New Windsor School

Education institution number:
1390
School type:
Contributing
School gender:
Co-Educational
Definition:
Not Applicable
Total roll:
314
Telephone:
Address:

185 New Windsor Road, New Windsor, Auckland

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New Windsor School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 12 months of the Education Review Office and New Windsor School working in Te Ara Huarau, an improvement evaluation approach used in most English Medium State and State Integrated Schools. For more information about Te Ara Huarau see ERO’s website. www.ero.govt.nz

Context 

New Windsor School is in New Windsor, Auckland and caters for ākonga in Years 1 to 6. An enrolment zone has been introduced to manage roll growth. The vision for the school is ‘to be the best you can be’. New Windsor School is a member of the Lynfield Kāhui Ako and has a long history of serving the local community.

New Windsor School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for ākonga are to:

  • strengthen partnerships and networks

  • develop rich authentic and responsive curriculum that sets up ākonga for success

  • empower staff and ākonga to build resilience and wellbeing.

You can find a copy of the school’s strategic and annual plan on New Windsor School’s website.

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate equity and excellence for all ākonga, with a focus on innovation and improved outcomes for Māori, Pacific and priority ākonga.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is the:

  • school’s commitment to culturally responsive practices and learner agency

  • school’s strategic plan values building the evaluative capability of teachers to respond effectively to the learning needs of all ākonga

  • opportunity it provides for further monitoring and reporting to inform the pace and success of change.

The school expects to see improved outcomes for Māori, Pacific and priority ākonga, whose engagement, progress and achievement is supported by innovative, culturally responsive teaching practice and the development of learner agency.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to evaluate equity and excellence for all ākonga:

  • the wellbeing of all ākonga is well promoted within an inclusive learning climate

  • organisational structures include systems and processes that effectively evaluate the impact of teaching and learning

  • leaders consistently prioritise and plan for school improvement by pursuing the school’s vision, goals and targets for equity and excellence

  • professional development is focused on enhancing teaching capability with an equity focus for Māori, Pacific and priority learners.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

  • continued tracking and monitoring of the engagement, progress and achievement of all ākonga

  • strengthened school wide evaluation, inquiry and knowledge building for improvement and innovation, with a clear focus on Māori, Pacific and priority learners

  • continued promotion of ākonga agency and wellbeing through the use of the New Windsor Learner Profile

  • an explicit focus on all ākonga experiencing deep learning in relation to te ao Māori, te reo Māori me ōna tikanga and mātauranga Māori.

ERO’s role will be to support the school in its evaluation for improvement cycle to improve outcomes for all learners. ERO will support the school in reporting their progress to the community. The next public report on ERO’s website will be a Te Ara Huarau | School Evaluation Report and is due within three years.

Shelley Booysen
Director of Schools

22 August 2023 

About the School

The Education Counts website provides further information about the school’s student population, student engagement and student achievement.  educationcounts.govt.nz/home

New Windsor School

Board Assurance with Regulatory and Legislative Requirements Report 2023 to 2026

As of February 2023, the New Windsor School Board has attested to the following regulatory and legislative requirements:

Board Administration

Yes

Curriculum

Yes

Management of Health, Safety and Welfare

Yes

Personnel Management

Yes

Finance

Yes

Assets

Yes

Further Information

For further information please contact New Windsor School, School Board.

The next School Board assurance that it is meeting regulatory and legislative requirements will be reported, along with the Te Ara Huarau | School Evaluation Report, within three years.

Information on ERO’s role and process in this review can be found on the Education Review Office website.

Shelley Booysen
Director of Schools

22 August 2023 

About the School

The Education Counts website provides further information about the school’s student population, student engagement and student achievement. educationcounts.govt.nz/home

New Windsor School - 08/02/2017

1 Context

New Windsor School continues to provide a respectful, affirming and positive school environment for students, families and its multicultural community. The school also continues to offer an option of bicultural programmes through Te Puāwaitanga Māori bilingual classes for students. It also provides specific programmes for a significant number of students who are English Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and for children whose parents wish them to be immersed in digital learning. Facilities such as the hall, covered swimming pool, large fields and nearby Play centre, are pivotal meeting places for the community.

The board has a good mix of experienced and new trustees. The principal has been at this school for approximately five years.

2 Equity and excellence

The vision and valued outcomes defined by the school for all children are to grow as confident learners together, and to be respectful, responsible and the best that they can be; whai koha, kawe haepapa, hikina te manukau.

The school’s achievement information shows that in the last three years overall children are doing well in relation to National Standards. From 2013 to 2016 Māori students' achievement has progressed steadily in these three curriculum areas. The majority of Pacific students' achievement has also increased, with significant progress in 2016. There is a small number of Māori and Pacific students who do not achieve well in reading, writing and mathematics. The senior leadership team continue to strengthen data analysis and provide support for all children to access the New Zealand Curriculum.

