Pongakawa School

Pongakawa School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within nine months of the Education Review Office and Pongakawa 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 

Pongakawa School, located east of Te Puke in the Western Bay of Plenty District, provides education for students in Years 0 – 8. The school aims to nurture, respect, motivate and challenge all students in a ‘second home’ environment.

Pongakawa School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:

  • to sustain high achievement levels for all students in literacy and mathematics

  • to continue to value, accept and celebrate all cultures through an inclusive school culture

  • to continue to expand and embed a responsive, integrated and localised curriculum.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate the extent to which coherent, school-wide internal evaluation systems are supporting ongoing refinements that promote excellent and equitable outcomes for all students.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is the opportunity to:

  • understand which improvement decisions and initiatives are having the greatest impact on learner outcomes

  • ensure alignment of the school’s robust planning, evaluation and monitoring systems to new national guidelines.

The school expects to see consistently equitable and excellent outcomes resulting from:

  • student information and stakeholder voice being gathered and analysed to inform evaluation of improvement initiatives at all levels of the school

  • evaluation being used consistently to inform ongoing decision making and strategic planning focused on equity and excellence

  • embedded systems for sustainable, iterative and collaborative evaluation and planning.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to use evaluation to inform improvement:

  • the systems, structures and capacity to pursue consistently equitable and excellent outcomes for all

  • an environment where positive and respectful relationships within and beyond the school create a sense of belonging

  • leadership at all levels of the school that prioritises engaging with and responding to data to improve learner outcomes.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

  • continuing to use high quality student achievement information and stakeholder voice to inform evaluation and improvement at all levels of the school

  • aligning strategic planning and evaluation so that evaluation findings continue to inform ongoing improvement in a coherent, iterative and sustainable way

  • continuing to ensure that evaluation and decision making is focused on equitable and excellent outcomes for all.

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

7 August 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

Pongakawa School

Board Assurance with Regulatory and Legislative Requirements Report 2023 to 2026

As of June 2023, the Pongakawa School Board 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

Further Information

For further information please contact Pongakawa School, School Board.

The next School Board 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

7 August 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

Pongakawa School - 18/02/2019

School Context

Pongakawa School is located near rural Te Puke and caters for students in Years 1 to 8. The current roll of 337 includes 93 students who identify as Māori. There has been significant roll growth during 2018.

The school’s mission is ‘within our second home, all will be nurtured, respected, motivated and challenged to engage in purposeful learning for ongoing success’. The school culture is based on manaakitanga. The school’s agreed values guide the relationships, behaviour and approach to learning schoolwide. Alongside these, the school’s key strategic aims are to improve reading, writing and mathematics throughout the school.

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

  • reading, writing and mathematics.

The school has responded well to the findings of 2015 ERO evaluation.

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 making good progress towards achieving equitable outcomes. There are many excellent outcomes for learners.

Overall achievement information shows that almost all learners have continued to achieve well in relation to curriculum expectations for reading, and most learners in writing and mathematics.

In 2017, most boys achieved well across the curriculum. However, they were achieving below girls in reading and significantly below girls in writing. 

Almost all Māori learners achieve well in reading, most in writing and a large majority in mathematics. Between 2015 and 2017 Maori learners’ achievement has improved in reading and writing. In 2017, achievement information shows Māori students’ achievement, when compared to non-Māori students, is at similar levels in reading. In 2018, achievement information shows that the disparity between Māori and non-Māori achievement is narrowing in mathematics but persisting in writing.

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

The school is effectively accelerating progress and achievement for Māori and other students who need this.

In 2018, the strategies, interventions and initiatives used to accelerate learning have been effective for all groups of students, including Māori identified below curriculum expectations in reading, writing and mathematics. The school has identified writing as the professional learning and development focus in 2019.

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?

Highly effective stewardship is evident. Trustees actively represent and serve the school community. They bring a wide range of expertise to their clearly defined roles and responsibilities. Board members are well informed about school operation, teaching and programmes for learning and this enables them to make well-considered resourcing decisions. Trustees are highly visible in the school and take an active role in supporting leaders and teachers. Students’ learning, wellbeing, achievement and progress are the board’s core focus.

Collaborative relationships that extend and enhance opportunities for learning school wide are highly evident. Parents, whānau and the community are welcomed and are actively encouraged to be an integral part of the school community. Purposeful and genuine connections with Ngāti Whakahemo are supporting the knowledge and understanding of the unique heritage of tangata whenua and are beginning to guide the school’s curriculum. The school-wide mahi tahi emphasis on equitable and excellent outcomes is empowering learners’ sense of belonging and pride in their school.

High-quality distributive leadership is actively fostered and promoted across the school. Leaders and teachers work professionally and cohesively for school-wide improvement. They are highly approachable and engage in productive learning conversations. School values are highly visible and widely enacted. Students have a strong foundation to guide positive choices for learning.

Rich and diverse experiences across the curriculum promote high levels of student engagement.  Teachers know their students well and nurture learning relationships. Teachers empower students to take responsibility for knowing and understanding classroom routines. Effective tracking and monitoring systems support teachers to know the progress and achievement of students. Students collaborate with, learn from and facilitate the learning of others.

Leaders and teachers work alongside parents and whānau to form productive and responsive partnerships with learners who have additional needs. Effective communication enables meaningful plans and programmes, to be developed. External agencies and professional development are actively sought to further support learners at risk. A wide range of strategies and initiatives supports students to fully participate in all aspects of school life.

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

ERO and the school agree that a useful next step is to strengthen the use of achievement information to evaluate the impact of strategies and initiatives on enhancing outcomes for learners. This should support leaders and teachers to know what works effectively for improving equitable and excellent outcomes in all groups of learners.

Formalising a strategic approach to embed and guide high-quality practice for the authentic integration of te ao Māori throughout the school curriculum. This should enrich the authenticity of the local curriculum as a key driver for equitable and excellent outcomes for all learners.

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:

  • effective stewardship that is successfully focused on equity and excellence
  • distributive leadership that builds capability and empowers teachers
  • educationally powerful connections that strengthen learning partnerships
  • high-quality teaching that is effectively accelerating learning.

Next steps

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

  • internal evaluation to inform ongoing improvement
  • enhancing te ao Māori inclusion to inform authentic curriculum. 

ERO’s next external evaluation process and timing

ERO is likely to carry out the next external evaluation in four-to-five years.

Phil Cowie
Director Review and Improvement Services
Central Region

18 February 2019

About the school 

Location

Te Puke

Ministry of Education profile number

1899

School type

Full Primary (Years 1 to 8)

School roll

337

Gender composition

Boys                      57%
Girls                       43%

Ethnic composition

Māori                    28%
Pākehā                 68%
Asian                       3%
Other                      1%

Students with Ongoing Resourcing Funding (ORS)

Yes

Provision of Māori medium education

No

Review team on site

November 2018

Date of this report

18 February 2019

Most recent ERO report(s)

Education Review            June 2015
Education Review            September 2010
Education Review            March 2007