Marewa School

School Context

Marewa School is a Years 1 to 6 school in Napier. At the time of this ERO evaluation there were 240 children on the roll, the majority of whom were Māori. There is a significant group of Samoan children enrolled.

The school values, based on TEAM – Toa, Enthusiasm, Ako, Manaaki, guide school expectations and link to the school vision of confident, positive learners.

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

• reading, writing and mathematics

• progress and achievement in relation to school targets

• engagement and wellbeing for success

• culture, language and identity

• whole school improvement and other trends and patterns.

The school has a focus on sustainability and is an EnviroSchool. Extensive gardens provide children with a range of outdoor experiences. The school implements the Positive Behaviour for Learning programme (PB4L). Along with a range of professional learning opportunities, teachers have participated in ALiM (Accelerated Learning in Mathematics) to improve mathematics teaching and student achievement across the school.

The school is a member of a local Māori Achievement Cluster and of the Matariki Kāhui Ako| Community of Learning.

Evaluation Findings

1 Equity and excellence – valued outcomes for students

1.1 How well is the school achieving equitable and excellent outcomes for all its students?

The school is working towards achieving equitable and excellent outcomes for all its students.

School reported data over time shows the majority of students achieve at or above expectations in reading, writing and mathematics. In 2016 there was an overall improvement in writing.

The school identifies that achievement in reading and mathematics across the school needs to be lifted. Boys, as a group, continue to achieve significantly less well than girls, especially in literacy.

Māori students achieve better than other groups of learners.

Evidence shows that Pacific students are making good progress through the English Language Learners Programme (ELLP). There are a number of strategies in place including the school’s English Language Learners (ELL) programme to improve Pacific achievement.

1.2 How effectively does this school respond to those Māori and other students whose learning and achievement need acceleration?

Those Māori students whose learning and achievement need acceleration are clearly identified, supported and their learning is closely tracked and monitored. The school’s Māori achievement trajectory indicates an upward trend since 2015.

The school’s data analysis shows accelerated achievement for some individuals and groups of learners. There is a strong focus on providing specific strategies for individual children to experience success in their learning.

2 School conditions for equity and excellence

2.1 What school processes and practices are effective in enabling achievement of equity and excellence?

Teachers know students well. This is enabling deliberate teaching that supports students to have a sense of belonging and to become confident, positive learners. There is a clear, expressed belief from staff that all children can achieve. Positive Behaviour for Learning (PB4L) and the school values promote positive interactions and relationships across the school. There is a strong focus on student wellbeing.

With external agency support, the school provides positive conditions that enable equitable opportunities for children with special or additional learning needs. A wide range of strategies and programmes are thoughtfully implemented to provide the most impact on children’s learning. A high number of students do not attend Marewa School for their entire primary schooling. Teachers work positively to ensure that their learning needs are promptly identified and strategies are put in place for them to experience success.

Children benefit from close connections between their home and school. Parents and whānau are valued partners in their children’s learning. They work together with teachers to identify their children’s strengths and learning needs and to set goals and plan appropriate learning strategies. The recently formed whānau focus group is likely to contribute to families and whānau making an increasingly valuable contribution to the life of the school. The school has a clear focus on building teachers’ culturally responsive practice to promote children’s culture, language and identity.

Leadership has clear and consistent expectations to support teaching and learning. Teacher appraisal and attestation are aligned to student learning needs.

Leaders, teachers and trustees have a clear understanding of the impact of their actions on outcomes for students through well-developed internal evaluation. There is a focus on making a positive difference and improvement to student achievement. This is evident at board level through the strategic goals, at leadership level through evaluation of the impact of programmes and systems, and at classroom teacher level through the impact of teaching strategies.

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

Through the school’s well developed internal evaluation process the board and leaders have identified some next steps for development to achieve equity and excellence. ERO’s external evaluation supports these findings.

The school should continue to review and strengthen the curriculum. The inclusion of localised contexts and updating school priorities for learning should assist the board and staff to continue to maintain a focus on promoting best practice teaching to raise student achievement.

Refining targets that more clearly focus on accelerating achievement for groups of students, is needed.

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:

• pastoral care, that systematically responds to students’ needs, promotes their wellbeing and supports their learning success

• the well-developed internal evaluation processes that support the school to know what is working well and where improvement is needed

• identifying individual students’ learning needs and providing support for them to achieve equitable outcomes

• direction setting by the board of trustees, that establishes challenging goals for student achievement and closely monitors progress.

Next steps

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

• improving outcomes for all students, to achieve equity and excellence for all groups and raise levels of achievement overall

• curriculum development, for a school curriculum that responds better to the local context.

ERO’s next external evaluation process and timing

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

Patricia Davey

Deputy Chief Review Officer Central (Acting)

Te Tai Pokapū - Central Region

12 December 2017

About the school