Mangere Central School caters for students from Years 1 to 8. Nearly two-thirds of the students have Pacific heritage. The next largest student group is Māori. Many children speak more than one language.
The school’s mission is to ‘empower learners to take flight’ and be motivated, caring and successful learners.
Since the 2015 ERO review a new principal and management team have been appointed. There have also been changes to the board of trustees and the teaching team.
The board has recently reviewed the charter and strategic plan to reset the school’s direction. The key goals for 2019 include improving the curriculum, nurturing social values and promoting student-led learning. There is a focus on professional learning to grow teacher capability.
Leaders and teachers regularly report to the board schoolwide information about outcomes for students’ progress and achievement in reading, writing and mathematics.
The school is a member of the Mangere Kāhui Ako | Community of Learning.
The school is working towards achieving equity and excellence in student achievement and outcomes.
The school’s achievement information indicates that over the past three years a large majority of students achieve at national curriculum expectations in literacy and mathematics. Māori learners, as a group, make very good progress in writing and mathematics over time. The achievement data show persistent in-school disparity for boys in reading and writing.
In 2018, overall reading achievement data dropped significantly. The principal attributes this to teachers adapting to schoolwide changes in teaching and learning expectations. The mid-year 2019 information is indicating a positive increase in reading achievement and increasing parity for boys.
Students experience a wide range of learning opportunities that support them to achieve the school’s valued student outcomes. These include:
being caring, connected contributors
making and sharing connections
being engaged, resilient and actively involved learners.
The school has processes and practices that are beginning to help students who need to make accelerated progress. School achievement information shows that some students make accelerated progress in literacy and mathematics. In 2018 many Māori students made accelerated progress in writing and mathematics.
Students with high additional learning needs are quickly identified and receive appropriate learning support. A broad range of professionals support the health, wellbeing and education of these students. Learning support programmes are now more aligned to classroom programmes. Students develop social and emotional competencies to help them to be successful learners.
The board strategically funds learning assistants to support students’ learning. Children with English as an additional language receive targeted provision to build their oral language skills.
Leaders can clearly articulate the school’s vision and new direction, and are using these well to promote change and improvement. They have a strong commitment to ensuring students experience an inclusive environment that supports their learning and wellbeing.
Internal evaluation is beginning to guide improvement. Parent and staff perspectives are valued and used to develop school goals. Leaders and teachers engage in reflective practices and knowledge building to promote equity and excellence.
School leaders have oversight of student achievement. Team leaders report progress against student learning targets. Teachers carefully identify and monitor students’ rates of progress. Teachers have a deliberate focus on using a range of effective teaching strategies that best support each learner.
A school priority is to develop teachers’ shared understanding of effective practice using individual and collaborative inquiry approaches. This is helping teachers to adapt their professional practice to better respond to students’ learning needs.
The principal is strategically using professional development to improve teaching practices and student learning outcomes. Distributed leadership opportunities proactively build internal leadership capability and capacity. Internal and external expertise is helping to promote change management processes that are resulting in better outcomes for students.
The curriculum is being revised. There are increasing opportunities for students to learn and achieve across the breadth of the New Zealand Curriculum (NZC). Students enthusiastically participate in learning programmes including Discovery projects and languages.
School leaders and teachers prioritise the building of collaborative, reciprocal relationships with students and families. Parents and whānau appreciate the approachability of teachers and leaders.
Continuing to promote learning-centred partnerships in a range of ways is an ongoing priority. Online tools are helping teachers to collect evidence to inform teaching and learning. Teachers have introduced ‘real time’ reporting to regularly inform parents and whānau about their child’s learning.
There is a significant focus on developing individual capability and collective capacity at all levels of the school. Teachers, team leaders and senior managers are focused on:
improving schoolwide data literacy capability and developing robust moderation processes
engaging in coaching and peer support dialogue that improves teaching practices
strengthening the use of effective teaching strategies to help students articulate their progress, achievement and next steps in learning.
Leaders could more regularly liaise and form educational partnerships with local early learning services and colleges. Strengthening such critical transition points could positively impact on outcomes for learners. Further priorities aligned to the curriculum include:
strengthening the bicultural provision and multicultural perspectives that deliberately foster students’ languages and culture
strategically planning to accelerate learning for Pacific students by using resources such as Tapasā.
The board readily accesses training to grow trustees’ understanding of their stewardship roles and responsibilities. A key next step for the board is to increase their capability to scrutinise board reports, in particular student achievement information. Focused discussions about the evaluation of achievement information will support trustees to identify priorities and targets and make more informed decisions about school priorities.
The principal agrees that it is now timely to consider how to evaluate progress made against the school’s priorities. This should include evaluating student progress and achievement, and the effectiveness of interventions and new initiatives designed to improve student outcomes. Using evidence-based evaluation and inquiry to determine the impact of developments on student learning, could help guide ongoing school improvements.
The school is a signatory to the Education (Pastoral Care of International Students) Code of Practice 2016 (the Code) established under 238F of the Education Act 1989. The school has attested that it complies with all aspects of the Code. At the time of this review there were no international students attending the school.
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:
During the review, ERO checked the following items because they have a potentially high impact on student safety and wellbeing:
On the basis of the findings of this review, ERO’s overall evaluation judgement of Mangere Central School’s performance in achieving valued outcomes for its students is: Well placed.
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 for leaders to:
grow schoolwide data literacy capability
identify and develop effective teaching practices for accelerated learning for all students who need this
continue to strengthen teachers’ inquiry approaches to build effective practice and increase student agency
strengthen internal evaluation processes to evaluate the effectiveness of programmes through a focus on what makes the biggest difference for improving student outcomes.
To improve current practice, the board of trustees should:
Steve Tanner
Director Review and Improvement Services Northern
Northern Region
7 November 2019
|
Location |
Mangere, Auckland |
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
1347 |
|
School type |
Full Primary (Years 1-8) |
|
School roll |
480 |
|
Gender composition |
Boys 51% Girls 49% |
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori 23% Samoan 24% Tongan 24% Cook Island Māori 11% Indian 4% Tokelauan 4% other ethnic groups 10% |
|
Students with Ongoing Resourcing Funding (ORS) |
No |
|
Provision of Māori medium education |
No |
|
Review team on site |
August 2019 |
|
Date of this report |
7 November 2019 |
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review May 2015 |