Oakland Street , Mataura
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Mataura School
School Evaluation Report
Tēnā 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.
Context
Mataura School is situated in Southland and provides education for students in Years 1 to 6. The vison of mahi tahi – Mataura School working together, underpins all aspects of the curriculum. Mataura School has a Years 3 to 8 bilingual classroom.
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.
Part A: Current State
The following findings are to inform the school’s future priorities for improvement.
Learner Success and Wellbeing
Outcomes for learners are increasingly equitable and excellent. |
- A large majority of students achieve at or above curriculum expectations in reading, writing and mathematics.
- Māori students achieve as well as their school peers in reading, writing and mathematics.
- Improving equity for groups of students’ achievement remains a priority, including boys in reading and girls in writing; teachers increasingly use a variety of approaches and targeted programmes to respond to learners’ needs.
- A small majority of learners attend school regularly, the school is not yet meeting the Ministry of Education’s target for regular attendance.
Conditions to support learner success
School leadership works collaboratively and strategically to improve outcomes for learners. |
- Leaders and teachers effectively use and analyse a wide range of achievement information, informing responsive changes to teaching and learning.
- Leaders use relevant internal and external expertise to build the capability and practice of teachers and improve learner outcomes.
- Leaders model and ensure a continuously improving, culturally responsive approach to progressing school priorities.
Teaching and learning is increasingly responsive to the needs of learners. |
- Teachers have clear expectations for teaching and learning that optimises learning opportunities for most students.
- Learners have increased opportunities to engage with and experience, through a broad local curriculum, mātauranga Māori that recognises and values their cultural identities.
- Teachers deliberately inquire into their teaching practice and use achievement information to adapt teaching approaches and achieve increasingly equitable outcomes for learners.
Key organisational conditions are well established and support improving student outcomes. |
- The board and leaders gather and use parent and whānau aspirations; these inform annual and future goals that are aligned to a shared vision for learner success.
- Learners with complex needs are well supported to engage with the curriculum and achieve success.
- Leaders and teachers increasingly use internal evaluation to guide and inform improvements to teaching and learning.
- Strong partnerships with outside agencies enhance wellbeing and improve attendance for those learners at risk of underachieving.
Part B: Where to next?
The agreed next steps for the school are to:
- accelerate the progress and achievement of individual and groups of students who need this
- review and adapt strategies for ongoing improvements in attendance to strengthen engagement
- continue to strengthen evaluation schoolwide to inform responsive strategies for ongoing improvement to teaching and learning.
The agreed actions for the next improvement cycle and timeframes are as follows.
Within six months:
- consult with parents and whānau to gather their feedback and ideas and develop a plan to improve attendance.
Every six months:
- gather and analyse learner voice to adapt strategies and approaches to improve engagement
- ensure teachers set explicit targets for improvement, regularly discuss and reflect on the impact deliberate strategies have on accelerating progress and achievement
- review the approach to improve attendance and modify the plan to support ongoing improvement.
Annually:
- report to the board on schoolwide progress and achievement in literacy, with a focus on boys in reading and girls in writing, the impact of initiatives on outcomes for students and planned actions to address identified priorities
- evaluate teaching strategies schoolwide to improve the consistency and effectiveness of teaching and learning
- review strategies and approaches to improve engagement and attendance and modify plans for ongoing improvement.
Actions taken against these next steps are expected to result in:
- equitable and increasingly excellent outcomes for all learners
- high quality teaching that is consistent throughout the school
- more students engaged in learning and attending regularly.
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
27 January 2025
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
Mataura School
Board Assurance with Regulatory and Legislative Requirements Report 2024 to 2027
As of April 2024, the Mataura 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:
- written records of every instance of physical restraint of a student need to be kept
[s100 Education and Training Act 2020] - every incident of physical restraint must be reported to the Ministry of Education.
[s100 Education and Training Act 2020]
The board has since taken steps to address the areas of non-compliance identified.
Further Information
For further information please contact Mataura 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
27 January 2025
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
Mataura School
Summary
The school has a roll of 95. Forty three children identify as Māori and a small number as Pacific.
Since the last ERO review in 2014:
- there has been a change in the leadership team
- the school is using better systems to track and know about the progress of individual children.
