St Andrew's School (Timaru) - 09/08/2017

Summary

St Andrew’s school has a roll of 90 children from Year 1 to 8. Of these children, a small number identify as Māori and as Pacific. Membership of the school’s board of trustees has remained stable, and the board has undertaken external and internal training to build its capability.

The school has responded well to the areas for development identified in the April 2014 ERO report.

The school has lifted the proportion of children achieving at expected levels in mathematics and reading and to a lesser extent in writing.

The school has participated in a Ministry of Education professional development programme focused on accelerating learning in literacy (ALL). Writing continues to be an area of focus to lift achievement for boys.

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

The school is effectively responding to Māori and other children whose learning and achievement need acceleration. The school has a strong focus on improvement, and has developed some very good systems and practices for enhancing learning outcomes for its children.

There are a number of processes that are increasingly effective in enabling the achievement of equity and excellence. At the time of this review strengths in the school included:

strong leadership and clear direction for the school led by the board and principal
high levels of parent and community support and involvement
teachers delivering broad and interesting programmes that are motivating and engaging children in their learning
the safe physical and emotional environment for children.

Children are achieving well. The school demonstrates strong progress toward achieving equity in educational outcomes, supported by effective, sustainable processes and practices.

The next steps for leaders and teachers are to strengthen and extend internal evaluation practice.

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

Equity and excellence

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

The school is effectively responding to Māori and other children whose learning and achievement need acceleration. This is particularly evident in reading and mathematics, and to a lesser extent in writing.

Achievement information at the end of 2016 shows that most children across the school achieved at or above the National Standards for reading and mathematics. Writing achievement was a little lower.

The school is constructively addressing disparities in achievement in writing. Historic disparity for boys in writing is reducing. The 2017 data shows that the majority of boys at risk of underachievement have made very good progress in the first half of the year.

The school has effective assessment and moderation procedures to support the reliability of the teachers’ judgements about children’s achievement.

School conditions supporting equity and excellence

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

There are a number of processes that are increasingly effective in enabling the achievement of equity and excellence.

Children’s learning benefits from a broad and localised curriculum, that takes into account their interests and life experiences. Teachers seek children’s views about aspects of their learning and provide many authentic contexts for learning, including extensive use of the local environment.

The principal has established a culture of relational trust between the board, staff and the school community. Together they have developed a clear vision, values and goals that all children have a sense of mana and achieve well in their learning.

There are school-wide systems to enable consistency of teaching practice. Board decision making is aligned to school priorities. There has been a deliberate focus on building teacher capability, especially in the areas of effective teaching in literacy and mathematics.

Teachers are well supported through explicit guidelines, a rigorous appraisal process and useful feedback from the principal regarding their planning, teaching and programmes. The principal and teachers work collaboratively to share information about individual children, and discuss teaching approaches to best meet their needs.

A growing culture of innovation has allowed individual teachers to trial new ways to motivate and engage children in their learning. This includes older children having a greater say over what, where and how they learn.

There are effective systems in the school for tracking and carefully monitoring the progress of all children. School leaders, teachers and support staff assume collective responsibility for preparing and implementing planning for individual children to lift their achievement. Resources are wisely allocated to areas of proven need.

Sustainable development for equity and excellence

The school has a strong focus on improvement and has developed some very good systems and practices for enhancing learning outcomes for children.

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

Internal evaluation practice needs strengthening and extended. Teachers need to deepen their inquiry into the effectiveness of their strategies to lift children’s achievement. Trustees and leaders should grow their capability in evaluative reporting. This includes providing evaluative narrative to:

accompany data analysis
monitor of the charter and strategic goals
show progress towards the school’s vision and valued outcomes.

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
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?

Children are achieving well. The school demonstrates strong progress toward achieving equity in educational outcomes, supported by effective, sustainable processes and practices.

Agreed next steps are to strengthen internal evaluation capability, and strengthen evaluative reporting on the impact of teaching and learning programs on the school’s valued outcomes.