- ERO evaluates and reports on the education and care of children and young people in early childhood services and schools.
Turua Primary School is located in the township of Turua on the Hauraki Plains near Thames and caters for students in Years 1 to 8. The school roll is currently 106 students of whom 24 identify as Māori. The school’s overarching vision is ‘to develop confident, creative thinkers and communicators and successful, lifelong learners’. Recently reviewed values are manaakitanga (caring for each other), whanaungatanga (working together as a family), ako (teaching and learning) and kotahitanga (standing together as a school community).
Since the 2016, ERO report there has been a significant increase in the roll including a number of students requiring additional support. There have been significant staff and trustee changes.
Local goals include providing a safe, inclusive and challenging learning environment, respect for self and others, and planning for innovative and purposeful learning opportunities.
The school’s current aims are focused on increasing the number of students achieving at or above expectations in reading, writing and mathematics.
Leaders and teachers regularly report to the board, school-wide information about outcomes for students in the following areas:
Turua Primary School is part of the Hauraki Community of Learning | Kāhui Ako.
Turua Primary School is working towards achieving equitable and excellent outcomes for all of its students. The school’s data for 2018 indicates that most students are achieving within or above expected curriculum levels in reading, mathematics and for the majority of students in writing. School achievement data for 2018 also shows that girls and boys are achieving at comparable levels in mathematics and reading. However, girls are achieving significantly better than boys in writing. Māori students are achieving better than other students in mathematics, similar to their peers in reading and at lower rates in writing.
Student achievement information from 2016 to 2018 shows a decrease over time for all groups of learners in reading, writing and mathematics.Information about outcomes for students with additional learning needs shows that these students make good progress within individualised programmes.
The school responds effectively to Māori and other students whose learning and achievement need acceleration. School-wide collated and analysed student achievement information shows significant acceleration in reading, writing and mathematics for targeted students.
Students participate and learn in a caring and inclusive learning community. An holistic curriculum engages students in a variety of learning opportunities and broadens their experiences. Sound processes to support transition into school enables students to demonstrate a sense of belonging to their new learning environment. An emphasis on the key competencies promotes a smooth transition for students into their next stage of learning.
Teachers use a range of effective teaching strategies to support the diverse learning needs of targeted students. They have developed useful processes to track and monitor the progress of these students. Recently reviewed and updated individual development plans are responsive to targeted students’ learning needs. One of the reasons the rates for acceleration are comparatively high is that there has been a strategically aligned process to closely focus on acceleration for these students. The school accesses appropriate external agencies to support students with learning and behaviour needs.
Effective bicultural practices are well supported by the Hauraki Kāhui Ako. They fund a teacher who models te reo and tikanga Māori practices throughout the school on a regular basis. Students are benefiting from the natural inclusion of aspects of te ao Māori in classroom programmes.
The collaborative and reflective senior leadership team is successfully promoting clear school direction and vision. Senior leaders endorse recent initiatives, such as play-based and project-based learning, to respond to identified student-learning needs. Leaders’ involvement in the Hauraki Kāhui Ako is contributing to building teacher capability, providing a shared understanding of learning progressions and more robust moderation processes. An effective appraisal system, including a spiral inquiry approach to improving student achievement, is enabling teachers to inquire into the effectiveness of their teaching practice.
The board is committed to making decisions that will improve student outcomes. Trustees are representative of the school community; actively support the school’s strategic direction and base resourcing decisions on student achievement information. Their decisions are making a positive contribution to improving outcomes for students at risk of underachieving.
Parent/school partnership enrich opportunities for students to develop confidence and resilience. Parents are well informed about students’ learning and achievement. Staff actively involve parents and community members to support aspects of the school’s curriculum.
ERO and the school have identified the following priorities for ongoing development:
embedding teacher and student use of learning progressions to support students’ knowledge and understanding of their own learning and progress
access relevant and specific professional learning and development to support the school focus on improving student achievement in mathematics
ensuring annual targets in school charter are more sharply focused on the number of students whose progress needs acceleration.
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 Turua Primary School’s performance in achieving valued outcomes for its students is: Well placed.
ERO’s Framework: Overall School Performance 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:
To improve current practice, the board of trustees should:
Phil Cowie
Director Review and Improvement Services
Central Region
24 June 2019
|
Location |
Thames |
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
2043 |
|
School type |
Full Primary (Years 1 to 8) |
|
School roll |
106 |
|
Gender composition |
Female 51% Male 49% |
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori 23% |
|
Students with Ongoing Resourcing Funding (ORS) |
No |
|
Provision of Māori medium education |
No |
|
Review team on site |
May 2019 |
|
Date of this report |
24 June 2019 |
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review July 2016 |