Otaua School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

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

Otaua School is a rural full primary offering education for students in Years 1 to 8, located in Otaua, Waiuku. The school promotes the values of citizenship, fairness, responsibility and trustworthiness. 

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

• experiencing and contributing towards a sense of pride for the school, the environment and the wider Otaua area

• strengthening home and school partnerships through the development of culturally responsive practices.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate the extent to which a responsive curriculum is improving student outcomes.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is that:

• this is a strategic priority for the school

• it supports the development of the school local curriculum

• it further supports the school’s goal to strengthen home and school partnerships through the development of culturally responsive practices.

The school expects to see a school-wide cohesive and collaborative approach to design, deliver and plan the curriculum. The school also expects to see the development of learning progressions to indicate next steps for teaching and learning programmes.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to improve student outcomes:

• Partnership with Waiuku Kāhui Ako to support curriculum development.

• A professional development plan that supports Aotearoa histories implementation through a local curriculum lens.

• A well-established Enviro School programme supports students to explore their passions for the wider natural world.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• participation in Waiuku Kāhui Ako and professional development to design, plan and implement the curriculum

• reviewing the curriculum to understand what is working and for who and inform next steps.

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