Te Horo School (Whangarei)

Findings

Te Horo School has made good progress in developing a school curriculum that supports effective teaching and opportunities for all children to learn. Good quality teaching practices are now more consistently evident across the school. The principal, teachers and board have a strong focus on improving student progress and achievement.

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

1 Background and Context

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

Te Horo is a small, rural school catering for students from Years 1 to 8. Māori students from Ngāti Hine, Te Orewai hapū and Ngāpuhi iwi descent make up the entire roll. The school recently celebrated its centenary.

The 2016 ERO report noted some good improvements in student achievement, governance capability, and partnerships with the community. However, ERO decided to continue to work with the school while it embedded this progress, and continued to address other concerns highlighted in ERO’s 2013 report, about curriculum development, the quality of teaching, and internal evaluation processes.

The Ministry of Education has continued to provide support for the school through a Student Achievement Function (SAF) advisor to grow teachers’ instructional capability and the board’s and school leader’s evaluative capacity. Professional learning in teaching literacy has been provided for teachers, and external expertise accessed to support the development of the school curriculum. Staffing has remained relatively stable since 2015.

Evidence collected through ERO’s ongoing evaluation of the school, since 2016 has been used to determine the progress made over the past 18 months. ERO’s findings are outlined in the following sections of this report.

2 Review and Development

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

Priorities identified for review and development

ERO established the following priorities for the review:

• creating a responsive curriculum
• developing effective teaching practices to raise student achievement
• implementing internal evaluation across all school operations.

Progress

There has been good progress against all three review priority areas.

The school has taken advantage of external expertise to develop a school curriculum that supports effective teaching and opportunities for all children to learn. The curriculum is relevant and connects to children’s whānau, hapū, iwi and the community. It reflects the school’s vision and values identified in the charter, and the breadth and depth of The New Zealand Curriculum. The curriculum is delivered through an integrated approach giving children opportunities to engage in thinking that extends across learning areas.

Children have greater opportunities for learning outside the classroom. Regular sporting and cultural exchanges with other schools in the Ngāti Hine district are a regular part of the curriculum. School camp has been reintroduced for the senior children, with financial support from the board and community.

Digital devices are now available for children to use in their learning. More work is required by teachers to explore effective ways that children could use digital technologies to promote critical thinking, digital and technological fluency.

The curriculum identifies the expectations for effective teaching practices, including cultural competencies for teachers of Māori students, namely manaakitanga, ako, whanaungatanga, wānanga and tangata whenuatanga. Community consultation about the curriculum is ongoing, allowing parents and whānau opportunities to participate in curriculum design and decision making. Going forward, school leaders plan to explore how the curriculum can better respond to community aspirations for children's greater use of te reo Māori.

Good quality teaching practices are now more consistently evident across the school, and children are more engaged in their learning. The impact of teachers’ professional learning is evident in classroom practices, including deliberate acts of teaching in response to assessment information. Teachers now regularly reflect on their teaching practice to measure how well they are meeting students' diverse learning needs.

A next step is to increase children’s understanding of the role they can play in the learning process. It would be beneficial to support children to identify their own learning needs. Leaders and teachers could develop self-assessment tools for children to evaluate their own and others’ work against clear criteria.

The school is required to include careers education for Years 7 and 8 students in the school curriculum. This would give children opportunities to think about possible choices of where their learning could lead them in the future.

In multi-level classrooms, it is important to maintain the pace of learning for all children. Teachers need to ensure that the independent learning tasks they set for children are challenging and purposeful learning opportunities.

Student achievement information is now clearly reported, showing how students at each year level are achieving and progressing. School data show gains have been made in raising student achievement in relation to the National Standards for reading. Achievement levels in mathematics have remained similar.

There has been variability in the school’s writing achievement levels. The inconsistency of results has been due to teachers developing familiarity with different assessment tools. Professional learning should continue for teachers in relation to the use of assessment tools. This focus would support more dependable teacher judgements about student achievement in relation to the National Standards.

Internal evaluation is becoming more integral to school decision making. Trustees and the school leader have engaged in some initial training to build capacity in evaluation and inquiry.

3 Sustainable performance and self review

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

The school is well placed to sustain current effective practices, and continue to improve its performance.

The principal, teachers and board have a strong focus on improving student progress and achievement. There is now a coordinated approach to educational developments in the school with clear alignment between strategic planning, annual planning, and curriculum delivery.

Stewardship capability has been strengthened. The board has responded well to useful training through the New Zealand School Trustees Association (NZSTA). New board structures are resulting in trustees' clearer understanding about their role and responsibilities. ERO affirms the board’s intentions to access further training opportunities through NZSTA. There is still work to be done on supporting school policies with appropriate sets of procedures. This will help the board and school management to be more confident they are meeting legal and statutory requirements.

Connections and relationships between parents, whānau and community have continued to improve. A more strategic and ongoing approach to consultation and building learning partnerships is being used.

Key next steps

Future priorities for the board, school leader and teachers include:

• using effective teaching strategies based on reliable achievement data
• increasing the rigour of internal evaluation to provide a sound basis for determining actions for ongoing improvement.

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.

ERO identified the following areas of non-compliance. The board must ensure that:

• all non-teaching staff are police vetted Vulnerable Children (Requirements for Safety Checks of Children’s Workers) Regulations 2015
• the curriculum provides careers education for Year 7 and 8 students National Education Guidelines, NAG, 1, f.

In order to improve current practice, the board should:

• update procedures for promoting online safety and preventing cyber bullying
• ensure that risk analysis and management processes are carried out and documented for all excursions
• develop guidelines that align to the Vulnerable Children’s Act 2014 to guide staff appointment processes.

Conclusion

Te Horo School has made good progress in developing a school curriculum that supports effective teaching and opportunities for all children to learn. Good quality teaching practices are now more consistently evident across the school. The principal, teachers and board have a strong focus on improving student progress and achievement.

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

Graham Randell

Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern

Te Tai Raki - Northern Region

27 October 2017

About the School