1 Tillman Avenue , Christchurch
View on mapThis Profile Report was written within 12 months of the Education Review Office and Waimairi 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
Waimairi School is located in Bryndwr, Christchurch and provides education for students in years 1 to 6.
Waimairi School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:
enhancing personalised learning by developing a ‘personalised evaluation’ process
strengthening teacher effectiveness through building teacher professional knowledge in reading instruction
building learning focused relationships through enhanced evaluation, reporting and assessment tools.
You can find a copy of the school’s strategic and annual plan on Waimairi School’s website.
ERO and the school are working together to develop a personalised evaluation framework to further benefit all students but in particular those who need a different approach to learning and assessment.
The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:
personalised evaluation is a complex new field for a school to enter
the two other strategic priorities already have sufficient internal and/or external evaluative expertise surrounding them.
The school expects to see:
A programme of ‘personalised evaluation’ being developed, tested, refined and then sustained. This is of particular importance for the staff to better understand why for some cohorts of learners remain the subject of repeated ‘target groups’ and interventions but for whom equitable learning outcomes still elude them. The expected outcome is more equitable learning outcomes across the school.
The school can draw from the following strengths to support the school in its goal to develop a personalised evaluation framework.
a strong and well enacted cultural values base with a strong history of designing and implementing innovative solutions to overcome barriers to learning.
high value is placed upon external critical friends and research informed practice where strong evidence and research is well considered before the school embarks on any new ‘programmes’ processes, or initiatives.
a community of ‘teachers as learners’’ who can draw upon leading educational thinking to inform practice where every staff member is included in the adult learning community.
leadership is distributed and capacity is built through this leadership process.
staff wellbeing is prioritised to ensure that the students have the most effective teachers in front of them and a high value is placed upon maintaining a safe emotional and physical environment.
Moving forward, the school will prioritise:
refreshing our culturally responsive practices and our relationship with Mana Whenua (COVID disrupted)
more consistent application of the schools agreed metacognitive strategies (SOLO)
rebuild community cohesion and ‘in-person’ engagement with learning (COVID disrupted) to ensure educationally powerful partnerships are maintained
ensure equal focus on priority learners (as well as priority behaviour cases).
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.
Dr Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini
4 August 2022
The Education Counts website provides further information about the school’s student population, student engagement and student achievement. educationcounts.govt.nz/home
As of December 2021, the Waimairi School Board of Trustees has attested to the following regulatory and legislative requirements:
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For further information please contact Waimairi School Board of Trustees.
The next Board of Trustees 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.
Dr Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini
4 August 2022
The Education Counts website provides further information about the school’s student population, student engagement and student achievement. educationcounts.govt.nz/home
The Education Review Office reviews schools that are signatories to the Education (Pastoral Care of Tertiary and International Learners) Code of Practice 2021 established under section 534 of the Education and Training Act 2020.
At the time of this review there was 1 international student attending the school.
Students receive high quality pastoral care and have a sense of belonging at the school. Students have access to comprehensive in class and out of class support with language, well being and academic achievement. Their cultures are valued and celebrated within the school and wider community. The school regularly monitors their progress and wellbeing including one to one meetings, regular surveys and links with students who speak their home language.
Dr Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini
4 August 2022
The Education Counts website provides further information about the school’s student population, student engagement and student achievement. educationcounts.govt.nz/home
The school has a roll of 470 children, 52 of whom identify as Māori.
Since the 2012 ERO external evaluation, the school has sustained its high performance and continued to progress collaborative teaching and learning practices.
School-wide achievement shows that most children achieve the National Standards by the time they reach Year 6.
The school is effectively achieving equitable outcomes. The board, school leaders and teachers have very high expectations for positive outcomes and are focused on ensuring children’s wellbeing and readiness for learning.
The school has good systems to monitor and support children’s progress and achievement, and has successfully addressed in-school disparity in educational outcomes.
School performance has been sustained over time through well-focused, embedded processes and practices. To ensure ongoing positive outcomes for all children, school leaders need to strengthen the evaluation of the effectiveness of planned actions to lift children’s achievement.