Teachers' moderation processes are used to improve assessment and inform overall judgements about achievement. Some moderation is also done with other schools. Professional development in moderation is provided for teachers who are new to the school and others as needed.

Since the last ERO evaluation the school has improved the analysis and recording of information. There is more accuracy in achievement information as a result of increased teacher professional development in moderation and assessment, better use of various forms of assessment, and monitoring of individual student progress.

3 Accelerating achievement

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

The school responds well to children whose achievement needs acceleration. The school has sought ways to support its bilingual Māori children in Te Puāwaitanga and to develop initiatives to address under-achievement in English. Some of the school's specific strategies include bilingual programmes, where managers and kaiako use the basic reading recovery framework. Junior Māori children have shown significant progress in literacy since their involvement in this initiative.

A parent literacy support initiative has also contributed to significant accelerated progress for children. This strategy involves inviting parents of target children to regular literacy lessons. Parents work with their children and the classroom teachers to address the low literacy levels. This has helped parents to develop their understanding and learn skills to support their children in the home.

A further school initiative is the establishment of collaborative planning teams (CPT). There is now increased discussion about best practice, sharing of pedagogy, and opportunity to discuss priority learners' progress. Continual reflection and the inclusion of student views helps to identify how effectively teachers are working with their students.

Although there has been progress for the majority of students, new 2017 initiatives in resourcing to support data analysis and school-wide assessment, will continue to enhance teachers' practices.

The board receives reports about school initiatives to accelerate learning. These include reports from the Resource Teacher of Learning and Behaviour (RTLB), Special Education Needs Coordinator (SENCO), Reading Recovery, and ESOL programmes. Reporting could be further strengthened by including evaluative commentary on the impact of initiatives school wide, and more clearly showing children's progress from the time they enter to completion of the programme.

4 School conditions

How effectively do the school’s curriculum and other organisational processes and practices develop and enact the school’s vision, values, goals and targets for equity and excellence?

The school's curriculum and other organisational processes and practices are effective in enacting the school's vision, values, goals and targets for equity and excellence. It caters for Māori learners in bilingual learning programmes, for immersion in digitally focused programmes, and for general curriculum programmes.

One of the challenges for the school is catering for the significant number of children who arrive and leave within the school year. The school appropriately has a focus on catering for the needs of each child. Children are well engaged in their learning tasks and have respectful relationships with teachers and each other. Purposeful positioning of classroom settings helps to ensure that tuakana/teina concepts are enhancing learning and wellbeing. Diversity and inclusion are very evident. Children's languages and cultural identities are respected and celebrated.

There are some very good teaching practices in the school. Children learn in collaborative, inclusive environments. Children who participate in initiatives designed to help them in their learning are being well catered for. Some of these initiatives include:

  • provision for learning English as an additional language
  • 'Learning to learn' strategies that allow children to be in control of their learning
  • children using digital devices to promote thinking and fluency in digital literacy
  • specific literacy strategies being trialled at the early junior levels
  • strengthening English in bilingual classes, particularly at the junior levels
  • 'Positive Behaviour 4 Learning' becoming well embedded
  • professional development in the Ako Hiko cluster of schools.

Other developments that contribute to acceleration in learning and positive learning outcomes for children are the development of the graduate student profile, the CPT, and the mind lab.

The school's leadership team continues to develop and strengthen data analysis and to provide equitable access to the New Zealand Curriculum for all children.

School leaders' allocation of resources is clearly aligned to the school's vision, values and targets. Leaders have clear expectations for teaching and learning. Leaders are working to ensure that children's learning needs and aligned with teachers' professional development and appraisal processes.

Systems for the monitoring and analysis of achievement data have improved. Leaders and teachers have begun to enquire more into this data, to inform teaching and learning programmes. Further initiatives are being introduced to strengthen leaders' line of sight for students who are underachieving, from the charter and strategic plan to classroom programmes.

Reporting to parents of children in mainstream classes generally identifies how well children are progressing against the National Standards. It also gives parents an understanding of the extent to which children are progressing against curriculum levels in the essential learning areas.

Further clarity is needed about reporting to parents of children in bilingual classes, in terms of Ngā Whanaketanga or the National Standards. At present some assessment and reporting of these children's progress is not clear, particularly in Nga Whanaketanga and Te Marautanga.

5 Going forward

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

Leaders and teachers: 

  • know the children whose learning and achievement need to be accelerated
  • respond effectively to the strengths, needs and interests of each child
  • regularly evaluate how well teaching is working for these children
  • act on what they know works well for each child
  • build teacher capability effectively to achieve equitable outcomes for all children
  • are well placed to achieve and sustain equitable and excellent outcomes for all children.

Senior leaders agree that the school should continue to distribute leadership more widely, and to refine and embed school-wide practices designed to accelerate the progress of the diverse groups of children in the school.

