Beach Haven School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 7 months of the Education Review Office and Beach Haven 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 

Beach Haven School is located in Beach Haven on the North Shore of Auckland and caters for Years 1 to 6 ākonga/learners. The school’s vision is to ‘Build Tomorrow Today’, through values of respect, responsibility, integrity and excellence.

Beach Haven School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:

• Student Empowerment-Through ownership students make decisions, design their own learning and unlock and follow their passions, leading to ongoing improvement in student achievement.

• Growing staff- Teachers and leaders are supported to develop and grow as professionals.

• Community Engagement/Partnership- Parents are actively involved in school partnerships with staff, students and community.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how effectively the school improvement teams’ annual strategies and actions contribute positively to equitable and excellent outcomes for all ākonga, kaimahi/staff and school whānau/families.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

• the Curriculum Improvement team’s aim is to further develop a local curriculum that reflects the school’s ‘know the learner’ approach, which builds on empowerment and student agency

• the Digital Improvement team is investigating and trialing digital technologies, to further engage ākonga and enhance teaching and learning acceleration practices

• the Community Improvement team’s focus is on the continuous improvement of communication systems aimed at increasing whānau partnerships in school life

• six years involvement in the Māori Achievement Collective (MAC) has been focused on moving beyond honouring, to giving full effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, linked to the Pacific Education Strategy

• mathematics and literacy support for kaiako/teachers has been focused on embedding knowledgeable and informed pedagogical practices, to support delivery of the curriculum.

The school expects to see:

• the ‘know the learner’ approach empowering ākonga to be independent inquirers; to be agentic in using formative assessment tools to direct their next learning steps

• ākonga sharing their learning in meaningful ways which in turn involves whānau in the learning processes and practices

• literacy and numeracy capability underpinning all other curriculum areas, so kaiako develop and implement initiatives that strengthen and accelerate ākonga progress and achievement

• kaiārahi/leaders supporting the improvement teams to build capacity and positive outcomes for ākonga, kaimahi and community.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to evaluate how effectively the school improvement teams’ annual strategies and actions contribute positively to equitable and excellent outcomes for all ākonga, kaimahi and school whānau:

• agency and empowerment in learning is visible and articulated by ākonga

• ākonga acceleration stories where kaiārahi share data, ensure systems and processes are consistent and support contact with whānau

• kaiako are supported to develop and grow their knowledge and skills to provide a responsive learning environment

• kaiārahi and kaiako are all trained as learning coaches

• the school instils a love of learning and broadening of horizons that children carry into their future.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• a focus on consistency of practices and processes, post the impact of interrupted years of Covid

• reviewing for impact on equitable and excellent ākonga outcomes, the mid-year and end of year improvement teams’ strategic workplans

• a new attendance programme that continues to focus on having all ākonga at school regularly

• explicit teaching and learning processes and practices that access numeracy and literacy support to accelerate levels of achievement for ākonga not meeting curriculum expectations.

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

25 August 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