Loburn School

Loburn School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 11 months of the Education Review Office and Loburn 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

Context

Loburn School is a full primary school, located in North Canterbury, that provides education for students from years 1 to 8. Learning aims to align with the school’s values of respect | whakaute, service | manaakitanga, participation | mahi tahi, and its desired qualities of learners being team players, communicators, investigators, high-performers, and thinkers.

Loburn School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are to:

  • grow positive school and community relationships to support student learning and the development of a cultural identity

  • develop a localised curriculum that is innovative and engaging for students and staff

  • grow wellbeing practices to promote resilience and inclusivity.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate the impact of their localised curriculum development on student achievement and agency.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is that the school has identified:

  • the need to deepen understanding across the curriculum and raise achievement, particularly in literacy and mathematics

  • a group of priority learners whose learning needs acceleration

  • that the use of feedback and feed forward could be better used to inform planning.

The school expects to see:

  • explicit learning outcomes expressed through a localised curriculum which increases student agency

  • students engaged in purposeful learning, and achieving at their highest levels

  • students articulating what they are learning, why, and their next steps.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to evaluate the impact of their localised curriculum development on student achievement and agency:

  • the school regularly partners with its community to gather their voice to inform decision-making

  • data is examined to identify students’ needs, priority learners, and set achievement targets

  • a whole school collaborative approach to teaching, learning, and assessment ensures consistency of practice and informs curriculum development

  • a focus on hauora underpins learning, pastoral care, and school wide initiatives.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

  • targeted professional learning to strengthen teacher capability in literacy and mathematics to embed a whole-school approach

  • continuing to grow positive school and community relationships which support student learning, cultural identity, and contribute to learning design

  • creating a localised curriculum, supported by effective feedback, which increases students’ agency and high expectations of themselves.

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

13 November 2023

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

Loburn School

Board Assurance with Regulatory and Legislative Requirements Report 2023 to 2026

As of August 2023, the Loburn School Board has attested to the following regulatory and legislative requirements:

Board Administration

Yes

Curriculum

Yes

Management of Health, Safety and Welfare

Yes

Personnel Management

Yes

Finance

Yes

Assets

Yes

Actions for Compliance

ERO and the board have identified the following areas of non-compliance during the board assurance process:

  • the school needs to work towards offering students opportunities for learning second or subsequent languages in Years 7 and 8 [New Zealand Curriculum]

  • the school needs to provide career education and guidance for all students in Year 7 and above [Section 103, Education and Training Act 2020]

  • notices prohibiting smoking and vaping at all times must be displayed in the school premises [Section 7a, Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Act 1990]

  • the Board must report in its annual report on its compliance with its equal opportunities programme [Section 597(1) Education and Training Act 2020]

  • the school needs to check a primary identity document and a secondary identity document, required for safety checking of workforce [Children’s Act 2014].

The board has since taken steps to address the areas of non-compliance identified.

Further Information

For further information please contact Loburn 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

13 November 2023

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

Loburn School - 03/05/2019

School Context

Loburn School is a rural primary in Canterbury for students in Years 1 to 8. It currently has a roll of 162 students.

The school aims to provide a creative, stimulating and nurturing environment that encourages and supports each child to reach their full potential. It intends to establish a foundation of service, respect and participation on which children can aspire to be high performers, thinkers, communicators, investigators and team players.

The school’s annual targets focus on accelerating achievement for individual and groups of students achieving below expected levels in reading, writing and/or mathematics. In 2018, these targets were for reading and writing. In 2019, the focus includes extending the achievement of high achieving students.

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

  • reading, writing and mathematics, and other essential learning areas

  • the school targets for raising student achievement

  • learning support programmes

  • wellbeing, behaviour, attendance, and attitude to learning.

The school is a member of the Puketeraki Kāhui Ako|Community of Learning. The school’s strategic goals for development are closely aligned with Kāhui Ako goals. Leaders are currently refining the school-based curriculum and assessment practices, collaborative approaches to teaching and learning, and support for student wellbeing.

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?

Students are well supported to achieve personal success and excellence. Achievement information consistently shows that most students achieve well in reading and mathematics, with lower overall levels of achievement experienced in writing, particularly for some groups of students. Māori students are achieving at similar rates to their peers.

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

The school is achieving success in accelerating learning for most students who need this. The school has good systems in place to identify groups of students not meeting expected learning outcomes. The 2018 results showed a substantial improvement of accelerated outcomes for the group targeted for reading, but not as much progress for those students targeted for their writing.

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?

The school values are evident in practice across the school. Students participate and learn in caring, well-planned environments. There are positive relationships between staff and students, supported by wellbeing initiatives. Students have access to a wide range of engaging activities and learning experiences, in and out of the school. Students access a variety of tools that support their engagement for learning and promote their learning outcomes. Students’ opinions, and those of their parents, are used to inform and improve teaching practices.

Students have effective, sufficient and equitable opportunities to learn. Teachers make learning pathways visible and encourage students to take responsibility for managing their own learning.

Students requiring additional support in their learning are well supported through classroom teaching teams and by specialist teachers. Leaders and teachers regularly use evidence of students’ learning and progress to inform ongoing improvement of teaching practice.

Staff are engaged in professional learning and development that increases their knowledge and skills for individual and schoolwide improvement. Professional development is supported by access to external expertise and ongoing collaboration across their professional learning teams. Teachers are developing their skills in supporting each other’s development of professional practice, in a high trust environment.

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

There are a number initiatives for incorporating biculturalism into the school’s curriculum. The board and school leaders need to develop a more coordinated, meaningful and sustained approach. This should include the development, implementation and review of a long-term strategy and ongoing input from key stakeholders, whānau and local iwi.

The board identifies, and ERO agrees, that leaders should continue to:

  • embed schoolwide initiatives for ensuring wellbeing

  • ensure that all evaluations show what worked or not in contributing to outcomes for learners, and are based on evidence from a range of sources.

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 Loburn School’s performance in achieving valued outcomes for its students is: Well placed.

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 broad, engaging and responsive curriculum

  • systems, structures and processes supporting improvement

  • a culture of professional learning and collaboration.

Next steps

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

  • a coordinated and meaningful integration of te reo and tikanga Māori into whole school curriculum

  • continuing to embed school-wide initiatives for student wellbeing

  • developing aspects of internal evaluation practice.

Alan Wynyard

Director Review and Improvement Services Southern

Southern Region

3 May 2019

About the school

Location

Loburn

Ministry of Education profile number

3419

School type

Full Primary (Years 1 to 8)

School roll

162

Gender composition

Boys 51% Girls 49%

Ethnic composition

NZ European/Pākehā 98%
Māori 1%
Other ethnicities 1%

Students with Ongoing Resourcing Funding (ORS)

Yes

Provision of Māori medium education

No

Review team on site

February 2019

Date of this report

3 May 2019

Most recent ERO reports

Education Review August 2015
Education Review July 2012