Western Heights School (Auckland)

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 12 months of the Education Review Office and Western Heights School (Auckland) 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 

Western Heights School (Auckland) is located in Henderson, Auckland and caters for Years 0 - 6 ākonga. The school’s vision is for all ākonga to ‘Love to Learn to Lead’, through relationships that connect learning through tamariki/children, to the whenua/land and the apōpō/future.

Western Heights School (Auckland)’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:

• Whanaungatanga – Family, Manaakitanga – Caring, Whakamana – Leadership, Whakapono – Integrity, and Tūrangawaewae – Belonging, underpin all teaching and learning.

• Each child will achieve at least one year’s progress for one year’s learning, and target children will make accelerated progress to meet expected levels.

You can find a copy of the school’s strategic and annual plan on Western Heights School (Auckland)’s website.

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate the impact of the school’s lived, and community understood kaupapa, on equitable and excellent ākonga learning outcomes.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is as follows:

• kaimahi/all staff know their ākonga; they understand their needs; they build capability through the strong, connected relationships which directly contribute to the school’s kaupapa

• the school’s kaupapa supports a child-centric, child-responsive curriculum which begins with play-based learning to build on learner interests in a child’s first year at school

• explicit core values and foundational learning are prioritised drivers of the kaupapa

• barrier free learning underpins the kaupapa which is focused on all ākonga achieving personal success

• whānau and school partnerships, built on relational trust and aligned aspirations, underpin the school’s kaupapa and result in equitable and excellent ākonga learning outcomes.

The school expects to see the school’s kaupapa positively impacting on:

• ākonga agency, resilience and self-determination through the school’s vision, ‘Love to Learn to Lead’

• prioritisation and monitoring of literacy and numeracy practices that best enable a minimum of one year of progress for one year’s learning in foundational skills

• teacher expertise being realised and utilised across the school to further develop schoolwide innovative practices

• sustainability of practices and processes, including whānau partnerships that support ākonga to experience success in who they are

• research-based practice focused on further enhancing the school’s kaupapa and monitoring the improvement journey.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support the school in its goal to evaluate the impact of the school’s kaupapa on equitable and excellent learning outcomes:

• ākonga who live the school’s culture and can articulate a strong sense of school belonging and care

• kaiako who authentically know tamariki interests, and what they bring to their learning from day 1 of being at school, who focus on learning engagement for all ākonga

• flexible, connected, collaborative and innovative kaiako and rangatira

• high capability in school leadership who encourage staff to live the vision

• partnership and relational trust are embedded across the school’s learning community.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• establishing an evaluation planning and development team

• reviewing a range of evaluation success criteria relevant to each stakeholder group, linked to the school’s kaupapa

• set out the evaluation parameters by determining key questions, types of data gathering and synthesis expectations.

• evaluate what is currently successful and impactful and be able to show evidence as to why.

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 its progress to the community. The next public report on ERO’s website will be a Te Ara Huarau | School Evaluation Report, due within three years.

Shelley Booysen
Director of Schools

14 November 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