Visible professional learning
At McAuley High School, classroom teacher observations are a frequent occurrence and students report how they regard this as teachers actively modelling learning behaviour.
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At McAuley High School, classroom teacher observations are a frequent occurrence and students report how they regard this as teachers actively modelling learning behaviour.
At Otumoetai Intermediate, all teachers are engaged in differentiated professional learning and development. Those with similar goals are ‘buddied’ with another staff member.
In improving the teaching and learning of mathematics, leaders and teachers are working to develop safe, collaborative environments where every learner (teachers and students) can access the thinking of others to strengthen their knowledge and understanding.
Clarity of expectations within a supportive environment are key to scaffolding children into the behaviours of effective learners. Those expectations are realised through structures and processes that ensure everyone knows what to do to achieve success.
The team structure in this school supports the professional learning and development of leaders and teachers. Team members discuss their roles, responsibilities and the reciprocal nature of their interactions.
Evaluation and review are the engine room that drives the improvement agenda forward, involving all within the learning community in an ongoing cycle.
Members of a school strategic change leadership team discuss how a significant drop in the NCEA achievement outcomes of their Māori students, which had been consistently tracking upwards since 2009, created a context that required a critically reflective analysis of both cohort and individual data, alongside a review of the current tracking and monitoring processes and tools.
Curriculum approaches in years 9 and 10 are designed to set students up for success.
A school principal talks about how he works with his teachers and Māori community to develop a bicultural school context within which both Treaty partners are acknowledged and valued. A teacher and members of the Māori community describe how this principal’s leadership has facilitated a reciprocal relationship between the school and their local Māori community.
In response to student voice, this school sought external expertise to provide opportunities for the children to learn more about their identity, language and culture. For those involved, the opportunity to develop new knowledge and understandings is just the beginning of the journey.
At this secondary school leaders and teachers have responded to students’ need for more time to achieve their goals. While not mandatory for either staff or students, lunchtime and after school learning sessions have become the norm.
Data and information about teaching and learning is made highly visible and the interpretation and response are a collaborative process. Leaders and teachers reflect on the role of data in professional relationships and how an open approach builds capability and confidence to respond to the challenges that need to be addressed.
The provision of opportunities for collaborative professional learning are designed to build adaptive expertise through enabling the participation and contribution of all staff members.
ERO evaluated how well 35 secondary schools were using Vocational Pathways. While most schools knew about and were using the pathways, they were not fully realising the initiative’s potential. Vocational Pathways can be a valued part of a school’s curriculum for all students when used as more than just an add-on to careers education or course selection processes.
Children at many schools in New Zealand experience bullying. The Bullying Prevention Advisory Group, set up by the Secretary for Education, has developed a resource called Bullying prevention and response: A guide for schools.
ERO asked 129 schools reviewed during Term 3, 2014 about their use of the guide. Most schools were aware of the resource and more than a third had used it. Schools most commonly used the guide as a tool to review their bullying policies and procedures.
In 2013 the Education Review Office (ERO) evaluated the quality of teacher appraisal systems in schools using online surveys of principals and information from 200 school reviews. This report presents the findings of ERO’s evaluation of schools’ approaches to teacher appraisal.
This ERO evaluation reports on primary schools' progress in relation to the Government's Success for All policy. Success for All is about getting all schools to demonstrate inclusive practice for students with special needs.
This is the first in a series of evaluations related to principal and teacher appraisal in New Zealand schools. These evaluations are intended to provide information to help boards and school leaders strengthen appraisal practice and links with school development to improve outcomes for their students.
All children deserve the right to an education including those with special education needs. Through its Success for All policy, the Government expects all schools to demonstrate inclusive practice for children with special education needs by the end of 2014. This report presents the findings of a questionnaire where schools assess their own provisions for students with special education needs. It follows on from a similar report produced in early 2012.
This report, Including Students with Special Needs: school questionnaire responses presents the findings from a questionnaire completed by schools reviewed in the first two terms of 2011. It is based on schools’ own views of how well they include children with special needs.