Ruapotaka School

This review is designed to support schools that were experiencing difficulties at the time of the last review. ERO provides ongoing evaluation as the school works to improve its overall performance and build its self-review capability.

This report answers key questions about the school’s background and the context for the review. The report also provides an evaluation of how effectively the school is addressing areas identified for review and development and the quality of its practices and systems for sustaining performance and ongoing improvement.

Findings

1 Background and Context

What is the background and context for this school’s review?

Ruapotaka School is situated in Panmure, Auckland. The school provides education for students from Years 1 to 8.

ERO’s 2019 review reported that leaders and teachers knew children well and had a strong focus on student engagement and wellbeing. Students were observed to be keen to learn and encounter new learning experiences. At that time, the newly appointed principal was effecting positive change to improve learning outcomes for all students. These school conditions continue to be evident. The report also identified some key areas that required further development.

The school is a member of the Manaiakalani Community of Learning.

2 Review and Development

How effectively is the school addressing its priorities for review and development?

Priorities identified for review and development

Since the 2019 report, ERO has maintained an ongoing relationship with the school to evaluate progress in relation to the following agreed priorities for school improvement:

• raising student achievement and accelerating learning
• developing a responsive curriculum
• building effective teaching capability
• building internal evaluation capability
• strengthening stewardship.

Progress

School leaders, staff and board members are actively working with external facilitators to continue addressing these areas for review and development. Very good progress has been made in relation to all priorities.

Raising student achievement

Since the 2019 ERO review, school leaders have continued to prioritise raising overall student achievement to meet curriculum expectations. They recognise the importance of working collaboratively with staff to attain this goal.

Well-analysed longitudinal data and evaluation show that students have maintained levels of achievement in reading and mathematics despite the disruption to learning caused by COVID-19 restrictions. Achievement information in writing shows a small decline for students in Years 1 to 6 and a small increase for students in Years 7 and 8.

School leaders and the board make good use of accessing external advice. Facilitators provide professional guidance to the leadership team and support leaders to improve school systems. These systems and processes are helping leaders and teachers to more effectively monitor student achievement and teaching practice. Involvement in a well-established kāhui ako also helps leaders gauge children’s overall achievement and progress.

Developing a responsive curriculum.

School leaders, teachers and Student Achievement Function (SAF) practitioners have successfully revitalised the school curriculum and school processes focused on enhancing outcomes for all students. Leaders appropriately lead and model the design and implementation of a schoolwide curriculum. The curriculum is becoming more localised and responsive to children’s learning needs.

In curriculum planning, the overarching question of “who are we?” potentially enables children to promote their culture and experiences as part of their learning. Strengthened connections with the local iwi, Ngāti Pāoa and marae have supported this development. Children have opportunities to participate confidently in the kawa of Ruapotaka marae.

The school’s special education needs coordinator (SENCO) has improved the coordination of learning support programmes. These programmes help learners and teachers to better cater for the specific learning requirements of students who require this support.

Building effective teaching capability

Teachers have participated in professional learning programmes focused on improving outcomes for learners in reading, writing and mathematics. Leaders and teachers work well with SAF practitioners to improve teaching and to build their capability in assessment practice.

Teachers work collaboratively to discuss what they notice about children’s learning. They plan together to consider and implement teaching and learning strategies to raise achievement. Teachers make good use of assessment information to identify children’s learning requirements. Increasingly, they use this information to adapt their teaching specifically for students’ individual learning needs.

Building evaluation capability

The principal continues to establish good foundations to build evaluation capability:

• Shared collaborative planning and ongoing targeted training has helped to develop a reflective professional school culture.
• Leaders have successfully established school expectations for evaluating curriculum programmes, and systems and processes. They work well together to promote consistency of teaching practice across the school.
• Teachers have increasing opportunities to contribute to schoolwide planning, and they have begun to evaluate the effectiveness of their teaching in meeting learners’ individual needs.

Strengthening stewardship

Board members value the training and support from New Zealand School Trustees Association (NZSTA). Information from NZSTA workshops is shared with members to strengthen understanding of their roles and responsibilities on the board.

NZSTA support has given the board more confidence to enact their stewardship role. Processes for board meetings have been strengthened and successfully implemented. The board willingly reaches out to NZSTA when required.

The board is beginning to use a review cycle for updating policies, so these are relevant, and consistent with legislative requirements.

Key next steps

Leaders and teachers should continue to embed practices and initiatives including:

• strengthening collation and analysis of student achievement information to inform teaching practice
• supporting teachers to include art education as part of the school’s localised curriculum, suited to students’ interests and strengths
• supporting teachers to develop evaluation capability to identify what successes can be built on and what can be improved.

3 Sustainable performance and self review

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

Ruapotaka School is becoming well placed to sustain and continue its performance.

Leaders nurture a culture that acknowledges people’s strengths and provides teachers with confidence to adapt their practice.

Trustees have good systems in place to enable them to better respond to legislative changes, school requirements and ensure policies are regularly reviewed.

Other factors contributing to sustainability include:

• leaders’ and teachers’ active participation in ongoing professional learning to improve their capability
• leaders developing useful processes for evaluation to support school improvement
• improved schoolwide systems for monitoring student progress and achievement, and for supporting school improvement.

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
• school policies in relation to meeting the requirements of the Children’s Act 2014.

