St Joseph's Catholic School (Whakatane)

29 Jul 2022

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 12 months of the Education Review Office and St Joseph’s Catholic School (Whakatane) 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 Joseph’s Catholic School is in Whakatāne and provides education for students in Years 1 to 8. The St Joseph’s School curriculum is based on Catholic faith and gospel values, building a nurturing environment of education through home, school and parish partnerships.

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

to ensure that St Joseph’s School is a safe, inclusive and friendly environment for all
to strengthen school, whānau, parish and community partnerships to support improved learning outcomes for all learners
to ensure an inclusive and culturally responsive environment that supports and promotes Catholic values and outcomes of equity and excellence for all learners.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how well schoolwide structures and programmes empower every student to grow emotional and self-regulation competence so that every student can learn and achieve at appropriate curriculum levels.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

the positive and significant difference it will make for a large number of learners
the focused opportunity it provides to better understand and implement effective strategies and practices for empowering learners’ positive emotional and self-regulation competence
the impact that achieving this strategic goal will have across other curriculum and organisational areas of the school.

The school expects to see enhanced structures and practices that are responsive to all learners’ needs and focused on growing competence in emotional and self-regulation, resulting in improved wellbeing and equitable learning outcomes for all.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to enhance schoolwide structures and programmes that support and empower every learner to grow emotional and self-regulation competence:

A detailed plan that includes clear actions and indicators of success
Collaborative leadership and staff who are committed to improving outcomes for all learners
Special character values, and programmes that support self-regulation
Strong whānau and community partnerships.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

staff professional learning to support schoolwide consistency and high expectations for the use of positive language, practices and actions to motivate and empower wellbeing, learning and behaviour
supporting students to develop an ‘emotional toolbox’ that empowers them to recognise, understand, monitor and regulate their own emotions to support life-long learning
engaging whānau and community to grow understanding of emotional and self-regulation strategies to support their child’s wellbeing and learning.

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

29 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 Joseph's Catholic School (Whakatane)