Okaihau Primary School

School Evaluation Report

Tēnā koutou e mau manawa rahi ki te kaupapa e aro ake nei, ko te tamaiti te pūtake o te kaupapa. Mā wai rā e kawe, mā tātau katoa.

We acknowledge the collective effort, responsibility and commitment by all to ensure that the child remains at the heart of the matter.

Context 

Okaihau Primary School is located in Okaihau, Northland and provides education for learners in Years 1 to 6. The school’s vision statement Riding The Winds To Success -Ma nga hau e kawe te matauranga ki te taumata - Heka he Matangi ko Ma’ili fainoa – represents the Pakeha, Māori and Tongan communities in Okaihau.

There are three parts to this report.

Part A: A summary of the findings from the most recent Education Review Office (ERO) report and/or subsequent evaluation. 

Part B: An evaluative summary of learner success and school conditions to inform the school board’s future strategic direction, including any education in Rumaki/bilingual settings. 

Part C: The improvement actions prioritised for the school’s next evaluation cycle. 

Part A: Previous Improvement Goals 

Since the ERO report of 2023, the school has been working to evaluate how well strengths-based teaching and learning practices support all learners to succeed in mathematics.  

Expected Improvements and Findings 

The school expected to see: 

Excellence in teaching practices and resources to support learning in mathematics. 

• Teachers provide a variety of learning opportunities and use deliberate strategies to better support students’ learning needs.
• Overall student achievement has improved since the introduction of a structured programme, this remains a focus area. 

School culture supportive of student wellbeing.

• A focus on the school values of respect, responsibility and reactions sets an expectation for positive behaviour for students.
• Teachers use karakia and mihi to start the day to support a settled and inclusive atmosphere for learning.

A localised curriculum that addresses learner needs and raises achievement. 

• A focus on learning about the local area has enabled the school to deepen its connections with the local marae and promote learner engagement in learning. 

Other Findings 

During the course of the evaluation, it was found that a structured approach to mathematics has led to greater consistency in teaching programmes and some improvements in achievement.

The greatest shift that occurred in response to the school’s action has been increased learner engagement and enjoyment in mathematics. 

Part B: Current State

The following findings are to inform the school’s future priorities for improvement.

Learner Success and Wellbeing 

• A small majority of learners are achieving at or above curriculum level expectation in reading and mathematics and some learners are achieving at or above curriculum expectation in writing.
• Māori learners achieve at similar levels to their peers; some disparity for boys is evident.
• Systems are in place to identify and provide targeted support for those who are below curriculum level expectation, and this has led to accelerated progress for some learners; accelerating achievement in writing, especially for boys, is a priority. 
• The school has yet to meet the Ministry of Education’s target for regular attendance, with less than half of students attending regularly.

Conditions to support learner success

• Leaders promote improvements in teaching and learning through the increased use of evidence to plan and monitor strategies that improve learner outcomes; leaders recognise the need to focus on the pace of progress so that more learners meet expected curriculum levels.
• Leaders are committed to the professional growth of teachers to encourage retention and to provide stability.
• Leadership builds and sustains supportive educationally focused relationships with other schools and education providers to share ideas and expertise. 

• An increasingly consistent focus on supporting learners to gain sound foundational skills in literacy and mathematics is evident.
• Teachers create an orderly and collaborative learning environment that supports learners to engage, experiment and apply new learning that builds on their experience and interests and reflects local contexts.
• Learners with additional learning needs are provided with effective support to learn and progress. 

• Leaders and teachers value the diverse identities and cultures of learners and the community; learners are confident in their sense of belonging at school.
• Leaders use relevant internal and external expertise to support capability building; professional learning and development is based on collaboration, relational trust and aligned to school priorities. 
• The school board effectively represents and serves the local community including the local iwi.
• Learners are provided with opportunities to develop their understanding of mātauranga Māori; tikanga Māori and te reo Māori are increasingly woven throughout the school curriculum. 

Part C: Where to next? 

The agreed next steps for the school are to:

• plan and introduce a schoolwide focus on the effective teaching of writing
• strengthen systems for assessment in relation to the new literacy and mathematics curriculums to measure and monitor learning in reading, writing and mathematics
• continue to promote attendance initiatives so that more students attend school regularly.

Within 3 months

• develop and implement a teacher professional development focus on writing
• develop and introduce an assessment overview that allows teachers and leaders to measure and monitor progress and achievement over time in reading, writing and mathematics.

Every 6 months

• observe the teaching of writing and review achievement data to provide feedback to teachers about the effectiveness of their teaching
• collect and monitor progress and achievement information to ensure that all learners are on track to make sufficient or accelerated progress in reading, writing and mathematics
• collect and analyse attendance and wellbeing data to monitor attendance.

Annually

• analyse students’ writing achievement information to measure the improvements from teacher professional development and use this information to inform future professional development
• measure and report on the rate of learner progress over time in reading, writing and mathematics so that teachers and leaders can measure the success of teaching and learning programmes and make further resourcing decisions for school improvement
• evaluate and extend the success of attendance initiatives that promote regular attendance.

Actions taken against these next steps are expected to result in:

• high quality teaching expertise to support learner progress and achievement in writing
• strong systems for the analysis of achievement data so that teachers can effectively respond to individual learning strengths and next steps
• all learners make expected or accelerated progress in reading, writing and mathematics
• most learners attending school regularly.

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

Me mahi tahi tonu tātau, kia whai oranga a tātau tamariki
Let’s continue to work together for the greater good of all children

Shelley Booysen
Director of Schools

30 January 2025

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