Our Lady of Kapiti School

Education institution number:
3017
School type:
Full Primary
School gender:
Co-Educational
Definition:
Not Applicable
Total roll:
239
Telephone:
Address:

20 Milne Drive, Paraparaumu

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Our Lady of Kapiti School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 17 months of the Education Review Office and Our Lady of Kapiti School 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 

Our Lady of Kapiti is a state integrated Catholic school in Paraparaumu. This school provides education for students in Years 1 to 8.

Our Lady of Kapiti School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are to:

  • maintain and strengthen its special character

  • equip ākonga with the skills and attributes to achieve their highest success

  • build on the local integrated curriculum so ākonga can ‘understand, know and do’ within a caring, safe environment.

You can find a copy of the school’s strategic and annual plan on ​Our Lady of Kapiti School​’s website. 

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate the extent to which the school's approach to teaching and learning is improving the academic outcomes of their ākonga.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is to:

  • strengthen outcomes in literacy and mathematics to enable ākonga to access the broader curriculum

  • ensure ākonga have greater ownership of their learning journey

  • facilitate greater use of achievement information in the planning of curriculum delivery and meeting the needs of their ākonga.

The school expects to see:

  • improved and equitable achievement outcomes in literacy and mathematics

  • ākonga who can articulate their next learning steps

  • teachers deepening their understanding of how best to teach literacy in a structured way

  • effective use of achievement information to plan and deliver next learning steps.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its strategic aim of ‘Growing our Learners’ through:

  • a senior leadership team that visibly promotes positive relationships

  • a collaborative staff who promote a stimulating learning environment that prioritises ākonga wellbeing, progress, engagement and achievement of all ākonga

  • enacted school FAITH values for meaningful learning relationships, growing leaders and promoting its Special Character across the school community.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

  • supporting teachers to implement consistent and effective literacy and mathematics practices to raise achievement and using assessment data as support

  • building a shared understanding of learner agency across the school so that teachers cohesively foster active participation in learning

  • strengthening teacher capacity in the development of sustainable structured literacy teaching practices to effectively equip early ākonga for ongoing success.

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

25 September 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

Our Lady of Kapiti School

Board Assurance with Regulatory and Legislative Requirements Report 2022 to 2025

As of March 2022, the Our Lady of Kapiti School 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

Further Information

For further information please contact Our Lady of Kapiti School, 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

25 September 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

Our Lady of Kapiti School - 29/05/2019

School Context

Our Lady of Kapiti is a Catholic state integrated school located in Paraparaumu. It caters for students in Years 1 to 8. The school was formerly known as St Patrick’s School, Paraparaumu. In 2017, staff and students moved to a new purpose-built school in a new location, with a new name in a new parish. The buildings and grounds have been designed to enable and promote collaborative ways of working and learning.

The roll has grown by 50% since 2017, resulting in increased staffing. At the time of this ERO review the roll is 183 students of whom 17% are Māori. A new principal began in term two 2018. The principal, deputy principal, a team leader and the director of religious studies form the school’s senior leadership team.

The school’s mission statement is: ‘Achieving excellence by living the Gospel values in a Catholic educational environment’.

The school’s FAITH values (fun, aroha, integrity, togetherness, hospitality) have been recently developed following consultation with staff, students and the school community.

Leaders and teachers regularly report to the board, information about assessment results for year groups of students in literacy and mathematics.

A schoolwide review of processes and practices has contributed to plans for professional learning and development (PLD) commencing in 2019. The PLD plan includes a focus on increasing support and monitoring of the achievement of target learners through improved teacher appraisal and inquiry, collaborative teaching practices and curriculum design.

Teaching staff also engage in ongoing professional learning relating to the delivery of religious education.

The school is a member of the Ōtaki-Kāpiti Kāhui Ako|Community of Learning.

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 has student achievement information for some year groups of students from 2018 and earlier years. Currently, there is not a clear schoolwide picture to enable judgements about equitable and excellent outcomes for all students.

A clearly documented strategic goal for 2019 is to increase the consistency of processes to track, collate and report whole school progress and achievement. This should enable improved analysis of student achievement and identification of groups of students who may require targeted support.

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

The school has documented a few examples of students who have made accelerated progress in 2017 and 2018. A specific, documented focus for 2019 is to improve the tracking of progress of all target students and to report this information regularly to the board.

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?

Teachers know individual students well. This includes knowing their interests and learning strengths and next steps. Consistency of practice when tracking each student’s progress and achievement has been strengthened in 2019.

Warm and welcoming relationships are evident in the school environment. Interactions between staff and students are positive and respectful. A well-established buddy system promotes a sense of belonging and provides support to new students. Student leadership opportunities are provided and valued.

