Insoll Avenue School

School Context

Insoll Avenue School is a contributing primary school located in Hamilton East, catering for students in Years 1 to 6. It has a roll of 372, including 268 Māori students and 55 students of Pacific heritage.

The school’s values system encourages students to be an Insoll HERO by being honest, excellent, resilient and organised.

Insoll Avenue School’s strategic goals for 2019 include identified actions to improve students’ literacy and numeracy achievement, and to build bicultural practices within the curriculum.

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

• achievement in reading, writing and mathematics.

Since the previous ERO review in 2016, the school roll has grown significantly, increasing by approximately one third, and an enrolment zone has been implemented. There have also been personnel changes in key positions, including the appointment of a new deputy principal to the senior leadership team and new staff on the middle leadership team. The board is comprised of two long-standing trustees, including the board chair, and several recently-elected trustees.

The school roll has a continued pattern of student transience with approximately one third of the roll turning over annually.

The school is a member of Te Pae Here Kāhui Ako Te Raki Rāwhiti o Kirikiriroa | Community of Learning.

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 working towards achieving equitable and excellent outcomes for all students.

The school’s achievement data from 2016 to 2018 shows that the majority of all students achieved at or above national curriculum expectations in reading, and approximately half in writing and mathematics.

In writing, Pacific students achieve at higher levels than their Pākehā peers and achievement levels are comparable for Māori and Pākehā students. There is an ongoing pattern of significant disparity in writing for boys, who achieve less well than girls. The school’s achievement data for 2018 shows that approximately one third of boys achieved at or above national curriculum expectations in writing. There is significant disparity between Māori, Pacific and their Pākehā peers in reading and mathematics.

Leaders reported to ERO that the school’s entry data shows that a significant percentage of students who begin at the school each year enter below expected curriculum levels.

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

The school is effectively accelerating the learning of Māori and other students who need this.

The school’s progress data for 2018 to 2019 for students that remained for the year shows that the school effectively accelerated the learning of Māori and Pākehā boys and girls in mathematics, and Māori and Pākehā boys in reading. Pacific boys and girls were effectively accelerated in reading, writing and mathematics.

The school is able to show that a number of targeted programmes and interventions support high levels of acceleration in literacy for students with additional learning needs.

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 student wellbeing. The school values are highly visible and enacted in meaningful ways to support a strong sense of belonging. Students have opportunities to be part of decision making about their environment and their learning. Student endeavour and success is regularly acknowledged and celebrated. Leaders and teachers know the students well and work collaboratively to provide effective pastoral care. Leadership has established strong links with a range of community services to provide holistic support for students. There are clear systems to identify and respond to students with additional learning and behaviour needs, and to track their progress.

A rich curriculum caters for a range of student interests and strengths. Tikanga and te reo Māori is woven into aspects of the curriculum and cultural diversity is celebrated and explored in learning. Leadership is continuing to strengthen bicultural practice through a range of initiatives and productive relationships with the local iwi and wider Māori community. The board of trustees supports the broad curriculum coverage, including recently funding music and dance programmes within the school. The board also provides resourcing to ensure equitable access to curriculum opportunities for all students.

Students learn in an orderly and supportive environment. Students are settled and encouraged to self-manage through well-established, consistent classroom routines. There are warm interactions between teachers and students. Teachers use a range of strategies to scaffold learning. There is an inclusive approach to students with additional needs through the provision of in-class support and teacher aides. A schoolwide framework is used for the longitudinal tracking of student progress from the time they begin at school to the time they leave. Careful transitions of students into and through the school respond to individual student needs.

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

Strategic professional learning and development is strengthening some areas of teacher practice. There is a need to continue to build collective capacity for ongoing strategic improvement and sustained practices. Priorities should include developing:

• teacher understanding and use of effective formative assessment practice to support student learning
• consistent teaching approaches that support students’ awareness and understanding of their learning goals and next steps.

Leaders have developed useful systems and tools to track and monitor student progress. It is now time to develop the capability of staff at all levels of school organisation to analyse and use data for evaluation purposes. This should be aligned to the school’s strategic achievement goals in order to accelerate the learning of at-risk students and improve achievement outcomes for all.

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 ERO’s Overall Judgement

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

ERO’s Framework: Overall School Performance 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:

• inclusive practices that support students’ wellbeing and sense of belonging
• an orderly and supportive environment that is conducive to learning.

Next steps

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

• a schoolwide approach to building student agency to increase students’ understanding of their next steps in learning
• the effective use of achievement data to evaluate the impact of teaching practice on accelerating the progress of all at-risk learners.

Actions for compliance

ERO identified non-compliance in relation to health, safety and welfare. In order to address this, the board of trustees must:

• develop policy, practices and procedures on surrender and retention of property and searches of students by the principal, teachers and authorised staff members
  [Education Act 1989, Sections 139AAA to 139AAF; Education (Surrender, Retention, and Search) Rules 2013].
• address aspects of the physical restraint regulations, including:
  • ensuring that the names and positions of authorised staff are documented
  • taking appropriate steps to ensure that parents, students, school staff and community know about the school’s policies for managing challenging behaviour and using physical restraint
    [Education Act 1989, Sections 139AC to 139AE].

Phillip Cowie
Director Review and Improvement Services Central 
Central Region 
31 October 2019

About the school