Bailey Road School

1 Context

Bailey Road School is a multicultural full primary where over half of the students identify as Māori or Pacific. There are also small numbers of students from Asian, Indian and African nations. The school is situated in Mount Wellington and children transition into a number of local secondary schools.

The board and leadership team provide stability and are managing succession planning well to introduce new staff and leadership into the school. The principal is experienced and has led the school for four years. He is well supported by the deputy principal, who was appointed at the beginning of 2014. The board has good governance capacity and trustees are representative of the school population and local community.

Recent property developments have included creating some collaborative learning spaces and the refurbishment of classrooms and of the school library, Whare Ahuru Mowai.

2 Equity and excellence

The school promotes educational and future success for all its children.

The vision and valued outcomes defined by the school for all children are captured in the school motto Whaia ngā taumata, Aim High, and in the school values of honesty, empathy, affirmation, respect and trust.

The school's Public Achievement Information (PAI) from 2013 to 2015 shows that achievement in mathematics declined in 2014. However, overall there are higher numbers of students achieving at or above the national standard than in 2013. Raising achievement through accelerated progress is still a challenge in reading and writing, with just over half of all students achieving at or above the National Standards. While the 2015 PAI shows a decline in achievement from 2014, this is likely to be a result of recent work to strengthen the robustness of the information gathered.

School leaders have improved moderation processes, particularly in mathematics to ensure that achievement information is more accurate and valid. The outcomes of writing assessments are moderated both internally and externally to ensure consistency school-wide. The board has developed appropriate school-wide targets for 2016 based on the outcomes of the 2015 PAI information.

Over half of Māori children achieve the National Standards in reading, writing and mathematics. However, they are still not achieving at the same level as students overall. Māori student achievement in mathematics dropped from 2014 to 2015 but their achievement levels are better overall than they were in 2013. In reading and writing, while there were slight gains in 2014, these have not been sustained. There is still a significant number of Māori children whose progress needs to be accelerated for them to be achieving at the National Standards.

Achievement information for Pacific children from 2013 to 2015 shows that over half are achieving at or above the National Standard in reading, writing and mathematics. Despite increases between 2013 and 2014, these were not sustained in 2015. In writing and mathematics, Pacific children achieve comparably to the school overall. A significant number of Pacific children need their progress to be accelerated in order to be achieving at the National Standard.

Since ERO's 2013 review, school leaders have undertaken in-depth curriculum reviews of mathematics and literacy. School developments that have contributed to better learning opportunities and achievement outcomes for Māori, Pacific and other children include building strong relationships and learning partnerships with parents and whānau.

School leaders have prioritised creating a school environment that is welcoming and inclusive for students, parents and whānau. In addition, a range of strategies, such as parent information evenings, help to build learning partnerships between home and school.  These strategies have contributed to a significant increase in the number of parents attending student-led conferences.

Leaders have strengthened the quality and depth of teaching as inquiry in the school. Teachers are critically reflecting on their own practice and the impact that it is having on children's progress, particularly for target children.

Developments for leaders and teachers include:

• prioritising professional learning and development for teachers, including distributive leadership opportunities based on individual's interests and strengths
• establishing responsive and reciprocal relationships with external support agencies and early childhood centres to provide holistic student support and to ease children's transition into school
• the establishment of Supplementary Inquiry Teams (SIT) for each curriculum area to build teacher capability throughout the school.

3 Accelerating achievement

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

The school continues to focus on Māori children whose learning and achievement need acceleration. A range of strategies and assessment tools are used to identify these children, and monitor their progress and achievement in reading, writing and mathematics.

The board of trustees and school leaders have a sense of urgency about accelerating the achievement of Māori children who are at risk of not achieving well. National Standards achievement information is used to set school-wide goals and targets and progress in relation to the goals and targets is regularly reviewed.

Middle leaders are supporting teachers to better identify children's learning needs, and design programmes that are tailored for each individual child in order to accelerate their progress and achievement.

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

The practices implemented for Māori children whose learning and achievement needs to be accelerated are also used for accelerating the learning and achievement of Pacific and other groups of children who are underachieving in reading, writing and maths.

From 2013 to 2015, the number of students whose progress is being accelerated has increased each year.

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 and other organisational processes and practices develop and enact the school's vision, values, goals and priorities for equity and excellence.

The board of trustees has a clear vision and high expectations for student outcomes. Strategic staff appointments and resourcing support the school's vision and goals.

Trustees have a very good understanding of their stewardship roles and responsibilities, and are committed to ongoing training and professional learning. Trustees are consultative and regularly evaluate their own effectiveness as a board. A key strategic priority has been to build education partnerships with whānau and to collaborate with other local schools and early childhood centres.

School leaders are reflective, responsive and improvement focused. They have prioritised strengthening leadership and teaching practice as key areas for improvement. Leaders are establishing systems and processes to plan, coordinate and evaluate the curriculum and the quality of teaching.

Teachers are supported to use evidence to critically review their practice, particularly in relation to target learners. Leaders are very committed to building teachers' capability to evaluate, inquire and build knowledge for improvement.

Leaders analyse achievement information well to identify which children need additional support. Leaders should now consider using this information to develop more specific achievement targets as part of their strategy to accelerate these children's progress.

The school is highly responsive to parents and whānau, including Māori. Positive, learning focused partnerships between home and school are evident. The welcoming and inclusive environment, and opportunities for parents to engage with the school gives parents a strong sense of ownership.

Parent's involvement in their children's learning has significantly increased in the last few years through the mathematics and literacy workshops and student-led conferences. Parents receive good information about their children's progress and achievement in relation to National Standards, and how they can help at home.

The curriculum provides children with very good opportunities for inquiry learning, including social inquiry and to learn about, and within, their local area. Senior leaders and teachers have focused on developing a curriculum that is student-centred and responsive to students' interests, strengths and experiences. Contexts within inquiry learning that include Te Ao Māori build on the strengths, prior cultural knowledge and experiences of Māori children. Students are increasingly involved in curriculum design, they are encouraged to link learning experiences in co-curricular activities and to share their learning with the school community.

Children are highly engaged in their learning. They benefit from a broad curriculum that provides choice and prioritises literacy and numeracy. Children are increasingly involved in decisions that affect their learning. They see themselves as learners and have personal goals in reading, writing and mathematics. Learning is visible and celebrated in classrooms. There are many supports that help children to assess what they have achieved both independently and with support from their peers and teachers.

5 Going forward

How well placed is the school to achieve and sustain equitable and excellent outcomes for all children?

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.

The senior leadership team, including the recently appointed middle managers, have high expectations for teaching and learning. They have good evaluative capability, and are actively working to build the capability of teachers in the school to accelerate student progress and raise student achievement.

Senior leaders have set out a broad strategic plan that forms a useful improvement framework. School leaders confirm that their next step is to develop planning that shows tighter timeframes and specific acceleration goals for all of the students whose progress needs to be accelerated.

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.

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 teachers should develop planning that shows tighter timeframes and specific acceleration goals for all of the students whose progress needs to be accelerated. 

Graham Randell
Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern

8 August 2016

About the school