Cornerstone Christian 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 

Cornerstone Christian School is a co-educational, state integrated special character, area school. Located in Palmerston North, the school provides education for learners from Year 1 to 13. The special character of the school is non-denominational Christian. The mission of the school is ‘To provide, with parents, a balanced Christian education to help children develop to their full potential in God’.

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 previous ERO report of February 2023, ERO and the school have been evaluating how effectively the school’s pastoral care processes support all learners to fully participate in learning.

Expected Improvements and Findings

The school expected to see robust, coherent, well understood and consistently applied pastoral care processes that support all learners to fully participate in learning.

• A pastoral team has been established and supports students to fully participate in learning.
• The school has developed coherent systems that use a range of evidence to identify, respond and monitor pastoral needs across the school.
• The pastoral system is now embedded, well understood and used by students and teachers who appreciate the range of support and expertise that the pastoral team offers.
• Leaders are implementing a new schoolwide behaviour management system that sits separately from the pastoral system.

Other Findings

The greatest shift that occurred in response to the school’s action has resulted in students being able to seek pastoral support from a specialised team. This means that teaching and learning is the priority during classroom time.

Part B: Current State

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

Learner Success and Wellbeing

• Most learners achieve at nationally expected curriculum levels for reading, writing and mathematics in Years 1 to 6, with the majority achieving in these areas in Years 7 to 10; improving achievement and engagement for boys in the middle school (years 7 to 10) is a priority.
• Most students achieve National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) Levels 1, 2 and 3.
• Individual students who need extra support for learning have their needs identified and effectively met.
• Most students attend school regularly and the school meets the Ministry target for regular attendance; wellbeing surveys show that students enjoy school.

Conditions to support learner success

• Leaders are relational, approachable and open to learning; they role model the culture that they want to see in others.
• Leaders engage with, learn through, and use evaluation appropriately to assist decision-making for improvement, effectively setting high expectations for teaching and learning.
• The school’s vision and values are well promoted by leaders who ensure these are aligned and enacted throughout the wider curriculum.

• Students benefit from teachers who know them well, use relational practices and who set and maintain high standards of achievement.
• Effective teaching is evident in the junior and senior school; it is becoming more consistent and deliberate in the middle school.
• Student achievement is carefully tracked, monitored and used to inform teaching and learning, particularly well in the senior school.

• The board have prioritised improving curriculum, culture and community; systems of reporting keep trustees well informed on the progress made against these priorities.
• Improved partnerships with whānau Māori and iwi support leaders and staff to respond to the educational aspirations they have for their children.

Part C: Where to next?

The agreed next steps for the school are to:

• evaluate the new behaviour management system as a mechanism to improve achievement particularly for boys in the middle school
• further develop curriculum coherence from Years 1 to Year 13, with particular emphasis on strengthening the quality provision of learning and engagement in Years 7 to 10
• find ways to further integrate te reo me ōna tikanga Māori across the school and in classroom programmes.

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

Within six months:

• evaluate the new behaviour management system to ensure that it is meeting the needs of all students
• decide how to measure the progress made by students in Years 7 to 10; use this information to further develop and support learning programmes

Annually:

• analyse and report achievement, progress, engagement, attendance, behaviour and wellbeing outcomes to the school board and community to help identify priorities for improvement.
• evaluate progress made to improve curriculum coherence from Year 1 to Year 13 and the impact it has had to improve achievement for students, particularly boys, in Years 7 to 10
• evaluate the provision of te reo me ōna tikanga Māori across the school.

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

• a well understood behaviour management system that is consistently known and applied across the school and increases engagement in learning
• sustained attendance and improved outcomes for learners, particularly for boys and those in Years 7 to 10
• a coherent local curriculum that indicates clear learning pathways from Years 1 to Year 13 
• Te reo me ōna tikanga Māori integrated into daily school life and learning.

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 September 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