St Thomas More Catholic School

26 Jul 2022

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 10 months of the Education Review Office and St Thomas More Catholic 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

Context 

St Thomas More Catholic School is a state integrated primary school, located in Mount Maunganui for learners from Years 1 to 6. The school’s special Catholic character is highly visible in the environment, the curriculum and in the everyday life of the school.

St Thomas More Catholic School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:

high aspirations for every learner
partnering with whānau to design and deliver education that responds to students’ needs and which sustains their identity, language, and culture
an ongoing commitment to a school culture of continuous improvement.

You can find a copy of the school’s strategic and annual plan on St Thomas More Catholic School’s website.

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate the consistency of teachers’ approach to empowering student agency and the impact on progress and achievement in reading, writing and mathematics.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

that to achieve equity and excellence in outcomes for all learners, consistency of teaching practice is needed, so that students are empowered to lead their own learning.

The school expects to see:

expectations in the use of language, practices, and actions to motivate and empower learning is consistent schoolwide; these expectations and consistency of use, are part of the school’s culture and understood by all members of the school community
students developing and using strategies that empower them to recognise, understand and evaluate how they learn and what they need to know to make the next steps to support life-long learning
all students showing improved progress and achievement in their learning.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to establish consistency in approach to empowering student agency:

collaborative approach to improving teacher practice
the provision of professional learning and development to reach a level of consistency in practice where needed.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

strategies that improve self-awareness and develop understanding for students in how they grow and learn
teacher awareness of assessment for learning for improved knowledge of each child as a unique individual
improved capacity in teachers’ responsiveness and adaptive practice to effectively cater for the needs of at-risk learners.

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.

Phil Cowie
Director Review and Improvement Services (Central)
Central Region | Te Tai Pūtahi Nui

26 July 2022

About the School

The Education Counts website provides further information about the school’s student population, student engagement and student achievement.  educationcounts.govt.nz/home

St Thomas More Catholic School