Hampton Hill School

School Context

Hampton Hill School, located in the northern Wellington suburb of Tawa, caters for students in Years 1 to 6. Of the 210 students enrolled, 26% identify as Māori and another 15% identify as being of Pacific heritage.

Trustees and staff have developed the charter to align with the school’s vision of: Grow people to thrive. Valued outcomes for children are expressed through: GROW: confident, connected and curious learners, Real World Learning, Oral Language, Whānau matters. These are underpinned by the RIMU values of: Resilience, Integrity, Manaakitanga and Unity. Changes have fed in to the design of the curriculum. Involvement in Enviroschools is ongoing.

Student achievement targets for 2019 focus on raising achievement in mathematics and writing.

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

• achievement in literacy and mathematics

• attendance and wellbeing

• curriculum enrichment opportunities.

Trustees, leadership and staff have a particular lens on reducing disparity for Māori and Pacific learners, and for boys. Professional development for staff in 2019 includes an emphasis on cultural responsiveness.

The school has experienced changes in leadership, teachers and trustees since ERO’s last review in May 2016. A new principal was appointed in 2017. Leadership of the board changed in 2018. Three new teachers have been appointed for the start of 2019.

The school is part of the Tawa Kāhui Ako. Hampton Hill School’s strategic aims are aligned to the achievement challenges set by the Kāhui 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?

End-of-year school data for 2018 shows that most students, including Māori, achieve at and above expected curriculum levels in reading and mathematics. In writing, the majority of students are at and above curriculum expectations with girls achieving more highly than boys.

Māori students achieve at similar levels to their peers in writing. The majority of Pacific students are at and above expected curriculum levels in literacy and mathematics.

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

The school’s end-of-year data for strategic targets in writing and mathematics shows that over half the students involved had their progress successfully accelerated.

Leaders are aware that while progress is being made, disparities still exist for some Māori and Pacific learners, and for boys. Achievement targets for 2019 have been set with a view to addressing known disparities.

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?

Leadership has a well-considered approach to building collaboration and coherence across the school and its community. Leaders have a clear vision for learning and shared teacher practice. Deliberate actions are effectively building distributed leadership.

Students experience a broad curriculum designed to engage and interest them. It includes a focus on individual children’s needs and interests through authentic contexts, community engagement and hands-on experiences.

Increasing students’ understanding of their learning, progress and opportunities for student leadership, including input into curriculum decisions and programme design is a key feature. Teachers are focused on growing student understanding and control of their learning, and creating collaborative learning conditions across the school.

A range of professional development is provided to grow leadership capacity, staff collaboration and knowledge. External support is appropriately accessed, as well as effectively using teachers’ strengths.

Parent involvement in the school is strongly supported. Staff and trustees are beginning to explore, alongside whanau Māori and the Pacific community, what success looks like for particular groups of children. They are starting to look at useful research and supporting documents to grow knowledge of cultural competencies. A range of initiatives encourage and enable parents to contribute to curriculum delivery and support their children’s learning.

Trustees participate actively in the life of the school. They have worked strategically and collaboratively with leaders, staff and families to establish the school community’s vision, values, goals and priorities, and ensure the charter and curriculum are inclusive and responsive to local needs and contexts. These actions should support improved engagement and achievement.

Trustees engage in a range of professional development to grow their understanding of school stewardship. They bring a variety of skills and knowledge to their roles, and actively represent and serve the school and community. Board roles and responsibilities are clear.

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

Appraisal is regular, with goals appropriately linked to the school’s strategic priorities and improving outcomes for priority learners. It incorporates new coaching practices with feedback based on regular classroom observations. Processes are aligned to the Professional Standards for the Teaching Profession. Practices to support the issue and renewal of practising certificates should be strengthened through the introduction of an end-point summary.

Leaders agree there is a need to continue to build understanding of inquiry and evaluation for improved teaching and learning. Strengthening teacher inquiry should lead to increased knowledge, skills and adaptive expertise. Evaluation should enable leadership and staff to better identify the impact of specific changes to practice on student outcomes.

Continuing the current curriculum development to include specific guidelines, measures and indicators for each essential learning area is important. This should ensure the school achieves the coherence intended.

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 Hampton Hill School performance in achieving valued outcomes for its students is: Developing.

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:

• a shared approach by the board, leadership and staff that contributes to students’ holistic development, wellbeing and learning success

• strong partnerships with the parent community that support learning and provide opportunities and experiences for students.

Next steps

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

• continuing to strengthen the curriculum and embedding the redesigned aspects

• building shared understanding of inquiry and evaluation to improve teaching and learning.

Alan Wynyard

Director Review and Improvement Services Southern

Southern Region

2 April 2019

About the school