Marian Catholic School (Hamilton)

Summary

Marian Catholic School is located in Hamilton East and caters for children in Years 1 to 8. The diverse roll of 587 includes 51 Māori, 108 Asian, 73 Indian, 44 Pacific and many children from non-English speaking backgrounds.

Since the previous ERO review in 2013, there have been some changes to the board and senior leadership team. During this time, the school has considerably strengthened its affirmation of Maori children’s culture, language and identity and improved the staff appraisal system. Teachers are engaged in external professional development to improve teaching and learning in mathematics. A new principal was appointed to the school at the beginning of 2017.

Trustees, senior leaders and staff demonstrate strong commitment to the school’s special Catholic character, which is explicitly promoted and continues to underpin, and be evident, in all aspects of school life.

The school is included in the Waikato Catholic Schools Community of Learning / Kāhui Ako. This group of schools meets regularly to provide opportunities for professional discussion, particularly in relation to common achievement challenges.

How well is the school achieving equitable outcomes for all children?

The school is responding well to Maori and other children whose learning and achievement need acceleration.

Many school processes, such as targeting and planning for at-risk learners, positive staff and community relationships, and increasing bicultural perspectives throughout the school, are effective in achieving equitable outcomes for all children.

Further developments are needed in the school’s processes for strategic and annual planning, curriculum expectations, assessment, and internal evaluation.

The school has capacity and capability to accelerate learning for all children. However, disparity in achievement for Māori and/or other children remains.

Leaders and teachers:

• know the children whose learning and achievement need to be accelerated

• need to build teacher capability to accelerate children’s learning and achievement.

The school agrees to:

• develop more targeted planning to accelerate learning for children

• monitor targeted planning, improved teaching, and children’s progress

• discuss the school’s progress with ERO.

ERO will provide feedback and resources to support the development of more targeted planning.

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

Equity and excellence

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

Marian School is responding well to Maori and other children whose learning and achievement need acceleration in reading and mathematics. It has an extensive, well-considered range of programmes and initiatives, which have been effective in achieving equitable outcomes for many at-risk learners, including Maori. Achievement information reported by the school shows that many at-risk learners, including Maori, made accelerated progress in reading, writing and mathematics throughout 2016. However, identified groups of Maori, Pacific and boys are still not achieving National Standards, particularly in writing.

Other groups of students continue to achieve well, with a significant majority achieving at or above National Standards in reading, writing and mathematics. The school reports that a majority of students from non-English speaking backgrounds make accelerated progress during their time at the school.

School-wide systems and processes to support the moderation of overall teacher judgements in relation to National Standards require further development.

School conditions supporting equity and excellence

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

Many school processes are effective in contributing to the achievement of equity and excellence. These include processes for identifying children whose progress requires acceleration, continual monitoring of targeted learners, and regular discussions about strategies for accelerating progress and achievement. Teachers have developed individual action plans for all at-risk learners. These are in the early stages of development and now need to include more information about specific next steps to improve progress. The special education needs coordinator (SENCO) regularly monitors progress and reports on the effectiveness of targeted programmes and interventions to the board.

Children benefit from increasingly consistent expectations for teaching and learning in mathematics. In this subject, progressive learning expectations for each year level and staff professional development are providing clarity about learning pathways and effective teaching strategies. A range of well-recognised, classroom teaching strategies contributes to high levels of student motivation and enthusiasm for learning. Data collected within teaching teams indicates accelerated progress for at-risk learners.

Well-established learning and care partnerships with children and families effectively promote children’s wellbeing and sense of belonging at the school. These partnerships are characterised by positive relationships, opportunities for parent education, and a variety of strategies for sharing information about children’s progress and achievement. Families have continual access to pastoral care from the wider parish community. Transitions to and from the school are particularly well facilitated. These processes enhance children’s learning opportunities.

Maori children’s culture, language and identity are increasingly affirmed. In response to the previous ERO report, the school has introduced very effective processes to increase teachers’ awareness of culturally competent practices, and their capacity to integrate te reo and tikanga Maori into classroom programmes. In addition, school leaders specifically consult with Maori and Pacific parents about their aspirations for their children’s education. Pacific children also have opportunities to celebrate their culture and identity.

The board provides generous resourcing to support students whose learning is at-risk. Extra funding is provided for specialist teaching of te reo Maori for children and teachers, training for teacher aides to better assist children for whom English is a second language, and pastoral care personnel. Trustees support school leaders in maintaining a culture of reflection and improvement in accelerating the progress of at-risk learners.

Sustainable development for equity and excellence

What further developments are needed in school processes to achieve equity and excellence?

Further developments are needed to respond more effectively to achieve equity and excellence for children whose learning requires acceleration. School-wide systems for strategic planning, curriculum development, assessment and internal evaluation are not sufficiently developed.

• The school’s annual targets need to clearly identify groups of children whose learning progress requires acceleration.

• The board should receive regular, specific reports about how well all targeted children are accelerating their progress.

• The school is yet to establish consistent progressive learning pathways to support assessment, teaching and learning in reading and writing. Teachers and children do not have a consistently reliable basis for monitoring progress and achievement through the year and over time in these subjects.

• The school’s assessment schedule is not well aligned with National Standards requirements. Further review and revision is needed to assist teachers to make increasingly reliable judgements about achievement in relation to National Standards.

• Trustees and leaders have yet to develop a planned, strategic approach to internal evaluation based on analysed achievement information.

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

• 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.

Provision for international students

The school is a signatory to the Education (Pastoral Care of International Students) Code of Practice 2016 (the Code) established under section 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 15 international students attending the school, including no exchange students.

International Students continue to benefit from the inclusive and respectful culture, which is highly evident in the school. The experienced pastoral care coordinator continues to be successful in establishing positive relationships with international students and their families and overseeing effective integration into many aspects of school life. English language tuition is designed to specifically cater for individual learning needs, which are effectively identified and monitored using the English Language Learning Progressions. Designated trained teacher aides work closely with each student. Parents receive regular updates on progress and achievement. International students who remain at the school over time make very good progress in English and other subjects.

Going forward

How well placed is the school to accelerate the achievement of all children who need it?

The school has capacity and capability to accelerate learning for all children. However, disparity in achievement for Māori and/or other children remains.

Leaders and teachers:

• know the children whose learning and achievement need to be accelerated
• need to build teacher capability to accelerate children’s learning and achievement.

The school agrees to:

• develop more targeted planning to accelerate learning for children
• monitor targeted planning, improved teaching, and children’s progress
• discuss the school’s progress with ERO.

ERO will provide feedback and resources to support the development of more targeted planning.

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

Recommendation

ERO recommends that the board and senior leadership team prioritise and incorporate the next steps identified in this report into the school’s annual planning and reporting framework with appropriate external professional development.

Lynda Pura-Watson

Deputy Chief Review Officer Waikato / Bay of Plenty

30 June 2017

About the school