St Joseph's School (Grey Lynn)

Education institution number:
1493
School type:
Full Primary
School gender:
Co-Educational
Definition:
Not Applicable
Total roll:
45
Telephone:
Address:

456 Great North Road, Grey Lynn, Auckland

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St Joseph's School (Grey Lynn)

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 24 months of the Education Review Office and St Joseph’s School (Grey Lynn) working in Te Ara Huarau, an improvement evaluation approach used in most English Medium State and State Integrated Schools. For more information about Te Ara Huarau see ERO’s website. www.ero.govt.nz

Context 

St Joseph's School (Grey Lynn) is a small integrated Catholic school located in inner city Auckland, catering for ākonga/learners from Years 1 to 6 and girls through to Year 8. The Board appointed a new school leader in September 2023. The school currently has an appointed Limited Statutory Manager (LSM) to support the Board and new Principal.

The school values of excellence, respect, compassion and honesty are lived through the vision “Serving with Faith and Love’.

St Joseph’s School (Grey Lynn)’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:

  • nurturing a safe Catholic learning environment

  • holistic education with student achievement at 80 percent in literacy and numeracy

  • active student, parent, and community engagement

  • inclusive collaborative learning

  • te ao Māori – recognising New Zealand’s cultural diversity.

You can find a copy of the school’s strategic and annual plan on St Joseph’s School (Grey Lynn)’s website.

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how effectively teachers and leaders develop and implement a localised and culturally responsive curriculum that results in positive and excellent learner outcomes across the school.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

  • providing ākonga with current curriculum teaching and learning to include the refreshed NZ curriculum, refreshed religious education curriculum and the Aotearoa NZ History Curriculum

  • to ensure the processes and practices are in place to ensure that ākonga wellbeing is a key priority

  • teachers want to be able to innovate their teaching curriculum in a knowledgeable informed way, hence a focus on building professional and reflective learning practices and processes

  • to better systematise the practices and processes of instructional teaching, learning and leadership

  • to build consistent leadership supported by a collaborative and knowledgeable Board.

The school expects to see:

  • learning that fosters ākonga agency consistently across the school

  • a school that delivers quality educational opportunities for all ākonga, teachers and leaders

  • leadership that is informed, strategic, relational and ensures the school develops strong systematised practices and processes

  • the Board, working alongside the Limited Statutory Manager, to support the principal to focus on developing capacity and capability in communication, policy development, stabilising school leadership and providing targeted teacher development

  • The school, as a place of stability and schooling excellence to meet community needs.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support the school in its goal to implement an up-to-date, localised and culturally responsive curriculum that ensures excellence in teaching and leading resulting in positive learner outcomes across the school:

  • ākonga have a strong sense of belonging

  • school values underpin the care and kindness and respect shown by teachers and ākonga

  • student achievement and progress are positive

  • whānau support the school; wanting only the best for their tamariki

  • the Catholic character of the school is embedded in all that the school does.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

  • evaluating school wide practices and processes for consistency, being fit for purpose, and providing clear guidance to the school

  • ensuring systems, that are now in place to ensure St Joseph’s ākonga feel safe and confident interacting with the children from the other school on site, are regularly reviewed and monitored

  • focusing on upskilling teachers, board and leaders to ensure a culturally responsive localised curriculum can be developed and implemented consistently and effectively

  • back map the evaluation focus to consider and prioritise the teachers, leaders and students' needs.

ERO’s role will be to support the school in its evaluation for improvement cycle to improve outcomes for all learners. ERO will support the school in reporting their progress to the community. The next public report on ERO’s website will be a Te Ara Huarau | School Evaluation Report and is due within three years.

Shelley Booysen
Director of Schools

9 November 2023

About the School

The Education Counts website provides further information about the school’s student population, student engagement and student achievement.  educationcounts.govt.nz/home

St Joseph's School (Grey Lynn)

Board Assurance with Regulatory and Legislative Requirements Report 2023 to 2026

As of August 2023, the St Joseph’s School (Grey Lynn) Board has attested to the following regulatory and legislative requirements:

Board Administration

Yes

Curriculum

Yes

Management of Health, Safety and Welfare

Yes

Personnel Management

Yes

Finance

Yes

Assets

Yes

Actions for Compliance

ERO has identified the following areas of non-compliance during the board assurance process:

  • accurate records about each aspect of the safety checking process have not been kept.[Children’s Act 2014.]

