Glen Taylor School

Glen Taylor School - 04/03/2020

School Context

Glen Taylor School caters for a diverse school community and has a role of approximately 260 students in Years 1 to 8. Thirty percent of the school’s roll identify as Māori and 45 percent have Pacific heritage.

The board’s overarching vision for the school is for students to achieve, be confident and enjoy learning (ACE). It aims to achieve this through the values of fun/pārekareka, integrity/manawanui, respect/whakaute, and excellence/panekiretanga (FIRE).

The school’s strategic goals include maximising student achievement and wellbeing, providing a student-centred inquiry curriculum, and embed the Manaiakalani community of learning principles of learn, create, share.

Since the 2016 ERO review, the school has employed a new deputy principal, developed a new leadership team and employed many new staff.

Leaders and teachers regularly report to the board schoolwide information about outcomes for students in the following areas:

  • academic achievement and accelerated progress
  • progress in relation to the strategic goals.

The school is part of the Maniakalani Community of Learning |Kāhui Ako (CoL).

Evaluation Findings

1 Equity and excellence – achievement of valued outcomes for students

1.1 How well is the school achieving equitable and excellent outcomes for all its students?

The school has more work to do to achieve equitable and excellent outcomes for all its students. A large majority of students are achieving at or above school expectations in reading and writing and a small majority in mathematics.

Parity between Pacific and non-Pacific students in mathematics has been sustained over the past two years. Overall, Pacific students are outperforming non-Pacific students in writing. However, low levels of achievement continue for some groups of Pacific students in reading and writing.

There is continuing wide disparity between Māori and non-Māori students in reading, writing and mathematics. Some gender disparity remains in reading and wider gender disparity in writing and mathematics.

1.2 How well is the school accelerating learning for those Māori and other students who need this?

School reported information suggests that some targeted and priority students are making accelerated progress. The school is yet to fully analyse and report on accelerated learning for all priority students for the 2019 year.

2 School conditions for equity and excellence – processes and practices

2.1 What school processes and practices are effective in enabling achievement of equity and excellence, and acceleration of learning?

The school’s vision and values guide a focus on enhancing equity for all students. The school’s responsive curriculum design provides students with greater choice, input into, and understanding of their own learning. Many consistent teaching and learning practices are being embedded. Effective fundraising is increasing opportunities for all students to participate in rich learning experiences.

The board’s strategic goals are focused on raising student achievement towards excellence. Teachers participate in relevant professional learning and development (PLD) that is aligned to the strategic goals and facilitated both internally and externally. The principal is committed to personal PLD to enhance his role in leading teacher practice to enable equity and excellence. Middle managers are well supported to build their capacity to develop teacher practice. Regular appraisal processes further increase teachers’ professional capability in improving outcomes for students and accelerating their learning.

The board and teachers are building educationally powerful connections with parents that support students’ wellbeing and self-efficacy. Staff use a variety of ways to gather parent and student perspectives and aspirations to inform curriculum design. Parents are able to access information and communicate with senior leaders digitally, and in person, to enhance positive relationships. Information gathered is shared with the board to guide future strategic planning.

Leaders and staff meet with whānau Māori and Pacific parents through annual hui and fono. There are also opportunities for parents to share their perspectives and to have input into what their children are learning. This is supporting a greater emphasis on equity. Senior leaders and the board should consider further ways to consult with whānau Māori.

The board and leaders have a strong focus on reducing barriers to students’ learning and increasing students’ wellbeing and sense of belonging. Leaders track and monitor student outcomes. Teachers would benefit from relevant PLD in analysing and using results of student outcomes to further accelerate student learning.

An effective framework guides internal evaluation processes. Trustees use an evidence-based approach to monitor outcomes of board decision making. Leaders reflect on the success of new initiatives and make responsive changes as needed.

2.2 What further developments are needed in school processes and practices for achievement of equity and excellence, and acceleration of learning?

The board would benefit from:

  • further training to enhance trustees’ governance capabilities
  • investigating and implementing further effective ways to consult with whānau Māori and other community members
  • knowing the progress and achievement of students from different Pacific nations.

Teachers should continue to increase their data analysis capability. This knowledge could then be used purposefully to inform planning to support individual student progress and achievement toward equity and excellence in the school.

Internal evaluation could be more useful with a greater focus on the effectiveness of decisions in relation to outcomes for students. Documentation of evaluation processes would also be useful.

