Kaimai School - 23/05/2019

• On this page:

• School Context
• Evaluation Findings
• 1 Equity and excellence – achievement of valued outcomes for students
• 2 School conditions for equity and excellence – processes and practices
• 3 Board assurance on legal requirements
• 4 ERO’s Overall Judgement
• 5 Going forward
• About the school

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:

• student learning and achievement
• developing quality learning communities and environment
• school organisation and structure.

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:

• reading, writing and mathematics.

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 has not collated and analysed, school-wide achievement information to demonstrate how well students are achieving in reading, writing and mathematics.

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

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.

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?

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.

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

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:

• implementing clear and consistent school-wide expectations for planning, curriculum delivery, assessment and moderation
• the effective management and use of achievement information by leaders and teachers to identify at-risk students and inform programme planning
• setting specific achievement targets for all students who are not achieving at the expected curriculum level and regularly report to the board their progress
• fully implementing a robust appraisal process to ensure teachers receive regular feedback about the effectiveness of their practice.

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 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.

5 Going forward

Key strengths of the school

For sustained improvement and future learner success, the school can draw on existing strengths in:

• the ongoing development of governance capability
• leaders who are building trust throughout the school and community.

Next step

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.

Actions for compliance

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:

• ensure the analysis of good quality assessment information to accurately identify student progress and achievement
  [NAG 1 (b), (c)]
• ensure the appraisal of staff is completed annually
  [s 77c State Sector Act 1988]
• ensure teacher appointment processes are followed in line with legislative requirements
  [NAG 3; s 77A State Sector Act]
• ensure the regular police vetting of employees.
  [Education Act 1989 Sections 78c to 78cd]

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

About the school