Panama Road 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 

Panama Road School in Mt Wellington, Auckland provides education for learners in Years 1 to 8. There are two Māori Enrichment classes. The Panama Pride values, of ‘participation, respect, integrity, determination, and empowerment’, underpin the school’s culture.

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, including any education in Rumaki/bilingual settings. 

Part B: The improvement actions prioritised for the school’s next evaluation cycle. 

The greatest shift that occurred in response to the school’s action.

Part A: Current State 

The following findings are to inform the school’s future priorities for improvement.

Learner Success and Wellbeing 

• Most learners achieve at expected curriculum levels in mathematics, and a large majority of learners achieve at this level in reading and writing.
• Students express a strong sense of belonging to their school; they experience a positive, supportive learning environment that enhances their wellbeing and acknowledges their culture, language and identity.
• Just over half of all students regularly attend school; while the school has not yet met the Ministry of Education’s target for regular attendance, leaders and teachers connect with and provide support to whānau to improve attendance.

Conditions to support learner success

• Leaders communicate effectively and work collaboratively to ensure the smooth and efficient management of the school.
• School leaders plan and work alongside kaiako Māori and whānau Māori to progress their strategic aspiration of reaching bilingual status (Level 2); this is in direct response to whānau aspirations for their tamariki.
• Senior leaders effectively use an external evaluator to assess their performance against their individual leadership goals and the school’s strategic goals to continually build their leadership capacity.

• Professional development enhances teaching capability and is increasingly strengthening consistency of teaching and learning across the school. 
• Teachers discuss relevant evidence and design responsive strategies to provide purposeful, meaningful learning to improve outcomes for priority students.
• Leaders and teachers share their professional knowledge across the wider education community; this extends understanding of curriculum expectations, to broaden teaching and learning opportunities. 

• The board, leaders and teachers have a range of diverse, educational and community partnerships that add value to the school and enhance the conditions for learning.
• The board increasingly scrutinises the school’s performance and asking relevant questions; they are taking steps to ensure the elements that enhance teaching and learning are prioritised.
• Senior leaders are building an educational partnership with mana whenua, Ngāti Pāoa; mātauranga Māori is increasingly integrated throughout the school.

Part B: Where to next? 

The agreed next steps for the school are to: 

• strengthen strategies and initiatives to improve attendance
• continue to grow consistency of schoolwide high quality teaching and learning to support equitable and excellent learner outcomes
• strengthen engagement with parents and whānau to improve attendance, learner progress and achievement.

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

Every six months:

• evaluate the impact of strategies used to improve attendance, report successes to the board and wider school community and collaborate on where to next 
• collate and analyse student outcomes to identify successful teaching and learning practices to inform where to next to increase consistency  
• gather feedback and ideas from whānau and develop a collaborative plan for improving attendance, progress and achievement.

Annually:

• evaluate the impact of strategies designed to raise attendance and inform ongoing planning for improvement
• evaluate the impact of teacher development on increasing the consistency of high quality teaching and learning to inform continuous improvement
• report to the board and community about the impact of the collaborative plan with whānau, the effect it had on improving student attendance, progress and achievement to prioritise next steps.

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

• regular attendance for all students
• parent and whānau engagement that strengthens student attendance, progress and achievement
• responsive teaching strategies that improve and sustain equitable and excellent learner outcomes across the school.

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

23 January 2025

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