1 Context
St Teresa’s School serves a multicultural community of learners. Children learn in cross-age groupings within the school’s junior and senior teaching teams.
Improvements have been made to school buildings and resources in an effort to foster collaborative teaching and learning. This includes two new classrooms for older children.
The school’s roll is growing and includes an increasingly diverse range of children with a variety of strengths and needs. Staff and board members are representative of the range of ethnic backgrounds within the school community. The school has forged close links with its parent community, the local parish and schools.
The school has a positive ERO reporting history. Continuity in practices is promoted by the school’s long-serving principal and chairperson.
At the time of this review the school had ten Māori learners. Four of these children have been at the school just over 12 months. A key member of staff provides regular support for Māori learners and staff to help promote te ao Māori.
2 Equity and excellence
The school seeks to promote a community of life-long learners where the teachings of Jesus are valued and respected.
The school’s valued outcomes for all students include supporting them to:
- develop a strong sense of self worth and become spiritually strong
- be effective communicators and well prepared for the future
- be proud of their culture and to value the cultures of others
- be environmentally active and globally connected.
The school also has 17 virtues that they want to foster with their children.
The school’s achievement information shows that generally Māori children are achieving lower than their peers. Most achieve above the National Standards in reading and mathematics. Many of these children have made accelerated progress in some aspects of their literacy and mathematics learning during their time at the school. Māori learners demonstrate significant pride in their culture.
For other children most are achieving at or above the National Standards for reading, writing and mathematics. Asian and Pacific children achieve as well as their peers in literacy.
Achievement patterns over the last three years have been most consistent in mathematics. A significant number of learners continue to achieve above the National Standards in reading.
Variation in achievement patterns over the last two years has been greatest in literacy where there has been a drop in achievement. This variation is partly a result of ongoing changes in the school’s roll, the increasing numbers of children for whom English is not their first language and teachers using more robust assessment practices.
Good achievement in other areas is most evident in the successful participation of many children in a variety of physical activities and their ability to use digital technologies to support their learning. Many children have also successfully taken part in school productions and regional cultural festivals. Older children successfully undertake a range of leadership roles.
Since the school’s last ERO evaluation the school has retained and built on the strengths evident at that time. Leaders have improved the school’s curriculum and self-review practices. School-wide professional development has resulted in some significant changes and improvements to teaching programmes and practices.
The board and school leaders are confident that recent improvements to teaching programmes and practices will result in better outcomes for children. They should continue to give close attention to evaluating the impact of these initiatives.
3 Accelerating achievement
The school is very responsive to children whose learning and achievement needs acceleration. Leaders and teachers know their learners and their parents very well. They accurately identify and actively respond to children’s learning needs. An increasing range of additional support is helping many children, including Maori, to make accelerated progress in aspects of their learning.
How effectively does this school respond to Māori children whose learning and achievement need acceleration?
A variety of practices are supporting Maori children to experience success, including success as Maori, and make progress. These include:
- the school’s strong focus on, and success in, promoting cultural pride and respect
- the active promotion of children’s language, culture and identity
- the way biculturalism is successfully integrated throughout the curriculum
- the supportive relationships between school leaders, teachers and the parents of Māori children that is fostered through regular communication and parent forums
- teaching practices based on research about how best to support Māori children and their learning.
A more specific plan for accelerating Maori student progress would help to build on the best of existing practices.
How effectively does this school respond to other children whose learning and achievement need acceleration?
The school has good systems in place to identify, respond and track the progress of other children whose learning needs acceleration. Teachers use a range of strategies to provide additional individual support to these children, including help for children whose first language is not English. This support includes assistance within groups, specific targeted interventions and the use of external expertise and advice.
Reports to the board about the additional learning support for some children tend to describe what is happening rather evaluating its effectiveness. More comment on the impact of this support on children’s learning would make these reports more useful.
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 priorities for equity and excellence?
School conditions actively support the enactment of the school’s vision, values, goals and priorities.
Leaders and teachers have created a welcoming and inclusive school environment that fosters a family-like atmosphere and a strong sense of community. This environment is promoted by the school's emphasis on values and virtues, respectful relationships and strong pastoral care. Children's opinions are sought and valued.
