Remuera Intermediate

School Context

Remuera Intermediate caters for students in Years 7 and 8. The school has a culturally diverse roll, including five percent who are Māori and eight percent who have Pacific heritage.

The board’s mission statement states that the school will provide a rigorous and enriching education that supports the unique social, emotional and academic needs of emerging adolescents. The board’s valued outcomes for students prioritise resilience, compassion and responsibility, as members of a global community.

School values are respect, excellence, diversity and service. The school’s belief statement focuses on five priority areas. These are:

• positive and supportive relationships
• a culture of high expectations that fosters individual strengths, needs and interests
• student centred responsive curriculum
• purposeful, timely and relevant assessment
• focus on continuous growth and development.

The board consulted widely to develop the school’s strategic plan. The current strategic objectives align well with the school’s mission and belief statements.

Since the 2014 ERO report, there have been changes in the board, school leadership, and the teaching team. A new principal was appointed in July 2016. Leaders’ and teachers’ professional learning has related to building greater resilience to improve teacher and learner success. Developing a responsive local curriculum including the integration of information technology (ICT) to enhance learning and improving the ICT infrastructure. A new teaching block and property enhancements have been completed.

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

• progress and achievement in reading, writing and mathematics
• all curriculum areas and schoolwide initiatives
• information about wellbeing and resilience.

The school is a member of the Auckland Central Community of Schools (ACCoS).

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 maintains a focus on ensuring equity and excellent outcomes for all its students.

The school’s information indicates that over two years, most students achieve well and some students make accelerated progress in literacy and mathematics. Students achieve well in local and international competitions, with some achieving distinction and high distinction awards.

Curriculum reports identify disparity for Asian boys and Māori, and persistent disparity for Pacific learners. Evaluating the effectiveness of strategies in place to support Pacific students particularly, is a next step.

Students who have English as an additional language receive targeted tuition. Students with additional learning needs are well supported. Over time, many students demonstrate significant improvement related to dispositional competencies such as confidence, interpersonal skills, and social skills.

End of year 2018 data show that most Year 8 students move on to secondary school achieving at or above curriculum expectation levels in literacy and mathematics. Year 8 information for 2018 shows a significant increase in parity for Māori learners, especially in mathematics.

Students achieve very well in relation to other valued student outcomes. They experience, and successfully achieve, in a broad variety of learning opportunities that provide a solid foundation for their social, emotional, intellectual and physical development. The school’s positive school culture helps students to:

• have a strong sense of belonging based on inclusive school practices
• develop skills that support them to be socially and emotionally confident
• learn to show resilience and be optimistic about their future
• have a willingness to, and interest in, taking up leadership opportunities.

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

The school has several worthwhile systems, processes and programmes in place to accelerate learning for those students who need this. Student Support Services provides a well-coordinated approach to ensuring students’ social, emotional and behavioural needs are catered for.

Teachers carefully identify and monitor the progress of students who are most at risk of not achieving well. There is an increasing focus on using responsive strategies that best support each learner. Some teachers are using personalised learning strategies that help students make choices about their learning.

Effective school processes, such as mentoring programmes and ‘teaching as inquiry’, give leaders and teachers an opportunity to think deeply about their priority learners. Leaders and teachers are then able to examine how well their teaching practices support the acceleration of students’ learning.

The board funds teacher aides who help students to experience success through specific programmes including in-class support. Learning support programmes are becoming more aligned to classroom programmes.

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?

Leaders and teachers prioritise building positive, collaborative relationships with students and their families. Inclusive practices and respectful relationships are well embedded. Students speak appreciatively about their teachers. Ensuring greater collaboration and cohesion, at all levels of the school, has been a strategic focus in recent times.

Leaders build relational trust through consultative and collaborative processes that are guiding change management. Leaders are committed to ensuring an orderly and supportive environment for student learning and wellbeing. Distributed leadership opportunities proactively build internal professional leadership capacity. Internal and external expertise is helping to promote well-paced change for better outcomes for students.

The school is very well resourced to enable students to learn and achieve in the breadth and depth of The New Zealand Curriculum (NZC). Curriculum design and school organisation ensure sufficient and equitable opportunities. A new localised curriculum is being developed. Difference and diversity are valued and parents regularly contribute to the curriculum, which supports further learning experiences for students. Science is a particularly positive feature of the school curriculum.

The board actively represents and serves the school community in its stewardship role. Trustees work with the school community to develop and refresh the school’s vision, values and strategic direction. They are committed to ongoing engagement, through information sharing and consultation, with parents/whānau. Trustees actively engage with other local school boards involved in ACCoS. Effective consultation that proactively seeks multiple perspectives is impacting positively on a new strategic direction for the school.

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

The school is currently experiencing change as many areas of school operation are being reviewed. The board and leaders have recently introduced new initiatives that align closely to the board’s strategic plan. Leaders agree that it is timely to consider how they might evaluate progress made with the initiatives, in relation to the school’s priorities, plans and programmes, particularly for those learners at risk of not achieving. This evaluation should help the board with further decision making.

The board’s strategic plan identifies further developments that include the local curriculum, effective teaching practices, and assessment processes. Additional priorities that align with these areas are:

• improving bicultural provision and multicultural perspectives that will strengthen school practices and support students’ language, culture and identity
• using research and resources such as Tapasā, to strategically plan for and accelerate the learning of Pacific students
• further developing assessment capabilities and teaching approaches that help teachers adapt and respond to students’ specific learning needs and support learners to understand their learning progress, achievement and next steps
• reviewing school structures, roles and responsibilities relating to access to and use of achievement data, particularly for those students most at risk of not achieving.

Leaders have identified that it is timely to access professional learning in relation to schoolwide assessment practices and processes that support learning, as this could assist with further curriculum developments.

3 Other Matters

Provision for international students

The school is a signatory to the Education (Pastoral Care of International Students) Code of Practice 2016 (the Code) established under section 238F of the Education Act 1989. The school has attested that it complies with all aspects of the Code. At the time of this review there were 20 international students attending the school.

Remuera Intermediate has very good monitoring processes in place to ensure the school is meeting the requirements of the Code. Students are very settled and well integrated into the life of the school and the community. Students’ progress is monitored and parents’ aspirations responded to positively.

A key next step, as noted in ERO’s 2014 report, is for the board to receive information about international students’ progress and achievement. This reporting would assure the board of effective provision for these students.

4 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.

5 ERO’s Overall Judgement

On the basis of the findings of this review, ERO’s overall evaluation judgement of Remuera Intermediate’s performance in achieving valued outcomes for its students is: Well placed.

ERO’s Framework: Overall School Performance is available on ERO’s website.

6 Going forward

Key strengths of the school

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

• a positive school culture that promotes respectful reciprocal relationships and a strong sense of belonging
• leadership that builds relational trust through consultation and collaboration, to promote well-paced change
• a well-resourced school curriculum that enables students to learn and achieve in the breadth and depth of the New Zealand Curriculum
• the board actively representing and serving the school community.

Next steps

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

• evaluating the effectiveness of the board’s identified goals and priorities in achieving positive outcomes for learners, particularly for those students at risk of not achieving
• improving bicultural practices and incorporating multicultural perspectives to further support students’ cultures, languages and identity in the school.

Steve Tanner

Director Review and Improvement Services Northern

Northern Region

17 July 2019

About the school