Karetu School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report 

Background

This Profile Report was written within 11 months of the Education Review Office and Karetu School working in Te Ara Huarau, an improvement evaluation approach used in most English Medium State and State Integrated Schools. For more information about Te Ara Huarau see ERO’s website. www.ero.govt.nz

Context 

Karetu School is a small rural school in the Karetu Valley, Northland. The school provides education for students in Years 1-8. Most of the learners are Māori who whakapapa to Ngāti Manu. 

Karetu School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:

• fostering student achievement
• strategic planning, self-review and effective reporting
• providing a safe and healthy environment.

You can find a copy of the school’s strategic and annual plan on Karetu School’s website.

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how effectively the school strengthens the wellbeing and cultural identity of all learners including those of Ngāti Manu descent.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is: 

• the school has a goal to support and build on culturally responsive relationships with learners, parents, whānau and teachers
• to understand how the local curriculum is improving learner wellbeing, progress and achievement
• to strengthen and extend internal evaluation processes and practices that focus on improving learner outcomes.

The school expects to see:

• communication between home and school that builds respectful and purposeful learning partnerships
• learners who are confident in their culture, identity and language 
• learners attending regularly, progressing and achieving at curriculum expectation
• greater clarity and focus on reliable and valid student achievement information to better understand the degree of equity and excellence in learner outcomes
• effective use of assessment information to inform planning, improved teaching practice and learning outcomes for all learners.

Strengths 

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to evaluate how effectively the school strengthens the wellbeing and cultural identity of all learners.

• learners have a strong sense of belonging to the school
• staff and learner centred relationships are positive and respectful
• learning environments support students to confidently engage in classroom programmes, alongside their peers.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise: 

• setting a clear achievement- focused agenda for improvement through strategic planning, teaching and learning and reporting to whānau and the board
• gaining a shared understanding about how well students achieve and progress with more reliable and valid assessment practices schoolwide
• strengthening professional capability to include te reo Māori and tikanga Māori
• improving and sustaining learning centred partnerships with whānau, hapū and community.

ERO has concerns about 

• How well leadership and governance are implementing a policy and procedural framework that ensures a physically and emotionally safe environment for learners.

Recommendation 

• to meet its statutory responsibilities, the Board should regularly monitor, evaluate and report to all stakeholders, the extent to which legislative requirements, policies and procedures support an emotionally and physically safe environment for all learners
• the Board should access NZSTA training to support trustees in meeting their statutory responsibilities 
• the Ministry of Education provide leadership support based on priorities for improvement. 

ERO’s role will be to support the school in its evaluation for improvement cycle to improve outcomes for all learners. ERO will support the school in reporting their progress to the community. The next public report on ERO’s website will be a Te Ara Huarau | School Evaluation Report and is due within three years. 

Shelley Booysen
Director of Schools

12 August 2024 

About the School

The Education Counts website provides further information about the school’s student population, student engagement and student achievement.  educationcounts.govt.nz/home