Kelvin Road School

Education institution number:
1332
School type:
Contributing
School gender:
Co-Educational
Definition:
Bilingual Year 7 and Year 8 School
Total roll:
395
Telephone:
Address:

Kelvin Road, Papakura

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Kelvin Road School - 21/11/2018

School Context

Kelvin Road School is a contributing school catering for children in Years 1 to 6. The school also has Māori immersion and bilingual classes in Te Whatitoka Rimu o te Whānau Kahurangi which include Years 7 and 8 children. The school is experiencing roll growth and of the 491 children currently enrolled, 66 percent are Māori and 27 percent have Pacific heritage.

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

  • achievement in reading, writing and mathematics
  • school targets and priority learners’ progress
  • attendance.

Since the 2015 ERO evaluation, the school has:

  • appointed a new principal and deputy principal
  • introduced new leadership structures to improve oversight of achievement and learning outcomes
  • revised the school curriculum to better meet the needs of children
  • improved processes for reporting achievement information to the board.

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?

Kelvin Road School is becoming increasingly effective at achieving equitable and excellent outcomes for all children.

Achievement information over the last four years shows that children’s overall achievement in reading, writing and mathematics has increased each year with a pronounced lift in 2017.

The majority of children achieve at expected levels in reading and mathematics. In the area of literacy, girls achieve better than boys overall. Leaders and teachers have developed well focused improvement plans and targets to accelerate the progress of Māori boys and all children in writing.

In Te Whatitoka Rimu o te Whānau Kahurangi teachers use Te Marautanga o Aotearoa and related Māori assessment tools. In Te Whatitoka Rimu o te Whānau Kahurangi the large majority of learners achieve at expected levels in pānui and about half achieve in tuhituhi and pangarau. The achievement patterns of children in Rumaki Reo over time, is similar to the rest of the school.

Hauora, Connectedness, Culture and Future Focus are the school’s four pou that are central to children maximising their potential for a successful future. These pou were developed in consultation with the community. They have provided the basis for developing a useful graduate profile that describes the skills, knowledge and attitudes that children will have when they leave the school. This profile will help teachers to evaluate how well children are achieving in relation to the school’s valued outcomes.

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

Since 2017, the school’s strategic plans have been focused on raising children’s achievement in literacy and numeracy. A plan for accelerating progress and achievement now guides and informs literacy and numeracy teaching.

The collation and analysis of achievement information has been strengthened considerably since 2017. Leaders and teachers have well-developed processes in place to monitor children’s learning. They use a range of information to gauge children’s progress and achievement, and to inform teaching and learning programmes.

Rumaki Reo is well established and provides very good opportunities for children to learn through te ao Māori. They benefit from hearing high levels of te reo Maōri. Many children in this learning environment demonstrate competence and confidence as speakers of te reo Māori.

Leaders and teachers have designed a wide range of programmes and initiatives to accelerate children’s progress and achievement. Most children who are achieving below expectations in literacy and mathematics show positive shifts in achievement, and in many cases their progress is accelerated. School data also demonstrates that a significant number of Māori and Pacific children have made accelerated progress over a fifteen week period in 2018.

The following key features of the school are supporting children’s progress:

  • leaders and teachers are united in their strong sense of urgency to raise achievement
  • well documented clear expectations and processes to support effective teaching practice and acceleration.

Leaders, teachers and teacher aides respond effectively to children with additional learning needs in an inclusive environment. Children are supported well to experience success.

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 principal is effectively leading the school through a period of significant change. Senior leaders have high expectations about the quality of teaching and learning and are focused on improving the learning environment. A key goal is to create a greater sense of pride in the school, and to re-engage whānau and community so that they become more actively involved.

Meaningful consultation with the community has resulted in a new direction and clear vision for ongoing improvement. This is supported by deliberate and well considered plans and goals to raise and accelerate children’s achievement. School leaders have established robust and coherent expectations to support teaching and learning. Good systems are in place to guide teachers’ planning and assessment of the curriculum.

Leaders are outward looking and open to new learning. They have a planned approach to building teachers’ capacity and capability, which include opportunities for teachers to collaborate and undertake inquiry and benefit from relevant professional learning programmes.

Children learn and achieve in the breadth and depth of the New Zealand Curriculum (NZC). A strong emphasis is placed on reading, writing and mathematics. The school’s curriculum has been reviewed using an external facilitator and extensive community consultation.

The review process has resulted in a localised curriculum that is authentic, relevant and continues to evolve to meet the needs of the school’s learners. Leaders and teachers are in the process of completing the documentation of the curriculum. Planned next steps include promoting more choice for children, developing an inquiry model to guide their thinking, and increasing parent partnership in children’s learning.

The board of trustees are very well informed about children’s achievement and use achievement information to inform resourcing decisions. Trustees know their community well and parents are becoming increasingly involved in the life of the school.

