48 Rowley Avenue , Hoon Hay, Christchurch
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 Kōmanawa Rowley School is located in Christchurch and provides education for learners in Years 1 to 8. The school’s three values are Whanaungatanga | Feso'ota'iga |Tauhi Va | Relationships; Tuakiritanga | Fa’asinomaga |‘Ilo’i kita |Identity; and Mana | Fa’aaloalogia | Ngeia | Dignity.
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.
| Outcomes for learners are improving school wide; this is an ongoing priority for the school. |
| Leaders are strategic and deliberate in building a supportive school culture that is learning focused. |
| Teachers and the curriculum are responsive to learners’ interests, needs and culture. |
| Key conditions that underpin successful schooling are increasingly embedded. |
The agreed next steps for the school are to:
The agreed actions for the next improvement cycle and timeframes are as follows.
Within three months:
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
3 December 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 April 2024, the Te Kōmanawa Rowley 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 taken steps to address the areas of non-compliance identified.
For further information please contact Te Kōmanawa Rowley 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
3 December 2024
The Education Counts website provides further information about the school’s student population, student engagement and student achievement. educationcounts.govt.nz/home
Based on the findings of this review, ERO ‘s overall evaluation judgement is that the school has made valuable progress in relation to the priorities identified in this report and will now transition into Te Ara Huarau; ERO’s school evaluation for improvement approach.
Te Kōmanawa Rowley School situated in Hoon Hay in Christchurch has a roll of 146, 33 percent of whom identify as Māori and 37 percent as Pacific learners with Samoan or Tongan heritage. Some learners are English language learners.
The school vision is to develop learners who are upheld in their identity and successful in their learning journey underpins teaching, learning and wellbeing. This is supported by the following school values: Whanaungatanga - Feso'ota'iga Tauhi Va - Relationships, Tuakiritanga - Fa’asinomaga ‘Ilo’i kita – Identity and Mana - Fa’aaloalogia Ngeia - Dignity.
The February 2020 ERO report identified continued significant areas for improvement and recommended that the school continue work with Te Mahau | Ministry of Education to support improvements. This included lifting the quality of teaching, the school curriculum and the effectiveness leadership and stewardship. Improving student attendance and rates of progress and achievement remained a central priority along with improving the classroom climate for learning.
Te Mahau appointed a commissioner to undertake the role of the school board between June 2017 until December 2021. An experienced principal was appointed in Term 3, 2021. Most teachers and staff have been appointed since 2021 and the deputy principal began in 2022.
In January 2022, a Limited Statutory Manager (LSM) was appointed to assist the newly formed board with personnel and curriculum. This included support for understanding the board’s collective roles and responsibilities to meet legislative obligations. This statutory intervention was removed in December 2022. The board continues to receive support from New Zealand School Trustees Association (NZSTA).
Since Term 3, 2020, ERO has worked closely with Te Kōmanawa Rowley School, to monitor school progress and evaluate school improvements. This has included regular visits, classroom observations, meetings with the commissioner, LSM, leaders, teachers, and school board members. The school has provided ongoing relevant documentation and evidence linked to the key areas for improvement.
ERO identified ongoing four key evaluation priorities for improving student outcomes including:
The school has made considerable progress in developing a more positive and supportive learning environment for teaching and learning. There is a clearer schoolwide focus on supporting improved student participation and engagement.
The collaboratively developed Mana Tangata framework supports consistency of strategies used by teachers across the school to promote student wellbeing for learning. Classroom practice increasingly focuses on enacting schoolwide expectations for positive learning behaviours. A positive learning culture allows teachers to appropriately focus on learning in well organised and inviting school environments.
School leaders and all staff continue to work collaboratively to support individual wellbeing and a positive and settled school climate. Increased caring and respectful relationships across the school support greater sense of belonging and wellbeing of all students. Learners’ positive efforts are regularly affirmed and celebrated.
Trustees, leaders and staff are committed to continuing to strengthen their capacity to improve student outcomes.
Attendance has improved over time with barriers to attendance for students and their whānau being minimised. A sustained focus on continuing to improve student attendance remains a school priority and is supported by annual improvement targets and additional resourcing. Relationships with whānau continue to grow and strengthen, contributing to improved attendance levels. The 90 percent national attendance goal remains a focus.
Systems and processes have been developed and are being implemented to support leaders and teachers to track, monitor, record and report student learning and wellbeing. Teachers use a wide range of assessment tools to support their overall judgements to student achievement and progress.
Assessment systems and practices have been strengthened, leading to greater consistency of teacher judgements of achievement and progress. Teachers increasingly use achievement information to identify the needs of individual and groups of students and plan and teach accordingly.
School reported Term 4, 2022 achievement data shows that significant numbers of students are not yet at expected levels in mathematics and reading. Writing remains an area of particular concern, especially for boys.
School leaders identified target students based on end of 2021 data. Valuable progress occurred in reading and mathematics for targeted groups of learners. Continuing to improve and accelerate achievement and progress across the school remains an ongoing priority.
