18 Duncan Street , Tokanui
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.
Tokanui School is situated in Southland and provides education for students in Year 1 to 8. Students take pride in looking after the environment around them and learning about it through their involvement in Enviroschools, following the principles of student empowerment, sustainability, Māori perspectives and respect for people and cultures.
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.
The following findings are to inform the school’s future priorities for improvement.
| Outcomes for learners are high and sustained. |
| Collaborative leaders effectively foster a culture of evidence-based improvement. |
| Students learn through a broad and increasingly responsive, localised curriculum. |
| Key organisational conditions are well established and support student success. |
The agreed next steps for the school are to:
The agreed actions for the next improvement cycle and timeframes are as follows.
Within six months:
Every six months:
Annually:
Actions taken against these next steps are expected to result in:
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
6 November 2024
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 2024, the Tokanui School Board has attested to the following regulatory and legislative requirements:
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
ERO and the board have identified the following areas of non-compliance during the board assurance process:
The board has since addressed the areas of non-compliance identified.
For further information please contact Tokanui 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
6 November 2024
The Education Counts website provides further information about the school’s student population, student engagement and student achievement. educationcounts.govt.nz/home
Tokanui School is a Years 1 to 8 school in Tokanui, Southern Southland. There are 110 children, 23 of whom identify as Māori.
The school’s mission statement is, ‘Empowering children through respect, integrity, community and excellence.’ The school values are:
The school aims for children to know and show the Enviroschool principles including:
Leaders and teachers regularly report school-wide information about outcomes for children to the board in the following areas:
Since the last ERO review in 2014, there have been a number of staff changes and changes within the board.
The school is yet to achieve equitable outcomes for different groups of children in literacy and mathematics. The school has identified there is significant disparity for boys in writing. The school has also identified significant disparity for Māori children in reading, writing and mathematics.
Overall student achievement for 2014 to 2016 shows:
In 2016, the majority of children were at or above expectations for writing and mathematics.
The school has had limited success in accelerating the progress of the students it had targeted to make this progress. A small number of children working below expected levels made accelerated progress.
The school has a strong inclusive culture. Teachers and leaders have an intentional focus on building positive learning relationships for all children and have an improved awareness of Māori culture and identity. Students are well engaged in their learning and show an understanding of their role in the learning process. They show good understanding of the school’s values.
Senior leaders are committed to providing equity of learning for children at risk of underachievement. This commitment is evident in student support programmes and relevant professional learning and development for teachers.
The school’s curriculum design is responsive to the aspirations of students, parents/whānau and the wider community. Parents and whānau are actively encouraged to participate in their child’s learning. The school proactively identifies and draws on community expertise and resources to enhance students’ learning opportunities, achievement and wellbeing.
Trustees have a good understanding of their governance role. They show a commitment to ongoing learning about this. They put children at the centre of their resourcing decisions.
To address the disparities in student achievement, school leaders need to improve the effectiveness of processes to lift achievement and associated target setting, action planning, evaluation and reporting.
The school needs to develop targets that specifically focus on those children who are at risk of underachievement. Targets and associated action plans to lift achievement need to be more specific. The board needs to receive more frequent and detailed reports that clearly show the sufficiency of progress for target students (and others as appropriate).
Internal evaluation needs to be extended in order to look more deeply at which teaching practices are most effective in lifting the achievement of targeted and other children. This includes ensuring that reviews are more evaluative. It is timely to extend internal evaluation to include how well the school’s valued outcomes for learning are achieved.
Leaders and teachers need to strengthen te ao Māori as part of children’s learning.
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:
For sustained improvement and future learner success, the school can draw on existing strengths in:
useful learning partnerships with parents/whānau and the wider community.
For sustained improvement and future learner success, development priorities are in:
The school needs to show:
[ERO will provide an internal evaluation workshop for trustees and senior leaders].
ERO is likely to carry out the next external evaluation in three years.
Dr Lesley Patterson
Deputy Chief Review Officer Southern
Te Waipounamu - Southern Region
21 February 2018
| Location | Southland |
| Ministry of Education profile number | 4030 |
| School type | Full Primary (Years 1 to 8) |
| School roll | 110 |
| Gender composition | Girls: 47% Boys: 53% |
| Ethnic composition | Māori: 21% Pākeha: 79% |
| Provision of Māori medium education | No |
| Review team on site | December 2017 |
| Date of this report | 21 February 2018 |
| Most recent ERO reports | Education Review: 15 September 2014 Education Review: 22 August 2011 |