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

Several new initiatives have recently been introduced to promote greater equity and excellence for all learners and to accelerate children’s progress. Leaders identify that their priorities will be to continue:

  • embedding new leadership roles for teachers
  • implementing and embedding effective teaching strategies and practice
  • further developing ‘student agency’ by increasing children’s opportunities to direct, shape, and have choice about their own learning.

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 Children Act 2014.

4 Going forward

Key strengths of the school

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

  • leadership that is effectively rebuilding relational trust across the school community
  • an evolving curriculum design that increasingly meets children’s interests, strengths and needs
  • a deliberate planned approach to building teacher professional capacity and capability
  • consultation with the community to inform the school’s renewed direction.

Next steps

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

  • creating a systematic evaluation framework to evaluate the impact that the school’s new initiatives are having on children’s wellbeing and learning
  • continuing to strengthen and establish learning partnerships with parents and whānau that
  • enhance learning outcomes for children.

ERO’s next external evaluation process and timing

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

Violet Tu’uga Stevenson

Director Review and Improvement Services

Te Tai Raki - Northern Region

21 November 2018

About the school

Location

Papakura, Auckland

Ministry of Education profile number

1332

School type

Contributing Years 1-6

School roll

491

Gender composition

Boys 50%, Girls 50%

Ethnic composition

Māori 66%
Pākehā 2%
Samoan 11%
Tongan 9%
Cook Islands Māori 7%
other ethnic groups 5%

Students with Ongoing Resourcing Funding (ORS)

Yes

Provision of Māori medium education

Yes

Number of Māori medium classes

3

Total number of students in Māori medium (MME)

63

Total number of students in Māori language in English medium (MLE)

0

Number of students in Level 1 MME

51

Number of students in Level 2 MME

12

Review team on site

September 2018

Date of this report

21 November 2018

Most recent ERO report(s)

Education Review June 2015
Education Review May 2012
Education Review May 2009

Kelvin Road School - 19/06/2015

Findings

Kelvin Road School’s calm environment and caring staff provide a sound foundation for student learning. Students are positive and participate in settled and focused lessons. Although students’ achievement levels are low, most are slowly improving. Positive changes currently underway in the school suggest this improvement is likely to continue.

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?

Kelvin Road School is in Papakura, Auckland. The school’s roll is mostly Māori, with 21 percent Pacific students. The school has undergone significant building and internet connectivity upgrades over recent years. It is well presented and maintained, and reflects an Aotearoa/New Zealand bicultural environment.

The school continues to feature the special strengths identified in previous ERO reports. Students have respectful interactions, are friendly and show positive attitudes towards their learning. The school’s commitment to providing a Māori language immersion and bilingual unit, Te Whatitoka Rimu o te Whānau Kahurangi, remains. The school has continued to seek ways of involving whānau in their children’s education. It also continues to offer a variety of internally and externally sourced programmes and activities aimed at supporting the needs of children and their families.

Kelvin Road School has traditionally featured very stable staffing. More recently, the school’s staffing profile has altered. As new staff strengths have complemented existing ones, new avenues for change and improvement are being opened up. The school is now better placed to address the full range of areas for improvement identified in this report and ERO’s 2012 report.

2 Learning

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

The school is developing how well it uses achievement information to make positive changes for learners.

Teacher professional learning and improved assessment management systems are increasing the reliability of school achievement information. Teachers have more support for making good quality judgements about student learning. They know more about students as learners. Expectations of teachers are more clearly documented and the work of teacher aides is now more focused on supporting students who are below National Standards. A new computerised system is making it easier for the school to analyse and report about student learning.

At the end of 2013, significant numbers of students were not achieving the National Standards. By the end of 2014 results had improved for writing and mathematics. Achievement results for students in the Māori immersion classes are similar to those of the whole school. Although school-wide achievement levels continue to be worryingly low in all areas, the school has shown its ability to promote student progress. The challenge now is to increase school targets and efforts to meet them so that even more students experience success in their learning.

Details about some of the actions school leaders and teachers could take to accelerate student achievement were outlined in this section of the school’s 2012 ERO report. These actions mainly relate to strengthening how well teachers implement formative teaching approaches, and how well they give students ownership of their own learning. Good progress has been made in some of these areas for improvement, but not yet consistently across the school.

Although progress has been made, much remains to be done. The school would benefit from external support and guidance to help with setting targets, accelerating student achievement and monitoring the progress made. External support could help school leaders produce more frequent reports to the board that focus more directly on how well students are progressing and achieving at the school.

Data show the negative impact that non-attendance has on student progress and achievement in the school. School leaders have introduced some positive actions aimed at promoting improved attendance and reducing lateness. They should complement these initiatives with school-wide attendance targets, and targets for specific groups of students who are at risk in their learning. School leaders should regularly monitor how well the targets are being met, and should report their findings to the board of trustees.

3  Curriculum

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

The school’s curriculum increasingly promotes and supports student learning.

The school’s settled environment provides a sound foundation for learning. Students are positive about their school. They know and respond appropriately to teachers’ and school leaders’ expectations. They enjoy affirming relationships with each other and with staff who are well intentioned and genuine. Special programmes and provisions strongly support the physical and emotional wellbeing of students.

