Tauranga Girls’ College

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

 

Background

This Profile Report was written within 18 months of the Education Review Office and Tauranga Girls’ 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 

Tauranga Girls' College is a state secondary school located in Tauranga. The school’s vision is ‘Empowering tomorrow’s women for a different tomorrow’; students are encouraged to take individual responsibility, demonstrate integrity and show respect for the rights of others. This is supported by the school’s values of respect-manaakitanga; participation – mahi tahi; and pride – mana motuhake.

Tauranga Girls’ College’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:

• learning designed to include opportunities where every student is encouraged to explore, challenge and innovate so that they may thrive now and move forward with confidence
• weaving te ao Māori (the Māori World) into our school
• reflecting, understanding and acknowledging the community by being actively engaged and participating to help create a better future for all
• recognising and valuing the importance of personal differences, learning and growing through the sharing of the unique qualities we all possess.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how effectively the focus on whanaungatanga has improved student achievement and engagement.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

The school noticed that not all learners reported a sense of belonging or feeling included. School organisation was based on year level cohorts with a siloed approach to pastoral and academic needs. The school wanted to explore the possible connection between a sense of whanaungatanga, attendance and retention data, student engagement in curricular and extracurricular opportunities and involvement in house activities.

School leaders investigated how effectively the inclusion and focus on strengthening whanaungatanga was realised by collecting student, whānau and staff voice through surveys, interviews with focus groups, sports review, guidance review, perception survey and the Māori achievement inquiry.

The school expects to see greater levels of engagement in a responsive curriculum through which individual progress and achievement is well supported. In addition, higher rates of student retention are expected, through more effective pathways that allows student interests and passions to be explored.

Strengths

The following strengths support the school in its goal to raise student engagement and achievement through an increased sense of whanaungatanga:

• a coherent strategic approach to school improvement
• school leaders understand and use evaluation for continuous improvement
• a positive, collaborative and cohesive senior leadership team focused on improved student outcomes
• the valuing of inclusion and diversity that supports the building of whanaungatanga.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• strengthening expectations and processes to further enhance whanaungatanga
• evaluating the effectiveness of the personalised opportunities for students’ experiences that are tailored to their interests and pathways
• further developing curriculum and assessment practices that inform learning and teaching to improve outcomes for all students.

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

29 August 2022 

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