Piopio College

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 14 months of the Education Review Office and Piopio College 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 

Piopio is situated in the King country, 20km from Te Kuiti. It provides education for students from Years 7-13 and promotes the values of manaakitanga, rangatiratanga, whanaungatanga and kotahitanga. A new principal was appointed in 2022.

Piopio College’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are to:

• provide quality teaching and learning programmes that support high levels of student achievement

• provide a learning environment that promotes student engagement and the physical and emotional wellbeing of students

• provide a positive school culture that retains and develops the best personal possible to support teaching and learning

• allocate funds and resources to reflect the schools priorities and to resource learning

• grow and maintain effective communication with the school community, students, parents/caregivers, staff and wider community.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how effectively teaching approaches and learning programmes are supporting student progress and achievement.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

• the need for the local curriculum to be reflected in teaching and learning programmes

• to review and improve year 9 and 10 student engagement and achievement to ensure meaningful pathways in year 11-13 to increase student access to multiple future pathways.

The school expects to see student prior knowledge and interests used to design and implement a localised curriculum that is supported by community partnerships that improve student engagement and outcomes for learning. Students having the opportunity to develop their aspirations for future pathways within year 9 and 10.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support the school in its goal to improve student progress and achievement.

• Strategic appointments of personnel to build capability and capacity across the school.

• Well-considered changes to leadership roles are better supporting improvements in teaching and learning supports for students.

• Professional development plan in place to support design, development and implementation of a localised curriculum for year 9 and 10.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• staff to participate in professional development to design localised curriculum

• implementation of localised curriculum for year 9 and 10 to build on strengths of junior school and support transition into senior school

• strengthen the effective use of achievement information to identify what is working well and for whom.

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

22 September 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