Huia Range School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report 

Background

This Profile Report was written by the Education Review Office and Huia Range 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 

Huia Range School is situated at the northern end of Dannevirke. The school provides educational opportunities for students in Years 0 to 8. A new principal began Term 1, 2024.

Huia Range School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes are for learners to:

• experience learning opportunities and an environment that sets high expectations for achievement and supports quality wellbeing outcomes for learners
• feel a sense of belonging and connection to the school where parents, whānau, and community support the learning of the school.

You can obtain a copy of the school’s strategic and annual plan from Huia Range School’s office.

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how effectively the school’s partnership with parents and the local community supports the attendance, wellbeing and achievement of all students.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is to: 

• raise understanding among whānau of the importance of getting their children to school regularly and on time
• develop a shared understanding of how a strong parent/school partnerships can support student learning and wellbeing 
• raise overall student engagement, wellbeing and achievement especially in the areas of reading and mathematics.

The school expects to see a strengthening of the relationships between whānau, community and the school. It also expects to see whānau increasingly involved in their child’s learning. Improvement in attendance, engagement, progress and achievement of students is the priority.

Strengths 

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to strengthen partnerships with whānau and the community to improve the wellbeing and achievement of students:

• established connections to groups that support cultural understanding and participation in activities that inform the local curriculum
• a local curriculum that provides a variety of ‘hands on’ learning opportunities to engage students.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• ensuring students attend regularly and arrive at school on time
• identifying and sharing the most effective teaching strategies in reading and mathematics to better enable students to engage in learning
• further refinement of assessment practices to align with changes to literacy teaching 
• strengthening of established connections with local iwi and agencies to support student wellbeing and the further development of cultural understandings
• strengthening whānau understanding of learning processes so they can support the learning of their tamariki.

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

16 May 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