St Thomas School (Auckland)

Education institution number:

1510

School type:

Full Primary

School gender:

Co-Educational

Definition:

Not Applicable

Total roll:

790

Website:

http://www.stthomas.school.nz

Telephone:

09 528 3938

Address:

Allum Street, Kohimarama, Auckland

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St Thomas School (Auckland) - 19/07/2019

19 Jul 2019

School Context

St Thomas School is located in Kohimarama, Auckland and caters for Years 1 to 8 students. The school’s roll of 853 students shows increasing cultural diversity. A large number of students speak more than one language.

The school’s vision is for students to connect and collaborate well with others, and to successfully play their part in the world. The aspiration is for students to develop a strong sense of self, community and place, curiosity and critical thinking.

The school’s strategic and annual goals aim to:

grow students’ sense of agency and cultural identity
harness students’ potential for academic excellence
establish and use learning progressions to gauge and promote students’ learning and wellbeing.

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

achievement in reading, writing and mathematics
learning and wellbeing for success
health and safety
attendance.

Since the 2014 ERO review the school has experienced roll growth, ongoing property development and significant board changes. The majority of trustees are new to their governance role. Staffing changes over the past four years include the appointment of two senior leaders, a number of middle leaders and teachers.

The school is a member of Te Roopu Pourewa Community of Learning|Kāhui Ako.

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?

The school continues to make good progress towards achieving equitable and excellent outcomes for students.

School achievement data show that over the last three years, most children achieve at or above expected curriculum levels in reading, writing and mathematics. These data also show that overall student achievement is lifting over time. Boys’ writing achievement has increased over the past two years.

The small cohort of Māori children achieve very well in literacy and mathematics. This level of achievement has been sustained for the last three years.

The small cohort of Pacific children achieve well in reading. The majority of these children are second language learners. There is persistent disparity between Pacific children’s achievement overall and that of the other cohort groups.

The school’s new learning progressions help teachers to gather, analyse and respond to students’ learning strengths and needs. Students use these progressions to identify how well they are achieving and progressing in relation to their learning and wellbeing.

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

Over the past three years the school has developed more effective strategies to accelerate student progress.

School leaders are committed to addressing the in-school disparity for some cohorts of children. They have in-depth understanding and knowledge about these students’ learning needs and strengths.

Good systems and processes are in place to identify, track and monitor the progress of children who need to make accelerated progress. School leaders are continuing to focus on growing team leaders’ and teachers’ data literacy to build the school’s capacity to accelerate student progress and learning. Lifting overall writing achievement is the kāhui ako target.

Achievement data from 2018 indicate that accelerated progress was made in reading for small groups of Māori and Pacific students. Accelerated progress was also evident in writing for boys and in mathematics for girls. Teachers are building on these successes and sharing and extending effective strategies to accelerate students’ progress in their classroom programmes. School leaders recognise that they now need to consider how these approaches could be more responsive to children’s language, culture and identity.

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?

Key school practices and processes that are supporting the achievement of excellence and equity include well-coordinated leadership, useful internal evaluation and inquiry, and growing teacher collaboration and capability.

Senior leaders have used internal evaluation to develop a shared understanding of the school vision and values, and to restructure leadership across the school. They are focused on meeting the diverse needs of students.

Senior leaders promote collaborative practices to develop a professional learning culture and build teachers’ leadership capabilities. Organisational structures and systems support the development of professional capability and collective capacity. This is promoting shared learning and decision-making at all levels of the school.

Senior leaders are coaching middle leaders and teachers to foster student agency. Teachers’ professional learning and inquiries align well to the school’s vision, values and strategic direction. Robust appraisal processes support teachers’ professional growth.

The learning community is characterised by high expectations and respect. The broad, responsive curriculum promotes opportunities for students to engage in cultural, academic and sporting activities and to take more ownership of their learning. Senior leaders recognise the importance of expanding the bicultural and multicultural perspectives within the curriculum.

