Ormiston Junior College - 21/02/2020

• On this page:

• School Context
• Evaluation Findings
• 1 Equity and excellence – achievement of valued outcomes for students
• 2 School conditions for equity and excellence – processes and practices
• 3 Other Matters
• 4 Board Assurance on Legal Requirements
• 5 ERO’s Overall Judgement
• 6 Going forward
• About the school

Ormiston Junior College is, together with the primary school and senior college, part of the Ormiston Community College. The school is in its third year of operation and caters for young people from Years 7 to 10. The school hosts a Kelston Deaf Education Centre (KDEC) class.

There are approximately 490 learners enrolled at the school. The school’s culturally diverse roll comprises five percent Māori, 24 percent Indian, 15 percent Chinese, nine percent with Pacific heritage, and many other ethnicities. The roll also currently includes a small number of international students.

Since ERO’s 2018 New School Assurance Review, the school has had significant roll growth across all year levels. There have been changes in the senior leadership team, with a new ‘leader of learning’.

The shared vision for Ormiston Primary and Ormiston Junior College is to “guarantee every learner engages in innovative, personalised world-class learning”. The school values are hauora (wellbeing), whanaungatanga (relationships), auaha (innovation), ngakau tapatahi (integrity), wana (inspiration) and hiranga (excellence).

Students benefit from learning in purpose-built learning environments that are innovative and well designed.

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

• achievement in reading, writing and mathematics, and progress towards strategic targets
• progress, trends and patterns of achievement for priority students
• student attendance, engagement and wellbeing.

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?

The school is working towards achieving equitable and excellent outcomes for all its students. School achievement information from 2017 to 2019 show that overall achievement for all students in literacy and mathematics is steadily improving.

The 2018 and 2019 achievement information show that most students achieve at or above curriculum expectations in reading and the majority in writing and mathematics. There is some disparity for Māori and Pacific students in reading, writing and mathematics.

While girls and boys achieve at similar levels in reading, there are some differences in their achievement in mathematics and writing.

Students with additional learning needs make good progress towards their individual learning and development goals. New learners of English are well supported with inclusive approaches and make progress in their learning.

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

School leaders and teachers clearly identify, track and monitor the students who need to make accelerated progress.

There is evidence of accelerated progress in literacy and mathematics for students at risk of not achieving at expectations. Individual tracking and monitoring of learners’ achievement show that Māori and Pacific learners make accelerated progress in literacy.

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?

Leaders build and sustain a professional culture based on collaboration and relational trust. Effective school practices and processes form a strong foundation for teaching and learning. Expectations for high quality professional practice are clearly articulated and well understood. These factors drive ongoing innovation and improvement. They also contribute to building teacher capability and capacity, and impact positively on outcomes for learners.

The school’s learning environment is focused and purposeful. Teachers plan and deliver a broad and responsive curriculum. They track student achievement and the development of key competencies for learning to support personlised learning pathways. The use of integrated digital tools and technology enhances learners’ engagement in meaningful and beneficial learning experiences.

Students are well supported by teachers to be leaders of their own learning. They have opportunities to learn from and with each other in a variety of contexts. Students benefit from a student-centred approach and are actively engaged in their learning.

The school promotes educationally powerful connections and relationships across the school and wider community. Leaders and teachers proactively draw on local, national and global resources to enrich learning opportunities for students. Meaningful progress has been made to integrate and embed bicultural practices in the school. A strong partnership with local iwi and marae promotes educational opportunities for learners.

Leadership is distributed, and emergent leadership is encouraged. Teachers have opportunities to engage with purposeful professional learning and development. Leaders and teachers use internal and external expertise, which helps to build collective capacity and develop innovative approaches to support learner engagement and accelerate learning progress.

Trustees serve the school community well in their stewardship role. They work well with senior leaders and support staff to improve outcomes for all learners.

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

The school is developing ways to collect and analyse achievement data that reflects students’ academic achievement and development of learning dispositions. Continuing to embed ways of collecting and analysing student achievement information should support leaders to build a whole-school achievement picture. This will help them to further promote equitable and excellent outcomes for all students.

Leaders, teachers and trustees continue to strengthen relationships across the Ormiston Community Campus schools and the local community of schools. Building the representation of the junior college’s parent community on the combined primary and junior college boards is an area for future development.

3 Other Matters

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. Seven international students were enrolled at the time of the ERO review. Good processes support quality pastoral care and students access the full range of learning programmes and activities offered by the school.

4 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 Children’s Act 2014.

5 ERO’s Overall Judgement

On the basis of the findings of this review, ERO’s overall evaluation judgement of Ormiston Junior College’s performance in achieving valued outcomes for its students is: Well placed.

ERO will maintain an ongoing relationship with the school to build capacity and evaluate progress.

ERO’s Framework: Overall Findings and Judgement Tool derived from School Evaluation Indicators: Effective Practice for Improvement and Learner Success is available on ERO’s website.

6 Going forward

Key strengths of the school

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

• highly effective leadership that promotes a culture of collaboration and relational trust
• a broad and responsive curriculum that enhances learning opportunities for students
• a positive professional school culture that maintains high expectations for teaching and learning throughout the school.

Next steps

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

• embedding systems for collecting and analysing student achievement information to support equity and excellence
• continuing to strengthen relationships across Ormiston Community Campus schools
• building representation of the junior college’s parent community on the combined board of trustees.

Steve Tanner

Director Review and Improvement Services 

Northern Region

21 February 2020

About the school