20 Robins Road , Queenstown
View on mapThis Profile Report was written within six months of the Education Review Office and Queenstown Primary 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
Queenstown Primary School is located in the centre of the town and provides education for a diverse range of Years 1 to 8 learners. It emphasises learners being at the centre of its decisions and practices in order to achieve its vision, “growing confident and future-focused learners.”
Queenstown Primary School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are to ensure that:
to enable all learners to achieve their personal best across all learning areas through effective pedagogy and strong school/community partnerships
for all learners to experience a curriculum that is relevant, student-centred, culturally connected, future-focused and characterised by Māori achieving success as Māori
to build learning-focused partnerships with family and whānau centred on well-being, learning and progress.
You can find a copy of the school’s strategic and annual plan on Queenstown Primary School’s website.
ERO and the school are working together to evaluate the impact of a responsive localised school curriculum on empowering diverse learners to achieve success.
The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:
that achievement information and analysis over time have identified a need to develop an inclusive and responsive curriculum, where learners develop a secure knowledge of their own cultures, languages and identities
that all learners and staff deepen their understanding and appreciation of the rich cultural knowledge of all members of their school and local community
to provide the conditions for equitable and excellent outcomes for all learners and particularly for Māori learners.
The school expects to see:
learners experiencing a responsive, rich, broad and deep localised curriculum that celebrates the stories of mana whenua and all members of the school community
learners developing a strong sense of their own identities, languages and cultures, leading to enhanced motivation and engagement
equitable and excellent outcomes for all ethnicities, with improved ākonga Māori performance.
The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to evaluate the impact of a responsive localised school curriculum on empowering diverse learners to achieve success:
staff consistently fostering and strengthening a positive and inclusive school culture
resourcing and programmes that prioritise wellbeing initiatives, with effective collaborations with outside agencies and organisations to support families, whānau and learners
the school’s willingness to engage and seek support in discovering the mana whenua of the local area and to develop a programme of instruction in te reo Māori.
Moving forward, the school will prioritise:
building community collaborations that enrich opportunities for students to become confident, connected, actively involved, lifelong learners
implementing a localised curriculum and monitoring its impact on student engagement, motivation and achievement
implementing and monitoring of strategies to develop tikanga and te reo Māori.
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
25 August 2023
The Education Counts website provides further information about the school’s student population, student engagement and student achievement. educationcounts.govt.nz/home
As of February 2023, the Queenstown Primary School Board has attested to the following regulatory and legislative requirements:
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For further information please contact Queenstown Primary 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
25 August 2023
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.
The school is a signatory 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. The school has attested that it complies with all aspects of the Code and has completed an annual self review of its implementation of the Code.
Five international students were enrolled at the time of the ERO review.
The school has well established processes for reviewing its provision for international students and compliance with the Code. School governance and leadership are appropriately and regularly informed about student wellbeing and learning.
Sound processes and practices support students to settle into, develop a sense of belonging and be active participants at the school. The school takes care in working with students to plan suitable programmes with the appropriate levels of English language learning support where required. An experienced international student team thoroughly monitors international students’ academic progress and wellbeing.
Shelley Booysen
Director of Schools
25 August 2023
The Education Counts website provides further information about the school’s student population, student engagement and student achievement. educationcounts.govt.nz/home
QPS is located in Queenstown and provides education for students Years 1 to 8. At the time of this review it had a roll of 602 students, 26 of whom were Māori and 196 from a wide variety of other cultural backgrounds.
The mission of the school is ‘Through Quality, Perseverance and Success, QPS will grow adaptable, connected, lifelong learners’. Its vision is ‘Growing confident and future-focused learners’. This is supported by values of; Manaaki| Care, Whakāute| Respect and Ngakau tapatahi| Integrity.
The school’s strategic goals for 2019 focus on celebrating diversity, engaging families and inspiring students to become future focused learners, and being the heart of the community.
Leaders and teachers regularly report to the board, schoolwide information about outcomes for students in the following areas:
Since the 2015 ERO review some trustees have changed. There have been significant changes in staffing.