The board has since taken steps to address the areas of non-compliance identified.

Further Information

For further information please contact St Joseph’s School (Grey Lynn), School Board.

The next School Board assurance that it is meeting regulatory and legislative requirements will be reported, along with the Te Ara Huarau | School Evaluation Report, within three years.

Information on ERO’s role and process in this review can be found on the Education Review Office website.

Shelley Booysen
Director of Schools

9 November 2023

About the School

The Education Counts website provides further information about the school’s student population, student engagement and student achievement. educationcounts.govt.nz/home

St Joseph's School (Grey Lynn) - 28/10/2016

1 Context

St Joseph's School (Grey Lynn) is a small inner city state integrated Catholic school that caters for children from Years 1 to 6 and also for girls through to Year 8. The school is part of the wider parish family and enjoys close relationships and connections with members of the church and the local community. The school roll reflects the ethnically diverse community that the school and the local Catholic parish serve. Two percent of children have Māori heritage and 98 percent are from Pacific nations.

Recently a new principal has been appointed bringing with her a refocus on the needs of the school. There have been other staff changes, including the recent appointment of a Deputy Principal to the senior management team. The school hosts a French kindergarten during the week and a Russian language school on the weekends.

2 Equity and excellence

The vision and valued outcomes defined by the school for all children are respect, excellence, honesty and compassion adopted from the founding charism of Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop. These values are encouraged and modelled with the children and encompass the Gospel values and values from The New Zealand Curriculum. They form an integral part of the curriculum and the teaching approach.

The school reports that 86 percent to 90 percent of learners achieve at or above National Standards in reading, writing and mathematics with the greatest majority achieving at National Standards. The data show that Māori and Pacific children achieve equally as well. Their achievement levels continue to improve.

Since the 2013 ERO evaluation the school has continued to use good moderation practices to form overall teacher judgements about student achievement. The school has continued to embed its assessment practices. Teachers have participated in comprehensive professional learning and development contracts with Ministry of Education including Accelerated Learning in Mathematics, Accelerated Learning in Literacy, Learning with Digital Technology and Assessment for Learning. This targeted professional development has supported teachers to reflect on their teaching practice.

Teachers and leaders know and care for children and their families/whānau. Teachers position learners to progress and succeed. Appropriate levels of intervention and individual support are provided for each learner.

3 Accelerating achievement

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

The school is effective at responding to children whose learning and achievement needs acceleration. School leaders have recently put in place diversity registers in each classroom that capture the broad progress of each child. Teachers use school professional learning community meetings to support each other to know and develop each child.

School leaders track and closely analyse achievement information. This ensures learning is optimised for each child and supports them to become successful learners.

The school has developed effective relationships with families. Staff work alongside parents to develop successful learning support programmes for their children. Parents and teachers have previously participated in the "Reading Together Programme" that is planned to be continued to support learning at home. Parents enjoy positive and strong partnerships with the school.

At all areas of the school there is a high level of responsiveness to children's needs. Teachers and senior leaders identify and provide learning support to encourage children's continued progress. Children are benefitting from teaching practices that are promoting learning.

In 2015 an external provider facilitated school-wide professional development in literacy. Teachers looked at the impact of teacher practice on children's learning outcomes. This investigation resulted in the development of a portfolio for teacher appraisal focussed on raising student achievement. This development should be revisited to ensure leaders and teachers share the same expectations.

4 School conditions

How effectively do the school’s curriculum and other organisational processes and practices develop and enact the school’s vision, values, goals and targets for equity and excellence?

The school is increasing its effectiveness to enact its vision, values, goals and priorities for equity and excellence in alignment with the school's vision and mission statements. Children are confident, articulate and engaged in learning and share a strong sense of school pride. They are happy, kind and caring of each other. Pastoral care has high priority in the school.

