Morrinsville College

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within six months of the Education Review Office and Morrinsville 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

Morrinsville College, located in the town of Morrinsville in the Waikato, provides education for students in Years 9 to 13. Alongside learning hubs for all students, Te Puaawaitanga provides an environment for Māori learners to be immersed in and celebrate their culture, language and identity. The school also has an adjacent agricultural unit that is the focal point for the school’s Agriculture curriculum.

Morrinsville College’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:

• to further develop the differentiated, responsive and flexible curriculum: anytime, anywhere learning
• to continue to identify priority learners and accelerate their progress through targeted strategies
• to further improve the academic and pastoral outcomes of all students, especially those who identify themselves as Ngāti Haua or Waikato Tainui to meet the aspirations of iwi for their tamariki.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate the extent to which outcomes are improving for all learners, in particular priority learners as a result of

• targeted teaching strategies
• a curriculum tailored to meet learner needs
• the ongoing development of powerful educational partnerships.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

• close alignment with the school’s strategic plan and with an ongoing improvement journey
• to understand how adaptations that have emerged in response to a global pandemic are impacting on learner outcomes
• the opportunity to understand which teaching strategies and curriculum refinements are working to meet the needs of all learners.

The school expects to see:

• teachers using responsive, differentiated and flexible curriculum design and targeted teaching strategies to meet the needs of a diverse range of learners
• educationally powerful partnerships with Ngāti Haua, Waikato Tainui and the Morrinsville Kāhui Āko that support the professional development of teachers and leaders, to meet the needs of learners
• consistently equitable and excellent outcomes for all learners.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to improve outcomes for all learners:

• leadership at all levels of the school that prioritises excellent and equitable outcomes and actively pursues student, whānau and iwi aspirations
• teacher capacity-building structures and systems that align with the needs of priority learners and the self-identified professional needs of teachers
• an environment where positive and respectful relationships within and beyond the school create a sense of connection and belonging.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise continuing to:

• use priority learner data to inform refinements to teaching practice and course design
• collaboratively build professional capacity to meet the needs of a diverse range of learners through responsive, differentiated, flexible curriculum and targeted teaching strategies
• collaborate with iwi and the Morrinsville Kāhui Āko to inform improvements for the benefit of students
• embed systematic, collaborative inquiry, and internal monitoring and evaluation processes that drive the strategic direction.

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 one year to align the beginning of the evaluation cycle with a change in school leadership.

Phil Cowie
Director Review and Improvement Services (Central)
Central Region | Te Tai Pūtahi Nui

2 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