West Eyreton School

West Eyreton School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 24 months of the Education Review Office and West Eyreton 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 

West Eyreton School is a rural school in North Canterbury catering for children in the local area from Years 1 to 8. The school appointed a new principal 2022. The school is an active member of the Puketeraki Rangiora Kāhui Ako, which is made up of 18 schools all working in collaboration to improve outcomes for all learners. The school values and promotes five special qualities - Excellence through Effort, Example, Enterprise and Empathy.

West Eyreton’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are to:

  • deliver equitable outcomes through collaboration

  • provide quality, consistent teaching practice that improves student outcomes

  • further embed a cohesive school and community partnership.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate literacy achievement and schoolwide assessment for learning practices.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is to:

  • ensure equity, excellence and inclusion is at the forefront for all learners

     

  • develop a manageable assessment and evaluation framework that is sustainable and makes a positive difference for all learners

  • monitor progress against the National Education and Learning Priorities (NELPs).

The school expects to see:

  • improved outcomes for all learners in literacy by using a more data driven and internal review focused approach to learning and teaching

  • more robust data analysis driving change and improvement ensuring sufficiency of progress and achievement for all learners.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support the school in its goal to better evaluate literacy achievement and school wide assessment practices:

  • high quality teaching and learning that ensures students’ progress and achieve well across the curriculum

  • highly supportive community, alongside a strong school culture, results in educationally powerful connections that enrich learning

  • effective school leadership and stewardship that focuses on ongoing improvement to achieve equity and excellence for all learners

  • strong evaluative review and the open sharing of effective practices informs high quality schoolwide strategies for teaching and learning.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

  • implementing an impact coaching model to enhance sustainability of high quality practices

  • engaging in high quality professional development with a focus on Assessment for Learning and student agency to further improve achievement outcomes for all learners

  • strengthen schoolwide evaluation for improvement practices to promote greater implementation fidelity across the school in the teaching of Literacy.

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

22 May 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

West Eyreton School

Board Assurance with Regulatory and Legislative Requirements Report 2022 to 2025

As of December 2022, the West Eyreton 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

Further Information

For further information please contact West Eyreton 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

22 May 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

 

West Eyreton School - 21/09/2016

1 Context

West Eyreton School provides a hub and meeting place for the local rural community. Events are well attended and usually relate to children sharing their learning and achievement.

The principal and the majority of staff have worked at the school for a number of years. Their knowledge of the local community and families is helping to ensure the school's inclusive culture and strong community links are maintained.

Board succession planning ensures that changes to board membership are well managed and valuable knowledge is retained.

2 Equity and excellence

The vision and valued outcomes defined by the school are for all children to have a strong focus on learning and to relate well and be inclusive of others. School leaders and teachers identify the importance for children to become lifelong learners who are confident, conscientious and responsible citizens. Children are expected to strive for excellence, show empathy and lead by example and enterprise.

The school reports that Māori children are achieving better than their peers at the school in the National Standards in writing and mathematics but not as well in reading. The majority of children achieve at or above the National Standards in reading, writing and mathematics. Children's achievement has been high over the previous three years with further improvements occurring each year.

A range of assessment activities and a well-structured moderation process across the school provides teachers with meaningful assessment data from which to make decisions about children's achievement levels in relation to the National Standards.

Since the 2011 ERO review, the school has successfully addressed the recommendations in the report. This includes extending children's ability to manage their own learning, and developing the school's curriculum to enable Māori children to experience success as Māori.

3 Accelerating achievement

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

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

Leaders and teachers establish strong learning partnerships with Māori children and their whānau. They maintain regular contact to ensure parents are well informed about their child's progress. They ensure parents are actively involved in decisions about their child's learning, culture and wellbeing.

Trustees, leaders and teachers have high expectations for Māori students. They actively promote Māori language and culture and strongly support Māori children to become leaders. Māori children are proud to be Māori and to succeed as Māori.

Leaders and teachers know Māori learners very well. They identify learners at risk of not achieving the National Standards early, and develop and implement plans to progress their learning. They continually monitor children's progress and achievement during their time at school.

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

The school effectively responds to other children whose learning and achievement need acceleration in the same way they respond to Māori children whose learning and achievement need acceleration.

4 School conditions

How effectively do the school’s curriculum and other organisational processes and practices develop and enact the school’s vision, values, goals and targets for equity and excellence?

The school's curriculum and other organisational processes and practices are highly effective in developing and enacting the school's vision, values, goals and targets for equity and excellence.

The school's vision and values for students are clearly evident and well embedded into all aspects of school life. Leaders and teachers place a strong emphasis on ensuring they model the values. This is helping to support student wellbeing and learning.

Trustees, leaders and staff are highly committed and fully focused on continuing to strengthen te reo and tikanga Māori across all aspects of school life. Māori children are experiencing success as Māori and all children are developing pride in, and awareness of New Zealand's bicultural heritage.

The school curriculum is well organised and provides all children with significant opportunity to reach their full potential and participate in a wide range of experiences within the school and wider community. Children enjoy rich and purposeful learning environments that recognise the many ways they can experience success.

Teachers make very good use of their knowledge of children to provide programmes that interest, engage and challenge children to think more deeply about and extend their learning. They use a wide range of effective teaching strategies to engage children in meaningful learning.

Children are well supported to become independent and take responsibility for their own learning and achievement. They confidently talk about their learning, know their next steps and understand what teachers do best to help them achieve successful learning outcomes.

School leaders are highly effective in supporting staff and providing clear directions for teaching and learning. They have established a close alignment between the school vision, strategic plan, teacher appraisal and professional development. This is promoting a high level of collaboration among staff and consistency in systems, procedures and practices to improve outcomes for all children.

The board is well informed by school leaders and teachers and makes good use of the information that they receive to improve outcomes for children who need their learning accelerated.

The board, leaders and ERO agree that the key next steps for the school include:

  • reviewing the school curriculum document to more accurately reflect current school practices
  • strengthening internal evaluation to more clearly identify the effectiveness of the school in improving outcomes for children
  • continuing to strengthen board involvement in setting the strategic direction, goals and priorities for the school.

5 Going forward

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

Leaders and teachers:

  • know the children whose learning and achievement need to be accelerated
  • respond effectively to the strengths, needs and interests of each child
  • regularly evaluate how well teaching is working for these children
  • act on what they know works well for each child
  • build teacher capability effectively to achieve equitable outcomes for all children
  • are well placed to achieve and sustain equitable and excellent outcomes for all children.

The school has very effective systems and practices for identifying, planning for and monitoring the progress of children who need their learning accelerated.

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

6 Board assurance on legal requirements

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 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

  • processes for appointing staff

  • stand down, suspensions, expulsions and exclusions

  • attendance

  • compliance with the provisions of the Vulnerable Children Act 2014.

7 Recommendations

Use internal evaluation to more clearly identify the specific actions that have accelerated children's achievement the most.

Evaluate and update the school's curriculum to more accurately reflect current practice. 

Lesley Patterson

Deputy Chief Review Officer Southern

21 September 2016 

About the school

Location

Canterbury

Ministry of Education profile number

3586

School type

Full Primary School

School roll

211

Gender composition

Girls 49%; Boys 51%

Ethnic composition

Māori

Pākehā

Tongan

Other ethnicities

2%

83%

1%

14%

Review team on site

August 2016

Date of this report

21 September 2016

Most recent ERO reports

Education Review

Education Review

Education Review

October 2011

June 2008

June 2005