3 Board Assurance on Legal Requirements

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:

  • board administration
  • curriculum
  • management of health, safety and welfare
  • personnel management
  • finance
  • 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 and certification
  • processes for appointing staff
  • stand down, suspension, expulsion and exclusion of students
  • attendance
  • school policies in relation to meeting the requirements of the Children’s Act 2014.

4 ERO’s Overall Judgement

On the basis of the findings of this review, ERO’s overall evaluation judgement of Glen Taylor School’s performance in achieving valued outcomes for its students is: Developing.

ERO’s Framework: Overall Findings and Judgement Tool derived from School Evaluation Indicators: Effective Practice for Improvement and Learner Success is available on ERO’s website.

5 Going forward

Key strengths of the school

For sustained improvement and future learner success, the school can draw on existing strengths in:

  • vision and values that underpin the culture of the school
  • adaptive and responsive governance and leadership, with a commitment to increasing student achievement and wellbeing
  • positive partnerships with the school’s Pacific community and relationships with external agencies
  • strategic PLD designed to build the capability of teachers and middle managers.

Next steps

For sustained improvement and future learner success, priorities for further development are in:

  • strengthening partnerships with whānau Māori
  • consolidating teacher learning from PLD to improve teaching practice and support better outcomes for students
  • improving internal evaluation and data analysis
  • further governance training for the board of trustees.

Areas for improved compliance practice

To improve current practice, the board of trustees should improve processes for identifying and monitoring potential outdoor hazards, including:

  • ensuring safe fall under playground equipment always meets requirements
  • covering the sandpit overnight with an appropriate cover
  • repairing broken concrete pathways.

Since the November review the safe fall hazard has been addressed.

Steve Tanner

Director Review and Improvement Services Northern

Northern Region

4 March 2020

About the school

Location

Glendowie, Auckland

Ministry of Education profile number

1289

School type

Full Primary (Year 1-8)

School roll

264

Gender composition

Girls 51%

Boys 49%

Ethnic composition

Māori 30%

NZ European/Pākehā 8%

Tongan 18%

Samoan 14%

Cook Island Māori 11%

South East Asian 8%

other ethnic groups 11%

Students with Ongoing Resourcing Funding (ORS)

Yes

Provision of Māori medium education

No

Review team on site

December 2019

Date of this report

4 March 2020

Most recent ERO report(s)

Education Review June 2016

Education Review May 2013

Education Review September 2010

Glen Taylor School - 29/06/2016

1 Context

Glen Taylor School is located in Glendowie, Auckland, and caters for children in Years 1 to 8. It has experienced a period of significant change since the 2013 ERO review. In 2014 the Ministry of Education supported the board with external specialist advisors to improve school governance and operations, with a focus on raising student achievement. Key staff appointments include a new principal in 2015 and a deputy principal in 2016.

The board and principal have made good progress in driving through developments to support improved school performance. The community and students value the renewed sense of belonging that recent changes have brought about. The foundational building blocks are now in place to improve teaching and learning across the school.

2 Equity and excellence

The vision and valued outcomes defined by the school for all children are to develop young leaders with the confidence to communicate, collaborate, create, think critically and be culturally responsive in the global community. Values promoted by the school are those of respect, honesty, community, excellence, integrity and fun.

The school’s achievement information shows that there have been overall gains in children's achievement between 2013 and 2015. The achievement of Maori children overall exceeds schoolwide achievement levels in all National Standard areas. Increases in achievement levels are especially evident in reading and writing, where about 60 percent of children now achieve at or above the relevant standard. Achievement in mathematics has shown less progress, and currently about 50 percent of children reach or exceed this National Standard.

While these lifts in improvement reflect the good work of school leaders and teachers, data also shows that many children need ongoing support to make accelerated progress with their learning and achievement. Pacific students, in particular, are achieving less well than other students in all curriculum areas. Gender differences are also evident, with boys achieving well below girls in reading and writing. Boys' achievement in mathematics, however, matches that of girls.

School leaders recognise the urgent need for planned acceleration. They have set targets and begun teacher professional learning and development to support this. They have prioritised the establishment of sound school-wide systems and processes to facilitate the consistent collation, analysis and use of data.

