Manurewa Intermediate caters for Year 7 and 8 children. The school is a source of considerable pride, influence and opportunity for its community and has a growing roll. Thirty-seven percent of learners are Māori and 45 percent have Pacific heritage. The school recognises and affirms the diverse identities, languages and cultures of children, parents, whānau and the community.
Since ERO’s 2012 evaluation, the school has sustained and continues to build on very good practices, with a holistic approach, to raising student achievement and developing lifelong learners. The school’s data show it is very effective in engaging students in learning and accelerating their progress in reading, writing and mathematics over their two years in the school.
The school’s processes and actions successfully help to achieve excellence and equity for children. This is mostly attributable to highly effective school leadership, strong engagement with the community, a responsive curriculum and effective teaching, and the meaningful use of internal evaluation.
There is an ongoing challenge for the school to continue lifting student achievement levels in relation to the National Standards. Next steps for the school to address this challenge, include working more closely with contributing primary schools to set agreed achievement ‘signposts’, and to moderate teachers’ assessment judgements.
Children are achieving excellent educational outcomes. School performance has been sustained over time through well-focused, embedded processes and practices. This school has successfully addressed in-school disparity in educational outcomes.
ERO is likely to carry out the next review in four-to-five years.
The school responds very well to all learners whose learning and achievement need acceleration.
Many children arrive at the school with low levels of achievement in literacy and numeracy. The school’s data show it is very effective at accelerating students’ progress in reading, writing and mathematics over their two years in the school. Relevant assessment and moderation practices underpin this good progress.
The school’s achievement information shows increasing levels of achievement in relation to National Standards. The school has successfully addressed previous in-school disparity for Māori. Since ERO’s 2012 evaluation there have been significant lifts in achievement for Māori students in reading and mathematics. The school is successfully reducing a disparity for boys in writing.
Learners benefit from a persistent approach to raising their achievement. For instance, specialist subject teachers contribute to the actions required for raising literacy and numeracy achievement, and they monitor progress and outcomes through targeted teacher inquiries.
Children are supported well to achieve the valued learning outcomes identified in the school’s charter and the New Zealand Curriculum. The school’s charter defines achievement as “the value added to the holistic wellbeing of every child at every opportunity”.
Children display a confident appreciation of themselves as learners, and are developing the skills and necessary mind-set to become successful lifelong learners. They learn to be socially and emotionally competent, resilient and optimistic about the future.
Children show confidence in their identity, language and culture. This strong cultural identity provides a bridge for many students in their learning. Children learn and achieve through culturally responsive teaching practices.
The school’s processes and actions very effectively help to achieve excellence and equity for learners. This is mostly attributable to:
School leaders relentlessly pursue equity and excellence for all learners. They model optimism and authentic relationships that set learners up for success, wellbeing, citizenship and enhanced life experiences. Leaders maintain high expectations and levels of accountability for all staff and students in the school. Useful systems support an orderly and dynamic learning environment.
Leaders and teachers foster children’s confidence and skills to be active members of influence in school and in their wider community. There is collective ownership of and responsibility to live the school values “all the time, every time, all of us, everywhere”.
Children benefit from vigilant systems to ensure their wellbeing. The concept of aroha underpins school practices. Strong learning partnerships between learners, teachers and learning assistants support high levels of student engagement in learning. The school builds networks with external agencies to support equity of access to learning for all children.
The school’s curriculum emphasises the attributes for lifelong learning and citizenship. Children are involved in curriculum decisions and planning. Outdoor education opportunities and programmes for environmental sustainability are a feature of the curriculum. The school’s inquiry learning model has been strengthened and is working very effectively in the school’s specialist subject teaching model. Through integrated inquiry learning children have many opportunities to make links in their learning.
The high quality physical environment and learning facilities send a powerful message to children and the community that they are valued and able to achieve well. The learning environment is thoughtfully designed to affirm and celebrate children’s interests and identity, and to extend their learning experiences.
A professional culture is actively nurtured by school leaders. Multi-layered professional support is resulting in teachers delivering the curriculum very well. Staff benefit from relevant professional learning, and high quality mentoring and coaching. Teaching and support staff share a strong commitment and sense of social purpose to ensure equity and excellence for all learners.
Internal evaluation is systematic and coherent at every level of the school. Children, teachers, leaders, board and community participate in evaluation activities that contribute to changes in thinking and actions for ongoing improvement. School leaders are enhancing internal evaluation by including indicators of effective practice into review frameworks.
The school is very well placed to sustain its current good practices and continue to make ongoing improvements that impact positively on all children’s learning.
Next steps to help the school with the challenge of continually raising levels of achievement include working more closely with contributing primary schools to set agreed achievement ‘signposts’ and moderate teacher assessment judgements.
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:
Children are achieving excellent educational outcomes. School performance has been sustained over time through well-focused, embedded processes and practices. This school has successfully addressed in-school disparity in educational outcomes.
Agreed next steps are to:
ERO is likely to carry out the next review in four-to-five years.
Graham Randell
Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern
8 May 2017
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Location |
Manurewa, Auckland |
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Ministry of Education profile number |
1353 |
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School type |
Intermediate (Years 7 and 8) |
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School roll |
773 |
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Gender composition |
Boys 51% |
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Ethnic composition |
Māori |
37% |
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Provision of Māori medium education |
No |
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Review team on site |
March 2017 |
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Date of this report |
8 May 2017 |
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Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review |
December 2012 |