Melville High School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 18 months of the Education Review Office and Melville High 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 

Melville High School is located in Hamilton and caters for students from year 9 to 13.

Melville High School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:

• raising all students’ achievement

• strengthening parents, whanau, community, and school partnerships to benefit students

• develop and sustain culturally responsive and relational practice to improve educational outcomes for Māori learners and to support te ao Māori across the school

• support student wellbeing.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how effectively Melville High School is raising student achievement and supporting equitable outcomes for students.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

• the alignment of the evaluation focus with the school’s strategic goals

• the identification by the school that a large proportion of their students enter year 9 below expected curriculum level

• the school’s academic focus on student achievement of NCEA.

The school expects to see increased teacher capability to respond effectively to the learning needs of junior students. This evaluation will provide information for school leaders and teachers to understand what is working to support progress for students in years 9 and 10, which groups it is working for, and where further improvement is needed.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support the school in its goal to raise student achievement and support equitable learner outcomes:

• deliberate, targeted professional learning to build teachers’ understanding, capacity and capability in literacy and numeracy

• a strategic vision to support Māori students to achieve as Māori through the development of a localised curriculum

• leadership that builds and strengthens trusting reciprocal partnerships with mana whenua to help realise iwi aspirations for students and their community

• responsive systems and processes that support the wellbeing and learning progress of senior students.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• building teacher capability to use achievement data to identify the learning needs of students

• continuing to build teachers’ knowledge and understanding of the Learning Progression Framework to identify targeted strategies to support student progress

• continuing to strengthen professional learning focused on te ao Māori and mātauranga Māori through partnership with mana whenua.

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.

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

20 December 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

This school has a specialist class for students with moderate to high learning difficulties (The Campbell Centre).