Kio Kio School

School Context

Kio Kio School is a rural, full primary located near Otorohanga. The school has a roll of 122 students, including 26 of Māori descent. The principal was appointed in mid-2017 and there are four new teachers to the school since the beginning of 2017, two of whom are provisionally certified.

The school’s vision is for students to be confident, to be able to relate well to others and to be lifelong learners. The school has a set of agreed core values linked to responsible citizenship. The school states that it will provide all learners with a positive, safe learning environment with maximum opportunities to excel. Key goals relate to learning and achievement, school culture and governance and have the intent of:

• ensuring success for all
• nurturing positive partnerships within the school and wider community
• governing strategically and effectively.

The school’s achievement targets for 2018 relate specifically to reading, writing, and mathematics.

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

• reading, writing, mathematics.

Kio Kio School has a positive ERO reporting history. Since the last ERO report in 2014, the school has implemented a te reo Māori programme and teachers are currently engaged in a tikanga Māori professional development course. An agreed school-wide understanding of effective teaching practice, and the appraisal process continue to need strengthening and time to embed with the new principal and teaching team.

The school is a member of Nga Awa ki te Moana Community of Learning |Kāhio Ako.

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?

Many students in the school, including Māori, are achieving very well. Most students are achieving expected levels in mathematics and reading, and the majority in writing. Māori students achieve at comparable levels with their Pākehā peers in reading and mathematics, and there is a slight disparity in writing. The most notable disparity is for boys as a cohort across the school in writing, in comparison with girls. The school’s data indicates that this gender disparity increased significantly in 2017.

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

The school needs to strengthen processes for accelerating the progress of at-risk learners. The school’s 2017 end-of-year data indicates that a small number of identified at-risk learners made accelerated progress. Teachers have assessment information for individual children in their classes and they use this to closely monitor progress. However, school leaders are yet to aggregate this information to develop a school-wide picture of rates of progress, and the extent and pace of students’ accelerated progress.

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?

Partnerships for learning are strong and meaningful. Parents are included in decision making for their children’s learning and are well informed about the progress their child is making. They appreciate the opportunities for leadership available for their children. There are many opportunities for parents to meet with teachers to discuss and share strategies for helping their children at home. Students needing additional support with their learning are particularly well-supported through the home-school partnerships.

There is a positive, inclusive culture for learning. The school values are well embedded and evident. The values of respect and citizenship are promoted in the daily life of the school. The current curriculum reflects the aspirations of the rural community and an appreciation of the natural environment. The school is increasingly integrating te ao Māori. The board provides a well-equipped, modern learning environment. There are many opportunities for students to reach their potential and experience success.

The principal is providing clear expectations about learning and teaching practice. Systems for teacher planning, assessing student learning and targeting achievement have been recently developed. These systems are providing explicit direction for teachers. They are placing greater emphasis on teaching practices to accelerate the achievement of at–risk learners.

These processes and practices are effective at enabling achievement of equity and excellence, and acceleration of learning.

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

Appraisal systems and practices need further development as follows:

• teaching as inquiry process needs to be embedded
• updating the current appraisal policy and procedural statements to reflect the new system
• including observations of teaching practice with documented feed forward and feedback
• consistency of reflective practice and evidence gathering with a focus on learning outcomes for students.

The management and use of achievement information needs to be strengthened. Particular consideration needs to be placed on:

• targeting achievement more specifically in the charter (e.g boys and Māori in writing)
• using achievement data to show rates of progress, particularly for identified groups of at-risk learners
• using achievement data comparatively to monitor disparity between groups of learners over time
• making data more accessible for reporting purposes to the board, to inform their decision making.

The curriculum now needs to be reviewed. An inclusive process for curriculum review and development is necessary to ensure that:

• it is responsive to the needs, interests and aspiration of students
• it is culturally responsive
• effective teaching practice is agreed and understood by the current teaching team.

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:

• a collaborative culture for learning that contributes to positive learning outcomes for students
• leadership that is clearly focused on building teacher capability.

Next steps

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

• appraisal practices to support consistently high levels of teacher performance
• reviewing the school’s curriculum to ensure it reflects local context and parent aspirations
• 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 Waikato

Te Tai Miringa - Waikato / Bay of Plenty Region

14 May 2018

About the school