School leaders have been active in contributing to the wider education community and system. This means leaders and teachers have access to a wide range of professional learning and information to help them respond to students’ diverse needs.

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

The board and senior leaders use a range of good quality information including community, staff, and student surveys to inform their decision-making. The school’s vision, values, and strategic direction are more visible to the school community. A coherent strategic plan, sound governance policies, and a board work plan have been developed.

Trustees have engaged in New Zealand Schools Trustees Association (NZSTA) training to strengthen their stewardship roles and responsibilities. The board would benefit from further training including induction for new trustees. This training should support the board’s pursuit of the school’s vision, goals, and targets for equity and excellence with school leaders and teachers.

Leaders acknowledge the importance of continuing to develop:

students’ sense of agency as curious, collaborative, resilient, critical learners
teachers’ capability to accelerate student progress and achievement
a more culturally responsive curriculum
educationally powerful learning partnerships with whānau and parents.

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 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 13 international students attending the school.

The school provides good quality education, pastoral care, and opportunities for involvement and integration into the community for international students. There are good systems and processes in place to ensure that this provision is well monitored and reported to the board.

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 Act 2014.

5 ERO’s Overall Judgement

On the basis of the findings of this review, ERO’s overall evaluation judgement of St Thomas School (Auckland)’s performance in achieving valued outcomes for its students is: Well placed.

ERO’s Framework: Overall School Performance 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:

the principal’s inclusive approach to building collaborative leadership that promotes high expectations and a culture of professional learning
teaching and learning strategies that enable students to lead their own learning.

Next steps

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

board training to strengthen stewardship
continuing to build leadership capability at all levels to support the school’s achievement of parity for its Pacific students
strengthening teachers’ analysis and use of assessment information
extending the use of effective teaching strategies that accelerate student progress and learning.

Steve Tanner

Director Review and Improvement Services Northern

Northern Region

19 July 2019

About the school

Location	Kohimarama, Auckland
Ministry of Education profile number	1510
School type	Full primary (Years 1 to 8)
School roll	853
Gender composition	Girls 50% Boys 50%
Ethnic composition	Māori 6% NZ European/Pākehā 52% Chinese 9% Indian 4% other European 7% other Asian 9% other Pacific 4% other ethnic groups 9%
Students with Ongoing Resourcing Funding (ORS)	No
Provision of Māori medium education	No
Review team on site	May 2019
Date of this report	19 July 2019
Most recent ERO report(s)	Education Review November 2014 Education Review March 2012 Education Review August 2008

St Thomas School (Auckland) - 14/11/2014

14 Nov 2014

Findings

St Thomas School (Auckland) has high expectations for students and staff. Students achieve very well and experience rich, varied and meaningful learning opportunities. Student wellbeing is supported by pastoral care practices and close school/community interaction. The board and staff demonstrate a clear capacity and commitment to promoting ongoing school improvement.

ERO is likely to carry out the next review in four-to-five years.

1 Context

What are the important features of this school that have an impact on student learning?

St Thomas School (Auckland) is a high performing state primary school for Years 1 to 8 students. Since ERO’s 2012 report, the board of trustees has appointed a new principal. He has worked effectively with the board, other school leaders and staff to sustain school strengths while promoting ongoing positive development.

A powerfully worded and graphic vision statement shows the school’s purpose and provides a strong cornerstone for its operation. The vision captures the importance of connecting with people and the school’s setting, and of promoting connected learning and personal development. It also specifies 'an unrelenting pursuit of excellence'. School practices and programmes reflect the vision well.

The school’s roll is 54% New Zealand European/Pākehā and seven percent Māori. It has large numbers of Chinese and Japanese students, and the rest of students identify with at least 17 other ethnicities. Over one hundred of the students are new speakers of English. The school embraces and celebrates the diversity of its students and their families.

