Mornington Road , Brooklyn, Wellington
View on mapTēnā koutou e mau manawa rahi ki te kaupapa e aro ake nei, ko te tamaiti te pūtake o te kaupapa. Mā wai rā e kawe, mā tātau katoa.
We acknowledge the collective effort, responsibility and commitment by all to ensure that the child remains at the heart of the matter.
Te Kura o Tawatawa - Ridgway School, is in southern Wellington and provides education for Years 1 to 8 learners. A new principal was appointed at the start of 2024.
There are two parts to this report.
Part A: An evaluative summary of learner success and school conditions to inform the school board’s future strategic direction, including any education in Rumaki/bilingual settings.
Part B: The improvement actions prioritised for the school’s next evaluation cycle.
The following findings are to inform the school’s future priorities for improvement.
| Most learners achieve well and make good progress across the curriculum. |
| Leadership is taking steps towards setting and working towards improvement-focused goals. |
| Leaders and teachers are moving towards providing a responsive local curriculum and consistently high quality teaching practices. |
| School leaders are taking steps to establish and align systems and practices. |
The agreed next steps for the school are to:
The agreed actions for the next improvement cycle and timeframes are as follows.
Every six months:
Annually:
Actions taken against these next steps are expected to result in:
ERO’s role will be to support the school in its evaluation for improvement cycle to improve outcomes for all learners. The next public report on ERO’s website will be a School Evaluation Report and is due within three years.
Me mahi tahi tonu tātau, kia whai oranga a tātau tamariki
Let’s continue to work together for the greater good of all children
Shelley Booysen
Director of Schools
8 November 2024
The Education Counts website provides further information about the school’s student population, student engagement and student achievement. educationcounts.govt.nz/home
As of July 2024, the Te Kura o Tawatawa - Ridgway School Board has attested to the following regulatory and legislative requirements:
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
ERO has identified the following areas of non-compliance during the board assurance process:
The board has since addressed the areas of non-compliance identified.
For further information please contact Te Kura o Tawatawa - Ridgway 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
8 November 2024
The Education Counts website provides further information about the school’s student population, student engagement and student achievement. educationcounts.govt.nz/home
The school values, identified through community consultation, are Manaaki–Respectful, Takohanga – Responsible, Manawaroa–Resilient, and Kakama–Resourceful. The school’s valued outcomes for learners are that they develop the skills and dispositions to be confident, connected, actively involved lifelong learners through a broad curriculum.
Current targets focus on raising the achievement of those children identified as being below school expectations in reading, writing and mathematics. Professional development for teachers has included Accelerating Literacy Learning. The current major focus for teachers is learning te reo Māori. The school is an Enviroschool and is working at tier two in the Positive Behaviour for Learning framework.
Since ERO’s 2016 review the school has experienced significant staff turnover. Changes in board membership includes the election of a new board chair in 2019.
The school has a French bilingual class established at the beginning of 2019 that currently caters for children in years 1 to 5.
Leaders and teachers regularly report to the board, schoolwide information about outcomes for students in the following areas:
The school is a member of the Capital City Kahui Ako | Community of Learning.
School reported data shows that almost all students achieve at or above curriculum expectations in reading and writing and most are at or above in mathematics. Almost all Māori students achieve at and above curriculum expectations in literacy and mathematics.
A range of practices and systems are used to track and monitor student achievement and progress. The school identifies that many students who are below expectations make accelerated progress.
Students are well engaged in learning activities, work collaboratively and support one another in their learning. They demonstrate confidence and participate positively in classroom learning activities. Children are friendly and demonstrate respect. They understand expectations for behaviour and learning. Positive interactions are evident between teachers and students, and between students. ERO observed a settled tone in classes.
The school has worked effectively with the community to develop a language strategy. This provides opportunities for children to learn in a bilingual French class and through optional weekly lessons for extension te reo Māori and other languages.
The school’s approach to a broad curriculum is supported by the Enviroschool’s philosophy, and external expertise and programmes. The recently developed values curriculum includes a consistent approach to learning and behaviour throughout the school. It includes links to key competencies and aspects of the wider school curriculum.
Teachers appropriately provide learners with support through deliberate teaching strategies, verbal feedback in relation to learning goals. They are responsive to children’s learning needs. Provision for learners with additional learning needs is well supported through learning plans and behaviour plans which help with the monitoring of progress. These assist teachers to provide tailored teaching in response to identified needs and monitor progress over time.
Leaders need to develop a clearly defined leadership and management approach to ensure expectations for teaching, learning and achievement are clear and processes are consistently implemented throughout the school.
ERO concurs with the school’s plan to revisit the school’s valued vision and valued outcomes. Consultation with students, parents and whānau should help to inform the planned development of a responsive, localised curriculum that better promotes children’s language, culture and identity.
Clearer guidelines for staff in the active management of assessment practice across the school are required to strengthen the consistency and robustness of achievement information.
Appraisal processes need to be fully implemented and consistently applied while induction systems need further strengthening to support new staff.
Evaluation, inquiry and reporting needs development to reinforce quality assurance and to ensure that more is known about the impact of actions and initiatives for improvement. Strengthening processes for deciding priorities, enacting them, and evaluating them should inform effective decision making for sustainable improvement.
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:
During the review, ERO checked the following items because they have a potentially high impact on student safety and wellbeing:
On the basis of the findings of this review, ERO’s overall evaluation judgement of Ridgway School’s performance in achieving valued outcomes for its students is: Developing.
ERO’s Framework: Overall School Performance is available on ERO’s website.
For sustained improvement and future learner success, the school can draw on existing strengths in:
For sustained improvement and future learner success, priorities for further development are in:
Dr Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services
Te Tai Tini Southern Region
8 October 2019
| Location | Wellington |
| Ministry of Education profile number | 2980 |
| School type | Full Primary |
| School roll | 209 |
| Gender composition | Male 51%, Female 49% |
| Ethnic composition | Māori 11% NZ European/Pākehā 63% Asian 11% Other ethnic groups 15% |
| Students with Ongoing Resourcing Funding (ORS) | Yes |
| Provision of Māori medium education | No |
| Review team on site | June 2019 |
| Date of this report | 8 October 2019 |
| Most recent ERO report(s) | Education Review September 2016 Education Review July 2013 |