Tuakau College

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 15 months of the Education Review Office and Tuakau College 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 

Tuakau College is located in Tuakau, a semi-rural township in North Waikato. The school caters for students in Years 7 to 13.

Tuakau College’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are to:

• use data more effectively to inform teaching, learning and assessment decisions

• continue to improve student achievement in NCEA in all curriculum areas

• use pastoral data to effectively support student wellbeing

• promote cross-curriculum literacy and numeracy in Years 7 to 10

• support the progression of students’ reo rua in the school’s bi-lingual classes.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how effectively trustees, leaders and teachers use data to support improved outcomes for learners?

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

• to effectively accelerate students’ progress to set them up for NCEA success

• to support strong literacy and numeracy understanding and skills for NCEA and vocational success

• to provide coherent education pathways that connect to further education or employment

• to strengthen how the school supports Māori to enjoy educational success as Māori.

The school expects to see improvements in the way teachers collect and use reliable, consistent and accurate data to plan for targeted and relevant teaching and learning opportunities.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to effectively use data to improve outcomes for learners:

• an inclusive school environment that supports and celebrates success for all

• a range of data is collected to monitor and track students to support academic and social progress

• responding to change effectively and efficiently to improve outcomes for students (covid-hybrid learning).

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• developing a collaborative and consistent approach to selecting and using assessment tools to build staff capability in data use for effective teaching and learning

• developing systems and processes to share, analyse and communicate data at all levels of school operations to support strategic decision making to improve student outcomes.

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 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

20 June 2023

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