Opaheke School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 15 months of the Education Review Office and Opaheke 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 

Opaheke School is in Papakura and caters for learners in Years 1 to 8. The school’s vision is ‘empowering our community of learners to confidently meet the challenges of the 21st century’. The Board appointed a new Principal in Term 4 2022. The school is a member of the Rosehill Pathway Kāhui Ako.

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

• student learning, progress and achievement
• culturally responsive pedagogy
• effective curriculum delivery.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how effectively the local curriculum promotes equity and excellence for all learners and reflects the aspirations, diversity and context of the wider community.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

• the school has a goal to strengthen the local responsive curriculum to reflect the unique aspirations, priorities and preferences of the school community
• to support and build on culturally responsive learning-centred relationships with learners, parents, whānau and teachers
• to further extend teachers’ evaluation knowledge and practice for consistency across the school.

The school expects to see:

• all learners engaging, progressing and achieving confidently, in ways that support their mana and wairua
• educationally powerful partnerships, where meaningful, respectful and purposeful learning relationships between home and school contribute to the learning, well-being and self-efficacy of all ākonga
• leaders and teachers further monitoring, inquiring, building knowledge, and evaluating to inform equitable and excellent outcomes.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to evaluate how effectively the local curriculum promotes equity and excellence for all learners and reflects the aspirations, diversity and context of the wider community:

• the school implements well considered wellbeing approaches and learners express a sense of belonging and confidence in their identity, language and culture
• teachers and leaders use relevant and useful assessment data to engage in collaborative and thoughtful evidence-informed conversations
• teacher professional learning and development refine and support teaching effectiveness and improved learner outcomes.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• local curriculum design that further reflects cultural responsiveness, valued learner outcomes and shared understandings of goals and priorities
• a range of strategies that build on and sustain meaningful, respectful and purposeful learning relationships between home and school
• further monitoring and evaluation of conditions that promote equity and excellence for all ākonga.

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

23 August 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