Forest Lake School

Education institution number:
1720
School type:
Contributing
School gender:
Co-Educational
Definition:
Bilingual Year 7 and Year 8 School
Total roll:
347
Telephone:
Address:

Storey Avenue, Forest Lake, Hamilton

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Forest Lake School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 20 months of the Education Review Office and Forest Lake 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 

Ko Waikato te awa

Ko Pīrongia-te-aroaro-o-Kahu te maunga

Ko Tūheitia Pōtatau Te Wherowhero te tuawhitu te tangata

Ko Ngāti Māhanga te iwi

Ko Rotongahere te kura

Forest Lake School is situated in Hamilton and provides education for students in Years 1 – 6 in English medium and in Years 1–8 in Māori medium.

Forest Lake School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are to:

  • ensure learners are at the centre

  • honour the wellbeing of all

  • provide tamariki with sound foundation skills in literacy and numeracy in their language of choice.

You can find a copy of the school’s strategic and annual plan on Forest Lake School’s website.

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how well consistent and collaborative practices support accelerated achievement in literacy and te reo Matatini.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is to:

  • improve outcomes for all students with a focus on accelerating progress for those students who need it

  • strengthen collaborative teaching practice to achieve consistent effective teaching across the school.

The school expects to see:

  • improved teacher and leader capability through collaborative inquiry and effective leadership

  • strengthened kaiako knowledge through collaboration and relevant professional learning and development.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support this evaluation:

  • leadership and staff that are aware of the need to strengthen outcomes for students

  • organisational structures that are designed to enable leaders to develop their capabilities

  • a learning community that prioritises high expectations for student wellbeing.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

  • strengthening teachers’ and leaders’ collective capacity to collaborate in the use of achievement information to plan targeted programmes to raise levels of student achievement.

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.

Shelley Booysen
Director of Schools

21 July 2023

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

Forest Lake School

Board Assurance with Regulatory and Legislative Requirements Report 2022 to 2025

As of July 2022, the Forest Lake School Board of Trustees has attested to the following regulatory and legislative requirements:

Board Administration

Yes

Curriculum

Yes

Management of Health, Safety and Welfare

Yes

Personnel Management

Yes

Finance

Yes

Assets

Yes

Actions for Compliance

ERO has identified the following areas of non-compliance during the board assurance process: 

  • Provide a safe physical environment for students.
    [Section 127(1)and (2) Education and Training Act 2020]

The board has addressed this area of non-compliance identified.

Further Information

For further information please contact Forest Lake 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.

Shelley Booysen
Director of Schools

21 July 2023

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

Forest Lake School - 23/04/2018

School Context

Forest Lake School is located in northwest Hamilton and currently provides education for 339 students in Years 1 to 6 of whom 214 identify as Māori. The school includes six rumaki immersion classes for 104 students in Years 1 to 8. The over-arching vision for the school, Kawe Ake Te Manuka, Rise to the Challenge, is captured in the three key values of respect, he akonga and responsibility. The values are unpacked for students through the TumEKE Taniwha, and provide a shared reference point for students, whānau and the wider community to support a safe and positive learning environment. The school curriculum documents three priorities which are ‘learner agency, teacher efficacy and whānau engagement’. Professional development is being undertaken to support these priorities.

Since the last ERO report in 2014 the roll has continued to grow and significant property enhancements are continuing. These enhancements include the establishment of cooperative learning spaces from the beginning of 2018.

The school is part of the He Waka Eke Noa Community of Learning | Kāhui Ako.

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

  • reading, writing and mathematics in relation to national expectations

  • pāngarau, tuhituhi, kōrero, and pānui in relation to national expectations

  • school-wide climate, culture and student engagement/ student voice

  • he Uiunga Ākonga/student voice.

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 is achieving equitable outcomes for the majority of its students.

School-wide data for 2015-2017 shows a general, in some cases significant, increase in the proportion of students achieving at or above expected levels in both the rumaki and English medium streams.

Across the whole school, data shows that approximately two thirds of students achieve nationally expected outcomes in reading and mathematics and half of these students in writing. In reading, girls are outperforming boys while Māori and Pākehā are achieving at similar levels. In writing, girls are outperforming boys and Māori are achieving at higher levels than Pākehā. In mathematics, Pākehā are outperforming Māori and boys and girls are achieving at similar levels.

