Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report
Background
This Profile Report was written within sixteen months of the Education Review Office and Tauranga Adventist 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
Context
Tauranga Adventist School is located in the Bethlehem area of Tauranga. It is a state integrated school that provides Christian-based education for students in Years 1-8. The school partners with the Tauranga Seventh Day Adventist Church, which is adjacent to the school. A school chaplain provides ongoing support and liaison between the church and the school.
Tauranga Adventist School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:
- to deliver quality programmes which support student growth and achievement across all year levels
- to strengthen leadership capabilities to support individual and school-wide shifts in pedagogy and practice
- to review and embed teaching practices through the lens of assessment for learning.
You can find a copy of the school’s strategic and annual plan on Tauranga Adventist School’s website.
ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how effectively teaching and learning programmes are improving outcomes and enabling equity for all learners. Strengthening differentiated planning, teaching and assessment practices, and maintaining quality learning partnerships with parents and whānau are continued priorities for the school.
The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:
- the opportunity it provides to maintain a strategic focus on meeting the needs of priority learners through targeted action, deliberate acts of teaching and partnerships for learning
- the school’s commitment to ensuring assessment practices are purposeful and enable students to be empowered to lead their own learning.
The school expects to see further actions implemented to improve the quality and effectiveness of assessment, teaching and learning across the school and to support continuous improvement in outcomes for identified learners.
Strengths
The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to improve student outcomes and enable equity for all:
- school vision, values and special Christian character that support a positive culture for learning and high levels of student engagement and wellbeing
- leadership of learning that promotes effective communication, develops shared knowledge, and supports consistency of practices to improve outcomes for learners
- provision of ongoing professional learning, mentoring and coaching that builds collective capacity and enables effective collaboration and openness to change.
Where to next?
Moving forward, the school will prioritise:
- continuing to analyse data to support responsive planning and ongoing evaluation of actions to ensure all students have equitable opportunities to learn and succeed
- embedding formative assessment practices to promote students’ understanding and knowledge of their own learning and next steps
- strengthening learning partnerships to enable educationally powerful connections with parents and whānau.
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.
Phil Cowie
Director Review and Improvement Services (Central)
Central Region | Te Tai Pūtahi Nui
11 July 2022
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