Senior leaders should continue to support the development of Te Marautanga and assessment to reflect the bilingual context of learning in Te Puāwaitanga. Parents of children in Te Puāwaitanga could consider the vision and philosophy of bilingual and immersion contexts to ensure that their vision is clear and reflected in learning programmes.

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

6 Board assurance on legal requirements

Before the review the board of trustees 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

  • processes for appointing staff

  • stand down, suspensions, expulsions and exclusions

  • attendance

  • compliance with the provisions of the Vulnerable Children Act 2014

  • provision for international students.

7 Recommendations

ERO recommends that the school continue to strengthen:

  • the leadership framework, strategic planning and whole-school evaluation capability, in order to accelerate learning progress for all students
  • the vision, philosophy and reporting of achievement in its bilingual and immersion contexts. 

Graham Randell

Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern

8 February 2017

About the school 

Location

New Windsor, Auckland

Ministry of Education profile number

1390

School type

Contributing (Years 1 to 6)

School roll

585

Gender composition

Boys 56% Girls 44%

Ethnic composition

Māori

Pākehā

Indian

Samoan

South East Asian

Chinese

African

Tongan

Cook Islands Māori

Niue

others

13%

17%

14%

9%

8%

7%

4%

4%

2%

2%

20%

Review team on site

November 2016

Date of this report

8 February 2017

Most recent ERO report(s)

Education Review

Education Review

Education Review

September 2013

October 2010

October 2007

New Windsor School - 18/09/2013

1 Context

What are the important features of this school that have an impact on student learning?

New Windsor School has a respectful and affirming school culture that celebrates students’ individual and group identities. Student learning is promoted by the school’s caring and settled environment. Classrooms are positive places in which students cooperate very well together. Shared school values provide a strong framework for supporting the pastoral care and academic progress of students. The school’s well developed buddy system is a particularly effective feature of its successful endorsement of tuakana/teina relationships in which students support each other to succeed.

The school is located in the west Auckland suburb of Blockhouse Bay. It has a significant bicultural and multicultural community. Te Whānau Puawaitanga, the school’s Māori bi-lingual unit, continues to be responsive to whānau and community aspirations. Other students come from over twenty ethnic groups, with over one third speaking English as an additional language. The school caters well for a high number of students with diverse educational needs, including a sizeable number of transient students.

Students and families benefit from the school’s many high quality resources and facilities. The covered swimming pool, hall, large fields and adjacent play centre help make it a focal point for the community.

Important school strengths outlined in previous ERO reports remain integral to the school. In 2012 a new principal joined the well established senior leadership team and board of trustees. The new principal is working appropriately with others to build on school strengths and to set new strategic directions aimed at strengthening the school’s focus on preparing students for life-long learning.

2 Learning

How well does this school use achievement information to make positive changes to learners’ engagement, progress and achievement?

The school uses achievement information well to make positive changes to learners’ engagement, progress and achievement.

Teachers know their students well. They use assessment data effectively to prepare programmes based on students’ individual and group learning levels. Programmes are well suited to students’ strengths and next learning steps, and encourage high levels of student interest and engagement. Regular rōpu assemblies celebrate students’ positive values and good learning habits. They acknowledge excellence and progress in academic, social, sporting and creative ventures: all of which are important to the school.

A significant majority of students achieve at or above national standards in reading, writing and mathematics. School leaders make very good use of student achievement data to identify students at risk of not achieving these standards. High quality, focused intervention programmes often enable these students to make accelerated progress.

School leaders monitor student achievement at a school-wide level and for gender, year level and Māori and Pacific groups. Data show how students’ good overall achievement levels improve with time. It also shows that girls generally achieve at higher levels than boys. Māori and Pacific achievement is slightly below the achievement of students overall. The youngest students take a little longer than usual to benefit from school learning. However, they make very good progress in Year 2 and are well supported to maintain their gains after this. Those students who attend the school for most of their primary years show notable progress by Year 6.

The board of trustees is increasing its use of national standards data to monitor school standards and set annual targets for accelerating student progress. Greater specificity in the targets is a next step for the board. To achieve this specificity, senior managers should consider analysing data in greater depth.

School leaders and ERO agree that:

  • considering the student population, use of the English Language Learning Progressions could be more integral to school assessment procedures
  • assessment policies and procedures could be reviewed and refined to show greater clarity of purpose and to better integrate them with the school’s more recently established national standard monitoring and reporting practices
  • the school could place a greater emphasis on helping students and their families to become familiar with the national standards and so better understand students’ next learning steps.

3 Curriculum

How effectively does this school’s curriculum promote and support student learning?

