Paraparaumu Beach School

Summary

Paraparaumu Beach School is a large primary school for children in Years 1 to 8. The school has an enrolment zone in place. At the time of this ERO evaluation the roll is 682. Māori children make up 16% of the roll.

Since the October 2013 ERO report, there have been changes to the senior leadership team. A new principal and deputy principal have been appointed.

Recently the school has introduced a Bring Your Own Devices (BYOD) digital technology curriculum strategy for children in Years 5 to 8, after extensive consultation with parents and local secondary schools.

Paraparaumu Beach School is a member of the Kapiti North Community of Learning | Kāhui Ako.

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

Most students continue to achieve at or above National Standards expectations in reading, writing and mathematics. The senior leadership team works positively to promote improvement through building a collaborative culture, to deepen teachers’ knowledge of and responsiveness to learners. Trustees are clearly focused on progressing the school’s vision and priorities.

The Māori Education Plan sets clear expectations for building cultural competence across the school.

School leaders inquire into the effectiveness of their practices with a focus on achieving equitable learning outcomes for children. Teachers are encouraged to explore and inquire into their teaching so that the curriculum is relevant to children.

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 continue to develop and refine processes, systems and practices for determining progress of children, particularly those whose learning needs to accelerate.

ERO is likely to carry out the next review in four-to-five years.

Equity and excellence

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

Paraparaumu Beach School effectively responds to Māori and other children whose learning and achievement need acceleration.

School data shows that most students achieve at and above National Standards expectations in reading, writing and mathematics. Achievement has been steady over the past four years with no significant dips or rises. The school has identified disparity for a group of boys in writing and has set targets for improvement.

Māori students achieve well. The school identified a group of students whose learning and achievement needed to accelerate in 2016. While most students’ achievement was accelerated, the target was not met. The school has identified strategies and support to continue to lift Māori student achievement. There is a deliberate school focus on supporting Māori children to be successful. The Māori Education Plan sets clear expectations for the school to collaborate with families and whānau. Teachers report progress against the plan, including how teachers’ practice has made a positive impact on children’s learning.

A wide range of strategies and resources support children with additional learning needs. The school works alongside parents and with appropriate agencies to provide support for children. The board funds a high number of teacher aides and programmes in response to needs. Strengthening internal evaluation processes to ascertain the effectiveness of interventions and progress in accelerating and raising student achievement is required.

The senior leadership team and teachers continue to develop assessment practices across the school. Teaching as inquiry is developing. Strengthening moderation practices to ensure consistency of judgements about children’s learning has been prioritised by the school.

School conditions supporting equity and excellence

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

The school is well placed to continue to promote and achieve equitable and excellent outcomes for children.

The senior leadership team and trustees work collaboratively to progress the school vision and priorities. There is meaningful engagement with the parent community. The school gathers student and community perspectives and is responsive to findings.

Students are well supported to achieve, be confident learners and enjoy a sense of belonging. Collaboration and independence is encouraged. The school leadership team, staff and trustees promote an inclusive, supportive environment for student learning and wellbeing.

There is a considered approach to strengthening acknowledgement of identity, language and culture for Māori students and their families. Aspirations of whānau Māori are sought and valued. This provides useful direction for developing the curriculum, including te reo me ngā tikanga Māori and the significance of local kawa for the school. A school priority is for teachers to continue to grow their cultural competence and ensure outcomes for these students are a deliberate focus and effective.

There is a strong focus on collaboration as leaders and teachers build shared understandings of effectiveness. Professional collaboration supports teachers to explore new practices and approaches to teaching and learning. The appraisal process is consistently implemented, linked to school priorities and responsive to teachers’ strengths and needs.

The curriculum priorities are literacy and mathematics. The school continues to review and develop the curriculum in response to teacher inquiry, children’s strengths and interests. Knowledge of children’s language, culture and identity, along with wellbeing and learning, guide teachers to make good decisions about teaching and learning.

Trustees bring a range of useful skills and knowledge to their roles and support ongoing school developments. They have good processes and systems to undertake their responsibilities. The board receives regular information about school activities. Extensive achievement data is regularly reported. Trustees are clearly focused on how well children are learning and achieving.