4 Recommendations

Recommendations, including any to other agencies for ongoing or additional support.

ERO recommends that the Ministry of Education continues to work with the school, as support was disrupted due to the impact of COVID-19 restrictions during 2020 and 2021.

Te Ara Huarau

The school has made sufficient progress and will transition into ERO’s approach to working with schools, Te Ara Huarau.

Filivaifale Jason Swann
Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern)
Northern Region - Te Tai Raki

7 November 2022

About the school

The Education Counts website provides further information about the school’s student population, student engagement and student achievement.

School Context

Ruapotaka School is a small, urban school in Glen Innes, Auckland. The school caters for children in Years 1 to 8 with a current roll of 130. The roll reflects the cultural diversity of the community. It includes 30 percent who identify as Māori, and 58 percent who have Pacific heritage.

The school’s mission statement is “Kia Kaha – Be Strong”. The vision is “Better than Before”. Core values of pride, respect, and responsibility are promoted. Key goals are:

• supporting learners to have greater clarity and ownership of their learning

• supporting teachers to inquire into their practice in order to design effective and challenging learning experiences.

Following the retirement of the school’s long-serving principal in 2018, the board appointed a new principal in January 2019. A significant development this year has been the restructure of school leadership.

Recently there has been good progress towards addressing the key next steps outlined in the 2016 ERO report. These include succession planning for trustees, and redevelopment of the teacher appraisal process.

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

• achievement in reading, writing and mathematics
• learning outcomes for students with additional needs
• attendance.

The school is part of the Manaiakalani Tamaki Cluster Community of Learning | Kāhui Ako.

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 in the early stages of achieving excellent and equitable outcomes for its students in relation to core curriculum learning outcomes. Fewer than half of students are achieving at or above expected curriculum levels in reading, writing and mathematics.

Definitions of progress and acceleration are yet to be established. Leaders and teachers are beginning to develop systems to accurately gather and respond to achievement data, to get a clearer picture of student progress and to strengthen students’ engagement in learning.

Other valued student outcomes are promoted well. Children demonstrate a sense of pride, respect and responsibility.

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

The school is working towards accelerating learning for those Māori and other students who need this.

Māori learners currently achieve at levels higher than their peers in reading, writing and mathematics. Students with additional learning needs are identified and monitored. New systems and processes are beginning to better support these children. There are also improved levels of support for the small number of students with English as a Second Language (ESOL).

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 and teachers actively promote a positive and inclusive learning environment. They know children well, and have a strong focus on student engagement and wellbeing. Students are keen to learn and encounter new learning experiences.

The principal is committed to effecting positive change to improve learning outcomes for all students. She has a focus on empowering teachers and students to take on responsibility and leadership. A more collaborative culture is beginning to impact positively on the development of schoolwide processes that are open and transparent. Networking and professional learning opportunities are now being developed and available for all staff. A robust appraisal process has recently been introduced.

Relationships with external agencies and community groups are being re-established, including liaison with the local marae.

The school provides a good range of opportunities for students to access sport, drama and health education, through external agencies that contribute to the curriculum.

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

Schoolwide data should be regularly gathered and analysed by teachers and leaders to clearly identify learners who need accelerated learning. Action plans can then be developed to ensure meaningful, individual programmes are provided for those learners.

Leaders and teachers are reviewing the curriculum to ensure that it reflects the aspirations of students, parents and whānau, and supports students to make sufficient progress towards achieving at expected curriculum levels. They are continuing to embed their focus on the key competencies of the New Zealand Curriculum (NZC). Leaders agree that curriculum development should include increased focus on oral language and writing, and science. They plan to develop inquiry-based learning approaches, and a sequential te reo Māori programme. They should also develop careers education for students in Years 7 and 8.

Leaders should extend strategies to build teacher capability, including access to relevant professional learning and development. Explicit and effective teaching strategies need to be established, and systems developed to monitor and embed these into the culture of the school.

3 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.

4 ERO’s Overall Judgement

On the basis of the findings of this review, ERO’s overall evaluation judgement of Ruapotaka School’s performance in achieving valued outcomes for its students is: Needs development.

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

ERO’s Framework: Overall School Performance is available on ERO’s website.

5 Going forward

Key strengths of the school

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

• the principal’s leadership, which is promoting a culture of positive change, and building relational trust and effective collaboration at all levels of the school community
• an orderly and supportive environment conducive to student wellbeing and learning.

Next steps

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

• building collective capacity to use evaluation, inquiry and knowledge building to support innovation and improvement
• strengthening governance practices
• extending strategies to build teacher capability and consistency in effective teaching and learning practices
• establishing learning-focused relationships with whānau.

Areas for improved compliance practice

To improve current practice, the board of trustees should:

• continue to promote the newly established policy review cycle, prioritising policies and procedures linked to staff appointments and education outside the classroom
• develop systems to identify and address hazards and risks
• continue to develop and evaluate the school’s strategic plan.

ERO recommends that the school seek support from the Ministry of Education in order to bring about improvements in:

• designing a responsive curriculum that reflects the NZC and the aspirations of students, whānau and the school community

• internal evaluation, to support innovation, ongoing improvement and sustainability in teaching and learning and all school operations

• building teacher capability and consistency in effective teaching and learning practices, including access to relevant external professional learning and development.

Steve Tanner

Director Review and Improvement Services Northern

Northern Region

25 July 2019

About the school