Settled leadership and staffing enables the implementation of processes and practices to support more consistent quality teaching to promote learning across the school. Leaders and staff are collegial and know their learners’ needs. School leaders are proactive in accessing a wide range of agency support and programmes to better cater to student needs.
Expectations for effective teaching practices continue to improve. Systems and processes have been developed and are being implemented to identify, track, monitor, record and report individual progress and next steps for learning.
Useful systems and processes support capability building including professional growth cycle and teacher inquiry. Teachers have participated in PLD to support their practice in mathematics and writing. The impact of this has yet to be seen in student learning and achievement outcomes.
The school’s curriculum continues to develop and is underpinned by its Positive Behaviour of Learning programme – Mana Tangata. This supports broadening and extending learning opportunities and experiences for students. Clear expectations for behaviour are well established.
The use of relevant Pacific and Māori contexts is beginning to be evident in the curriculum and remains an area for further development. A deliberate, planned schoolwide programme promotes Samoan language learning across the school for all students. Te Reo Māori programmes are at an early stage of development and remains an area for consolidation and implementation.
Developing a responsive localised curriculum that reflects the higher expectations for teaching and learning, whānau aspirations and ongoing curriculum changes remains a strategic priority, including formalising consultation with whānau Māori.
Student focused leadership continues to sustain a positive learning environment and establishing conditions that support teaching and learning. Reconnecting with whānau, community and external support agencies has been a priority.
A new school board was formed at the end of 2021, replacing the commissioner who was in place for five years. Trustees are developing greater confidence to ask relevant questions when presented with achievement and wellbeing reports. They value and understand the need to participate in targeted NZSTA professional learning to focus on improving student outcomes.
The school uses an online platform to support the management and review of policies and procedures that guide school practice and operation. The board reviews policies through a triennial review schedule. This work is ongoing.
The school has significantly increased its capacity to sustain improvements and review its performance through the successful implementation of Mana Tangata.
A sustained focus on establishing the foundations for teaching and learning is supporting teachers to build effective practices to promote student learning and wellbeing. The recently established board continues to grow its stewardship and governance knowledge and understandings. Relationships with whānau and iwi continue to strengthen. Roll growth continues.
The ongoing key priority is to continue to improve the use of data and its analysis to increase the effectiveness of classroom teaching. This should also support the development of a comprehensive localised curriculum to work towards more equitable and excellent learner outcomes.
School leaders, trustees and ERO agree that continuing to build effective teaching to improve valued learner outcomes remains the key priority. This includes:
Before the review, the board of trustees 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:
During the review, ERO checked the following items because they have a potentially high impact on student achievement:
Te Kōmanawa Rowley School has made substantial improvement in its overall performance. To continue the momentum in building leadership in governance and stewardship, ERO recommends that the board continue to participate in further professional development from the New Zealand School Trustees Association. This should assist with building the board’s knowledge and understanding about their roles, responsibilities, including meeting legislative requirements.
Based on the findings of this review, ERO ‘s overall evaluation judgement is that the school has made valuable progress in relation to the priorities identified in this report and will now transition into Te Ara Huarau; ERO’s school evaluation for improvement approach.
Shelley Booysen
Director of Schools
19 February 2024
Te Kōmanawa Rowley School has had a history of high principal turnover and poor conditions and outcomes for students’ learning and progress. Serious concerns about the school’s performance were identified in the June 2017 ERO review. This led to a longitudinal review process where ERO has maintained an ongoing relationship with the school. A Limited Statutory Manager (LSM), with responsibility for curriculum and employment, was appointed by the Ministry of Education (MoE) in 2018
ERO completed a midpoint evaluation of the school’s progress in November 2018 that focused on governance, leadership, student achievement and teaching and learning. That evaluation identified ongoing serious concerns regarding school leadership, achievement and children’s learning and progress. The mid-point report stated that the school must develop a sense of urgency, and manageably increase the pace of change to significantly improve school organisational conditions and outcomes for all students.
In April 2019 the status of statutory intervention was increased by the MoE to Commissioner. The Commissioner and the MoE negotiated a memorandum of understanding with the Somerfield Te Kura Wairepo board of trustees, which allowed the principal to be released part-time to lead Te Kōmanawa Rowley School. A deputy principal was also appointed to the leadership team to work on site and carry out the day-to-day management of the school. Other increased support for the school includes the provision of specialist teacher staffing from Somerfield Te Kura Wairepo.
In 2018, the two bilingual classes at the school were assessed by the Ministry of Education. They identified many concerns about how well children were being supported to improve their learning and achievement.
Since the last full ERO review in 2017, there have been significant changes in staffing, including the key appointments outlined above. Other appointments include new teachers who joined the school in January 2020.
