Greenhithe School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

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

Greenhithe School is a contributing primary school catering for children in years 1 to 6. The school’s values are Perseverance-Manawanui, Respect-Manaakitanga, Initiative-Whakaaratanga, Diligence-Urupū and Excellence-Kairangatira. The school’s vision of ‘Our children grow to be capable, balanced, confident learners who embrace new experiences and opportunities’ is a central focus in all operations of school life.

Greenhithe School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:

• Empowering every learner to embrace opportunities.
• Enhancing the capability of our teachers to innovate so every child can be successful.
• Building connectedness across the school.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how effectively the development of integrated approaches to writing within a culturally sustaining localised curriculum maintains high achievement levels.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

• maintaining high achievement for learners in writing
• developing the teaching of writing in the context of a culturally sustaining local curriculum
• utilising the refreshed curriculum and progressions to continue and develop existing practices in the context of the changing educational landscape.

The school expects to see:

•  the ongoing development of the local curriculum, taking account of the refreshed national curriculum
•  the local curriculum with local histories, and local contexts continuing to enrich learning
• development of opportunities to engage with whanau and iwi, supporting a continued focus on improving culturally sustaining practices
• the local curriculum enabling the teaching of writing to be further integrated, while maintaining the effective and explicit teaching of writing skills and maintaining the current high levels of achievement.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support the school in its goal to evaluate how effectively the development of integrated approaches to writing within a culturally sustaining localised curriculum maintains high achievement levels.

• learner progress and achievement outcomes are consistently equitable and excellent for all learners
• the school has developed effective agentic practices for their learners
• teachers are consistently using effective teaching strategies and practices in adaptive ways to promote equitable and excellent learning outcomes
• implementation of Aotearoa NZ Histories across the school, through the local curriculum
• the senior leadership team has a clear vision and sustains a culture of relational trust to ensure ongoing organisational and leadership capacity building for continuous improvement.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• continue to develop culturally sustaining practices through ongoing development of community links, professional development for Board and staff and the continuing cycle of review of the localised curriculum
• weave the other refreshed learning areas into the local curriculum, ensuring culturally sustaining practices, as the school has done with Aotearoa NZ Histories.

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

12 July 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