Tauranga Waldorf School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 20 months of the Education Review Office and Tauranga Waldorf School 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 

Tauranga Waldorf School is a state integrated primary school located in Welcome Bay, Tauranga. It caters for students from class 1 (Year 2) to class 7 (Year 8). The school is set on 16 acres of rural land that includes wetlands, native bush, community gardens and an organic farm. The New Zealand Waldorf curriculum is localised and underpinned by a pedagogy of ‘participation and contribution through discovery’.

Tauranga Waldorf School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are to deliver the ‘right thing at the right time for every child’ by:

• providing a curriculum reflective of bicultural kaupapa that honours Te Tiriti o Waitangi

• maintaining high expectations for learning and achievement for all learners

• providing individualised programmes to provide accelerant learning for those children who need it

• promoting wellbeing, inclusivity and respect within an holistic culture of learning.

You can find a copy of the school’s strategic and annual plan on Tauranga Waldorf School’s website.

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how effectively the school sustains excellence and equity for all children by providing ‘the right thing at the right time for every child’.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is to support the school to sustain high levels of systematic collaborative inquiry and internal monitoring and evaluation practices that promote ongoing school improvement.

The school expects to see:

• sustained curriculum implementation that results in high levels of student achievement at Year 8

• a responsive curriculum that provides multiple opportunities for the individual needs of children to be met through discovery learning

• accelerant learning for children who need it that is highly individualised and informed by a range of evaluative processes.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support the achievement of its goals:

• collective capacity that effectively focuses on the ongoing needs and aspirations of the community

• a coherent and deliberate curriculum that ensures inclusivity, wellbeing and a range of rich learning opportunities inclusive of ‘learning through the arts and on the land

• highly effective teaching that centres on meeting the holistic needs of all children, informed by a range of internal evaluation systems.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• continuing to work toward an authentic bicultural curriculum reflective of Te Tiriti o Waitangi

• further growth of the school’s experiential ‘learning on the land’ curriculum

• meeting every child where they are and drawing them forward using effective internal evaluation 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.

Phil Cowie
Director Review and Improvement Services (Central)
Central Region | Te Tai Pūtahi Nui

8 March 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