This is a small rural school. The board funds a teacher for the fifth classroom with the intention of keeping class sizes small and ensuring children get quality teacher time.
Children come from increasingly diverse cultural backgrounds. Some are supported in their English learning through a special programme (ESOL). The school is welcoming and inclusive to both children and their families. It is well supported by parents and the wider community. A parent group, the Friends of Lumsden School (FoLS), very actively supports children’s learning, providing extra, targeted resources.
There is a mixture of new and experienced, long-serving staff. The school has a good relationship with its local preschool and is part of a cluster of local schools. This cluster aims to address shared challenges and benefit from the combined resources and expertise.
This school has a history of positive ERO evaluations. It has made good progress against the recommendations in the last (2013) ERO report.
The vision and valued outcomes defined by the school for all children are to give children the skills that will enable them to be successful life-time learners. This includes interpersonal skills, an eagerness to learn, confidence, a sound foundation in literacy and mathematics, and the ability to use technology to support their learning.
The school’s achievement information shows that over 80% of children achieve at or above the National Standards in reading and about 80% in mathematics. Achievement in writing is slightly lower and the school has plans in place to address this. Almost all Māori children achieve at or above the National Standards in all three areas.
ERO is confident about the accuracy of the school’s achievement information. Teachers make well-informed assessment judgements. These are based on a range of learning information.
Since the last ERO evaluation the school has:
The school very effectively supports its Māori children to experience success as learners and to stand proud in their culture.
Teachers and school leaders know each Māori child well as a learner and as an individual. Any child who is below the National Standards or not working to full potential is quickly identified. Specific help is provided and the progress of the child and the effectiveness of the support are carefully monitored.
For children below the standard, the school has a range of well-planned interventions to help each child catch up in reading, writing or mathematics. For Māori and other children, this includes:
For Māori children, school leaders and teachers intentionally:
This school has good evidence about how it has helped individual Māori children make accelerated progress in their learning and catch up to and maintain the expected levels of achievement.
Senior leaders, teachers and teacher aides work together to support other groups of children who need additional help to succeed. These groups include ESOL learners, some children transferring from other schools, and some boys with their writing.
Teachers quickly identify any child or group of children below the National Standards in reading, writing or mathematics and ensure they get additional support. The support listed above for Māori children applies to this group.
For reading and mathematics, the majority of children who receive additional support make accelerated progress, more than usually expected in one year. The school has had less success in lifting boys’ achievement in writing. A variety of well-planned strategies have been used with some success. However, this remains a target area and leaders and teachers are exploring alternative ways to make the difference required.
The school’s curriculum and practices very effectively enact and support its vision for learning. This can be seen in the:
The school’s links with children’s families and whānau effectively strengthen learning-centred relationships. The principal, teachers and trustees do this by:
The principal leads purposefully to continue to strengthen staff capacity to improve outcomes for children. He does this by:
The principal and teachers investigate in depth how well they support children, particularly those who need to make extra progress. They analyse learning information to know what is going well and what needs improving. They share this with trustees who scrutinise the analysis, ask purposeful evaluative questions, and make well-informed resourcing decisions.
Trustees are well-informed about all aspects of school operations, especially what matters most for children. They are knowledgeable about their roles and have good systems for new trustees to know how to carry out these roles in the future. The key priorities for long-term planning are highly evident in the annual plan.
The next steps are for:
Leaders and teachers:
Children, including children at risk of not achieving the appropriate standards, are actively engaged in their learning. A very high proportion of children are progressing and achieving well, particularly in reading and mathematics. The small number of children not yet making accelerated progress in writing are well supported to do so.
The board, principal and teachers work well together to target those children at risk of not achieving well. They have sound, coherent systems for sustaining current good practices.
ERO is likely to carry out the next evaluation in three years.
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 the following:
board administration
curriculum
management of health, safety and welfare
personnel management
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
processes for appointing staff
stand down, suspensions, expulsions and exclusions
attendance
compliance with the provisions of the Vulnerable Children Act 2014
ERO discussed with the board the need to update procedures and practices in response to recent changes in relation to:
ERO also discussed with the principal and board the need to document thoroughly each step when carrying out stand-downs.
To continue to promote equitable and excellent outcomes for all learners, ERO recommends the school acts on the next steps identified in this report.
Lesley Patterson
Deputy Chief Review Officer Southern
29 June 2016
Location |
Lumsden |
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
3980 |
|
School type |
Contributing (Years 1 to 6) |
|
School roll |
93 |
|
Gender composition |
Boys: 53 Girls: 40 |
|
Ethnic composition |
Pākehā Māori Chinese Filipino Fijian African Australian Nepalese |
73 11 2 2 2 1 1 1 |
Review team on site |
May 2016 |
|
Date of this report |
29 June 2016 |
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review Education Review Education Review |
March 2013 September 2009 September 2006 |