Renwick School

Summary

At the time of this review, the Renwick School roll was 535 including 77 Māori children.

Overall the school has maintained very good to high levels of student achievement against the National Standards in reading, writing and mathematics from 2009-2016. Since the 2012 ERO review there has been continuous improvement of the school’s effective systems and practices for leadership, assessing and monitoring of student achievement, the curriculum and wellbeing. Significant focus has been given to integrating te reo and tikanga Māori into the curriculum and improving Māori achievement.

Staffing has remained stable with many long-serving leaders and teachers. The board has a mix of experienced and recently-elected trustees.

The school is a member of the Piritahi Kāhui Ako (Community of Learning) and the principal is a co-leader.

How well is the school achieving equitable outcomes for all children?

The school is strongly focused on providing equitable outcomes for all children, particularly those groups of children whose achievement needs acceleration.

The school has many effective systems, processes and practices that are enabling achievement of equity and excellence. Of particular significance is the leadership of the school and the well-considered strategic direction. The school has very effective systems and processes to achieve its vision for high quality learning and teaching for all children.

Internal evaluation is very well used to refine and improve school operations. Trustees, leaders and staff strongly promote a bicultural learning environment that will benefit Māori and all children. The school has established strong learning partnerships with children and their families.

Participation in the Piritahi Kāhui Ako is having a significant and positive impact on the school achieving its vision for student achievement and high quality learning and teaching.

The school needs to further evaluate the outcomes and impact of programmes and initiatives, particularly in relation to Māori succeeding as Māori.

Children are achieving very good educational outcomes. School performance has been sustained over time through well-focused, embedded processes and practices. This school has continued to improve the way it is addressing in-school disparity in educational outcomes.

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

Equity and excellence

How effectively does this school respond to Māori and other children whose learning and achievement need acceleration?

The school responds very effectively to Māori and other children whose learning and achievement need acceleration.

The majority of children achieve very well in reading, writing and mathematics. Boys are achieving less well, particularly in writing.

There is a small disparity in the National Standards achievement of Māori children.

The school makes very good use of internal evaluation to refine its effective systems and practices for responding to children whose achievement needs to be accelerated. Teachers have an in depth knowledge of each child. They successfully use this information to provide programmes to engage children whose achievement needs to be accelerated. These children are targeted through well-defined, specific teaching approaches that incorporate their interests and make learning relevant.

Children’s progress and wellbeing are closely monitored and reported by a group of teachers (whānau group). Teachers collaboratively identify approaches which are most effective and make changes to their teaching as needed, usually in consultation with the child.

The school has effective assessment and moderation processes. This year teachers are beginning to use a national moderation tool to further strengthen their judgements. They are also working with colleagues from other schools in the Piritahi Kāhui Ako to improve consistency across the schools.

School conditions supporting equity and excellence

What school processes are effective in enabling achievement of equity and excellence?

The school has effective high quality processes to support equity and excellence.

Children and parents are valued and respected as partners in learning. Leaders and teachers use a range of appropriate and effective strategies to communicate with parents and whānau. They provide many opportunities for parents to provide feedback on their child's learning. Children are regularly consulted about their learning. Children provide very specific feedback to teachers on the best ways that they can help them learn and experience success. Learning is shared and well supported by teachers, children and whānau.

The school's curriculum is highly responsive to children's needs, interests and abilities. Children have an in depth knowledge of what they are learning and what they want to achieve. They are actively involved in decision making for what and how they learn. Teachers effectively take collective responsibility for the learning and wellbeing of all children in their whānau group.

Transition into school is well planned and successfully utilizes children’s prior knowledge and ways they have learnt through play in their early childhood centre. Children are highly engaged and confident that they will succeed in their learning.

Te reo and tikanga Māori are becoming well integrated into all aspects of school life. Māori values are well understood and integrated. Whānau groupings are used well to promote the ways that Māori children learn best. Teachers are making good progress in integrating te reo and tikanga Māori into all aspects of the curriculum. Leaders provide teachers with ongoing, high quality professional development. Effective, culturally responsive teaching strategies support and promote student learning.

Leaders have a highly strategic and coherent approach to building professional capability and collective capacity. Systematic, collaborative inquiry processes and challenging professional learning opportunities are well aligned to achieve the school vision, values, goals and targets.

Leaders, trustees and teachers share high expectations for children’s learning, progress and wellbeing. The school’s well focused approach to professional learning and robust systems to evaluate current practices are improving the quality of teaching and learning for all children.

School leadership provides highly focused strategic direction to ensure all children experience equity and excellence in their learning and wellbeing. All teachers are viewed as successful, effective leaders. Their strengths are valued and well used.

The strategic plan effectively guides teaching and learning to improve outcomes for all children and particularly children who need their achievement accelerated. The plan’s implementation is closely monitored and adapted as needed to get the best results for children. Leaders and teachers skillfully identify what has achieved the best outcomes and what needs to be done next.

Involvement in the Piritahi Kāhui Ako is a catalyst for change and ongoing school improvement. School leaders effectively use opportunities that the Kāhui Ako provides to direct and plan improvement, participate in high quality professional development and learn from and support other schools within their community. These growing professional partnerships are helping to promote the conditions for all children to benefit from the expertise and collective ownership that membership of the Kāhui Ako brings.

Sustainable development for equity and excellence

What further developments are needed in school processes to achieve equity and excellence?

The school has many high quality systems and processes in place. These could be further enhanced by improving aspects of internal evaluation and cultural responsiveness.

Leaders are aware of the need to give sufficient priority to evaluating the impact of the actions it has taken to improve equity and excellence. The impact on student outcomes for some initiatives needs to be determined. For example, the school does not yet have good information about how well it is promoting success for Māori children, as Māori.

The detailed action plan in place for 2017 provides a robust framework for improving internal evaluation.

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
• 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.

Provision for international students

The school is a signatory to the Education (Pastoral Care of International Students) Code of Practice 2016 established under section 238F of the Education Act 1989. The school has attested that it complies with all aspects of the Code.

No international students were enrolled at the time of the ERO review.

Going forward

How well placed is the school to accelerate the achievement of all children who need it?

Children are achieving very good educational outcomes. School performance has been sustained over time through well-focused, embedded processes and practices. This school is successfully addressing in-school disparity in educational outcomes.

Agreed next steps are:

• making more use of the school’s high quality systems and practices to more clearly identify how implementation of the strategic goals is improving outcomes for Māori children, particularly succeeding as Māori.

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

Dr Lesley Patterson

Deputy Chief Review Officer Southern (Te Waipounamu)

14 July 2017

About the school