Te Kauwhata College

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within ten months of the Education Review Office and Te Kauwhata 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 

Te Kauwhata College is located at the intersection point of the Waikato, Auckland and Hauraki regions, and near sites of great historical and social significance to mana whenua. The school provides education for students in Years 7 to 13 and seeks to promote a whānau focused and genuinely bicultural environment.

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

• enable and support all students to achieve their personal best

• maintain a culturally inclusive, supportive and challenging teaching and learning environment

• promote a school-wide culture of respect and consideration for self, others and the environment.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate the extent to which practices tailored to student need are promoting wellbeing, engagement and achievement.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

• responding to student and whānau voice

• the need to promote an environment in which all students can flourish.

The school expects to see:

• student learning and wellbeing needs being identified, and responsive approaches being implemented to meet those needs

• student and whānau voice informing ongoing refinements to responsive practices

• partnerships with whānau, community and mana whenua supporting student wellbeing and engagement

• improved student wellbeing and engagement leading to improved learning outcomes.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to improve student wellbeing, engagement and learning outcomes:

• an established, inter-agency approach that identifies, tracks and responds to students with high and complex needs

• the systems and structures to promote and maintain teacher capability and collective capacity to improve learner outcomes

• an authentic relationship with mana whenua that supports the school to understand and respond to learner needs.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• ensuring pastoral practices for identifying and responding to student need are implemented consistently and effectively

• using student achievement information to identify learning needs, and developing tailored, responsive approaches to meet those needs

• continuing to gather the voice of students, whānau and mana whenua to inform improvements to responsive practices.

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

17 October 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