Purua 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 

Purua School is a small rural school northwest of Whangārei providing education for children in Years 1 to 8. Children learn in two multilevel classrooms. The school’s vision for its learners is that they become inventive, creative children ready for the future. 

There are two parts to this report.

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

Part A: Current State 

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

Learner Success and Wellbeing 

Students are confident, curious, engaged in their learning and progress and achieve well. 

• Achievement information shows the majority of boys, and most girls achieve at curriculum expectation in reading and writing; most students achieve at the expected level in mathematics. 
• Students’ wellbeing is central to teaching and learning programmes.
• The majority of children attend school regularly; staff work closely with families to improve attendance rates.  

Conditions to support learner success

Leadership with staff collaboratively pursue and enact the school’s vision and values.

• All staff have leadership responsibilities; they create a school culture that fosters students' wellbeing, sense of belonging and whanaungatanga.
• Leaders and staff are increasing whānau engagement in school decision making to help develop strategic planning, priorities and goals.
• The principal has strong educationally focused relationships with local and other organisational groups; current research on effective teaching and learning practices is shared to best serve learners.

Teaching and learning opportunities are well considered, aligned to the school's strategic goals, and intentionally tailored to support students in their schooling.

• Students experience a broad school curriculum with a wide range of learning experiences and a strong focus on outdoor activities, including regenerating native bush where they are kaitiaki. 
• Teachers and support staff scaffold individualised learning programmes and use effective teaching approaches that support each learner to achieve.
• Teachers use inclusive practices to promote a collaborative learning environment that fosters consistent student engagement.

Professional development, whānau engagement and stewardship increasingly underpin the school culture to successfully support children on their education journey. 

• Staff engage in ongoing professional growth and development that effectively support students, including those with different learning needs to experience success in their learning.
• Students, whānau and staff together make decisions so that children transition smoothly into specific pathway options suited to their learning needs beyond Purua School.
• The board represents, serves and works with the school community to identify strategic improvement priorities that support students’ success.

Part B: Where to next?

The agreed next steps for the school are to: 

• extend the use of a student management system for reporting and assessment practices to include developing a schoolwide language for assessment for learning practices
• build on current practice integrating quality te reo Māori and te ao Māori learning opportunities throughout the curriculum
• staff and the board to adopt an evaluation framework to increase internal evaluation schoolwide.

The agreed actions for the next improvement cycle and timeframes are as follows.

Every six months:

• regularly timetable sessions for literacy moderation discussions with other schools
• regularly monitor and respond to attendance data, and progress and achievement information
• monitor how well teachers are increasingly integrating quality te reo Māori and te ao Māori throughout implementation of the curriculum.

Annually:

• document and evaluate how well teacher professional development undertaken during the year, has improved learning outcomes for children
• document and evaluate board performance for ongoing school improvement. 

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

• strengthened systems and streamlined processes used for learner assessment practices 
• increased integration of quality te reo Māori and te ao Māori learning opportunities throughout the curriculum
• strengthened schoolwide internal evaluation practices, and its role for school improvement.

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

19 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