The school’s continued roll growth has led to considerable building projects and upgrades. These physical changes are being very well managed. The resultant modern learning environments have supported steps the school is taking to provide a curriculum that reflects best teaching and learning practices and that are overtly responsive to students' immediate and future learning needs.

The school is well supported by its community and has continued to strengthen its partnerships with families. It is establishing meaningful and authentic links with tangata whenua and to the school’s historic setting. Many long-serving staff are well known by students and their families, helping to retain a sense of continuity during times of growth and change.

2 Learning

How well does this school use achievement information to make positive changes to learners’ engagement, progress and achievement?

The school makes very effective use of achievement information to promote learners’ progress and achievement. Information about student achievement is collated and thoroughly analysed. School-wide trends and patterns are examined, and syndicate and individual class level data scrutinised. The rich information collected clearly influences the school’s strategic direction, curriculum development and allocation of resources.

The school has high expectations for student achievement. Publicly available data shows that students, including those who are Māori and Pacific, achieve very well in relation to regional and national achievement levels in reading, writing and mathematics. Students are well placed to meet the Ministry of Education’s (MOE) goal of 85% achieving at or above National Standards by 2017. School leaders and teachers make very good use of National Standards data to target groups of students for accelerated learning.

School assessment procedures have become increasingly rigorous and robust. Teachers know a lot about the learning of individual students. They use what they know to plan lessons that promote student participation and academic engagement. Teachers provide students with rich feedback about their work and appropriate next steps for their learning. School leaders have identified the need to continue to improve outcomes for groups of targeted students. They are also encouraging even more student ownership of their own learning.

Overall, students with special educational needs receive focused support for their learning. Students withdrawn from their classrooms for specialised literacy and mathematics programmes receive well targeted and effective instruction. These students often make faster than expected progress while on the withdrawal programmes. A good number of other special needs students have individual education plans (IEPs) and receive some in-class support from well informed and experienced teacher aides. Continuing to refine IEPs should help the school identify and celebrate with parents the more holistic, multi-faceted progress of children with special needs and/or learning difficulties.

New speakers of English are withdrawn for specialised English language support. The programmes they receive are appropriately linked to their classroom programmes and so help the students to progress in all aspects of the curriculum. The school has recently introduced the English Language Learning Progressions as an assessment tool. Focused use of these progressions should help all teachers to better identify, monitor, and plan for the progress of students who are new speakers of English.

3 Curriculum

How effectively does this school’s curriculum promote and support student learning?

The school’s curriculum is very effective in promoting and supporting student learning. The curriculum is carefully designed to incorporate the school’s vision, and to reflect the overarching essentials of The New Zealand Curriculum. Teachers demonstrate a very good knowledge and understanding of the curriculum. They facilitate student access to sports and cultural programmes, and environmental experiences. Teachers’ use of in-class experiential learning and education outside the classroom engages students in real and meaningful learning opportunities.

Programmes are closely linked to the school’s context and local environment. They increasingly make connections with bicultural New Zealand and the different cultures of students who attend. Programmes are relevant and include purposeful integration of information and communications technologies (ICT) to enhance student learning opportunities. A particular strength of programmes is how well teachers promote high order student thinking. Senior leaders recognise that a next step is to further explore ways to scaffold the learning of the school’s diverse range of students.

The school has a very good tone, and a warm and welcoming climate. Students receive strong pastoral care and positive relationships promote learning-based partnerships. Teachers are improvement-focused professionals who collaborate well on behalf of students. Buddy teaching practices are well established within classes and between junior and senior students. Parent support is sought for special support programmes and to help promote the learning of their own children.

Students with special needs are well integrated into classroom programmes and have good opportunities to build friendships. Classrooms are purposeful and settled environments in which students can learn in their preferred ways. Playgrounds are busy, with opportunities available for students to engage in physical activity, creative play and quiet times where desired.

How effectively does the school promote educational success for Māori, as Māori?

