Manunui School

School Context

Manunui School provides education for children in Years 1 to 8 and is located just south of Taumarunui. Of the 142 students on the roll, 67% identify as Māori. The number of children attending the school has grown significantly since the August 2015 ERO report.

The vision defined by the school is for all children to develop their potential within a caring and supportive environment. The valued outcomes linked to the vision are based on showing the clearly defined KORU values of embracing knowledge, taking ownership, showing respect and modelling unity.

Annual priorities for improvement in 2018, focus on accelerating progress for identified learners in reading and mathematics. Key areas identified in the plan to support this accelerated progress are building the capacity of teachers and increasing parent partnership in their children’s learning.

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

• achievement in reading, writing and mathematics
• outcomes for students with additional learning needs
• progress and achievement in relation to school targets for reading and mathematics.

A new principal and deputy principal have been appointed during 2018. Both came to their new roles from within the teaching staff. Trustees are relatively new to their positions on 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?

Teachers make overall judgements to determine children’s achievement relative to expected curriculum levels. No documented guidelines for making judgements, variable understanding of the collected data and inconsistent monitoring mean the school cannot be assured of the dependability of the overall judgements in 2017 and sofar in 2018. There are gaps and inconsistencies in the 2017 data. As a result there is not a clear picture of overall achievement.

A range of assessment tools is used to show levels of achievement in foundational learning areas. In reference to specific assessments, the majority of students, including Māori, achieve at curriculum expectation in reading, writing and mathematics. Boys as a group are over represented amongst those requiring accelerated progress in each learning area.

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

Schoolwide annual targets are set. Children in need of acceleration are identified and specific actions put in place support the progress of some. Teachers are able to describe progress individual children have made.

Accelerated progress for some Māori and other children is evident within specific reading and mathematics interventions. Professional learning associated with these programmes supports teachers to build knowledge of strategies likely to increase progress of learners.

More dependable data is required to enable teachers and leaders to determine how effectively students’ progress is 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?

Children participate and learn in a caring and inclusive learning community. Positive relationships and a culture of care and respect are known, modelled and an integral part of children’s schooling experience. KORU values successfully contribute to engagement in learning and ensuring a positive overall tone.

The enacted curriculum provides a breadth of experiences linked to theNew Zealand Curriculum. Te reo Māori and kapa haka are part of the regular programme. Well-considered teaching practices effectively support children’s involvement in learning. Teachers systematically inquire into the effectiveness of their practices. There is a willingness to consider different approaches that may enable learners to be more successful. Children have an increasing awareness of what they are learning and why.

Teachers and support staff work collaboratively and display a collective responsibility to enhance children’s wellbeing and learning. Parents and whānau are regularly involved in the life of the school. Opportunities are provided to allow them to positively support teachers to promote their child’s learning. The new principal is focused on strengthening this further.

Children with additional learning needs are well catered for through personalised programmes and additional resourcing. Progress towards their goals is monitored and reviewed to determine next learning priorities. An inclusive caring culture promotes belonging.

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

Since the start of Term 2 2018, trustees and school leaders have actively identified and given priority to areas requiring further development and are addressing some of these. Trustees are accessing training opportunities and becoming more familiar with their roles and responsibilities. A collaboratively developed teacher appraisal process, recently introduced, complies with Education Council expectations and should support teacher improvement.

With some urgency, assessment practices should be reviewed and developed to ensure that data is dependable, consistent and appropriately used to show and report children’s progress. Building data literacy across the school should include:

• documenting guidelines, including for moderation, to ensure consistently dependable overall judgements that are then monitored by leaders
• determining indicators for accelerated progress
• identifying how progress and achievement in literacy and mathematics will be clearly shared with parents and whānau.

Better achievement information should enable the school to build a comprehensive picture of the quality of learning as a whole and for groups of students, including Māori. This will enable more effective targeting and better inquiry into how effectively teaching contributes to excellent and equitable outcomes for learners.

It is timely to develop a schoolwide, documented curriculum delivery plan underpinned by the New Zealand Curriculum and the school identified core values. This should include:

• expectations and guidelines for teaching, learning and accelerating progress, including for curriculum innovations underway and planned
• further promoting Māori culture, language and identity within a local context
• identifying quality practices linked to the Standards for the Teaching Profession.

A collaboratively developed curriculum should support consistent schoolwide understanding and implementation of good teaching practices to improve outcomes for learners.

Leaders and trustees should build their individual and collective capability to lead and carry out effective internal evaluation. This should assist them to know what is working well in the school’s curriculum, define limitations and identify where further developments are necessary to improve outcomes.

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.

Appraisal audit

An appraisal process for teachers has not been implemented in 2017, or so far in 2018.

Actions for compliance

ERO identified non-compliance in relationto:

• appraisal of the principal and teachers

• consulting with the school community about the health curriculum.

In order to address this, the board of trustees must:

• ensure appraisal of the principal and teachers takes place annually
  [Section 77A State Sector Act]

• adopt a statement on the delivery of the health curriculum, at least once in every two years, after consultation with the school community.
  [Section 60B Education Act 1989]

Areas for improved compliance practice

To improve current practice, the board of trustees should develop:

• an anti-bullying procedure that documents approaches in place to prevent bullying, manage bullying behaviour and indicate how success of strategies and programmes will be ascertained, including through anonymous surveys
• a physical restraint procedure
• clear expectations of how suspected child abuse will be reported
• a more comprehensive crisis management plan.

In addition the board should:

• review education outside the classroom procedures to ensure potential risks to children and adults involved in trips off the school site are appropriately considered
• adopt a policy review and development plan to ensure policies and procedures supporting children’s emotional and physical safety reflect current legislative and good practice guidelines.

4 Going forward

Key strengths of the school

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

• establishing relationships and a culture of care and respect that creates a sense of belonging for children and positive involvement in learning
• an enacted curriculum that provides a breadth of experiences across a range of areas, supports wellbeing and develops capabilities for success in future learning
• improvement focused trustees and school leaders who have identified and prioritised areas requiring further development and addressingthese.

Next steps

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

• making dependable achievement judgements to enable the school to build a comprehensive picture of student learning
• more effective targeting to accelerate learning and contribute to equitable outcomes for children, especially boys
  [ERO will monitor and discuss progress with the school]
• developing a curriculum delivery plan to support consistent schoolwide implementation of good practice
• leaders and trustees building their internal evaluation capability to assist them to know what is working well in the school’s curriculum and identify where further developments are necessary to improve outcomes.
  [ERO will provide an internal evaluation workshop for trustees and senior leaders]

ERO’s next external evaluation process and timing

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

Alan Wynyard

Director Review and Improvements Services Central

Te Tai Pokapū - Central Region

21 September 2018

About the school