The school is a member of the Wakatipu Community of Learning|Kāhui Ako.
The school is effectively achieving equitable and excellent outcomes for most of its students.
The school’s information for the 2016 to 2018 time period shows that in reading, writing and mathematics, a large majority of students achieved at or above the school’s curriculum level expectations. There is ongoing disparity for boys in writing and mathematics over this time period. This disparity has decreased over time in writing. The proportion of Māori students achieving the school’s expectations for reading and mathematics from 2016 to 2018 was also lower than for other groups at the school.
Almost all students are achieving in relation to the school’s valued outcomes as described in the context. In addition, almost all students are working within and consistently across the key competencies of The New Zealand Curriculum.
School information in relation to progress shows good levels of acceleration for those students achieving below the school’s expectations. This is particularly so in writing, where there has been an increase in overall achievement in writing due to a targeted approach.
The school’s learning environment is managed effectively. It supports student’s participation and engagement in their learning. Teachers use a variety of teaching strategies, including differentiation, to ensure there is a continual focus on engaging students with their learning. Appropriate tools and methods are used to gather, store and retrieve a range of information about student’s learning.
Students participate and learn in caring, collaborative and inclusive learning communities. Diversity is valued at all levels of the school. International students and students from other cultures are welcomed and supported. There is a systematic wrap-around system for pastoral care. Students with additional learning needs are well provided for. The school’s values are known, relevant for students and incorporated into their learning. Students have voice and choice throughout the curriculum. A number of specialised teachers in a variety of subjects, add depth to the choices available for students’ learning.
There are intentional well established relationships with the community to promote positive learning and wellbeing outcomes for students. Curriculum design and enactment is responsive to the aspirations of students, parents and whānau. Leaders and teachers plan and integrate some aspects of te ao Māori within the school in a range of ways. There is ongoing development of the curriculum to support the diverse learning needs of students. Teaching staff work within a collaborative culture with their peers.
The board ensures there is a strategic alignment of resources to identified priorities. There is a large emphasis placed on the education outside the classroom (EOTC) programme and the board and school leaders ensure there is equitable access this for all.
Leaders and the board should continue to develop internal evaluation strategies. This would better enable the identification of priorities, and the impact of programmes and approaches for all students. Evaluating the success of strategies and initiatives to improve learning outcomes for students should be part of this.
During the course of this review ERO became aware of some communication concerns within the school. The board, leaders and teachers should continue to focus on building relational trust and effective collaboration at every level of the school community.
Queenstown Primary 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. ERO’s investigations confirmed that the school’s processes for reviewing compliance against the code are robust, well documented and lead to change where needed.
At the time of this review, there were ten international students attending the school.
Students receive a welcoming and personalised introduction to the school and the community. The international department is well resourced and staff ensure international students’ needs are met throughout their stay. Valued outcomes for international students include academic and language learning, life skills, leadership and outdoor education.
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:
ERO identified non-compliance in relation to policies and procedures.
In order to address this, the board of trustees must:
On the basis of the findings of this review, ERO’s overall evaluation judgement of Queenstown School’s performance in achieving valued outcomes for its students is: Developing.
ERO’s Framework: Overall School Performance is available on ERO’s website.
For sustained improvement and future learner success, the school can draw on existing strengths in:
For sustained improvement and future learner success, priorities for further development are in:
Dr Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services Te Tai Tini
Southern Region
23 July 2019
|
Location |
Queenstown |
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
4005 |
|
School type |
Contributing Primary-Years 1-8 |
|
School roll |
602 |
|
Gender composition |
Boys 51%, Girls 49% |
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori 4% NZ European/Pākehā 63% Asian 14% Other European 8% Pacific 2% Other ethnicities 9% |
|
Students with Ongoing Resourcing Funding (ORS) |
Yes |
|
Provision of Māori medium education |
No |
|
Review team on site |
May 2019 |
|
Date of this report |
23 July 2019 |
|
Most recent ERO reports |
Education Review June 2015 Education Review December 2011 Education Review August 2008 |