Te One School

Findings

On the basis of the findings of this review, ERO ‘s overall evaluation judgement of Te One’s performance in achieving valued outcomes for its students is: Developing.

1 Background and Context

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

Te One School is located on the Chatham Islands. It caters for students in Years 1 to 8. At the time of this ERO review, the roll was 45 students, 30 identify as Māori and seven as Moriori.

The December 2016 ERO report identified areas for strengthening practice and recommended that the Ministry of Education (MoE) provide support to bring about improvements. Since that time, a MoE advisor and Resource Teachers of Learning and Behaviour (RTLB) have worked with the school. A Student Achievement Function (SAF) practitioner was appointed to work with the school in March 2020.

Trustees have received training from the New Zealand School Trustees Association (NZSTA). In 2018 a Limited Statutory Manager (LSM) was appointed to be responsible for employment and curriculum functions. The LSM is no longer required but is available to the school in an advisory position.

There have been significant staffing changes since the last ERO review. A new principal was appointed in term 3 2019 and two new teachers joined in 2020.

A range of professional learning and development has occurred to support curriculum development for better learner outcomes.

Community links are evident through developing relationships with local iwi and imi, community consultation, and regular interactions with the local early learning service and schools.

The principal works collaboratively with the other local principals to provide professional learning and development opportunities for teachers. This provision is also used to enhance learning-centred relationships with iwi/imi and the wider Chatham Islands community.

2 Review and Development

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

Priorities identified for review and development

The 2016 ERO report identified key areas for ongoing development. These were for trustees, the principal and staff to:

• raise the achievement of students at risk of not achieving, and improve assessment practices

• review the curriculum and the effectiveness of teaching, learning and cultural responsiveness approaches and practices

• build the effectiveness of governance and leadership

• strengthen self review by developing a shared understanding of effective, evidence-based internal evaluation

• address compliance matters related to: careers education and guidance provision; health consultation; implementation of personnel and industrial policies; the endorsement of teacher practising certificates; and meeting risk management requirements.

Progress

The school has made significant progress in addressing some priorities identified for review and development.

Student achievement has improved since the last ERO review. At the end of 2019 most students, including Māori, were achieving at or above curriculum level expectations in reading, and the large majority of students achieved successfully in writing and mathematics. Moriori children achieve slightly better than their peers.

Achievement for groups of students is well known by trustees, leaders and teachers. An appropriate range of systems, processes and strategies is used to identify, track and monitor the individual needs of students at risk of not achieving at expected curriculum levels. However, the schoolwide picture of accelerated progress for individuals and groups of students not meeting expectations is not sufficiently clear. Refining school targets to specifically focus on accelerating the rates of progress of learners at risk of underachievement is needed.

There is a well-considered approach to improving learning and wellbeing outcomes for all children. Students engage in caring, collaborative and inclusive learning environments. Learner participation is promoted through well-known values and expectations. Respectful and positive relationships are highly evident. This promotes a sense of belonging and connection to the school.

Staff have acknowledged the need to develop a responsive localised curriculum that reflects the diverse learners across the school. The principal has sought the expertise of an external agency to support this process. Ongoing curriculum developments identified by the school to better promote positive student outcomes include:

• • curriculum statements that give clear guidance for effective teaching practice, and expectations of student outcomes across all learning areas

  • provision of guidelines for moderation practices in reading, writing and mathematics

  • identification of expectations for effective culturally responsive practices across all learning areas

  • reflection and response to whānau Māori aspirations for Māori learners

  • reflection and response to Moriori family aspirations for their children

  • provision of effective practices to promote successful transitions for students and their families in and out of the school.

A well-considered focus on developing greater levels of involvement and relational trust across the school community is evident. Families, whānau and the community are welcomed and involved in school activities as respected and valued contributors to learning.

3 Sustainable performance and self review

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

The school continues to develop its capability to sustain and improve its performance.

Following a period of significant leadership and staffing changes, the new principal has prioritised establishing and strengthening key organisational and learning conditions. Most developments are at an earlier stage of establishment or implementation. These will need to be embedded, consolidated and sustained over time. A range of professional learning and development opportunities support this focus. This should better promote successful learning and wellbeing outcomes aligned to school priorities.

Board members actively represent and serve the school in its stewardship role. Trustees receive useful information from the principal. Regular training and support from the New Zealand School Trustees Association for board members promotes shared understanding of the trustee role and responsibilities. Good systems and governance guidelines are in place for meeting statutory requirements.

Trustees and leaders have undertaken strategic community consultation to inform decision making and review and develop the school charter. Purposeful engagement with local iwi and imi supports an increased acknowledgement of identity, language and culture for Māori and Moriori students and their families. Trustees and the principal acknowledge this is an area for ongoing development.