Sustainable development for equity and excellence

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

The school has many processes in place to promote the achievement of equity and excellence with some further refinements required to some practices.

To assist the board scrutinise and use information more effectively for decision making, senior leaders need to improve the quality of the achievement data presented to trustees. This data should show more clearly the progress of learners whose achievement needs accelerating. Deliberate focus on progress against the goals expressed in the Māori Education Plan should continue to be a priority.

Board and staff should strengthen and consolidate internal evaluation processes. This should assist them to determine the effectiveness of school processes, systems and practices, with a focus on how well these improve and promote positive outcomes for children. Undertaking deeper analysis and inquiry into data should assist staff and leaders to: further develop strategies that support learners to make accelerated progress; monitor to promote greater consistency of practices schoolwide including moderation of children’s work; and coaching and mentoring of staff.

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.

Going forward

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

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 continue to develop and refine processes, systems and practices for determining progress for children, particularly those whose learning needs to accelerate.

ERO is likely to carry out the next review in four-to-five years.

Patricia Davey

Deputy Chief Review Officer Central (Acting)

3 November 2017

About the school

Location	Paraparaumu Beach
Ministry of Education profile number	2948
School type	Full Primary (Year 1-8)
School roll	682
Gender composition	Female 50% Male 50%
Ethnic composition	Māori 16% Pākehā 79% Pacific 2% Asian 3%
Provision of Māori medium education	No
Review team on site	August 2017
Date of this report	3 November 2017
Most recent ERO report(s)	Education Review October 2013 Education Review May 2009 Education Review May 2006

1 Context

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

Paraparaumu Beach School is located in Paraparaumu Beach township on the Kapiti Coast. The school roll has undergone a demographic change since the May 2009 ERO report. At the time of this review, Māori students comprised 12% of the roll, with an increasing percentage of new entrants and younger students who identify as Māori.

The school has a positive reporting history with ERO. Strengths identified in the previous report continue to be evident. Staff and students benefit from strong professional leadership and a reflective, professional staff culture. High expectations are embedded, as is good teaching and the focus on learning across the school. The board and staff have used the areas for improvement reported by ERO in 2009, as a continuing basis for schoolwide improvement. The continuity of staffing within the leadership team and across syndicates has supported continued positive change.

The well-planned location of buildings and use of five syndicates across this large Years 1 to 8 school fosters a small school atmosphere. Parents are frequent visitors, particularly to the syndicates for Year 1 and Year 2 students. Close community links are established through parent groups. Ongoing relationships with several early childhood centres support children’s transition to school. Rooms for the Year 7 and 8 students were refurbished in 2012, and the board is considering ways to use its newly developed digital strategy to enhance teaching and learning for students and staff.

2 Learning

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

Staff use achievement information well to make positive changes to learners’ engagement, progress and achievement.

Achievement data reported by the school indicates that the majority of students, including Māori and Pacific, achieve at or above in relation to National Standards in reading, writing and mathematics. A significant increase in both rates of progress and the number of Māori students achieving at or above National standards in reading and writing has been evident over the past two years.

Assessment information is used effectively to set priorities for and target specific groups and individual students each year. Through self review, school leaders are continually refining their understanding and decision making for targeted resourcing to accelerate progress for priority learners. In 2013, school goals were improved to focus on particular groups of students with the aim of raising the achievement of boys and accelerate achievement for some Māori boys in mathematics.

The school has a comprehensive process for recording and sharing the progress of priority learners. Evidence indicates that most students are making appropriate progress. Detailed class profiles provide opportunities for responsive and targeted teaching to meet individual student needs.

Teachers know their students well, with some providing in-depth evaluation of the effectiveness of interventions in accelerating progress. A recent initiative is for teachers to share information about students with particular learning needs in regular one-on-one meetings with the principal. ERO affirms this process.

