21 Durham Street , Waikiwi, Invercargill
View on mapThis Profile Report was written within 9 months of the Education Review Office and Southland Adventist Christian 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
Southland Adventist Christian School is a state integrated, Christian school for children in years 0 – 8. It is located in Waikiwi, a northern suburb of Invercargill. The school’s mission is: growing – for eternity.
The school’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are to:
ensure high levels of staff performance and student achievement through implementation of self-review, targeted professional development and professional growth cycles
plan for future growth and development of Southland Adventist Christian School
develop strategies to help students learn skills which enable them to create and maintain positive relationships with others and grow physically and emotionally
create a movement of students who know, live and serve Jesus.
You can find a copy of the school’s strategic and annual plan on Southland Adventist Christian School’s website.
ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how well assessment information is being used to inform teaching, accelerate progress rates in literacy and numeracy and improve parity for groups of learners.
The rationale for selecting this evaluation is the school has been working with external professional learning and development providers to grow the collective capacity of leaders, teachers and students to make effective use of assessment information. A new assessment plan has been recently adopted. The school is embedding new systems and processes so that their effectiveness can be evaluated.
The school expects to see increasingly cohesive assessment practices and high-quality analysis deliver excellent and equitable outcomes for all learners.
The school can draw from the following strengths to support it in its goal to evaluate how well assessment information is being used to inform teaching, accelerate progress rates in literacy and numeracy and improve parity for groups of learners:
Training has been provided to support teachers’ use of newly adopted assessment tools, which is supporting a cohesive approach to assessment.
The school’s revised plan has streamlined assessment processes across the school and is beginning to inform programmes for learning.
Learners are well known by teachers, who identify priority groups of students and monitor their progress closely.
Moving forward, the school will prioritise:
continuing to build capability in the collection, use and analysis of high-quality assessment information across the school
evaluating the impact of student support programmes and interventions to better understand what is working well and what is not.
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
19 June 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 April 2023, the Southland Adventist Christian School Board has attested to the following regulatory and legislative requirements:
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
For further information please contact Southland Adventist Christian 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
19 June 2023
The Education Counts website provides further information about the school’s student population, student engagement and student achievement. educationcounts.govt.nz/home
On the basis of the findings of this review, ERO ‘s overall evaluation judgement of Southland Adventist Christian School’s performance in achieving valued outcomes for its students is: Well placed.
This report evaluates Southland Adventist Christian School’s progress in addressing the areas for review and development that were identified in ERO’s 2017 Education Review report.
At the time of the 2017 review, a first-time principal had recently started. Over the three years prior to that review there had been several staff changes.
This ERO review has found that the board, principal and teachers have made significant progress in the areas identified in ERO’s 2017 report.
The school is effectively addressing the areas for review and development identified by ERO in the 2017 review.
The 2017 ERO report identified that:
school processes had not proven effective in enabling achievement of equity and excellence
school leadership and teacher capability were not strong
the school did not have a rigorous process of internal evaluation
leaders and teachers were not using school-wide achievement and progress data to identify specific barriers to students’ learning
the appraisal system did not meet Teachers Council requirements and was not effective.
The school has greatly improved its organisational capability and operational capacity.
The most significant areas of progress and development include:
Teachers have a clearer understanding of individual student’s needs. They work collaboratively to identify day-to-day teaching strategies to lift achievement of individual students and groups of students. Leaders and teachers have proactively sought, and been involved in, ongoing professional learning and development (PLD) to support their practice for raising student achievement, particularly in mathematics and writing.
The principal has developed useful systems to ensure reliable learning information informs teachers and leaders about student progress and to show trends and patterns that may need to be addressed. The principal and teachers have benefited from multiple opportunities to build a shared understanding of moderation to make more reliable judgements about students’ achievement levels. This has included:
The principal has implemented a formal, robust appraisal system which aligns well with PLD priorities, teaching as inquiry, school priorities and students’ needs. He has also established schoolwide expectations for high quality teaching practice.
The school is well placed to sustain and continue to improve and review its performance.
The principal and trustees are now well established in their roles, and have a collaborative focus on ongoing improvement and high expectations for all students.
The trustees, principal and teachers have sought a range of support to provide targeted development in each of the areas ERO identified for improvement. They have focused on:
They have a growing understanding of the need for robust evaluation of the impact of the curriculum on achievement of the school’s valued outcomes for students.
The board receives regular reports from the principal about student progress and achievement. Trustees use this information to make strategic decisions about staffing and resourcing to support students to succeed in their learning. The principal’s progress towards meeting the strategic goals is reported each month.
ERO has identified that the key next steps are for the school to:
The leaders and teachers have identified that their next step for ongoing progress is to embed and sustain the improvements made since the 2017 ERO report.
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:
During the review, ERO checked the following items because they have a potentially high impact on student achievement:
On the basis of the findings of this review, ERO ‘s overall evaluation judgement of Southland Adventist Christian School’s performance in achieving valued outcomes for its students is: Well placed.
ERO’s Framework: Overall School Performance is available on ERO’s website.
Alan Wynyard
Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region
12 June 2019
|
Location |
Invercargill |
|
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
4112 |
|
|
School type |
Full Primary (Years 1 to 8) |
|
|
School roll |
75 |
|
|
Gender composition |
Boys 49, Girls 26 |
|
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori |
3 |
|
Review team on site |
May 2019 |
|
|
Date of this report |
12 June 2019 |
|
|
Most recent ERO reports |
Education Review |
June 2017 |