Paihia School

Education institution number:
1072
School type:
Full Primary
School gender:
Co-Educational
Definition:
Not Applicable
Total roll:
129
Telephone:
Address:

School Road, Paihia

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Paihia School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 18 months of the Education Review Office and Paihia 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 

Paihia School is a full primary school providing education to students from Years 1 to 8. The school is located in the centre of Paihia in the Bay of Islands, Northland.

Paihia School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for students are:

  • providing an inclusive learning environment with an expectation of high student achievement

  • sustained progress in literacy and numeracy for all students measured against national expectations

  • meeting the needs of all students through culturally inclusive programmes

  • appropriate resources, co-constructed goals and learning opportunities with whānau involvement.

You can find a copy of the school’s strategic and annual plan on Paihia School’s website.

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how effective the school is in accelerating student achievement in reading, writing and mathematics to reach achievement targets.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

  • to respond to the needs of all learners so that all children make progress towards achieving equitable outcomes

  • to utilise the ongoing analysis of school achievement information that identifies teaching and learning priorities

  • to accelerate and sustain student progress and achievement over time.

The school expects to see:

  • equitable student progress and achievement through the impact of collaboration, quality assessment and moderation practices

  • teaching and learning practices that successfully respond and connect to learners’ languages, cultures, and identities

  • sustained positive shifts for all students in literacy and numeracy through culturally responsive practices and positive environments

  • accelerated progress in literacy and numeracy for students who need this

  • students who are empowered to make choices about their learning to improve achievement outcomes.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support the school in its goal to accelerate student achievement:

  • he waka noa – a school where everyone is focussed on the school’s vision and staff are well supported in all learning environments

  • respectful and inclusive learning conditions that supports students’ wellbeing, hauora and learning

  • stewardship and leadership that are committed to achieving the school’s strategic direction

  • assessment systems and processes that effectively identify, monitor, and report progress and achievement of students.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

  • supporting teachers to use student achievement information to inform ongoing refinements to their teaching practice that meet the needs of all students

  • strengthening staff engagement in a cycle of professional growth centred around programmes and practices that accelerate priority student learning in literacy and numeracy

  • continuing to implement of a responsive, localised curriculum that increases opportunities for students to experience and learn in a holistic environment that better responds to their culture, language, and identity.

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.

Filivaifale Jason Swann
Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern)
Northern Region | Te Tai Raki

31 October 2022 

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

Paihia School

Board Assurance with Regulatory and Legislative Requirements Report 2022 to 2025

As of August 2022, the Paihia School Board of Trustees 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 Paihia School Board of Trustees.

The next Board of Trustees 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.

Filivaifale Jason Swann
Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern)
Northern Region | Te Tai Raki

31 October 2022 

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

Paihia School - 12/09/2016

1 Context

Paihia School provides education for students in Years 1 to 8. An experienced principal and deputy principal have been appointed since the last ERO review. The school sought the support of a Student Achievement Function (SAF) and a Leadership and Assessment (L&A) facilitator during 2015 to assist with the school's focus on raising student achievement.

2 Equity and excellence

The vision and valued outcomes defined by the school for all children are about preparing children for their futures. The school identifies partnership with parents and whānau as important to providing a good learning environment. Manaakitanga (respect), kaha (doing our best), whanaungatanga (helping others) and tū māia (resilience) are the school's values and known as the hoea of the school waka.

The school’s achievement information shows that just over half of Māori children achieve at or above the National Standards in reading. Fewer Māori children achieve at expected levels in mathematics and writing. Over the past 3 years, there has been some variation in the achievement of Māori students. The percentage of Māori children achieving National Standards is 30 percent lower than for Pākehā children in the school.

The cohort of Pacific children is too small to report overall achievement or to identify trends over time. School data show that achievement for Pākehā children is close to the 2017 government target of 85 percent achieving at or above in relation to National Standards.

Since the last ERO evaluation the school has:

  • identified all teachers as important change agents for school improvement and raising student achievement
  • used collaborative practices for teachers to share their practice and to improve communication
  • participated in professional learning and development that has impacted positively on teacher practice and relationships between teachers and children
  • focused on data as evidence of outcomes for children
  • improved systems for gathering, collating and analysing data
  • established robust processes to support teaching as inquiry
  • heightened the visibility of te Ao Māori in the school
  • developed a more positive learning environment through consistent behaviour management.