School programmes prioritise reading, writing and mathematics, and recognise the important place oral language development has in children’s learning, especially in the Māori immersion classes. Students have opportunities to be involved in sport and to participate in school trips linked to their learning topics. Digital learning approaches are growing, and meaningful themes/topic studies related to the local and wider environment help motivate student interest. Classrooms are open, sharing spaces where lessons are planned to build on what students already know.

Improved self-review practices are significantly supporting curriculum development. Self review has helped identify the need for continuing to extend student-directed inquiry and to keep raising the level of learning challenge in integrated studies. It has highlighted the need for increased curriculum links throughout the different levels of the school. School leaders could now use self review to explore best practice for promoting the language, culture and identifies of Pacific students in classrooms and programmes.

Teachers are engaging in a greater range of formalised self-review practices. Teacher appraisal and curriculum evaluations are more robust. Teachers reflect more on the effectiveness of their practice and they participate in increased professional sharing. Focussing this reflection and sharing more directly on student learning outcomes is a next step for teachers.

The school faces special challenges in its attempts to devise a curriculum that meets the significant learning needs of its students. School leaders should consider different and more innovative possibilities for curriculum change.

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

The school has maintained its commitment to promoting educational success for Māori students, as Māori. This commitment is apparent in the support for Māori provided by the principal and the staff as a whole. It is apparent in the board’s additional funding for, and extension of, the number of classes in Te Whatitoka Rimu o te Whānau Kahurangi.

Māori students have several role models in the school. Long-serving and newly appointed male and female staff add to these models. Māori students, particularly those in the unit, have opportunities to be Māori leaders. All Māori students participate actively in aspects of school protocols and some have notable successes in local whaikorero competitions.

The school has well established relationships with the local marae. It is timely to review the purpose of this relationship and consider how the complementary role of kuia and kaumatua could support students in their learning of te reo Māori me ōna tikanga. Including the whole school in pōwhiri and other protocols is a next step that Māori students in the mainstream classes are keen to be part of.

ERO’s 2012 report noted that teachers in mainstream classes should complement the school’s good practices by providing a sequential, integrated te reo Māori programme to increase students’ appreciation of, and capacity in using, the Māori language. The school does have a programme for te reo Māori, but is yet to evaluate its effectiveness. An effective school-wide programme is necessary, especially to support those students who enter the bilingual class when they are in Years 7 and 8.

4 Sustainable Performance

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

The school is sufficiently well placed to sustain current good practices and continue improving.

The school’s performance management processes have been considerably strengthened. A large number of new teachers have been successfully inducted into the school. Teachers have received some good feedback about the quality of their programme planning and delivery. Their appraisal processes have been updated and adapted to help ensure school goals are implemented. A next step is to link performance management systems more directly to student achievement targets.

Increasing the number of school leaders is an important positive development. The increased sharing of middle management and leadership responsibilities helps to maximise the contribution teachers can make to the school. This initiative should enable senior leaders to place their effort on more reflective, strategic and target-based actions.

School leaders and trustees know the community well. They are committed to supporting the rights of students and their families to equity and social justice. They willingly accept any additional support available that will benefit students and their whānau. School leaders are aware of the value of increasing the active engagement of whānau in the school. School planning is now focusing on how this will be achieved.

Trustees are committed to supporting the school’s ongoing development. School-based trustee training and joining a board of trustees association could help the board to strengthen its governance of the school. Trustees should also seek to improve the board's monitoring of how well agreed charter goals and targets are achieved. The principal should adapt his reporting to the board to support this change.

Both this report and the 2012 ERO report contain detail about required next steps for the school. The board should ensure that school leaders address these areas for improvement in systematic, planned and timely ways.

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.

Recommendations to other agencies

ERO recommends that the Ministry of Education offers the school support and guidance to help it to set student achievement targets, accelerate student achievement, and monitor and report on the progress made.

Conclusion

Kelvin Road School’s calm environment and caring staff provide a sound foundation for student learning. Students are positive and participate in settled and focused lessons. Although students’ achievement levels are low, most are slowly improving. Positive changes currently underway in the school suggest this improvement is likely to continue.

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

Dale Bailey
Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern

19 June 2015 

School Statistics 

Location

Papakura, Auckland

Ministry of Education profile number

1332

School type

Contributing (Years 1 to 6)

School roll

427

Gender composition

Girls       51%

Boys      49%

Ethnic composition

Māori
Pākehā
Pacific
Asian

72%
  4%
21%
  3%

Special Features

Te Whatitoka Rimu o te Whānau Kahurangi -
Māori immersion and bilingual unit: 2 immersion classes, 2 bilingual classes (that include Year 7-8 students)

Review team on site

May 2015

Date of this report

19 June 2015

Most recent ERO report(s)

Education Review
Education Review
Supplementary Review

May 2012
May 2009
March 2006