School information shows that levels of achievement in reading, writing and mathematics have improved over the past four years. However, the board, school leaders and ERO agree that levels of achievement are not yet satisfactory.
How well is the school achieving equitable outcomes for all children?
The school responds well to Māori and other children whose progress needs to be accelerated and sustained. There are a number of school processes that are effective in enabling equity and excellence. The next step is for teachers to consistently identify purposeful strategies across all learning programmes to lift achievement.
The school’s strengths are:
- an unrelenting focus on children becoming socially and emotionally competent, resilient and optimistic learners
- the inclusion of Māori dimensions to support Māori children’s sense of identity
- strong connections with the parent and wider community to support children’s wellbeing and learning.
At the time of this review the school had capacity and capability to accelerate learning for all children. However, disparity in achievement for some children remains.
Leaders and teachers:
- know the children whose learning and achievement need to be accelerated
- need to use, record and evaluate strategies for targeted learning.
The school agrees to:
- monitor targeted planning, improved teaching, and children’s progress
- discuss the school’s progress with ERO.
ERO is likely to carry out the next review in three years.
Equity and excellence
How effectively does this school respond to Māori and other children whose learning and achievement need acceleration?
The school responds well to Māori and other children whose progress needs to be accelerated and sustained. The school has more work to do to lift the achievement and reduce disparity to ensure equitable outcomes for all learners.
School-wide achievement information for the past four years shows that levels of achievement in reading and writing have improved. Levels of achievement in mathematics have remained similar. The levels of achievement in writing and mathematics are not yet satisfactory.
School progress information for 2016 shows that some children made accelerated progress in relation to the National Standards for reading, writing and mathematics.
The teachers are using effective practices to make reliable judgements about children’s progress and achievement in relation to National Standards.
School conditions supporting equity and excellence
What school processes are effective in enabling achievement of equity and excellence?
The school has a number of processes that are effective in enabling equity and excellence.
There is a strong focus on the holistic wellbeing of children. The Mahi Tahi values of togetherness, achievement, having originality and inquisitiveness are highly evident in the everyday life of the school. Leaders and teachers have created learning environments where children feel well supported to learn. Children are well engaged in their learning and are taking an increased responsibility for their part in the learning process.
The curriculum design allows children to experience a wide variety of activities in contexts that are relevant to them. Curriculum guidelines are useful and detailed. They provide clear expectations and good support for teachers. Good systems are in place to track student achievement and progress.
The school has developed a strong pastoral care system. Leaders work well with external agencies to provide a safe and caring learning environment.
Sustainable development for equity and excellence
The school has some useful processes to identify areas that need further development.
What further developments are needed in school processes to achieve equity and excellence?
The school’s achievement targets need to reflect the intention to accelerate the progress of all students who are at risk of not achieving. Leaders and teachers need to plan more purposeful strategies to support the targets for accelerating children’s progress.
The school needs to strengthen and fully implement its internal evaluation practices. Reports to the board need to be more evaluative and explicitly identify those strategies that are having the greatest impact on accelerating progress and achievement.
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
- 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.
Going forward
How well placed is the school to accelerate the achievement of all children who need it?
The school has capacity and capability to accelerate learning for all children. However, disparity in achievement for some children remains.
Leaders and teachers:
- know the children whose learning and achievement need to be accelerated
- need to use, record and evaluate strategies for targeted learning.
The school agrees to:
- monitor targeted planning, improved teaching, and children’s progress
- discuss the school’s progress with ERO.
ERO will provide an internal evaluation workshop to support the school to develop effective planning and monitoring processes to support equity and excellence for all children.
ERO is likely to carry out the next review in three years.
Dr Lesley Patterson
Deputy Chief Review Officer Southern (Te Waipounamu)
30 June 2017
About the school
Location | Mataura |
Ministry of Education profile number | 3986 |
School type | Contributing (Years 1 to 6) |
School roll | 95 |
Gender composition | Girls: 48 Boys: 47 |
Ethnic composition | Pākehā 46 Māori 43 Pacific 4 Asian 1 Latin American 1 |
Provision of Māori medium education | No |
Review team on site | May 2017 |
Date of this report | 30 June 2017 |
Most recent ERO reports | Education Review March 2014 Education Review February 2011 Education Review October 2007 |