Wainuiomata Primary School

1 Context

Wainuiomata Primary School caters for students in Years 1 to 6 and is located in Wainuiomata. At the time of this ERO review, of the 326 students enrolled, approximately half are Māori and 6% Pacific.

The school provides a broad range of curriculum experiences to support student learning and engagement. Environmental teaching, learning and sustainable practice are features of the curriculum. The school is a silver EnviroSchool and working toward a gold award. Students follow the EnviroSchools guiding principles and learn about sustainability.

Since the September 2013 ERO review, a new principal and deputy principal have been appointed.

The school has been, and is currently involved in a number of Ministry of Education initiatives. Positive Behaviour for Learning (PB4L) was introduced in 2015. Staff and trustees have participated in range of professional learning and development (PLD) initiatives.

2 Equity and excellence

The vision and valued outcomes defined by the school for all children are to develop effective social skills, demonstrate shared values and achieve academically. Aspirations for students are encompassed in the community's shared vision of living, learning and growing together.

The school’s achievement information shows that Māori learners achieve slightly lower when compared to other groups in the school. The majority of students enter school at five years of age requiring their achievement to be accelerated in literacy and mathematics.

At the end of 2015, many students met the National Standards in reading, writing and mathematics, including Pacific learners. Girls achieve slightly better than boys in reading and mathematics and considerably better in writing. Addressing disparity in the achievement of boys, especially in writing, is a priority for the school.

Since 2013, achievement in reading and mathematics has remained at similar levels. Writing shows a slight overall increase in 2015.

School leaders have identified the need to strengthen achievement outcomes for some learners not making consistent progress. They have introduced well-considered processes to better identify and respond to students not making expected progress. Achievement information gathered in Term 3, 2016, shows these changes are impacting positively on students whose achievement needs to be accelerated.

Since the previous ERO evaluation the school has: 

• strengthened processes to identify, track and respond to students who need their achievement to be accelerated
• included students' views, to analyse their engagement and increase their active involvement in learning
• developed teachers' shared knowledge of effective practice
• improved appraisal and teacher inquiry processes
• implemented PB4L to establish a shared knowledge of expected behaviours and promote a positive learning climate
• involved school personnel, including trustees in local school networks, including a Community of Learning (CoL)
• introduced initiatives to strengthen parent engagement in the learning process. 

3 Accelerating achievement

How effectively does this school respond to Māori children whose learning and achievement need acceleration?

The school is effectively strengthening its response to Māori learners whose learning and achievement needs acceleration. Senior leaders' knowledge of teacher practice has identified that improved use of assessment information is needed to respond to the diverse learning needs of individuals. To increase responsive practice, leaders have: 

• strengthened teacher review of student progress and achievement
• targeted Māori students requiring accelerated learning and achievement
• introduced processes to build teaching as inquiry
• implemented clear procedures to guide and monitor the moderation of assessment to ensure the dependability of National Standards judgements. 

Collated achievement information in 2016 shows these changes are impacting positively on accelerating the achievement of targeted Māori learners. Continuing to embed and evaluate the impact of these processes should further enhance the school's ability to promote equity and excellence for Māori students.

School leaders and teachers undertake a range of purposeful actions to promote Māori student culture, language and identity. In 2016, the school has engaged purposefully with Māori whānau to gather their aspirations for student success. Leaders developed a draft Māori strategic plan to guide ongoing development in this area. After Māori whānau consultation, staff plan to define the aspirations for Māori success at Wainuiomata Primary School. This should support the development of the localised curriculum and identify relevant PLD for teachers.

How effectively does this school respond to other children whose learning and achievement need acceleration?

The school has strengthened its response to other students whose learning and achievement need acceleration. Collaborative discussion between leaders and teachers is leading to an increased focus on shared teaching and learning strategies. Additional learning support is well planned and resulting in positive achievement outcomes for students, especially in mathematics.

4 School conditions

How effectively do the school’s curriculum and other organisational processes and practices develop and enact the school’s vision, values, goals and targets for equity and excellence?

The school is purposefully strengthening the curriculum by making well-considered improvements to organisational processes and practice. Staff are seeking to increase students' active engagement in learning and build responsive teaching practice.

The school's vision has been collaboratively redeveloped with the community. Introduction of PB4L has had a positive impact in the school. Shared values are clearly visible. Purposeful leadership of this initiative is contributing to its successful implementation.

Review and redevelopment of the mathematics curriculum and assessment plan are timely. Changes provide appropriate guidance for teaching, learning and curriculum delivery.

Learning maps, introduced in 2016, support the school's focus on increasing students' active involvement in the learning process. Students are developing their ability to set learning and achievement goals. Continuing to build teachers' facilitation of this process, should further benefit students' ownership of their learning.

Senior leaders demonstrate a clear understanding of effective teacher practice and areas for improvement. Observational feedback to teachers is thorough. Staff have collaborated to revisit and build their collective understanding of effective and expected teaching and learning practice. Some use strategies well, reflecting these expectations.

Leaders recognise the need to develop the capability of teachers to consistently demonstrate effective practice. Improvements to appraisal and inquiry processes are supporting development.

Senior leaders have implemented well-considered changes to improve student achievement. These changes have shown a positive impact in 2016. Strengthening middle leadership capability should further build practice toward meeting established priorities.

Trustees provide sound stewardship. Succession is well managed. Strategic and annual planning establishes key priorities. The board receives useful achievement and curriculum information linked to these priorities. As a next step, leaders should revise current achievement targets to ensure all students requiring accelerated achievement are identified and more frequent reporting is introduced.

The school develops positive partnerships with parents, families and whānau. Mutukaroa, is focused on developing a home-school learning partnership for parents of students from school entry up to Year 3. This initiative contributes to increased achievement. Through student-led learning conferences and written reports, parents gain comprehensive information that supports their knowledge of their child's learning, progress and achievement.

5 Going forward

How well placed is the school to accelerate the achievement of all children who need it?

Leaders and teachers: 

• know the children whose learning and achievement need to be accelerated
• respond effectively to the strengths, needs and interests of each child
• regularly evaluate how well teaching is working for these children
• act on what they know works well for each child
• build teacher capability effectively to achieve equitable outcomes for all children
• are well placed to achieve and sustain equitable and excellent outcomes for all children. 

Senior leaders have been instrumental in strengthening systems and processes to track and monitor student progress and achievement. Gaining a robust understanding in relation to student achievement has been the catalyst to strengthen the school's response to students whose achievement needs to be accelerated.

Leaders recognise that increased middle leader capability is required to facilitate ongoing implementation of their identified priorities and sustain improvements to student achievement. The school is strengthening practices to promote equity and excellence for students.

ERO is likely to carry out the next review in three years.

6 Board assurance on legal requirements

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 the following:

• board administration
• curriculum
• management of health, safety and welfare
• personnel management
• 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
• processes for appointing staff
• stand down, suspensions, expulsions and exclusions
• attendance
• compliance with the provisions of the Vulnerable Children Act 2014.

7 Recommendations

Leaders and teachers should:

• revise annual achievement targets encompassing all students who require their achievement accelerated and make these learners evident in targeted classroom teaching
• develop the collective capability of staff to analyse and interpret achievement information to meet the diverse needs of learners
• build teacher capability aligned to the school expectations for effective practice
• strengthen middle leaders' capability
• embed processes to strengthen inquiry and evaluation practice.

Joyce Gebbie

Deputy Chief Review Officer Central

6 December 2016

About the school