Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report
Background
This Profile Report was written within 6 months of the Education Review Office and Kowhai 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
This report is part of a nationally coordinated evaluation of 27-day specialist schools during the second half of 2023. This included the development of day specialist school evaluation indicators by ERO with significant input from principals, staff and the Special Education Principals’ Association of New Zealand (SEPAnz).
Context
Kowhai School delivers a holistic education for students aged five to twenty-one years who have a range of special educational learning needs, intellectual and physical disabilities. The students are mainly from the greater Hastings and Central Hawke's Bay areas.
All students enrolled are funded through the Ongoing Resourcing Scheme (ORS). A team of specialists and therapists provide transdisciplinary support for students in consultation with families, whānau and staff. Each student has a personalised learning programme.
A specialist teacher outreach service provides support for ORS funded students enrolled in local schools and those enrolled in distance learning programmes with Te Kura.
The school continues to navigate and manage roll growth pressures along with the employment and property demands associated with this.
Beyond the base school, there are 12 satellite classes hosted by five local schools, Hastings Central School, Te Kura o Kimi Ora, Raureka School, Heretaunga Intermediate School and Flaxmere College. Kowhai School’s Tertiary Education Centre is located at St Peter’s Church, Hastings, and focuses on post-school preparation for 18 to 21-year-olds.
The school’s motto is – ‘Celebrating our students’. The vision is: Pride in uniqueness, strength in community, excellence in education. The school whakatauki is - ‘Ko te ahurei o te tamaiti arahia o tatou mahi - Let the uniqueness of the child guide our work.’ This is supported by and enacted through the school values of Whakawhanaungatanga, Respect, Partnership and Participation.
Kowhai School is part of the Hastings East Kāhui Ako.
Kowhai School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:
- teacher and student learning - providing a personalised learner-focused education that supports the unique needs of every student
- community engagement - actively engaging with our stakeholders to develop powerful learning partnerships
- culture - building a school culture that promotes and enhances social, emotional and physical wellbeing in an inclusive environment.
You can find a copy of the school’s strategic and annual plan on Kowhai School’s website.
ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how effectively assessment practices in literacy across the school are responding to the unique needs of each learner.
The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:
- the leadership team has identified the need to strengthen assessment practices across the school to ensure a shared understanding and consistency of effective literacy teaching and learning.
The school expects to see:
- consistency and a shared understanding of the use of assessment information to inform teaching and learning
- teachers knowing the appropriate learning pathway for each student and which assessment tools to use to inform teaching and learning
- comparable schoolwide data to monitor and track individual student progress and achievement across the school.
Strengths
The school can draw from the following strengths to support the school in its goal to evaluate how effectively assessment practices in literacy across the school are responding to the unique needs of each learner.
- Students views and preferences contributing to highly specific and measurable learning goals that are well supported by a transdisciplinary approach.
- Distributed leadership that is highly responsive to creating and sustaining conditions for improving outcomes for learners.
- Leaders have effective systems to monitor and know the impact of teaching and support programmes for every learner.
- The consistent use of visuals, resources and routines effectively support regulation, engagement and learning.
- Learners being competent communicators is well established as a high priority outcome.
- Collaboration between outreach and other schools is positive and highly effective in supporting ORS learners.
Where to next?
Moving forward, the school will prioritise:
- clarifying a schoolwide understanding of literacy learning pathways for students
- identifying appropriate literacy assessment tools to use across each student’s learning pathway
- staff professional development to ensure effective use of assessment tools to inform teaching 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.
Shelley Booysen
Director of Schools
22 April 2024
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