The school’s curriculum, including its high overall standard of teaching, effectively promotes and supports student learning. The design of the curriculum and its implementation purposefully encompass the values and key competencies of The New Zealand Curriculum. The curriculum is inclusive of all students and reinforces the positive and nurturing classrooms that teachers have established. It provides opportunities for students to participate in the Māori component of New Zealand’s cultural heritage and to learn about aspects of the school’s diverse ethnic and cultural mix.

Students receive a wide range of interesting and relevant programmes and have many high quality opportunities to develop their interests and skills. Lessons are well paced and include some important opportunities for experiential, hands-on learning. Students are focused and productive participants in lessons that feature flexible and responsive teaching practices. Core subjects are taught well and integrated inquiry learning approaches are widespread, giving greater meaning and application to students’ learning. Students participate fully in set learning tasks and show real pride in their efforts.

Classrooms are well presented, positive and motivating environments. Teachers are using a wider range of information and communication technologies to motivate students and to promote extended digital learning opportunities. Further work in this area is presently underway.

Teachers receive effective support from school and curriculum leaders. School leaders could now help teachers to strengthen their programme evaluations by encouraging more student voice in the process, and by promoting evaluations that report on how well programmes met set learning aims and objectives. School leaders should also focus on helping teachers increase problem solving approaches that challenge and extend the thinking and learning of students.

How effectively does the school promote educational success for Māori, as Māori?

Māori students are the largest group of students in the school and many aspects of school operation effectively promote their educational success as Māori. In response to whānau requests, the bi-lingual unit has gained a further classroom, and expectations for use of te reo Māori in these classrooms have risen, especially for teachers of the younger children.

The principal’s proactive leadership is having a very positive impact on the unit. Over the past year he and staff have successfully changed the fundraising focus of the unit’s whānau to one that is more directly concerned with Māori student achievement. This is a significant and noteworthy shift.

The principal has also provided the bi-lingual teachers with hands-on support by modelling good teaching practices and ensuring the introduction of new and appropriate curriculum delivery and assessment practices. Visits to other bi-lingual providers should further support the process of change that is underway in the unit.

The board of trustees now has a strategic goal that clearly advances the place of Māori within the school. This goal is important for Māori students who are not in Te Whānau Puawaitanga. Implementation of this strategic goal should result in these students receiving even stronger opportunities to experience Māori language, cultural and identity within their school life and learning programmes.

To help ensure ongoing progress the board should now consider formally monitoring how well:

  • annual goals for Te Whānau Puawaitanga are being met
  • annual progress is made against the new strategic goal
  • Māori students achieve in the bilingual unit and general stream classes overall and as separate groups.

4 Sustainable Performance

How well placed is the school to sustain and improve its performance?

The school is well placed to sustain and improve its performance. It features:

  • a very positive, affirming and inclusive school climate that provides a sound foundation for students’ learning
  • members of a leadership team who have a long-term commitment to the school and who have established robust assurance processes to support the quality of teaching and learning
  • teachers who have effectively stepped up to curriculum leadership positions and are noticeably increasing their leadership and evidence-based self review practices
  • trustees who bring with them a wide range of knowledge, skills and expertise to promote effective school governance.

To further support sustainability and improvement, ERO and school leaders agree that next steps could usefully include:

  • reviewing and updating the school charter to better capture school priorities, particularly for the curriculum
  • extending self review so that it is more directly based on outcomes and on how well the overarching vision, principles, aims and goals of the school and/or its programmes are being met
  • planning for increased trustee representation of the school’s diverse community
  • better clarifying the delineation between governance and management in board of trustee practices
  • extending recently introduced opportunities for parental and community involvement in the school and in particular, strengthening the partnership between the school and the homes of Pacific students.

Board assurance on legal requirements

Before the review, the board of trustees 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:

  • board administration
  • curriculum
  • management of health, safety and welfare
  • personnel management
  • financial management
  • asset management.

During the review, ERO checked the following items because they have a potentially high impact on student achievement:

  • emotional safety of students (including prevention of bullying and sexual harassment)
  • physical safety of students
  • teacher registration
  • processes for appointing staff
  • stand-downs, suspensions, expulsions and exclusions
  • attendance.

When is ERO likely to review the school again?

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

Dale Bailey

National Manager Review Services Northern Region

18 September 2013

About the School

Location

New Windsor, Auckland

Ministry of Education profile number

1390

School type

Contributing (Years 1 to 6)

School roll

504

Gender composition

Boys 51%, Girls 49%

Ethnic composition

Māori

New Zealand European/Pākehā

Indian

Chinese

Samoan

Middle East

African

Tongan

Cook Island Māori

Fijian

other Asian

Niue

others

18%

16%

15%

8%

8%

6%

4%

4%

3%

3%

3%

1%

11%

Review team on site

July 2013

Date of this report

18 September 2013

Most recent ERO report(s)

Education Review

Education Review

Education Review

October 2010

October 2007

October 2004