Blockhouse Bay 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 

Blockhouse Bay School in Auckland serves a diverse community of learners in Years 1 to 6. The school’s vision is ‘Ka tae mai he manu pī, ka puta he manu rere – arrive a fledgling, leave soaring.’ 

There are two parts to this report.

Part A: 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 B: The improvement actions prioritised for the school’s next evaluation cycle. 

Part A: Current State

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

Learner Success and Wellbeing 

• Most learners achieve at or above expected curriculum levels in reading and mathematics; the large majority achieve in writing.
• A priority for the school is to improve equitable outcomes for Pacific learners in reading; boys in writing; Māori learners in mathematics.
• Students with additional learning needs are well supported to make progress in relation to their individual learning goals.
• Attendance information shows the school meets national Ministry of Education targets.

Conditions to support learner success

• Leaders promotes a culture of relational trust and respectful relationships at all levels of the school, supporting conditions for collaboration and good quality teaching. 
• Leaders and teachers work successfully together to strengthen shared understandings of what good quality teaching and learning is, so learners experience success schoolwide.
• Senior leaders liaise closely with each other and with teachers to provide targeted oversight of curriculum and teaching that focuses on improving positive learning outcomes.

• Learners have rich opportunities to learn through a curriculum that fosters creativity and a broad range of learning experiences.
• Staff are increasingly embedding mātauranga Māori and te reo Māori through the curriculum to promote learners’ language, culture and identity. 
• Teachers regularly use assessment information to inform and design teaching and learning programmes to effectively meet the needs of learners. 

• Leaders and teachers have built strong reciprocal relationships with whānau and community that contribute to improving positive outcomes for learners.
• The board intentionally seeks community input in all aspects of school planning to support ongoing improvement.
• The board appropriately resources targeted professional learning and development aligned to strategic goals and priorities.

Part B: Where to next?

The agreed next steps for the school are to: 

• accelerate learning progress for Pacific learners and boys in literacy, and for Māori learners in mathematics
• implement clear expectations that define how a school culture of ‘speaking and listening’ can be further enhanced to meet the needs of diverse learners in culturally appropriate ways 
• continue to develop and embed practices and procedures focused on building learners’ social skills and the wellbeing of learners
• further determine and embed collaborative teacher practices and high levels of attendance that improve positive outcomes for learners.

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

Within six months:

• finalise and implement collaborative teaching guidelines to improve learner outcomes.

Every six months:

• continue to monitor the impact of teaching and learning strategies that accelerate learner progress for groups of students
• identify core elements needed to develop and refine school expectations of a culture that promotes and values speaking and listening 
• develop a framework to support teachers to teach social skills and enhance learner wellbeing.

Annually:

• evaluate achievement outcomes in literacy and mathematics for boys, Pacific and Māori learners and determine next steps
• review and embed the speaking and listening culture schoolwide
• gather feedback from teachers on collaborative teaching practices and their impact on learner outcomes and use the information to determine what worked well, for who, and where to next
• evaluate the effectiveness of the social skills teaching framework and attendance rates and use this information to identify next steps. 

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

• accelerated progress and positive achievement for Pacific and Māori learners, and for boys in writing
• a cohesive speaking and listening culture visible across the school
• effective collaborative teaching practice and high attendance rates embedded schoolwide.
• improved social skills taught from when a learner begins at school.

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

13 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