Students participate enthusiastically in classroom learning activities. They confidently talk about what they are working on. Differentiated teaching and learning experiences support the focused engagement of individuals and small groups of students.

The school works effectively alongside families, community and outside agencies to support the learning of children with additional learning needs. A proactive, collaborative approach promotes positive transitions for these children as they begin school, move through classrooms and onto secondary school.

The school’s Catholic character is well-integrated into everyday learning experiences and all aspects of school life. Strong relationships with the Parish support children’s sense of community. Catholic practices and prayers offer regular opportunities for acknowledgement and celebration of children’s cultures and languages.

A bicultural curriculum is clearly evident. Te ao, te reo me ngā tikanga Māori are valued and included in units of work and learning experiences, including kapa haka and noho marae for all students.

The principal prioritises collaborative relationships and practice at all levels of school operation. Leaders model positive parent partnerships and actively build and sustain productive community networks. Wide-reaching, regular consultation with students, staff and the community contributes meaningfully to decision making. Parents are well informed through a useful range of communication strategies.

Information from extensive consultation has led to well-considered strategic planning for improvement and innovation. The newly established leadership team use deliberate strategies to build cohesion, collaboration and shared understandings among school staff. Positive team dynamics are evident.

The board meets regularly and has developed useful systems for the governance and operation of a new school.

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

School leaders have identified and ERO’s evaluation supports that processes, practices and frameworks for teacher appraisal, teaching as inquiry, and the curriculum require development.

Leaders have recently reviewed the appraisal process and identified that it will be strengthened through increased observations of teaching practice, inclusion of a summary statement and increased consistency of teacher reflection and evidence. Recent work has been undertaken to unpack each of the Standards for the Teaching Profession.

Teaching as inquiry should be strengthened to increase understanding of the process and apply it more effectively. Teachers should:

  • make better use of student achievement information to examine the impact of teacher practice on student outcomes

  • identify specific deliberate teaching strategies to support target students

  • better link their inquiries to school priorities.

Consultation has supported the school to clarify and document guiding values to underpin teaching and learning. Curriculum review began in term three, 2018. Planned PLD should support teachers to embed these values into curriculum design and implementation and promote growth and consistency in curriculum delivery through the development of a shared understanding of effective teaching practice at this school. The assessment schedule and decisions about which assessment tools to include, is currently under review.

A clear next step is to prioritise in 2019 the development of a systematic process to enable collation and analysis of schoolwide student achievement information to give a clear picture of:

  • all students’ achievement in learning areas
  • progress and achievement of groups of students, including gender and ethnicity
  • the ongoing progress of target students.

This will enable the setting of baseline data in 2019 for comparison of trends and patterns in the future. Reports to parents should be revised to more clearly report on each child’s progress and achievement.

Leaders and teachers have begun to explore targeted, culturally responsive strategies to support successful outcomes for Māori learners. They agree with ERO that a next step is to consult whānau whānui to establish a plan of action.

The review process should be strengthened to become more evaluative. This will enable trustees and leaders to better measure the impact of practices and processes on positive student outcomes, especially those that relate to improving student achievement.

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 Vulnerable Children Act 2014.

4 ERO’s Overall Judgement

On the basis of the findings of this review, ERO’s overall evaluation judgement of Our Lady of Kapiti School performance in achieving valued outcomes for its students is: Developing.

ERO’s Framework: Overall Findings and Judgement Tool derived from School Evaluation Indicators: Effective Practice for Improvement and Learner Success 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:

  • an established positive learning environment for children
  • collaborative working relationships between trustees, leaders, staff, students and families
  • a well-informed plan to guide future development.

Next steps

For sustained improvement and future learner success, priorities for further development are in taking part in the planned PLD and implementing plans for 2019, especially those relating to improving systems and processes for:

  • assessment and overall student achievement
  • teacher appraisal and teaching as inquiry
  • curriculum development
  • internal evaluation.

These are likely to lead to trustees, leaders and teachers developing a clearer picture of effective teaching and learning at this school and evaluating their impact on positive student outcomes.

Alan Wynyard

Director Review and Improvement Services Southern

Southern Region

29 May 2019

About the school

Location

Paraparaumu

Ministry of Education profile number

3017

School type

Full Primary (Years 1 to 8)

School roll

183

Gender composition

Girls 57%, Boys 43%

Ethnic composition

Māori 17%
NZ European/Pākehā 55%
Filipino 8%
Pacific 6%
Other ethnic groups 14%

Students with Ongoing Resourcing Funding (ORS)

Yes

Provision of Māori medium education

No

Review team on site

March 2019

Date of this report

29 May 2019

Most recent ERO report(s)

Education Review May 2016
Education Review April 2013