3 Accelerating achievement

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

The school has responded well to the need to accelerate Māori children's learning and achievement. Teachers and leaders share a sense of urgency in addressing the disparities in achievement for Māori children. They report improved engagement in learning and good progress being made by many Māori children in reading, writing and mathematics. However at the time of the review it was too early for the school to report accelerated progress for these children.

School leaders establish challenging achievement targets based on a shared knowledge of individual students, their learning gaps and their strengths. Teachers develop an inquiry that focuses on the impact of their teaching on the learning of these target children.

Teachers use effective systems and processes for gathering and analysing data. As a result, they have increased confidence in making overall teacher judgements (OTJs) about children's achievement and in the validity of the school's data.

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

School leaders and teachers use the same potentially effective processes and practices for other groups of children, as they do for Māori children.

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 are increasingly effective in promoting equity and excellence for children.

Senior leaders provide high quality professional leadership that focuses on improving outcomes for children. The principal has been a catalyst for improvement. She models the high expectations she has of teachers and children. Teachers lead and model good practice in areas where their expertise has been identified.

Teacher capacity and school capability have been developed and extended through targeted and well-timed professional learning and development. Teachers and teacher aides share the collective responsibility for the children's progress and achievement. Building teachers' knowledge of te Ao Māori has helped them understand, and use, teaching strategies that are particularly relevant to Māori learners and are likely to benefit all children.

The school has put in place a comprehensive plan to improve the achievement of students who need to make accelerated progress in writing. External professional learning facilitators, community and teacher representatives and leaders collaborate effectively to implement and monitor the impact of this work.

Effective governance is supporting a stronger focus on student achievement. School systems and processes are well-aligned with the school's goals and direction. Board resourcing of key aspects of the change and improvement plan has supported teachers' professional growth. Trustees now focus closely on children's rate of progress and their overall achievement. They can be confident and optimistic about the contribution they are making to the futures of the community's children.

Comprehensive performance management processes ensure teachers focus their efforts and improve their practice in areas that are likely to result in accelerated progress for children.

5 Going forward

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

Leaders and teachers:

  • know the children whose learning and achievement need to be accelerated
  • respond to the strengths, needs and interests of each child
  • regularly evaluate how teaching is working for these children
  • need to systematically act on what they know works for each child
  • need to have a plan in place to build teacher capability to accelerate the achievement of all children who need it.

Action: The board, principal and teachers should use the findings of this evaluation, the Effective School Evaluation resource, the Internal Evaluation: Good Practice exemplars and the School Evaluation Indicators to develop a Raising Achievement Plan to further develop processes and practices that respond effectively to the strengths and needs of children whose learning and achievement need to be accelerated.

As part of this review ERO will continue to monitor the school’s Raising Achievement plan and the progress the school makes.

ERO is likely to carry out the next full review in three years.

The school's change and improvement plan for writing has been well implemented. Extending the scope of this plan to include reading and mathematics would provide a strong foundation for the Raising Achievement Plan.

School leaders and ERO agree that next steps for the school include:

  • teachers supporting children to know about and plan for their next learning steps
  • strengthening collaborative partnerships with whānau that support children's learning
  • continuing to build the school's bicultural curriculum including a progressive programme for teaching te reo Māori.

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.

7 Recommendation

School leaders and ERO agree that embedding and extending the current good practices that are likely to accelerate children's rates of progress are priorities. 

Graham Randell

Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern

12 September 2016

About the school

Location

Paihia

Ministry of Education profile number

1072

School type

Full Primary (Years 1 to 8)

School roll

181

Gender composition

Girls 54% Boys 46%

Ethnic composition

Māori

Pākehā

British

Indian

other European

other

55%

34%

2%

2%

2%

5%

Review team on site

July 2016

Date of this report

12 September 2016

Most recent ERO report(s)

Education Review

Education Review

Education Review

April 2013

February 2010

February 2007