Albany 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 

Albany School in Albany, Auckland provides education for students in Years 1 to 6. The school vision, ‘where learning makes a difference’ is underpinned by the R.E.A.C.H values; Respect, Excellence, Aroha, Caring and Collaboration, Honesty. The school serves a multicultural community and celebrates students speaking 38 different languages.

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 November 2022, school leaders evaluated the agility and adaptiveness of the Albany School curriculum for equity and excellence for all learners in response to the ever-changing environment.

Expected Improvements and Findings 

The school expected to see:

• Increased excellence and equity progress and achievement for all students, underpinned by systematic and sustained practices, processes and actions.
• Staff have a deeper understanding of how effective assessment practices contribute to increasing equity and excellent outcomes for students. 
• Evidence-informed and approaches to teaching increased student access to and engagement in learning, and improved outcomes.
• Appropriate responsive teaching practices continue to enable students’ access to learning.

Learners experiencing a rich, broad and deep localised curriculum responsive to student’s language, culture and identity.

• Students confidently discuss what they are learning and can increasingly identify their next learning steps.
• Students engage in their learning and connect with their home languages and cultures giving them a stronger sense of identity and belonging. 
• Students continue to benefit from a broad localised curriculum strengthening their engagement and learning outcomes.

Other Findings 

During the course of the evaluation, it was found that a shared way of talking about learning and visibility of student progress resulted in improved partnerships with students, whānau and parents. 

The greatest shift that occurred in response to the school actions has resulted in increased clarity of systems and processes, critical reflection and identifying how to add value to quality learning experiences for students. 

Part B: Current State 

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

Learner Success and Wellbeing 

• School achievement information shows that most students achieve at expected curriculum levels in reading and mathematics and a large majority in writing.
• Students who required additional support, including Māori learners, are identified and provided with targeted learning support.
• The large majority of students attend school regularly; the school is yet to reach the 2024 Ministry of Education regular attendance target.

Conditions to support learner success

• Leaders promote a culture of staff collaboration and prioritise professional growth in strengths-based approaches and effective ongoing staff coaching.
• Leaders use high-quality data and other evidence to pursue improvement goals and targets, including a sustained focus on accelerating the progress of learners at risk of underachievement.
• Shared leadership opportunities promote evidence-based approaches to grow teaching and learning practices that achieve progress for learners.

• Students experience an extensive range of meaningful learning opportunities through the localised curriculum; there is a consistent focus on supporting learners to gain sound foundations skills in literacy, communication and mathematics.
• Teachers promote respectful learning environments with high expectations that enable students to be meaningfully engaged and apply new learning in innovative ways.
• Schoolwide assessment practices across curriculum levels and learning areas are explicit and aligned to the school curriculum support learners progress and achievement, including multi-tiered and layered support for all students at risk of underachieving.

• Students learn in caring, collaborative, inclusive environments contributing to an overall positive school culture that promotes engagement and success for learners.
• School programmes value the diverse languages, cultures and identities students bring to their schooling; these support progress and achievement in learning.
• Staff facilitate regular parent and whānau engagement in a variety of schooling context that positively contribute to an increased sense of belonging and ownership.
• Robust evaluative evidence is used by board and staff to make improvement plans for sustained equity and excellence.

Part C: Where to next? 

The agreed next steps for the school are to:

• continue to embed structured literacy and mathematics approaches through targeted professional development for staff to reduce the achievement gaps between groups of students
• strengthen an ongoing schoolwide commitment to genuine relationships with iwi, in addition to whānau, to develop authentic te ao Māori learning opportunities
• continue to track and monitor attendance and engage with whānau and external services to reach Ministry of Education 2030 attendance targets.

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

Every six months:

• monitor structured literacy and mathematics approaches, assessment and planning frameworks schoolwide to show shifts in teaching and learning practice and progress and learning outcomes for students
• engage with iwi to develop authentic te ao Māori learning opportunities
• monitor and evaluate attendance initiatives to identify the impact of initiatives for improving regular attendance.

Annually:

• evaluate the impact of literacy and mathematic approaches on student progress and achievement to plan for future professional development and resources strategic decisions
• report to the board, iwi and whānau about the shifts in how well te ao Māori is interwoven through the school curriculum to plan for future professional development strategic decisions
• report annual attendance to the board including the impact of initiatives for improving regular attendance to increase termly attendance to meet government targets.

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

• increased equity and excellence in student progress and achievement, particularly for those students at risk, in literacy and mathematics 
• te ao Māori interwoven within the school curriculum
• increased regular attendance, particularly for those students at risk of underachieving.

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

12 December 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