Leaders and teachers, with help from external providers, have developed a new curriculum for the school using the outcomes of consultation with students, staff and parents. Every effort has been made to integrate the Catholic Curriculum with The New Zealand Curriculum. Emphasis is placed on acquiring literacy and mathematics skills and knowledge. Leaders are looking at ways the curriculum can support the development of deeper thinking skills and more complex learning behaviours.

High quality teaching and learning can be found in some areas of the school. Leaders and teachers are aware of the importance of building more consistent, high quality teaching and learning practices across the school. Teachers are looking at ways to further deepen children's engagement with learning by promoting and supporting children to lead their own learning. Digital devices are increasingly being used as a tool to support student engagement.

The board, led by a long-standing board chairperson, is committed to the wellbeing of the staff and children of the school. A new board with a wide range of professional skills has recently been formed and has undertaken training to further upskill its stewardship role. Trustees fully support the leadership and the new direction of the school. Some review, updating and implementing of current policies and procedures is required to meet legislative requirements. The board has developed a working plan to better manage and prioritise board objectives.

The new principal has a deliberate, considered approach which is effecting positive changes for the school. The new leadership team is recognising its capacity and clarifying its vision. Leaders exhibit a good balance of backgrounds, skills and experiences. Recent training with an external provider has resulted in good systems to further develop teachers' professional learning.

Leaders and teachers are developing systems and processes to promote their inquiry, knowledge building and evaluation. Leaders and teachers gather and analyse information to make decisions about appropriate school priorities. They are beginning to use external expertise and networks to grow their evaluation and inquiry capacity.

5 Going forward

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

Leaders and teachers:

  • know the children whose learning and achievement need to be accelerated
  • respond effectively to the strengths, needs and interests of each child
  • regularly evaluate how well teaching is working for these children
  • act on what they know works well for each child
  • build teacher capability effectively to achieve equitable outcomes for all children
  • are well placed to achieve and sustain equitable and excellent outcomes for all children.

At St Joseph's School (Grey Lynn) most children achieve at the required level in relation to the National Standards. The next step is to lift children's achievement to the above level of the National Standards.

The senior leadership team acknowledge there is some urgency to increase the consistency and quality of teaching across the school. Teaching approaches should be consistently focused on the specific learning needs of children whose progress and achievement needs further acceleration.

The following areas of future focus have been developed with the principal to continue to build the school's capacity to achieve and sustain equitable and excellent outcomes for all children. Senior managers should:

  • continue to use a range of teacher professional development to lift the quality of teaching across the school
  • increase student ownership of learning and opportunities for children to lead their own learning
  • embed the new curriculum ensuring the inquiry process is integral
  • implement the appraisal system in line with Education Council requirements
  • align the goals from the Strategic Plan through all systems.

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

6 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 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

  • processes for appointing staff

  • stand down, suspensions, expulsions and exclusions

  • attendance

  • compliance with the provisions of the Vulnerable Children Act 2014.

7 Recommendation

ERO recommends that the new board of trustees and leadership team set up clear operational systems so that the school has a clear focus on accelerating student achievement and continues to improve outcomes for all children.

Graham Randell

Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern

28 October 2016

About the school

Location

Auckland

Ministry of Education profile number

1493

School type

Full Primary (Years 1 to 8)

School roll

67

Gender composition

Girls 40 Boys 27

Ethnic composition

Maori

Samoan

Tongan

Cook Island

other Pacific

4

36

13

7

7

Review team on site

August 2016

Date of this report

28 October 2016

Most recent ERO report(s)

Education Review

Education Review

Education Review

June 2013

May 2010

September 2007



St Joseph's School (Grey Lynn) - 28/06/2013

1 Context

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

St Joseph’s School (Grey Lynn) is a small inner city school providing a Catholic education for students from Years 1 to 6 and for girls to Year 8. The school is closely linked to its local parish community. It promotes family and church values, and provides an inclusive environment for all students and their families. Positive relationships and high expectations of students and staff are strong features of the school.

