Tirohia School is a full primary school catering for students in Years 1 to 8. It is located in Tirohia, a rural community close to Paeroa township from where most students are transported each day on the school van. The school has a roll of 58, including 44 Māori students. Students and their families are mostly connected to the Tirohia marae, Paeahi marae and Pai-o-Hauraki marae and local iwi, Ngāti Hako and Ngāti Tamatera.
The school’s vision is to grow equity, excellence and belonging. The school values are expressed as: mahi tahi, whānaungatanga, tuakana teina, manaakitanga, kaitiakitanga, ako, and kotahitanga.
Tirohia School’s strategic goals for 2019 include growing:
teacher practice that accelerates learning for target learners
cultural relationships for responsive pedagogy
community connections and the profile of Tirohia School.
Leaders and teachers regularly report to the board, schoolwide information about outcomes for students in the following areas:
Since the previous ERO review in 2016, the school has had three principals. The current principal began in the position in term 3, 2019. There has also been a full change in teaching staff and the board of trustees.
The school is a member of Ohinemuri Community of Learning.
The school is not achieving equitable and excellent outcomes for all students.
The school’s achievement data for 2019 shows that approximately half of all students achieved at or above national curriculum expectations in reading, writing and mathematics.
Māori students are achieving significantly better than their Pākehā peers in reading and mathematics. Boys are outperforming girls in writing and mathematics.
The school is unable to provide achievement data prior to 2019. Leadership is working to strengthen the reliability of data.
The school is beginning to respond to the urgent need to accelerate the learning of Māori and other students who need this.
In 2019, the school has developed and implemented a system to track and monitor the progress of at-risk students. The data collected across three terms shows that the majority of students who need to make accelerated progress in reading, writing and mathematics are doing so.
The school is yet to collate and analyse longitudinal progress data and this is an identified next step.
Students learn in a caring and inclusive environment. There has been a recent focus on collaboratively reviewing the school’s values, which are highly visible in the culture of the school. Teachers and students have co-constructed a shared understanding of each of the identified values. Supportive tuākana-teina relationships are evident in and out of the classrooms. There is a strong emphasis on hauora, and the school provides high levels of pastoral care for students and their families. Students with additional needs are supported in class, and there is regular liaison with external agencies to access suitable resources and aid.
Leadership is developing productive relationships to support teaching and learning. Community connections are being purposefully strengthened to improve aspects of the curriculum. The school’s interactions with the local marae and community businesses are enabling the development of authentic, contextualised learning opportunities for students. The school is also working more closely with the local high school to support transitions for senior students. The new principal is accessing a range of external support and professional learning opportunities to build leadership knowledge and aspects of teacher capability.
There is a need for a strategic and coherent approach to build professional capability and collective capacity. Priority should be given to developing consistent practice for teaching and learning, in particular, strengthening:
Leadership and teachers are beginning to explore ways to develop and embed a localised curriculum. Consideration should be given to ensuring that the full breadth and depth of the New Zealand Curriculum is covered, that there is a coherent and sequential approach to learning, and that curriculum design and enactment supports every student to make sufficient progress in their learning.
Leaders, teachers and trustees need to strengthen the management and use of achievement data, including:
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:
During the review, ERO checked the following items because they have a potentially high impact on student safety and wellbeing:
On the basis of the findings of this review, ERO’s overall evaluation judgement of Tirohia School’s performance in achieving valued outcomes for its students is: Needs development.
ERO will maintain an ongoing relationship with the school to build capacity and evaluate progress.
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.
For sustained improvement and future learner success, the school can draw on existing strengths in:
For sustained improvement and future learner success, priorities for further development are in:
ERO identified non-compliance in relation to curriculum, personnel, and health, safety and welfare.
In order to address this, the board of trustees must develop policies, procedures and practices on:
To improve current practice, the board of trustees should:
ERO recommends that the New Zealand School Trustees Association consider providing support for the school in order to bring about improvement in:
ERO also recommends that the Ministry of Education consider providing support for the school in order to bring about improvement in the areas identified in this report as requiring development.
Darcy Te Hau
Acting Director Review and Improvement Services Central
Central Region
27 March 2020
Location |
Tirohia |
Ministry of Education profile number |
2033 |
School type |
Full Primary (Year 1 to 8) |
School roll |
58 |
Gender composition |
Females 31 Males 27 |
Ethnic composition |
Māori 44 |
Students with Ongoing Resourcing Funding (ORS) |
Yes |
Provision of Māori medium education |
No |
Review team on site |
November 2019 |
Date of this report |
27 March 2020 |
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review December 2016 |