The 2017 ERO review and the 2018 mid-point evaluation of the school identified the following areas for review and improvement:
leadership of the school, curriculum, teaching and learning to ensure equity for all students’ learning, progress and achievement over time
required and timely reporting by the principal to the board about student progress and achievement information, and other information as requested by trustees
communication by the principal to staff about required school processes and practices, and in response to their inquiries and requests
systems and capability for data management and use, including developing and using clear expectations, guidelines and processes for robust assessment and moderation that promote data reliability, consistency and coherence across the school, including in the two bilingual classes
effective implementation of the school’s appraisal system so that it complies with New Zealand Teaching Council requirements and promotes high expectations for teaching performance in all classrooms
development and implementation of an effective process of internal evaluation across the school to ensure continuous improvement and sustainability of progress made
clarification from the MoE regarding the status of the school’s two bilingual classes.
In May 2019, the acting principal undertook a rigorous review of teaching and learning practices. This identified that improving the quality of teaching, and the development of consistently-applied high expectations for student learning and progress were key priorities across all school operations.
School leaders have now established clear priorities for action. There has been significant progress developing systems that support quality teaching and learning, clarifying student achievement information and providing safe and purposefully-planned learning environments. Leaders have identified the need for, and modelled, high expectations for learners and professional accountability for teachers.
Teaching staff recognise the clear direction provided by leaders. They acknowledge the way leaders have supported and responded to teachers’ needs and requests through a time of significant change. Targeted professional development, and coaching and mentoring by the specialist teachers, are progressively building the capability of teaching staff and teacher aides. A robust, well documented appraisal system is now in place and provides explicit feedback for teachers to improve their teaching practice.
Systems, processes and practices to increase teachers’ data literacy have been established, and in some cases embedded. There is a growing capability and collective capacity to make sense of achievement information to inform targeted responses to student learning needs.
Collaborative planning and agreed approaches to teaching and learning are supporting a more coherent curriculum. This is helping to provide more opportunities for students to learn and connect with their local community. The school enrichment programme is continuing to strengthen links with parents, whānau, aiga and the wider school community.
Leaders provide regular, detailed reports to the Commissioner that clearly identify next steps and provide timelines for ongoing school improvement. An effective leadership inquiry, informed by research, is guiding school improvement and building collective capacity when using internal evaluation. Regular, ongoing self review is informing next steps for improving policies, procedures and strategic planning.
The current leadership structure, resourcing provision and involvement of specialist teachers from Somerfield Te Kura Wairepo coaching staff, has had a positive impact on improving conditions for learning and improved teaching.
While conditions for learning have been significantly improved and achievement information clarified, the Commissioner and school leaders are aware that levels of student achievement in reading, writing and mathematics remain low and inequitable.
To improve student progress and achievement school leaders have identified, and the ERO evaluation has confirmed, that leaders need to continue to:
strengthen data management practices and data literacy of all staff to effectively identify, support and monitor the progress and sufficiency of progress of all learners
continue to develop and maintain consistently high expectations and high-quality teaching practices through ongoing professional development, reflection and accountability processes to improve learning outcomes for all students.
The school is better placed to sustain and continue to improve and review its performance.
Leaders have now developed a sustainable cycle of planning, improvement and self review. There has been significant progress developing systems that support quality teaching and learning, clarifying student progress and achievement and the provision of safe and well planned learning environments.
To sustain improvement, school leaders have identified, and the ERO review has confirmed, that leaders need to carry out regular and purposeful community consultation to:
Before the review, the board of trustees 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:
During the review, ERO checked the following items because they have a potentially high impact on student achievement:
To comply with the Education Act 1989 and the National Administration Guidelines the school needs to:
Consult with the school community to adopt a statement on the delivery of the health curriculum (as per Section 60B Education Act 1989)
Consult with the school’s Māori community to develop and make known the school policies, plans and targets for improving the progress and achievement of Māori students. (NAG 1e)
Give priority to regular, quality physical activity that develops movement skills for all students, especially in years 1-6. (NAG 1a)
ERO recommends that the Ministry of Education provides support for the school in order to bring about improvement through planned consultative practices with the school community, in particular in relation to the Pacific community.
On the basis of the findings of this review, ERO‘s overall evaluation judgement of Te Kōmanawa Rowley School’s performance in achieving valued outcomes for its students is: Needs development
ERO will maintain an ongoing relationship with the school to build capacity and evaluate progress.
ERO’s Framework: Overall Findings and Judgement Tool derived from School Evaluation Indicators: Effective Practice for Improvement and Learner Success is available on ERO’s website.
Dr Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region - Te Tai Tini
7 February 2020
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Location |
Christchurch |
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Ministry of Education profile number |
3492 |
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School type |
State contributing Years 1-8 |
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School roll |
107 |
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Gender composition |
Boys 56%; Girls 44% |
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Ethnic composition |
Māori NZ European/Pākehā Pacific Other Ethnicities |
22% 16% 55% 7% |
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Review team on site |
November 2019 |
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Date of this report |
7 February 2020 |
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Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review Education Review |
June 2017 March 2014 |