Cockle Bay School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

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

Cockle Bay School is in Howick, East Auckland and caters for learners in Years 1-6. Cockle Bay School’s vision is ‘Children and their learning at the heart of all we do’.  Cockle Bay School partners with the Waipaparoa Kāhui Ako and has a long history of serving the local community.

Cockle Bay School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:

• a local curriculum that is designed in partnership with the community, focussing on student progress, achievement, learner agency and wellbeing
• ongoing commitment to partnerships with family, whānau, Waipaparoa Kāhui Ako and the wider community to support and enhance student learning
• a bicultural, future focused learning environment that meets the needs of our school community, that ensures it is fully identifiable as a school of Aotearoa.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how effectively the mathematics curriculum ensures equitable and excellent outcomes for all learners.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

• design of the local curriculum includes high learner expectations for all learners in mathematics progress and achievement
• mathematics professional development is focused on problem solving and conceptual approaches to teaching and learning
• the Cockle Bay School Learner Profile capabilities develop learners who experience equitable and excellent outcomes in mathematics.

The school expects to see a refreshed school wide mathematics curriculum plan implemented which will impact positively on the progress, achievement and engagement of all learners.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to evaluate how effectively the mathematics curriculum ensures equitable and excellent outcomes for all learners:

• systems and processes support high quality teaching and learning which are embedded and coherent across the school
• educationally powerful relationships have been developed with whānau and community
• teachers and leaders work collaboratively to design a responsive curriculum which realises learner and community needs and aspirations.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• utilising mathematics assessment tools that support all learners and their agency
• curriculum design that builds on mathematics best practice, and is implemented effectively across the school
• systematic, collaborative school and teacher inquiry to further inform evaluative monitoring, process and practice.

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.

Filivaifale Jason Swann
Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern)
Northern Region | Te Tai Raki

17 February 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