Marlborough School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 8 months of the Education Review Office and Marlborough 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

Marlborough School is in Glenfield, Auckland and provides education for students in Years 1 to 6. The school’s vision is ‘to provide all Marlborough students with challenging learning opportunities that are developmentally appropriate and meaningful’ and ‘to encourage our students towards independence and lifelong learning’. The motto is ‘Te Ako i te Ora - Learning through Living’. A new principal was appointed in 2022.

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

• Student Achievement: to increase student engagement and build essential skills to raise student achievement
• Pedagogy: to create a working environment that facilitates a climate of professional development and new learning
• Learning Environment: to develop learning environments that are safe and supportive of student learning and are enhanced by technology
• Community Connections: to enhance the relationships between school, home and the community.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate the impact of sustainable culturally responsive practices on ākonga wellbeing, engagement and achievement.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

• to effectively implement Te Tiriti o Waitangi
• the school is working with the Māori Achievement Collaborative to embed culturally responsive practices across the school
• to promote a sense of belonging and connection to the school for all ākonga
• to ensure progress and achievement outcomes are consistently equitable and excellent for all ākonga.

The school expects to see:

• a learning climate which is consistently positive and culturally responsive and promotes ākonga engagement
• ākonga experience a rich local curriculum, which continually improves and responds to their cultures, languages and identities
• ākonga demonstrate agency in their learning to achieve equity and excellence in their achievement outcomes.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support the school in its goal to evaluate the impact of sustainable culturally responsive practices on ākonga wellbeing, engagement and achievement:

• a robust local curriculum which includes te ao Māori, te reo Māori me ōna tikanga and mātauranga Māori
• a collaborative leadership model focussed on prioritising and planning for continuous improvement
• a commitment to strengthening professional capability and capacity to continually improve and innovate.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• ongoing professional learning to support sustainable culturally responsive practices
• strengthening the local curriculum and further embedding ākonga wellbeing initiatives
• systematic and coherent evaluation, inquiry and knowledge building for improvement and innovation.

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

2 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