St Thomas School (Auckland) has many effective ways of promoting educational success for Māori, as Māori. A well designed two year strategic plan specifies significant and important intended outcomes. By making strategic appointments and maximising the skills of appropriate staff, school leaders have supported a genuine commitment to building the school’s bicultural responsiveness and capacity.

School strategies include networking with, listening to and connecting with whānau and the local Ngāti Whātua. These strategies help ensure Māori students see a wide variety of successful role models. Importantly, the strategies include building the involvement and leadership of Māori students within the school, and monitoring and promoting Māori student achievement.

The school recognises the positive impact that bicultural school practices, curriculum content and use of tikanga and te reo can have on promoting Māori student pride in their language, culture and identity. Good progress is being made in acknowledging all three within the school. Teachers receive encouragement and support to build their confidence in these areas. School leaders could now consider how the school’s te reo Māori teaching programme could be better maximised as a joint teacher/student learning programme, and how this programme could be reviewed in relation to both student and teacher learning.

4 Sustainable Performance

How well placed is the school to sustain and improve its performance?

The school is very well placed to sustain and improve its performance. Capable, vision-driven governance and leadership provide strong foundations and future direction for the school. High quality and outcomes-based planning and performance management support achievement of the vision.

The principal’s measured management of change has promoted collaborative and cohesive school development. Distributed leadership approaches have helped improve the quality of curriculum leadership throughout the school. New leaders undertake their roles with enthusiasm and are inspiring innovation within their areas of responsibility.

School self review is well implemented and improvement focused. The board and principal use school planning as a sound framework for reviewing the impact of developments. Teachers are increasingly inquiring into the effectiveness of their work and some exemplary examples of this reflection are available to support similar growth over time. Reviews increasingly include the voices of students and other stakeholders. As a further next step, annual curriculum reviews could refer back to how well previous targets have been met. They could place more emphasis on student learning.

Very good progress has been made in developing more meaningful and learning-related relationships with parents and whānau. School leaders and teachers are now exploring how they can continue to develop these relationships over time. School leaders hold meetings with specific groups of parents to consult with them, address their interests, share important new information or policy directions and hear about the aspirations the parents have for their children. These very good practices support the principles of collaborative learning relationships.

The board takes parental concerns seriously and is committed to improving the school’s relationship, communication and partnership with concerned parents. The board has recently reviewed its complaints policy and associated procedures. It has considerably improved its response time to complaints and seeks external advice when needed. In response to issues raised by some parents of children with special learning needs, the board has reviewed the school’s inclusive practices and implementation of the review’s key recommendations is underway.

The school has made significant progress over the past three years, and has the capacity and commitment required to support ongoing progress.

Provision for international students

The school is signatory to the Code of Practice for the Pastoral Care of International Students (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 two international students attending the school.

The school provides high levels of pastoral care for international students. Caring class and withdrawal teachers get to know the students well. Students receive good levels of support in English to help them join in class lessons successfully. Their progress is well monitored and they are well integrated into the school community.

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:

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

During the review, ERO checked the following items because they have a potentially high impact on student achievement:

emotional safety of students (including prevention of bullying and sexual harassment)
physical safety of students
teacher registration
processes for appointing staff
stand-downs, suspensions, expulsions and exclusions
attendance.

Conclusion

ERO is likely to carry out the next review in four-to-five years.

Dale Bailey

National Manager Review Services

Northern Region

14 November 2014

About the School

Location	Kohimarama, Auckland
Ministry of Education profile number	1510
School type	Full Primary (Years 1 to 8)
School roll	771
Number of international students	2
Gender composition	Boys 50% Girls 50%
Ethnic composition	Māori NZ European/Pākehā Chinese Japanese British/Irish Indian South East Asian Australian Filipino Korean other	7% 55% 7% 4% 3% 3% 3% 2% 2% 1% 13%
Review team on site	September 2014
Date of this report	14 November 2014
Most recent ERO report(s)	Education Review Education Review Education Review	March 2012 August 2008 August 2005