Henderson South School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 6 months of the Education Review Office and Henderson South 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 

Henderson South School is in West Auckland.  The school caters for students in Years 1 to 6. The school’s vision is to ‘create cultural, creative, and critical thinkers’. The school aims to create the conditions for students to be collaborative, resilient, focused, inquiring, and self-directed learners.

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

• make te reo Māori me ōna tikanga strong in the school

• improve the knowledge and skills in writing

• incorporate the New Zealand Histories curriculum into the school.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how effectively literacy initiatives enhance the curriculum and create equitable outcomes for all ākonga.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is to:

• establish targeted interventions to support ākonga due to the negative academis impact of Covid

• strengthen the teaching of writing through in depth professional learning with regular review and ongoing evaluation

• use assessment to plan targeted teaching in all curriculum areas particularly in writing where practices are reviewed and adapted to meet ākonga needs.

The school expects to see:

• personalised and inclusive learning aligned to students’ goals, identity and culture

• improved learning outcomes with an accelerated rate of progress

• teachers consistently using a variety of teaching strategies to engage learners

• robust data collection and analysis to inform teaching practice particularly in targeted areas.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to evaluate how effectively literacy initiatives enhance the delivery of the curriculum and create equitable outcomes for all ākonga:

• supportive and evidence informed leadership

• collaborative, dedicated staff who are focused on improving outcomes for all ākonga

• modelling by team members of writing strategies.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• teachers engaging in professional learning to enhance effective literacy teaching to improve students’ success

• ongoing scrutiny of achievement information, moderation and monitoring of student progress to achieve equitable outcomes

• developing a localised curriculum to ensure language, culture and identity are embedded in learner experiences.

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

9 November 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