The school has made significant progress since ERO’s 2010 review. The principal has developed a cohesive team of leaders who have worked collaboratively with a SAF (Student Achievement Function) practitioner from the Ministry of Education and other advisors to promote ongoing school improvement. Teachers have been supported to grow professionally through internal and external professional learning opportunities.

The strategic appointment of a curriculum leader has resulted in significant curriculum development and has helped strengthen the home-school partnership. A real sense of a learning culture has developed in the school and parent community. This partnership is supported through innovative ways of involving parents in their children’s learning, and effective communication between the school, parents and the parish community.

2 Learning

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

School leaders and the board of trustees use achievement information well to determine school priorities. They understand the need to accelerate the progress of students who are at risk in their learning.

Most of the students are of Pacific heritage and are achieving at or above National Standards in reading, writing and mathematics. Students are motivated and highly engaged in learning. They interact respectfully with teachers and each other. All students are supported by and benefit from the school’s good pastoral care systems and inclusive practices.

The school uses progress and achievement information to engage parents in supporting their children’s learning. After-school programmes, such as the homework centre and other support programmes, are available for students needing extra help. Special programmes target students who need to accelerate their progress. The school is beginning to collect some rich information about the usefulness of these programmes.

Professional learning activities provide teachers with opportunities to have useful conversations about targeted students and their progress. Teachers are becoming more skilled at making accurate judgements about students’ learning levels. Leaders agree that teachers should now plan more specifically for the strengths and learning needs of targeted students within their classes.

3 Curriculum

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

The school has made significant progress in developing a curriculum that promotes and supports student learning.

The school’s new local curriculum, ‘Aranui’, empowers students to have input into their learning contexts and offers opportunities for them to use their experiences and backgrounds in their learning. The curriculum values students and recognises their identities, languages and backgrounds. It provides increased opportunities for student leadership and decision-making. The curriculum includes a greater emphasis on acknowledging and celebrating students’ learning, both in classrooms and with parents.

Teachers have used professional learning to reflect on their teaching and promote good teaching and learning across the school. Their content knowledge has increased and collaborative working relationships have supported the development of a more visible learning community.

ERO and school leaders agree that the key next steps for school leaders and teachers are to embed the school’s new curriculum and to develop assessment procedures to be used in all learning areas.

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

Māori students experience success as Māori and achieve good results in reading, writing and mathematics. The school is developing its te reo programme across all classrooms. The school’s learning expos facilitate the involvement of parents and students. Hui are planned to further promote engagement with Māori parents. The use of kaupapa Māori for welcoming visitors is well embedded in school practice. Kaumātua and whānau contribute willingly to school events. Māori students are supported to take on leadership roles and are acknowledged for their cultural input and expertise.

4 Sustainable Performance

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

St Joseph’s School (Grey Lynn) is becoming increasingly well placed to sustain and improve its performance.

The principal models ongoing learning and uses the strengths of others to build leadership amongst the staff. She has developed positive and effective relationships with the board of trustees. Shared values and beliefs enable trustees to work as a cohesive team. Good working relationships are well embedded and are a key priority for the school.

The board engages in training and strategic planning, using annual retreats to build shared values. Decision making is focused on improving student outcomes and progress towards achieving goals is monitored. Trustees are clear about their roles and responsibilities. Their extensive knowledge of the school community has a positive impact on parents becoming engaged in their children’s learning. Staff and trustees have built strong links with Māori whānau.

ERO and school leaders agree that next steps include:

  • consolidating and building on the school’s sound management and governance processes and systems
  • reviewing all board operations, including strengthening and formalising governance and management processes, and setting strategic goals for board development.

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 three years.

Dale Bailey

National Manager Review Services Northern Region

28 June 2013

About the School

Location

Grey Lynn, Auckland

Ministry of Education profile number

1493

School type

Full Primary (Years 1 to 8)

School roll

81

Gender composition

Girls 51 Boys 30

Ethnic composition

Māori

NZ European/Pākehā

Samoan

Tongan

Cook Island Māori

Filipino

Fijian

Indian

3

1

54

12

5

3

2

1

Review team on site

May 2013

Date of this report

28 June 2013

Most recent ERO report(s)

Education Review

Education Review

Education Review

May 2010

September 2007

June 2004