ERO is likely to carry out the next review in four-to-five years.
The school is very effective in responding to Māori and other children whose learning and achievement need acceleration.
Most children achieve at or above the National Standards in reading, writing and mathematics. School information shows these levels have been sustained over the last three years in reading and mathematics with improved achievement in writing.
Most Māori students achieve well in the National Standards, particularly in reading. The school’s achievement information from the last three years shows that Māori children continue to achieve at or above the National Standards.
There are many good quality practices for assessment and moderation between class teachers and within teaching teams. School leaders agree that there is a need to extend formalised moderation practices within and beyond the school to be assured of the consistency of teacher judgements.
School processes are highly effective in enabling achievement of equity and excellence.
Leaders and teachers are highly responsive to children who need additional support to be successful learners. School leadership sets high expectations for equitable and excellent outcomes for all children. This is demonstrated consistently through:
A key feature of the school is the respectful, authentic relationships that underpin all aspects of practices and operation of the school. Leaders and teachers value the unique strengths of each child and use this information to build a strong sense of belonging for all children.
Children’s engagement and wellbeing is a valued outcome. School information shows that children have high levels of engagement in their learning. The school actively uses survey information to monitor and respond to wellbeing needs. In particular, reports to the board show that the wellbeing of those receiving learning support is actively enhanced.
The school focuses on building constructive relationships with families and children to support learning. Parents and whānau are actively welcomed into the school. Culture, language and identity are acknowledged and celebrated. There has been a sustained focus on building teachers’ understanding and use of bicultural practices to enhance learning for children and support their sense of belonging and wellbeing.
Children’s transitions into the school are well considered and strongly centred on continuity of learning. Teachers are focused on dispositional learning and make very good use of the Early Childhood Curriculum (Te Whāriki) to support young children’s readiness for learning.
Teachers use a wide range of effective processes for identifying and closely monitoring the achievement and progress of individual children. They use this information well to inform their teaching and provide additional support for those who need it.
Children know the purpose of learning and are actively supported to evaluate their learning and identify next steps. They are provided with meaningful and enjoyable learning experiences that are responsive to their interests, strengths and needs and engage them in learning.
All staff collaborate effectively to achieve positive outcomes for learning. There is a strong, shared understanding about teaching and learning. High quality professional relationships between teachers ensure a relentless focus on equity and excellence for all children.
Senior leaders give priority to building teacher effectiveness through the school’s teacher appraisal process. Teachers are highly reflective and improvement focused. They give considerable thought to the best approach to meet individual needs.
The school makes very good use of external partnerships to continuously improve teaching and learning. External advisors provide constructive, critical feedback against the school’s strategic goals. This contributes to ongoing developments and consistent practices across the school.
The school has very good quality processes for addressing equity and excellence that have been sustained over time.
School targets need to specifically focus on learners who are yet to achieve at or above the National Standards. Setting more specific targets would allow clearer reporting of the effectiveness of planned actions to continue to raise the achievement of these learners.
The board needs to receive evaluative mid-year reporting on the outcomes of interventions. This will help the board to more effectively track progress against its annual goals and inform decision making.
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:
The school is a signatory to the Education (Pastoral Care of International Students) Code of Practice 2016(the Code) established under section 238F of the Education Act 1989. The school has attested that it complies with all aspects of the Code.
At the time of this review there was one international student attending the school.
International students are welcomed into the school and its community. The school makes good provision for their pastoral and learning needs.
Children are achieving excellent educational outcomes. School performance has been sustained over time through well-focused, embedded processes and practices. This school has successfully addressed in-school disparity in educational outcomes.
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
|
Location |
Christchurch |
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
3571 |
|
School type |
Contributing |
|
School roll |
470 |
|
Gender composition |
Boys: 58% Girls: 42% |
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori 11% Pacific 2% Pākehā 76% Asian 4% Other ethnicities 7% |
|
Provision of Māori medium education |
No |
|
Review team on site |
May 2017 |
|
Date of this report |
14 July 2017 |
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review July 2012 Education Review June 2009 |