In the rumaki classes, approximately three quarters of all students achieved nationally expected outcomes in tuhituhi, pānui, kōrero and pāngarau. The data also shows that there is disparity for boys in tuhituhi and kōrero and that boys are out performing girls in pāngarau.

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

The school responds well to some of the Māori, Pacific and other students whose learning and achievement needs acceleration.

The school can show that some of those students who are involved in specific target groups are making accelerated progress.

Leaders are yet to collate, analyse and report information that shows the pace of acceleration for all students whose learning is at risk. This is necessary to enable them to plan a response more closely focused on accelerating progress for these learners.

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?

An inclusive culturally responsive environment is evident in the school. Te reo Māori and aspects of tikanga are consistently acknowledged and celebrated. There are shared understandings among students and teachers about school values and high expectations for all students’ engagement and success. School values are well known and highly visible for students, teachers, parents and support staff. High levels of on-task learning are evident in classrooms. There are many opportunities for whānau to become involved with partnerships with the school that are focused on student learning and wellbeing.

Trustees are providing well-informed governance and direction for the school. They undertake regular consultation, are representative of the school community and have accessed training to strengthen their effectiveness. They closely scrutinize achievement information and data about school culture and engagement, and are supportive of all initiatives to accelerate progress for students, including those whose learning is at risk.

A strong start has been made in establishing a teaching as inquiry process. This process is focused on accelerating progress for groups of target students in each class in reading, writing, mathematics, kōrero, pāngarau, tuhituhi and pānui. This process is contributing to increasingly targeted planning to accelerate progress for these students. Teachers are working collaboratively to reflect on the effectiveness of their practice to plan more responsively for these learners.

Programmes and initiatives to support students with additional needs are well developed. Processes for identifying these students are thorough, and effective input from external support agencies is accessed where appropriate. A focus on in-class support for these students enables them to be included in classroom programmes as they are supported with their learning.

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

Further development is needed to strengthen the strategic alignment of internal review processes with a focus on accelerating progress for all at-risk learners. This is necessary to provide a clear line of sight from school-wide targets to regular evaluation and reporting to the board about rates of progress and trajectory of acceleration. Such an approach should also enable more responsive strategic planning and resource provision to support acceleration of all at-risk learners.

Systems and practices that enable students to develop ownership of progress and next learning steps need to be strengthened, particularly for students whose learning needs acceleration. This strengthening needs to include increased student use of visible learning progression frameworks to monitor their learning, progress and inform their next steps. This is necessary to empower students to set and monitor meaningful and measureable learning goals and share their successes and challenges more closely with parents and whānau.

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 Vulnerable Children Act 2014.

4 Going forward

Key strengths of the school

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

  • an inclusive culture that supports learning and wellbeing

  • effective governance practice that is contributing to equitable learning outcomes

  • focused teaching that contributes to improved learning outcomes

  • provision for children with special needs that enables them to experience success.

Next steps

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

  • the alignment of school-wide target setting and internal review

  • practices that enable students to monitor and make decisions about their learning journey

  • internal evaluation processes and practices

[ERO will provide an internal evaluation workshop for trustees and senior leaders.]

ERO’s next external evaluation process and timing

ERO is likely to carry out the next external evaluation in three years.

Lynda Pura-Watson

Deputy Chief Review Officer

Te Tai Miringa - Waikato / Bay of Plenty Region

23 April 2018

About the school

Location

Hamilton

Ministry of Education profile number

1720

School type

Contributing (Years 1 to 6)

School roll

339

Gender composition

Boys 55% Girls 45%

Ethnic composition

Māori 63%
Pākehā 23%
Pacific 4%
African 2%
Southeast Asian 2%
Other 4%
Other Asian 2%

Provision of Māori medium education

Yes

Number of Māori medium classes

6

Total number of students in Māori medium (MME)

104

Total number of students in Māori language in English medium (MLE)

0

Number of students in Level 1 MME

104

Number of students in Level 2 MME

0

Review team on site

February 2018

Date of this report

23 April 2018

Most recent ERO report(s)

Education Review September 2014
Education Review October 2011
Education Review October 2008