Summary
Pt Chevalier School is located in a central Auckland. Founded in 1925, the school is highly valued by the local community. Currently there are 642 children, with 41 children of Māori descent and 45 children of Pacific heritage.
In 2016 the board appointed a new principal and a new deputy principal. The board embarked on a three year re-visioning of the school’s vision, mission and goals, facilitated by external advisors. This process will involve all members of the community to ensure that their perspectives are reflected in the school’s strategic direction.
Children experience a wide range of learning opportunities. By year 6 the majority of children, including Māori, achieve at or above National Standards. The school’s achievement information shows that overall children are achieving very well.
Since the 2013 ERO review, as part of strengthening Māori childrens’ success as Māori, the board has included te reo me ōna tikanga Māori values and beliefs in the school charter. In addition, a teacher of te reo Māori has been employed to teach all children in the school.
How well is the school achieving equitable outcomes for all children?
The school has capacity and capability to accelerate learning for all children. Some disparity in achievement exists for Māori and Pacific children. Leaders and teachers are committed to ensuring deliberate interventions are in place to support equity and excellence for these children.
Pt Chevalier School’s motto and mission statement “Tupu Whakahonore/Progress with honour” is supporting the school’s response to Māori and other children whose learning needs acceleration.
Professional development and learning is targeted to support school improvement. Teachers openly share professional practice with each other to engage as a learning community in order to support and progress children’s achievement.
To enhance the school’s processes for achieving equity and excellence it will be beneficial to continue:
-
developing more strategic leadership approaches to building capability and consistency across and within teams in the school.
-
developing more deliberate approaches to planning to further support target students
-
building internal evaluation capacity at all levels, to support school improvement
-
discussing the school’s progress with ERO.
Equity and excellence
How effectively does this school respond to Māori and other children whose learning and achievement need acceleration?
The school’s achievement information shows that most children are achieving very well. Achievement information from 2013 to 2016 shows a high percentage of children achieve at and above the National Standards in reading, writing and mathematics.
Most Māori children are achieving at or above the National Standards in reading, writing and mathematics. However, for some Māori students achievement has not been accelerated over time.
Most Pacific students achieve at or above National Standards by the end of Year 6, however some are not achieving at the same level as their peers.
The school has identified a lack of parity between the achievement outcomes for Māori and Pacific students when compared with the increasingly high achievement outcomes for other students. School leaders recognise the importance of addressing this disparity, by undertaking deeper scrutiny of achievement data and more deliberate planning at the strategic, team and teacher levels.
The school has internal processes for moderating assessment information. Teachers use these to make overall judgements in relation to the National Standards. School leaders have identified that processes could be strengthened by consolidating practices across the school and developing further opportunities for external moderation.
Children who require additional learning support are benefitting from an adapted, inclusive curriculum and specialist expertise. Children who speak languages in addition to English, receive very good learning opportunities that enable them to make good progress.
Children who require extension to their learning programmes are provided with many opportunities to access a broad curriculum, including the arts and sports. All children benefit from weekly lessons from a specialist of te reo Māori.
School conditions supporting equity and excellence
What school processes are effective in enabling achievement of equity and excellence?
The school’s systems and processes for achieving equity and excellence for all learners are becoming increasingly effective. School leaders have identified that growing teachers’ evaluation capacity, and promoting the place and purpose of internal evaluation have the potential to help reduce disparity in achievement for individuals and groups of children.
The school has embarked on a three year re-visioning process with the end goal of being a school that delivers on its “Core Values, Vision and Mission” for students and community. As a result of this initiative, teachers have formed, ‘inquiry teams’ to research and build capacity in priority areas such as data analysis and Māori and Pacific achievement.
The school has a culture of strong relational trust that supports organisational change. This has been evident in the past year with the appointment of a new principal, deputy principal and a newly elected board.
Leaders are planning to build teacher capability, using formative assessment strategies to create greater coherence of practice across and within teaching teams. The recent appointment of a deputy principal with evaluation expertise should provide good support for all staff as they revisit evaluation and assessment for learning.
In order to build evaluation capacity across the school, leaders should undertake professional development to grow their understanding of, and ability to lead and plan internal evaluation. Useful resources to support this development could include the Ministry of Education and the Education Review Office’s “Effective School Evaluation” and ERO’s ‘Internal Evaluation; Good Practice” resources.
Children are engaged in their learning, and learn in creative child-centred environments. Learning is well scaffolded by teachers and this supports children to connect positively with their learning. The curriculum is inclusive and accessible for all students across the school and is also integrated where possible. Children are offered a wide range of learning opportunities including access to specialist teachers of music and physical education. Children’s voice, thinking and interests are clearly visible in their classrooms.
Board resourcing of the curriculum underpins the school’s drive for equity and excellence and enhances outcomes for all students. This is empowering for students and underpins the school’s commitment to Te Tiriti ō Waitangi. The board would benefit from undertaking a regular evaluation of its performance. NZSTA’s tool Hautū: Māori Cultural Responsiveness Self Review tool for Board of Trustees could support this process. The board has recently experienced a period of change and challenge, and has managed this appropriately.
Sustainable development for equity and excellence
What further developments are needed in school processes to achieve equity and excellence?
As the school works towards achieving sustainable processes to promote equity and excellence ERO, the board and senior leaders have identified that consideration should be given to:
-
building senior and team leadership capability and capacity, to ensure consistency in teaching and learning across and within all teaching teams
-
building on the existing te reo Māori programme to develop a more sequential programme across the school
-
building community partnerships through regular Māori and Pacific consultation
-
deepening teachers’ capacity and understanding of internal evaluation, and the role this plays in lifting student achievement
-
continuing to develop curriculum approaches that promote children’s agency in their learning, including reviewing how effectively ‘assessment for learning’ strategies contribute to improved learning outcomes.
Strengthening team leaders’ leadership capability would help to develop a more coherent focus on children whose learning needs acceleration.
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:
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?
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:
The school agrees to:
-
develop a more strategic leadership approache to building capability and consistency across and within teams in the school.
-
develop more deliberate approaches to planning, to support target students learning, across the school
-
build internal evaluation capacity at all levels, to support school improvement
-
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.
Steffan Brough
Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern (Acting)
16 June 2017
About the school
|
Location
|
Pt Chevalier, Auckland
|
|
Ministry of Education profile number
|
1440
|
|
School type
|
Contributing (Years 1 to 6)
|
|
School roll
|
642
|
|
Gender composition
|
Boys 52% Girls 48%
|
|
Ethnic composition
|
Māori
Pākehā
Samoan
Chinese
Indian
British/Irish
Cook Islands Māori
Tongan
other Asian
other
|
5%
74%
4%
3%
3%
2%
2%
2%
2%
3%
|
|
Provision of Māori medium education
|
No
|
|
Review team on site
|
April 2017
|
|
Date of this report
|
16 June 2017
|
|
Most recent ERO report(s)
|
Education Review
Education Review
Education Review
|
May 2012
May 2009
August 2005
|