘Strive and honour.’ Its vision is ‘positive learners – poipoia te kākano kia puawai.’ The ‘Kaimai Kid’ virtues of reliability, consideration, perseverance, respect and joyfulness underpins the school’s vision for learning.
Strategic aims include:
The school is a member of the Tauranga Peninsular Community of learning|Kāhui Ako.
Leaders and teachers regularly report to the board, school-wide information about outcomes for students in the following areas:
The school has not collated and analysed, school-wide achievement information to demonstrate how well students are achieving in reading, writing and mathematics.
The school is yet to develop systems and processes to track and monitor rates of acceleration to show how effectively the learning of Māori and other students who need it, is being accelerated.
Recent changes to board practices have built governance capability. In 2018 there was a commitment to ongoing professional development for trustees. This included board members clearly defining their roles and responsibilities. The board has established a regular cycle of policy review. Trustees have been active in planning for succession to maximise their effectiveness to ensure school improvement.
Leaders are establishing trust with students, parents, whanāu and the community. A parent survey has gathered community feedback and aspirations to contribute to future planning. Parents and whānau value the regular communication with the school. A recent initiative has been the development of a whānau group to support Māori learners. The leaders and teachers are available and responsive to parent feedback.
Leaders are building an increasingly positive school culture. There has been a focus on the virtues valued by the school community through the greater visibility of the ‘Kaimai Kid.’ In 2019 the school has prioritised Positive Behaviour for Learning (PB4L) professional development to help support a positive school culture.
Students experience a caring learning environment. Warm relationships between teachers and students are evident. Students enjoy a range of opportunities such as kapa haka, sport and school camps.
School-wide systems and practices are not supporting the achievement of equity and excellence, and acceleration of learning.
Priority should be given to the strengthening of leadership of learning and internal evaluation 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:
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.
On the basis of the findings of this review, ERO ‘s overall evaluation judgement of Kaimai School performance in achieving valued outcomes for its students is: Needs development.
ERO will maintain an ongoing relationship with the school to build capacity and evaluate progress.
ERO’s Framework: Overall School Performance 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:
developing and implementing school-wide practices and processes for effective teaching and learning to support all students to achieve.
ERO identified non-compliance in relation to Curriculum, Health, Safety and Welfare, Personnel and Asset Management.
In order to address this, the board of trustees must:
ERO recommends that the Ministry of Education consider providing support for the school in order to bring about improvement in:
governance
leadership for learning
curriculum and assessment.
Phillip Cowie
Director Review and Improvement Services
Central Region
23 May 2019
Location |
Tauranga |
Ministry of Education profile number |
1758 |
School type |
Full Primary (Years 1-8) |
School roll |
108 |
Gender composition |
Males 56% Females 44% |
Ethnic composition |
Māori 14% |
Students with Ongoing Resourcing Funding (ORS) |
No |
Provision of Māori medium education |
No |
Review team on site |
March 2019 |
Date of this report |
23 May 2019 |
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review June 2015 |