3 Curriculum

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

The school’s curriculum, “the scheme”, is an effective and continuously evolving document that supports students’ learning

Since the previous ERO review, the school identified a need to review and develop its scheme to fully incorporate The New Zealand Curriculum. This has been effectively achieved through whole staff collaboration, closely aligned with professional learning and an ongoing developmental process.

A clear vision underpins the school’s curriculum linked to the values, principles and key competencies of The New Zealand Curriculum. Learning areas are documented through clear and appropriately progressive sequences of learning over class and year levels.

The whole school approach to curriculum development is enabling greater responsiveness from teachers and syndicates to the needs and abilities of their students. Teachers effectively use the curriculum to better match learning programmes with the wide range of cultures students bring with them to school. An innovative approach to incorporate Māori content is being explored.

Parent and whānau consultation for curriculum development has been included as part of regular review of school operations. Creating specific opportunities for more extensive curriculum consultation with parents, whānau and students should enhance its continuing relevance and support authentic contexts for learning. Such consultation could be a useful part of regular curriculum self review.

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

The senior leadership team is using deliberate strategies to promote the engagement and achievement of its Māori students. These are building on already strong whānau-school relationships where teachers are in regular contact with parents of Māori children and students’ progress is closely monitored.

A new approach to partnerships with students and whānau is being implemented based on ideas from a range of sources. These include:

• Ka Hikitia, the Ministry of Education’s Māori Education Strategy
• Tātaiako: Cultural Competencies for Teachers of Māori Learners
• Te Kotahitanga, a professional learning and research programme, that supports school leaders and teachers improve Māori students' learning and achievement.

Staff, whānau and students continue to develop the Māori Education Plan through progressive rounds of consultation with each group. The plan incorporates the school vision and has an overall learning goal that encapsulates the school’s understanding of success for Māori students as Māori. Elements of the plan are already evident in areas of school operation.

Paraparaumu Beach School is working collaboratively with other schools in the Kapiti area to develop a coherent programme of te reo Māori that will support students as they transition beyond their primary school years. The profile of kapa haka across the school is high.

ERO and the school agree that the collaborative approach to engaging Māori students and whānau with staff continue. The approach is already being considered for encouraging similar engagement with Pacific students and their families.

4 Sustainable Performance

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

The school is very well placed to sustain and improve its performance.

The school is well governed and managed. The board receives high quality information to support its decision making. Trustees continue to provide resources, including additional staff, to promote high levels of student achievement. Transition of trustees onto the board, following recent elections, is well planned. At the time this review the board has a good mix of experienced and new trustees.

School leadership is of high quality. The principal effectively distributes responsibilities across his staff and actively nurtures aspiring leaders. The senior leadership team and syndicate leaders share a commitment to ongoing inquiry into improving the quality of statistical and written information gathered about student learning to inform teaching. Senior leaders regularly engage in strategic thinking about the school’s future direction.

High quality teaching is supported by a thorough appraisal process, class observation and feedback to staff on specific projects. High levels of communication are evident and there is a schoolwide culture of continuous learning and reflection.

Self review is embedded in school processes at governance, senior management and syndicate levels. Senior leaders and staff are focused on developing greater consistency in classroom evaluation of practice based on a wide range of evidence. This should allow for:

• better alignment of classroom teaching strategies for specific groups and individuals with overarching syndicate and school goals
• teacher-led understanding of what accelerated progress for students with particular needs looks like
• increased teacher confidence in rigorously investigating the impact of teaching on the learning of individuals and groups of 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 four-to-five years.

Joyce Gebbie

National Manager Review Services Central Region (Acting)

7 October 2013

About the School

Location	Paraparaumu Beach
Ministry of Education profile number	2948
School type	Full Primary (Years 1 to 8)
School roll	608
Gender composition	Female 51%, Male 49%
Ethnic composition	Māori NZ European/Pākehā Pacific Other European Other ethnic groups	12% 62% 2% 12% 12%
Special features	Attached Unit: Resource Teachers: Learning and Behaviour
Review team on site	August 2013
Date of this report	7 October 2013
Most recent ERO report(s)	Education Review Education Review Education Review	May 2009 May 2006 May 2003