Summary
At the time of this review there were 462 students enrolled in this school in Years 7 to 13. The school has had steady roll growth and an increasing ethnic diversity of students since the 2013 ERO review. About 12% of the roll identify as Māori. Approximately 43% of students are Filipino, 17% Pacific and 25% Pākehā. There continues to be enrolments throughout the year.
Since the 2011 earthquake there has been another school on the same site sharing the facilities. Catholic Cathedral College is waiting for some rebuilding and new building work to occur.
There have been many changes of staff in recent years, including an almost completely new senior leadership team. The current principal was appointed three months before the previous review. Nine staff are beginning teachers.
The school is a member of the Christchurch Catholic Kahui Ako|Community of Learning (CoL). The CoL includes four other secondary schools, eight full primary schools and two contributing schools. The principal is the CoL leader.
While the school has made progress in several of the areas identified for development in the last ERO report, some of these have not yet been adequately addressed and remain as areas for improvement in this report.
How well is the school achieving equitable outcomes for all children?
This school responds well to children whose learning and achievement need acceleration. NCEA achievement results are high across Years 11 to 13.
Learning support is well coordinated throughout the school, with the English language programme giving strong support to the high number of English language learners.
The school’s curriculum provides students with choices and coherent pathways to future work and learning. The curriculum is responsive to students’ interests, aspirations and abilities. Pastoral care systems are effectively promoting students’ wellbeing, engagement and success in learning.
Key areas for development include:
The school has capacity and capability to accelerate learning for all learners. Achievement levels for Māori, Pacific and Asian students are high across National Certificate Levels of Achievement (NCEA) 1, 2 and 3 levels.
ERO is likely to carry out the next review in three years.
Equity and excellence
How effectively does this school respond to Māori and other children whose learning and achievement need acceleration?
The school responds well to students whose learning and achievement need acceleration to achieve at expected levels.
Years 7-8
School achievement information for the past three years in relation to National Standards shows:
-
overall students achieve well in reading and less well in writing and mathematics
-
Māori achieve better for reading
-
disparity for boys and Pacific students for writing.
Years 9-10
School achievement information shows that cohorts of students progress as expected against New Zealand Curriculum (NZC) levels in Years 9 to 10. However, the school is working on the reliability of data in this area to show progress and achievement over time.
There has been a focus in most learning areas on developing more consistent guidelines for assessment of students’ achievement across NZC levels.
NCEA
Overall NCEA achievement has increased well over time since the last ERO review. NCEA information shows that:
-
students achieve to high levels in NCEA Levels 1, 2, 3 and in UE and literacy and numeracy credits
-
excellence and merit endorsements for NCEA Level 1 and 2 certificates have increased
-
Level 3 endorsements have remained below national levels.
In Years 7 to 8 the school uses an appropriate range of tools to assess and moderate student achievement. The moderation process needs to be strengthened by developing a system of external moderation with other schools.
There is a particular focus across the school on raising the achievement for Māori students. A key focus is to ensure success for Māori as Māori.
School conditions supporting equity and excellence
What school processes are effective in enabling achievement of equity and excellence?
Students are well supported in their learning and wellbeing. Teachers have a good knowledge of individual students and involve their families in decisions about their learning and care. Leaders and teachers make effective use of their shared knowledge of students’ interests to provide meaningful and responsive learning programmes.
School leaders are intentionally improving school-wide systems. This includes senior leaders expecting teachers to support and monitor students’ achievement of NCEA credits. Senior students are becoming better informed about their learning and are supported to take more responsibility for their own progress and achievement.
Recent appointments to the senior and middle management teams have been strategic to strengthen the skill base and better reflect the ethnic diversity of the community and student groups.
The Catholic special character of the school is highly evident. It unifies the school’s diverse community and is an integral part of the life, learning and achievement of the school and community.
The school effectively uses outside agencies to provide additional support for the wellbeing and learning of students.
The school has effective systems for identifying, tracking and providing for children who need extra support across the areas of:
Sustainable development for equity and excellence
Many school systems and practices are at early stages and have yet to be embedded and regularly evaluated.
What further developments are needed in school processes to achieve equity and excellence?
The school has some useful internal evaluation processes for identifying areas for development and improvement. However, a number of these areas for improvement were identified in the school’s 2013 ERO report, and have not been adequately progressed due to the impact of the earthquake, sharing the site and considerable staff changes. Trustees and leaders need to develop more effective internal evaluation to effectively address equity and excellence.
Leaders and trustees and teachers need to develop and implement an evaluation framework that includes:
Evaluations need to include all aspects of school operations. In particular, evaluations need to consider how well:
-
targeted interventions accelerate the progress of students at risk of not achieving successful learning outcomes
-
the school shows it values Māori culture and students (bi-cultural development / integration / te reo).
The strategic plan needs to have greater clarity on key priorities and show their development over time. Targets and goals need to be more specific (planned for), have progress monitored and strategies evaluated and reported on.
The school needs to further improve systems for identifying all students at risk of poor educational outcomes and for tracking their progress over time. This will enable trustees, leaders and teachers to better know the effectiveness of their efforts to raise achievement.
The curriculum review needs to be completed to ensure teachers have the guidance they need to deliver high quality programmes for students, including expectations for teaching and learning.
The board has identified, and ERO agrees, that trustees would benefit from training to support them in their stewardship role.
Board assurance on legal requirements
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:
-
emotional safety of students (including prevention of bullying and sexual harassment)
-
physical safety of students
-
teacher registration and certification
-
processes for appointing staff
-
stand down, suspension, expulsion and exclusion of students
-
attendance
-
school policies in relation to meeting the requirements of the Vulnerable Children Act 2014.
Provision for international students
The school is a signatory to theEducation (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.
At the time of this review there was one international student attending the school, and no exchange students.
Catholic Cathedral College provides a high level of pastoral care that reflects the school’s special Catholic faith-based character provided for all students, including international students.
Going forward
How well placed is the school to accelerate the achievement of all children who need it?
The school has capacity and capability to accelerate learning for all learners.
Leaders and teachers:
The school agrees to:
-
develop more targeted planning to accelerate progress for learners
-
monitor targeted planning, improved teaching, and learners’ progress
-
discuss the school’s progress with ERO.
ERO will:
-
provide feedback and resources to support the development of more targeted planning
-
provide an internal workshop to support the school to develop effective planning and monitoring processes to support equity and excellence for all learners.
ERO is likely to carry out the next review in three years.
Dr Lesley Patterson
Deputy Chief Review Officer Southern
Te Waipounamu - Southern Region
6 December 2017
About the school
|
Location
|
Christchurch
|
|
Ministry of Education profile number
|
531
|
|
School type
|
Secondary (Years 7-13)
|
|
School roll
|
462
|
|
Gender composition
|
Boys: 55%
Girls: 45%
|
|
Ethnic composition
|
Māori: 12%
Pacific: 17%
Asian: 43%
Pākehā: 25%
Other: 3%
|
|
Provision of Māori medium education
|
No
|
|
Review team on site
|
September 2017
|
|
Date of this report
|
6 December 2017
|
|
Most recent ERO reports
|
Education Review: August 2013
Education Review: September 2009
Education Review: October 2006
|