Westmere School (Auckland)

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 24 months of the Education Review Office and Westmere 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 

Westmere School (Auckland) caters for children from year 1 to 6. Students learn in either in an English medium setting or the Ngā Uri O Ngā Iwi Māori medium bilingual and full immersion unit. 

The school’s mission statement ‘A community where children are successful, confident, and connected lifelong learners’ is underpinned by their core values of Respect | Manaakitanga: We respect ourselves, each other, Inclusion | Kotahitanga: We accept, value, and celebrate each other's difference, Excellence | Hiranga: We always try our best and Care | Whanaungatanga: We encourage, support and care for each other. 

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

• provide a strong foundation in literacy and numeracy for all students
• develop a local curriculum that builds understanding of identify, inquiry and motivation to learn 
• respond to environmental challenges and our roles as kaitiaki of our environment
• continue to develop respect, collaboration, empathy and fun as the culture of our school
• establish governance, policy and procedures to ensure the Māori medium pathway continues to thrive
• clearly communicate achievement expectations, review progress and work together to achieve success for students.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how well the school’s professional learning and development programme Assessment for Learning is impacting equitable and excellent outcomes for all learners.  

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is to: 

• evaluate the impact of professional learning and development 
• support the implementation of assessment for learning practices across the school 
• continue to strengthen the quality of teaching and learning through the Westmere local curriculum. 

The school expects to see: 

• consistent formative assessment practices used across the school to achieve high quality teaching and learning 
• teachers | kaiako and learners have clarity about the learning progressions 
• teachers | kaiako and learners having a good understanding of their next steps for learning. 

Strengths 

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to evaluate how well the school’s professional learning and development programme Assessment for Learning is impacting equitable and excellent outcomes for all learners. 

• a collaborative staff culture of professional learning, high expectations and commitment to ongoing improvement to their practice 
• an inclusive school that values, and promotes learner’s language, culture, and identity, where learners are engaged, aspire to be successful and are well supported to achieve and thrive 
• highly engaged parent and whānau community who actively work with the school to create the best outcomes for all tamariki
• the school has the collective capacity to do and use evaluation, inquiry and knowledge building for improvement and innovation with a clear focus on equity and excellence. 

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise: 

• embedding formative assessment practices through all learning areas 
• continuing to work with external professional development providers to support teachers to improve practice
• regular professional guidance and learning opportunities for all staff including curriculum content development. 

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

7 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