Collaborative practices promote collective responsibility for student wellbeing and learning. Children’s successes are celebrated and they demonstrate pride in their achievements and their school. These features, along with good routines, help to maximise the time children spend engaged in learning.
The school’s curriculum provides children with a rich and suitably varied range of learning opportunities. These opportunities are consistent with the school’s vision and the learner qualities they seek to foster. Teachers give strong emphasis to religious education, literacy and mathematics, physical education, health and children’s wellbeing.
Other strengths of the curriculum include the:
- way in which teachers make learning meaningful through integrating studies and linking activities to children's everyday lives
- appropriate range of opportunities children have to take responsibility for their learning and to learn with and from their peers.
- way in which children’s learning is enriched through the recognition and celebration of their various cultures
- school’s innovative and interesting religious education programme.
A focus on personal goal setting, the development of problem solving skills, and the practical application of knowledge and skills helps to motivate learners and promote their independence.
Professional development successfully supports teachers to extend the range of up-to-date teaching practices they use to promote student progress and achievement. These include:
- shared planning and clearly focused teaching
- using achievement information to continually adapt to programmes and groupings in response to children's strengths and needs
- increasing use of a variety of resources, including digital technologies, to enhance teaching and learning.
The principal, with the support of other school leaders, provides effective professional leadership that continues to facilitate ongoing school improvement. Their decision making is underpinned by a strong focus on promoting positive outcomes for all children and creating conditions that support this.
Other features of school leadership include:
- clear and high expectations for staff and for children
- the effective use of staff strengths
- relationships and collaborative practices that promote a strong sense of teamwork
- well-considered, planned and evaluated approaches to developments.
School leaders are successfully building their own and other teachers’ capability and collective capacity. A wide range of both internal and external professional development that is well targeted and resourced, is deepening teachers understanding of the curriculum and best teaching practices. Professional conversations and reflective practices promote thoughtful decision making.
In-depth curriculum reviews have helped to confirm strengths and identify further ways to promote excellence and equity. Leaders act on review findings.
The board performs its role effectively. Trustees are kept well informed through regular reports. They are very responsive to requests for additional resourcing that focuses on enhancing learning experiences for children and responding to identified needs.
Positive relationships exist between the board, the school, the staff and the parish. The involvement of school personal in the wider educational community is supporting their efforts to promote equity and excellence. Leaders and teachers build supportive relationships with parents and actively provide pastoral and practical help to many families.
Leaders and teachers are giving appropriate emphasis to further exploring ways of promoting learning focused partnerships with parents and whānau.
The board, senior leadership team and ERO agree that to continue to promote ongoing school improvement, they should:
- give priority to embedding and building on recent curriculum initiatives
- extend the range of information the board receives about student achievement and progress in areas beyond literacy and mathematics
- work on further refining the school’s charter and plans in ways that clarify, support and help to evaluate the achievement of key strategic priorities
5 Going forward
How well placed is the school to achieve and sustain equitable and excellent outcomes for all children?
Leaders and teachers:
- know the children who need their 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.
ERO is likely to carry out the next 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:
During the review, ERO checked the following items because they have a potentially high impact on student safety and wellbeing:
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Emotional safety of students (including prevention of bullying and sexual harassment).
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Physical safety of students.
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Teacher registration.
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Processes for appointing staff.
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Stand down, suspensions, expulsions and exclusions.
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Attendance.
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Compliance with the provisions of the Vulnerable Children Act 2014.
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Provision for international students.
International Students
The school is a signatory to the Code for International Students. At the time of the review, there were no international students.
Chris Rowe
Deputy Chief Review Officer Southern (Acting)
24 May 2016
About the school
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Location
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Christchurch
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Ministry of Education profile number
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3543
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School type
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Integrated Roman Catholic - Full Primary (Y1-8)
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School roll
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168
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Gender composition
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Girls 55%; Boys 45%
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Ethnic composition
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Pākehā
Māori
Asian
Pacific
Other
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21%
6%
52%
20%
1%
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Review team on site
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March 2016
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Date of this report
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24 May 2016
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Most recent ERO report(s)
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Education Review
Education Review
Education Review
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December 2012
June 2008
March 2005
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