A shared understanding of internal evaluation across all levels of the school is required. This should support trustees and staff to better determine the effectiveness of teaching practices, learning interventions, and school operations on raising achievement and improving outcomes for all students.

Key next steps

The principal and teachers now need to focus on the:

• effective monitoring and reporting of progress and acceleration of all groups at risk of not achieving educational success

• ongoing curriculum review that reflects the school’s diverse learners and their families

• use of internal evaluation to more effectively and formally analyse the impact and effectiveness of school operations, teaching programmes and initiatives on student outcomes.

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.

Actions for compliance

ERO identified non-compliance in relation to:

• consulting with the school community regarding the delivery of the health curriculum.

In order to address this, the board of trustees must:

• adopt a statement on the delivery of the health curriculum after consultation with the school community, at least once in every 2 years [Section 60B Education Act 1989].

Since the onsite stage of the review the board and principal have actively engaged to address this.

4 Recommendations

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

Trustees and the principal have requested the continued support of ERO for the next one to two years. ERO agrees with the need for ongoing involvement.

The school acknowledges the effective support provided by the MoE. Additionally, ERO recommends that the school continues to seek assistance from the MoE in order to support curriculum development and implementation, and to sustain and continue to improve student learning and achievement.

Conclusion

On the basis of the findings of this review, ERO ‘s overall evaluation judgement of Te One’s 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.

Dr Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region - Te Tai Tini

19 June 2020

About the school

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

1 Context

Te One School is the largest of three schools on the Chatham Islands. It is situated in Te One and near Waitangi, the main population base of Rekohu/Wharekauri, the largest island. The school has a roll of 63 children, more than half of whom are Māori. The board generously funds the school so that there are three fulltime teachers as well as the principal. Two of the four parent trustees are new to the board. The other two, one of whom is the chairperson, have been on the board for around two years.

Although the school is remote, teachers have participated in a wide range of professional development opportunities through a mixture of off-island courses, on-line work, and visiting providers.

The school has continued to have many changes of staff since the last review.

2 Equity and excellence

The vision and valued outcomes defined by the school for all children are to embrace the unique Chatham Islands way of life, and educate their children in a safe, caring and positive environment. Through the vision the board seeks to enable their students to become confident, respectful individuals who are able to successfully contribute to their ongoing journey. The school's values are responsibility, honesty, cooperation, respect, and working toward 'Personal Best' by aiming high.

The school’s achievement information shows that over the past four years about 40% of children are working below or well below the National Standards in reading, writing and mathematics. Around two thirds of girls are achieving at or above the standard. Māori children and boys are not achieving well. In 2015, 45% of Māori and half of the boys were reading at levels below national expectations.

Teachers need to work as a team to moderate children's achievements and form overall teacher judgements. The only moderation is between the principal and an individual teacher. The planned moderation process for writing did not occur. There is no moderation with the other Chatham Island schools.

Since the 2013 ERO review, the school has provided a range of professional development opportunities for teachers, and had a focus on student behaviour. The student behaviour plan has been rewritten, and teachers have made a start, with the help of the Resource Teacher - Learning and Behaviour to implement aspects of the Positive Behaviour for Learning programme. Some work has been undertaken to evaluate and revise curriculum plans with mathematics, English and science being the most recent reviews.

3 Accelerating achievement

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

The school is not yet responding effectively to children whose learning and achievement need to be accelerated.

The school uses a good range of assessments to identify children at risk of not achieving equitable outcomes. However, it is not using this information to plan and implement programmes to accelerate all of these children.

Some children are targeted for extra small group or individual support outside of the classroom. However there has been no formal evaluation of how well these programmes are accelerating children's progress.

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's curriculum, processes and practices go some way to enact its vision, goals and targets. However the targets are not sufficiently aspirational for the board to be assured that all children are getting the support they need to be their best.

The parent trustees need training so that they are confident of their roles and responsibilities and better able to carry them out. Since the on-site stage of the review, a staff trustee has been elected to the board.

Trustees need to be more involved in setting the school's vision, goals and targets, and monitoring these to make sure that all students are making sufficient progress to meet the National Standards by the time they leave school. This is particularly important in meeting the charter goal of preparing children to attend boarding schools at the end of Year 8. Some children who are achieving at or close to the standard could be achieving at a higher level if there were higher expectations from the board and teachers, and in some cases, more effective targeted teaching.

The school's targets are not sufficiently challenging and focused on improvement. The 2016 targets are to raise the proportion of children in Years 3 to 8 at or above National Standards from 60% to 65%, 53% to 60%, and 43% to 50% in writing, reading and mathematics respectively. These targets do not meet the needs of many children who will still be below the standard. The school's current targets will not achieve the national expectation that 85% of children will be achieving at the National Standards by the end of Year 8.

