Silverdale School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 7 months of the Education Review Office and Silverdale 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

Silverdale School is in Millwater, on the Hibiscus Coast and caters for ākonga in years 1 – 6. The school’s mission is to “actively prepare each child to take responsibility for their own lifelong learning, values and behaviour, in partnership with the home and community”. The values are atawhai-kindness, hiranga-excellence, whakaute-respect and ngākau pono-integrity.

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

• ensure places of learning are safe, inclusive, and free from racism, discrimination, and bullying
• have high aspirations for every learner/ākonga, and support these by partnering with their whānau and communities to design and deliver education that responds to their needs, and sustains their identities, languages, and cultures
• reduce barriers to education for all, including for Māori and Pacific learners/ākonga, disabled learners/ākonga and those with learning support needs
• ensure every learner/ākonga gains sound foundation skills, including language, literacy, and numeracy.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how effectively the current literacy initiatives can enhance the delivery of reading and writing and create equitable outcomes for all ākonga.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is to: 

• raise the achievement of identified priority learners, including boys and Māori 
• further support the development of teaching practices to promote the consistent implementation of literacy initiatives
• grow the collective capacity of all staff to achieve system shifts in literacy practices to support ākonga to achieve excellent and equitable outcomes.

The school expects to see:

• improved and sustained achievement in literacy overtime throughout the school
• ākonga who are consistently well supported to achieve success, particularly those learners who need it most
• strengthened relationships that support learners' language, culture and identity to enhance learning outcomes
• effective whānau partnerships sustained through a planned strategic approach to improve ākonga outcomes
• collaborative approaches that enhance trust and nurture respectful interactions between home and school to deliver whānau aspirations.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to enhance literacy programmes so that every learner/ākonga experiences sound learning:

• teachers use of literacy teaching and assessment strategies that track ākonga progress and develop their next steps
• standardised literacy progressions and consistent schoolwide processes to identify, monitor and respond to learners who require additional learning support
• strong curriculum knowledge and resourcing to provide effective implementation of literacy initiatives across the school
• effective and distributed staff leadership with good use of individual strengths to support the building of teaching capacity.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise: 

• embedding a consistent approach to teaching and learning to grow and sustain ākonga achievement in literacy
• evaluating initiatives to ensure that teaching practices are making positive changes to ākonga achievement.

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

20 February 2024

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