Albany Junior High School

School Context

Albany Junior High School is a large suburban school that provides education for over 1300 students in Years 7 to 10. The school is culturally diverse. An enrolment zone is in place to assist the board to manage considerable roll growth.

Satellite classes attached to Wilson School also operate within the school.

The school mission statement aspires to empower students to “excel in a fast-moving world”. The school’s valued outcomes are to develop learners who are ‘literate, numerate, curious and happy’.

Leaders and teachers regularly report to the board schoolwide information about outcomes for students in the following areas:

• achievement in literacy and numeracy
• achievement in science, social sciences and health & physical education
• participation and success in academic, sporting and cultural events.

Three new appointments have been made to the senior leadership team in the last 18 months.

The school is a member of the Whānau ki te Ako Kahui Ako | Community of Learning (COL).

Evaluation Findings

1 Equity and excellence – achievement of valued outcomes for students

1.1 How well is the school achieving equitable and excellent outcomes for all its students?

Albany Junior High School continues to work towards achieving equitable and excellent outcomes for all students.

The school’s 2018 achievement information indicates that:

• most Years 7 and 8 students achieve at or above expected curriculum levels in reading and mathematics
• the majority of Years 7 and 8 students achieve at or above the expected level in writing
• most Years 9 and 10 students achieve at or above expected curriculum level in English
• the majority of Years 9 and 10 students achieve at or above the expected level in mathematics.

Māori and Pacific student achievement is slightly below that of other groups of students. This disparity is evident in English and mathematics. Girls generally achieve higher than boys in literacy. Disparity is evident for Years 7 and 8 boys in writing and for Years 9 and 10 boys in English.

The majority of students achieve at or above expected curriculum levels in science and social sciences.

1.2 How well is the school accelerating learning for those Māori and other students who need this?

The school continues to find ways to accelerate learning for those Māori and other students who need this. School achievement data for 2019 indicate that many students are making accelerated progress in mathematics.

Students with additional learning needs are supported to experience success through inclusive class programmes, the provision of specialist teaching programmes, and the support of external agencies.

2 School conditions for equity and excellence – processes and practices

2.1 What school processes and practices are effective in enabling achievement of equity and excellence, and acceleration of learning?

Leaders emphasise the importance of relationships and work collaboratively to build a positive school spirit and ethos with students, staff and the community. A committed focus on te reo Māori me ōna tikanga is evident. The whole school involvement in pōwhiri, well led by the kapa haka, contributes significantly to the positive school spirit.

A culture of care and student wellbeing are recognised and promoted as necessary foundations for learning success. The school whānau system enables leaders and teachers to know and understand students’ strengths, skills and needs and provides for close monitoring of pastoral care and wellbeing.

Senior leaders are improving assessment systems and processes. They have recently begun displaying data to better identify and track individual students who need to make accelerated progress. This enables senior leaders to increase their focus on relevant data, identify the necessary actions and closely monitor the rate and sufficiency of progress for these students.

This meaningful achievement information is being updated regularly by the leadership team. Once this initiative is being used by all teachers, it should further assist the school to accelerate the learning of all students who need this.

Since late 2018 a data specialist has collated and aggregated student achievement information. This collation is now enabling senior leaders to strengthen the use of whole school aggregated data to examine and scrutinise achievement trends and patterns.

The experienced principal has accessed relevant professional development for the new senior leadership team and teachers. He now plans to review leadership team roles and schoolwide responsibilities to embed the school vision and achieve greater consistency of classroom practice schoolwide.

The responsive, future-focused curriculum continues to be reviewed and evolves to meet the interests, strengths and needs of students. Informed by research and community consultation, senior leaders have several new curriculum initiatives planned for 2020 and beyond. These initiatives are designed to increase opportunities for project-based learning and embedding the school’s learning progressions and assessment framework.

2.2 What further developments are needed in school processes and practices for achievement of equity and excellence, and acceleration of learning?

The school’s next challenge is to ensure that there are more equitable outcomes for all students. The school is well placed to evaluate the effectiveness of new initiatives. The principal’s 2018 analysis and evaluation of the student survey is a very sound model for internal evaluation. This approach and model could be used to evaluate the effectiveness of recent initiatives designed to achieve greater equity and excellence for all students.

Deeper analysis and interrogation of aggregated school achievement trends is needed. This should enable the school to rigorously evaluate the effectiveness of initiatives and interventions aimed at reducing ongoing in-school disparity between groups of students. This information should better inform the board about the effect of their allocation of resources to accelerate student progress and achieve equitable outcomes for all students.

3 Other Matters

Provision for international students

The school is a signatory to the Education (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 were 64 international students attending the school. International students are well integrated into the school community and benefit from the school’s educational programmes and pastoral support. Leaders and teachers monitor the progress and wellbeing of these students.

4 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:

• board administration
• curriculum
• management of health, safety and welfare
• personnel management
• finance
• asset management.

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 Children’s Act 2014.

5 ERO’s Overall Judgement

On the basis of the findings of this review, ERO’s overall evaluation judgement of Albany Junior High School’s performance in achieving valued outcomes for its students is: Well placed.

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.

6 Going forward

Key strengths of the school

For sustained improvement and future learner success, the school can draw on existing strengths in:

• a collaborative school culture and a responsive learning community that is open to new learning
• opportunities for students to experience a future focused and broad curriculum including education outside the classroom
• a learning environment that values inclusion, diversity and wellbeing.

Next steps

For sustained improvement and future learner success, priorities for further development are in:

• embedding the vision - further clarifying and developing teachers’ shared understandings about schoolwide expectations for classroom practice
• continuing to build the school’s collective evaluation capacity to accelerate learning and achieve equitable and excellent outcomes for all groups of students
• reviewing schoolwide leadership responsibilities to strengthen the focus on strategic oversight and direction for improvement.

Areas for improved compliance practice

To improve current practice, the board of trustees should:

• receive evaluative reports from leaders on student stand down trends and how the school is working to reduce these trends.

Steve Tanner

Director Review and Improvement Services Northern

Northern Region

7 February 2020

About the school