The teachers as a team have some good strengths and skills. These could be better used to support teaching and learning across the school. There needs to be better alignment between the school's goals and targets and teachers' planning and delivery of the curriculum. Teachers need to be more involved in analysing achievement information so that they can use it to plan and address children's learning needs.

Two of the three fulltime teachers are recent graduates who have taught only, or mostly, at this school. They need to be better supported to provide learning opportunities for children that meet their needs while they are within the classroom programme.

The school makes effective use of community resources to provide relevant local learning experiences for children. For example, visitors to the island who have skills in particular fields are encouraged to talk with the children and share their skills with them.

The school's links with parents and the wider community have become less effective in the past year or two. Links with Māori parents and the marae are not as frequent or engaging as previously. The school has made an initial contact with both local iwi, but needs to be more proactive in strengthening these links to regain the strong support from the community that has been evident in the past. Following consultation with iwi and gaining the aspirations of the parent community, there needs to be an evaluation of the school’s te reo and tikanga Māori programme. Trustees and leaders need to ensure the programme meets and promotes the range of cultural skills, strengths and interests of students transitioning from the kōhanga reo and through the school.

The board needs to undertake regular anonymous surveys of students, parents and staff. ERO found concerns around the safety of staff and students that had not been dealt with in ways that have resolved the issues for those concerned.

The board needs to undertake a formal exit interview process to ascertain the reasons for teachers leaving so that it can effectively respond to any emerging trends and patterns.

Trustees need to put in place a plan for evaluation of the outcomes of teaching and learning. At this stage they have little information to assist them to confidently make resourcing decisions to support children at risk of not achieving good educational outcomes. A stronger focus on internal evaluation would assist them in allocating resources where the most gains can be made.

5 Going forward

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

Leaders and teachers:

• have not yet adequately built their knowledge of the children whose learning and achievement need to be accelerated
• have not yet adequately established necessary conditions to effectively accelerate learning and achievement
• are not well placed to achieve and sustain accelerated achievement for all children who need it

ERO intends to carry out a process of ongoing evaluation to support development over the course of one-to-two 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.

ERO found several areas of non-compliance.

1. The board has not been receiving adequate information on student achievement. While the data for individual assessments is provided in detail, the board has not received analysed information about how well all children are progressing towards the national standards. The board, through the principal and staff, must gather information that is sufficiently comprehensive to enable the progress and achievement of students to be evaluated.
   [NAG 1(b)]
2. The board, through the principal and staff must maintain an on-going programme of internal evaluation in relation to its strategic plan including how the school is giving effect to the National Education Guidelines through its policies, plans and programmes, including those for curriculum and National Standards.
   [NAG 2(b)]
3. There is no careers education and guidance programme for students in Year 7 and 8.
   [NAG 1(f)]
4. There has been no consultation with the school community on the health curriculum.
   [Section 60B Education Act 1989]
5. The board must develop and implement personnel and industrial policies which promote high levels of staff performance, use educational resources effectively and recognise the needs of students.
   [NAG 3(a)]
6. There is insufficient documentation about how two beginning teachers obtained their full practising certificates. A teacher has met the Practising Teacher Criteria when they have been appraised by their professional leader and this professional leader can attest that the teacher has provided evidence of meeting all of the Practising Teacher Criteria. ERO could not establish a meaningful basis for the principal's attestation for the two beginning teachers.
   [Interim Policy for Registration, Practising Certificates and Limited Authority to Teach, Education Amendment Act on 12 February 2015]
7. Risk management systems (RAMS) are out of date and have not been appropriately signed off. The board needs to take responsibility for the many excursions off the school grounds, and formally delegate authority to the principal for any low-risk excursions it so chooses. The board must provide a safe physical and emotional environment for students.
   [NAG 5(a)]

7 Recommendations

ERO recommends that the Secretary for Education considers intervention under Part 7A of the Education Act 1989 in order to bring about the following improvements:

• raising student achievement
• the quality of teaching and learning
• developing governance
• internal evaluation. 

ERO recommends that NZSTA provides training for the board in its roles and responsibilities, and to assist it with understanding its role in promoting high standards of student achievement.

Dr Lesley Patterson

Deputy Chief Review Officer Te Waipounamu/Southern

20 December 2016

About the school 

Location	Chatham Islands
Ministry of Education profile number	3553
School type	Full Primary (Years 1 to 8)
School roll	63
Gender composition	Boys 35; Girls 28 girls
Ethnic composition	Māori Pākehā Other ethnicities	37 19 7
Review team on site	October 2016
Date of this report	20 December 2016
Most recent ERO reports	Education Review Education Review Supplementary Review	July 2013 May 2010 May 2008