3 Boundary Road , Invercargill
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.
Tisbury School is located on the boundary of Invercargill city and provides education for learners in Years 1 - 6. The school’s roll is 107 students. Tisbury’s school vision is, Growing Lifelong Learners in an Inclusive Environment.
| How well are learners succeeding? | The school is working towards high levels of success and progress for all learners. |
| What is the quality of teaching and learning? | Learners benefit from good quality teaching practice that improves progress and achievement in reading, writing and mathematics |
How well does the school curriculum respond to all learners needs?
| Learners have sufficient opportunities to learn across the breadth and depth of the curriculum. There is an increasingly consistent focus on supporting learners to gain skills in literacy and mathematics. Learners with complex needs are well supported to achieve their education goals. |
| How well does school planning and conditions support ongoing improvement? | School planning and conditions to support ongoing improvement to the quality of education for learners are well established. |
| How well does the school include all learners and promote their engagement and wellbeing? | The school successfully promotes learners’ engagement, wellbeing and inclusion. |
| How well does the school partner with parents, whānau and its community for the benefit of learners? | The school is improving its reporting to parents / whānau about their child’s learning, achievement and progress. The school responds well to a wide range of information gathered through community consultation, to inform strategic planning and curriculum decisions. |
| Student Health and Safety | The school board is taking reasonable steps to ensure student health and safety. |
This table outlines how well students across the school meet or exceed the expected curriculum level.
Foundation Skills | |
| Reading | A small majority of learners meet or exceed the expected curriculum level. Results are not yet equitable for all groups of learners. |
| Writing | Less than half of learners meet or exceed the expected curriculum level. Results are not yet equitable for all groups of learners. |
| Mathematics | A small majority of learners meet or exceed the expected curriculum level. Results are not yet equitable for all groups of learners. |
The school is behind the target of 80% regular attendance.
The school is developing a suitable plan to improve attendance.
Regular attendance is improving towards or beyond the target.
Chronic absence is reducing over time.
The school is improving its approach and the reliability of its practices to accurately find out about achievement against the curriculum.
Teachers are developing assessment information to adjust teaching practices to ensure ongoing improvement in teaching and student progress.
The school has good quality planning to increase the rate of progress for all groups of students.
The school has to some extent improved achievement and progress for those learners most at risk of not achieving since the previous review.
The school has to some extent extended achievement and progress for learners working at or above curriculum levels since the previous review.
The school is making some progress towards meeting Government reading, writing and mathematics targets for 2030 and agrees this will need to be a key strategic priority.
This section of the report provides more detail for the school to include in strategic and annual planning for ongoing improvement across the school.
Leaders build capability well, so that teachers develop expertise in curriculum areas and take leadership to support the knowledge growth of others to increase learner rates of progress.
Teachers plan collaboratively for consistency of practice and approaches in structured literacy across all year levels; having a consistent, structured approach for mathematics is key next step.
The school community exemplifies a strong commitment in supporting students' education and other activities. Actively engaging students in initiatives nurtures a sense of connection and fosters meaningful collaboration.
The school delivers an integrated curriculum aimed at fostering meaningful and enriched learning experiences for strong student engagement and active participation.
The school actively engages with its community, staff, and students to gather their vision and aspirations, that informs the strategic direction of the school.
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:
Within six months:
Every six months:
Annually:
Actions taken against these next steps are expected to result in:
All schools are required to promote student health and safety and to regularly review their compliance with legal requirements.
During this review the Board has attested to some regulatory and legislative requirements in the following areas:
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
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 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
Sharon Kelly
Director of Schools (Acting)
29 April 2025
This website provides further information about the school’s student population, student engagement and student achievement. educationcounts.govt.nz/home
Tisbury School is a semi-rural school providing education for students in Years 1 to 6. The school has a roll of 120 children, 17 of whom are Māori.
The school’s vision is for confident (Kia Kaha), resourceful (Kia Maia), life-long learners (Kia Manawanui). Trustees aim to achieve these outcomes by supporting effective teaching; cultural responsiveness, home-school collaboration and acceleration of learning for students not yet achieving at the school’s expected levels.
Leaders and teachers regularly report to the board, schoolwide information about outcomes for students in the following areas:
Teachers have participated in whole school professional learning on teaching of writing, cultural responsiveness and positive behaviour management. The school is a part of the Invercargill Kāhui Ako.
The school is effectively achieving equitable and excellent outcomes for its students.
School information for the last three years shows:
The school is effective in accelerating the learning of students targeted for this. School information for two of the last three years shows that the majority of students targeted for acceleration did so. However, annual school targets have been focused on one learning area at a time and hence reporting has not shown outcomes for all students below the school’s curriculum expectations. This has been addressed for 2020.
Students continue to benefit from a positive, caring and inclusive learning community. This effectively fosters their engagement in learning and sense of belonging and wellbeing. The positive school culture is intentionally nurtured through relational teaching approaches that emphasise the importance of students getting to know, and feeling known by, their peers and teachers. There is a strong focus on promoting students’ wellbeing and social and emotional competencies through targeted and whole-school health programmes. Teachers explicitly teach the school’s expectations for learning and behaviour, and recognise and celebrate students’ developing ability to demonstrate these.
Curriculum design is highly responsive to student and parent aspirations and well-focused on building students’ knowledge of themselves as learners. The curriculum reflects the school community’s priorities of physical and emotional wellbeing, resilience and cultural responsiveness. New Zealand’s bicultural heritage is increasingly visible and valued in learning environments, practices and programmes. Teachers are facilitating increased opportunities for students to follow their interests and direct their own and others’ learning. Students are actively involved in monitoring their own progress in becoming a successful, self-managing learner.
Teachers skilfully use a range of effective teaching strategies to engage students in thinking and learning. Consistent, coherent school-wide teaching practices are very well supported by clear, comprehensive guidelines and expectations for teaching. Learning information is well used by teachers and leaders to identify students’ next learning steps and teaching priorities. Students’ diverse learning and wellbeing needs are well known and responded to through a wide range of targeted programmes and initiatives. Strengthened practices for communicating and building learning partnerships with parents are in place. Teachers are open to learning and trialling new teaching approaches and strategies.
Since the July 2015 ERO review, the school has sustained its good performance. School leadership effectively promotes and enables equity and excellence for all students. Leaders set high expectations for teaching, learning and behaviour and promote collective ownership for student outcomes. School systems, structures, processes and practices are aligned and coherent and linked to student outcomes and strategic goals. Leaders actively promote and participate in teacher learning and development. They model and encourage critical reflection and engagement with internal and external evaluation processes to inform ongoing school improvement. They are effectively promoting educational partnerships and connections across the education community to support teacher development and positive outcomes for students.
Trustees, leaders and teachers use regular review and reporting processes effectively to know about student outcomes and aspects of teaching effectiveness, and to inform decisions about how to improve them.
A strength of the school is its purposeful curriculum design and the trialling of new approaches to accelerate learning for those who need it. School leaders and teachers now need to ensure that recent curriculum developments and initiatives are evaluated to know how effectively they are impacting on teaching practice and outcomes for students.
Trustees and leaders need to extend the way the school consults with and reports to whānau and iwi Māori on plans and actions to support Māori student success.
School leaders have identified, and ERO agrees, that school targets and systems for monitoring and reporting on the progress of students at risk of poor educational outcomes need to be extended to focus on all students achieving below the school’s achievement expectations.
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:
On the basis of the findings of this review, ERO’s overall evaluation judgement of Tisbury School’s performance in achieving valued outcomes for its students is: Strong.
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.
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 (Southern)
Southern Region - Te Tai Tini
16 June 2020