8 Pakiri Block Road , Wellsford
View on mapTēnā koutou e mau manawa rahi ki te kaupapa e aro ake nei, ko te tamaiti te pūtake o te kaupapa. Mā wai rā e kawe, mā tātau katoa.
We acknowledge the collective effort, responsibility and commitment by all to ensure that the child remains at the heart of the matter.
Tomarata school is a rural school catering for students in Years 1 to 8 near Wellsford in the Rodney District. The school roll is growing, more than 80 students attended in December 2024, approximately 20 percent of students are Māori. The school’s whakataukī is ‘Poipoia te kakano kia puawai |Nurture the seed and it will blossom’. Since the 2022 ERO report, a new principal has been appointed and most teachers are new to the school.
ERO and the school have worked to evaluate how well the school’s vision, values and localised curriculum have impacted on student engagement and achievement. The school expected to see consistent school wide teaching practice, students provided with real life learning experiences and improved levels of achievement.
Students experience a rural school curriculum, through real life learning opportunities in the nature classroom, garden to table, and outdoor education programmes. The school has documented their curriculum, established consistent planning expectations for teachers, and invested in a specialist literacy teacher to provide additional support for students to make accelerated progress in reading.
Student information shows that attendance, and achievement in reading, writing and mathematics have improved slightly.
| How well are learners succeeding? | The school is working towards high levels of success and progress for all learners. |
| What is the quality of teaching and learning? | The school is improving teaching and learning. |
| How well does the school curriculum respond to all learners needs? | Learners have sufficient opportunities to learn across the breadth and depth of the curriculum. There is an increasingly consistent focus on supporting learners to gain skills in literacy and mathematics. Learners with complex needs are well supported to achieve their education goals. |
| How well does school planning and conditions support ongoing improvement? | The school is establishing planning and conditions that support improvements in the quality of education for learners. |
| How well does the school include all learners and promote their engagement and wellbeing? | The school reasonably promotes learners’ engagement, wellbeing and inclusion. |
| How well does the school partner with parents, whānau and its community for the benefit of learners? | The school reports usefully and accurately to parents / whānau about their child’s learning, achievement and progress. The school is improving its collection and use of information gathered through community consultation to inform strategic planning and curriculum decisions. |
| Student Health and Safety | The school board is taking reasonable steps to ensure student health and safety. |
This table outlines how well students across the school meet or exceed the expected curriculum level.
Foundation Skills | |
| Reading | A small majority of learners meet or exceed the expected curriculum level. Results are equitable for all groups of learners. |
| Writing | A small majority of learners meet or exceed the expected curriculum level. Results are equitable for all groups of learners. |
| Mathematics | A small majority of learners meet or exceed the expected curriculum level. Results are becoming more equitable for all groups of learners. |
The school is behind the target of 80% regular attendance.
The school is developing a suitable plan in place to improve attendance.
Regular attendance is improving towards the target.
Chronic absence is reducing over time.
The school is improving its approach and the reliability of its practices to accurately find out about achievement against the curriculum.
Teachers are developing assessment information to adjust teaching practices to ensure ongoing improvement in teaching and student progress.
The school is developing good quality planning to increase the rate of progress for all groups of students.
The school has to some extent improved achievement and progress for those learners most at risk of not achieving since the previous review.
The school has to some extent extended achievement and progress for learners working at or above curriculum levels since the previous review.
The school is making some progress towards meeting Government reading, writing and mathematics targets for 2030 and agrees this will need to be a key strategic priority.
This section of the report provides more detail for the school to include in strategic and annual planning for ongoing improvement across the school.
Teaching programmes focus on foundation skills in reading, writing and mathematics; in addition, students are provided engaging and hands on learning opportunities.
Structured literacy and accelerated reading programmes are beginning to show lifts in overall achievement.
Students with additional learning needs are well supported through inclusive teaching to make progress and achieve success.
Well considered leadership decisions and professional development in mathematics, structured literacy, and assessment for learning have built staff capability, and are beginning to lift student achievement.
The board make strategic resourcing decisions with staffing to support better learning outcomes for all students and acceleration of progress in literacy for many students.
Te ao Māori, te reo Māori and tikanga Māori have significantly strengthened through additional consultation with mana whenua
Parents and whānau actively contribute their time and skills to enhance learning; the school continues to build effective learning partnerships with parents.
The agreed next steps for the school are to:
The agreed actions for the next improvement cycle and timeframes are as follows.
Within six months:
Every six months:
Annually:
Actions taken against these next steps are expected to result in:
All schools are required to promote student health and safety and to regularly review their compliance with legal requirements.
During this review the Board has attested to some regulatory and legislative requirements in the following areas:
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
ERO’s role will be to support the school in its evaluation for improvement cycle to improve outcomes for all learners. The next public report on ERO’s website will be a School Evaluation Report and is due within three years.
Me mahi tahi tonu tātau, kia whai oranga a tātau tamariki
Let’s continue to work together for the greater good of all children
Sharon Kelly
Director of Schools (Acting)
20 March 2025
This website provides further information about the school’s student population, student engagement and student achievement. educationcounts.govt.nz/home
This Profile Report was written within 19 months of the Education Review Office and Tomarata 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
Tomarata School is a rural full primary catering for students in Years 1 to 8 near Wellsford. The school’s whakatauki is ‘Poipoia te kakano kia puawai |Nurture the seed and it will blossom’. Tomarata School’s values, sustainability focus, and environmental programmes are central to the school’s vision and direction.
Tomarata School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:
delivering a broad, future-focused, and personalised curriculum that engages and inspires students
ensuring equity of outcomes for all students
creating strong connections with the local community to deliver a localised curriculum that enhances Māori students' sense of identity, language, and culture
building resilience and wellbeing within school
providing structures and systems that enable staff to provide quality learning outcomes for students.
You can find a copy of the school’s strategic and annual plan on Tomarata School’s website.
ERO and the school are working together to evaluate, how well the school’s vision and values, combined with an authentic, contextualised local curriculum impacts on student engagement and achievement.
The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:
the need to evaluate the effectiveness and embedding of the school’s strategic plans and direction
developing a shared understanding of the school’s curriculum, teaching, learning, and assessment amongst students, teachers, and the parent community
ensuring the integration of all learning programmes creates a strong positive culture of wellbeing and success for all students.
The school expects to see:
enactment of the local curriculum to support increased trends of equity and excellence
consistent school-wide practices that respond to individual student’s needs, feelings, and interests
students provided with opportunities to actively engage in real life learning contexts that are reflected in teaching and learning programmes across the school
accelerated progress for students working towards curriculum expectations.
The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to evaluate the effectiveness of the school’s vision, values, and local curriculum on improved outcomes for students:
an ongoing commitment by staff to achieve the school’s vision and strategic direction
a collaboratively developed strategic plan that guides improvement of teaching and learning
outdoor learning environments and opportunities that support the delivery of the local curriculum.
Moving forward, the school will prioritise:
the recruitment and appointment of a new Principal
continuing to build the collective capability and practice of staff through on-going professional development and teacher professional guidance conversations
continuing to implement effective teaching strategies to increase learner agency and improve student learning outcomes
developing understanding of robust internal evaluation to further build consistent practice across the school.
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
7 December 2022
The Education Counts website provides further information about the school’s student population, student engagement and student achievement. educationcounts.govt.nz/home
As of September 2022, the Tomarata School Board of Trustees has attested to the following regulatory and legislative requirements:
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
For further information please contact Tomarata 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
7 December 2022
The Education Counts website provides further information about the school’s student population, student engagement and student achievement. educationcounts.govt.nz/home