Hamilton Girls’ High 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

Hamilton Girls’ High School is a state single sex school located in central Hamilton. The school offers education for student in Years 9 to 13, including international students and boarding accommodation. The school promotes the vision of empowering young women to dare to excel as innovative individuals who are globally connected, which underpins the school motto he tangata mārama māna e raranga tōna ara, a wise woman shapes her own destiny.

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.

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

• The majority of students in Year 9 and 10 exceed the expected progression in mathematics and reading comprehension. 
• Almost all students achieve National Certification of Educational Achievement (NCEA) literacy and numeracy; most students achieve NCEA Level 2, and the majority of students achieve Level 1 and 3, and University Entrance
• Māori and Pacific students’ rates of progress and achievement has continued to improve and positive shifts in reducing disparity are evident. 
• Attendance targets and strategies are part the school’s strategic plan, 75% of students attend above 80% of the time.

Conditions to support learner success

• Leaders model strong relational practice through ongoing refining of systems and processes to best meet the needs of students and staff, and work towards strategic priorities.
• Well-established culture of sharing best practice, seeking a wide range of perspectives and using reliable data to inform decision making and next steps for improving learning programmes.
• Students who have additional needs are well supported and their ongoing progress and achievement is monitored through the responsive collaboration of pastoral care and curriculum teams.

• Teachers participate in ongoing professional development to improve responsive practice; they increasingly use deliberate approaches to enhance teaching and learning programmes.
• Students engage and participate in meaningful learning opportunities and confidently articulate the purpose and expectations of teaching and learning programmes.
• As a purposeful response to improving outcomes for Māori students, te ao, tikanga, and mātauranga Māori are increasingly woven through all aspects of the teaching and learning programmes.

• Learning support leaders actively monitor the impact of interventions on improving outcomes for learning and purposefully respond to the emerging needs for students and teachers. 
• Student wellbeing is deliberately incorporated into curriculum design and planning and increasingly inclusive of learners’ cultures, languages and identities.
• Board members clearly know their stewardship role and responsibility; they scrutinise achievement data to ensure resourcing and decision making is responding to student needs.
• Students have strong foundational curriculum knowledge as a result of a well-considered Years 9 to 13 curriculum, that sequentially builds on key content and skills in each learning area. 

Part B: Where to next?

The agreed next steps for the school are to:

• refine mentoring programmes for Māori and Pacific students to continue reducing disparity in attendance and outcomes
• strengthen partnerships with mana whenua to support further development of the localised curriculum and school identity
• continue to refine evidence-based review systems and processes to highlight shifts in relational practice and improving outcomes.

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

Within six months:

• reflect on the established Māori and Pacific mentoring strategy; identify and implement areas for refinement and improvement
• continue working with mana whenua to prioritise the next steps for the school’s localised curriculum
• review the success of deliberate interventions and selected teaching strategies for targeted groups of learners to inform next steps.

Annually:

• evaluate the impact of mentoring strategies on improving Māori and Pacific students’ engagement and achievement
• continue to respond and refine localised curriculum in conjunction with mana whenua
• report to the board on the effectiveness that interventions and strategies have had on reducing disparity, to identify and inform resource decision making for further improvement.

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

• Māori and Pacific students achieving equitable and excellent outcomes for learning
• mana whenua is informing the development of a strong localised and responsive curriculum
• highly effective evidence-based review continues to reduce disparity for groups of learners.

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

10 July 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