Birdwood School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 12 months of the Education Review Office and Birdwood 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 

Birdwood School, located in West Auckland, provides education for students from years 1 to 8. The school values are to be respectful, responsible, a rangatira and resilience. The school provides a Māori Immersion class, Te Puawaitanga o te Reo. A new principal was appointed to the school in term four, 2022.

Birdwood School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are to:

• grow teacher capacity across the curriculum
• enhance the use of digital technologies
• strengthen relationships with our community and local community
• have a safe and secure learning environment that supports the health and wellbeing of learners and staff.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how effectively the school’s writing programme is meeting the needs and raising achievement for all learners.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

• student achievement in writing is not meeting school and community expectations
• to ensure that the school’s writing progressions are effectively raising the achievement of all learners.

The school expects to see:

• learners being supported to be successful and enjoying writing
• teachers using strategies based on deliberate acts of teaching in order to improve outcomes for learners’
• teachers use evidence gathered and analysed to meet the needs of the learners
• teachers use adaptive expertise to know how and when to support learners.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support the school in its goal to continually improve the teaching and learning of writing across the school:

• meaningful, educationally significant connections, communication and relationships with mana whenua, whānau Māori, hapu, iwi and parents, families and the wider diverse Pacific community
• the well-established school and classroom learning culture constantly characterised by respect, inclusion, empathy, collaboration and safety that is focused on the learning and wellbeing of each learner
• learners and staff have a strong sense of belonging, staff are open to learning and are culturally responsive to their learners.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• continuing to strengthen teaching strategies and build on practices to promote greater equity
• increasing the use of relevant, challenging and meaningful learning activities
• ensuring that effective assessment for learning practices are embedded to better inform teachers and students’ learning choices and decisions about their learning.

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

8 May 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