Since the last ERO evaluation the school has used external advisors to grow teachers' understanding of meaningful data analysis and use. School leaders recognise the importance of external moderation for maintaining internal rigour in the assessment of children's learning. Developments in this area are strengthening leaders' confidence in recent school achievement information. Targeted professional learning and development for teachers has had a positive impact on the achievement of many children. Teachers' inquiry into their own practice has also been influential in raising student achievement in 2015.

Leaders are committed to engaging with the community. Parents who spoke to ERO valued being respected as partners in their children's learning. They appreciated the school's transparent communication. This collaborative partnership creates opportunities for students to become confident, connected learners.

The school has also begun to identify community expertise that they can draw upon to improve the engagement, wellbeing and learning opportunities for children. Senior leaders and whānau agree that the journey the school is undertaking to further progress its understanding of the Treaty of Waitangi is a positive step.

3 Accelerating achievement

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

The school is working actively to increase the effectiveness of planning and practices aimed at meeting the needs of Māori children whose learning and achievement need acceleration.

The good gains in Māori children's achievement in reading, writing and mathematics in 2015 provide an early indication that school initiatives and teaching practices targeted on raising student achievement are becoming increasingly effective for Māori learners.

Actions taken to establish more collaborative and learning focused partnerships with whānau Māori have been a particular feature of school measures to lift children's achievement. The increased visibility of the value the school places on Māori children's language, culture and identity has been especially affirming for these children and their families.

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

The school is also giving considerable priority to addressing the needs of other children whose learning and achievement need acceleration. The needs of numbers of Pacific children are particularly recognised, with school leaders and teachers working actively to build strong and productive learning partnerships with their families.

Children with special learning needs are well identified and the school has a number of programmes and initiatives to support their progress and development.

A key next step is for the school to develop improved processes for evaluating the effectiveness of these programmes and initiatives in terms of student learning outcomes.

The importance of creating an inclusive learning environment is recognised by the board, senior leaders and teachers. Student surveys and other useful communication strategies are being used to good effect, increasing children's sense of belonging, their voice in the learning process and pride in their school. This work on enriching school culture is also resulting in more collaborative, confident and reciprocal interactions between teachers, promoting increased sharing of expertise and successful professional practices amongst staff.

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 board, principal and staff prioritise equity, excellence and the enactment of the school vision.

The board chair and principal model a collaborative working relationship which is helping to build a trusting professional culture among staff. As a result there is growing staff openness to change and improvement as staff work together to improve practice.

The board and school leaders are working proactively with the community to develop networks to enrich and extend the school curriculum. This has resulted in a recently implemented school-wide curriculum plan and guidelines which have good coherence and reflect The New Zealand Curriculum well.

The board and principal have worked with external advisors to establish an orderly and supportive environment to promote student learning. Teaching practices continue to develop and strengthen. Inquiry-based learning is beginning and a school-wide assessment schedule is in place. The school's positive behaviour for learning approach has been revised to better fit the Glen Taylor student. Developments in these areas connect well to the school's focus on raising student achievement and accelerating the learning of students not yet achieving to potential.

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
  • do not always or systematically act on what they know works for each child
  • have a plan in place but have not yet built teacher capability effectively to achieve equitable outcomes for all children.

A continuing focus underlying the school's improvement work is that of ensuring that evaluative and inquiry processes are strengthened so that it has increasingly useful and specific information about the effectiveness of its practices in all areas of school performance. The principal provides well considered leadership to guide this work. The school's involvement in various professional networks and local initiatives should also provide valuable support for this strengthening process.

Trustees understand their responsibility as stewards of the school. They are scrutinising the work of the school appropriately to ensure that they are making well-informed decisions. The board is well positioned to progress and lead the planned strategic direction of the school. Trustees agree that their priorities are to achieve improved outcomes for students and to continue with ongoing training to support this work.

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

ERO recommends that the school continue to consolidate and embed recent initiatives to bring about equity and excellence in student outcomes. 

Graham Randell

Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern

29 June 2016 

About the school

Location

Glendowie, Auckland

Ministry of Education profile number

1289

School type

Full Primary (Years 1 to 8)

School roll

240

Gender composition

Girls 53%

Boys 47%

Ethnic composition

Māori

Pākehā

Tongan

Cook Island Māori

Samoan

Niue

African

Indian

Middle Eastern

other Asian

other

28%

8%

19%

15%

11%

2%

1%

1%

1%

13%

1%

Review team on site

May 2016

Date of this report

29 June 2016

Most recent ERO report(s)

Education Review

Education Review

Education Review

May 2013

September 2010

September 2007