Deanwell School

School Evaluation Report

Tēnā koutou e mau manawa rahi ki te kaupapa e aro ake nei, ko te tamaiti te pūtake o te kaupapa. Mā wai rā e kawe, mā tātau katoa.

We acknowledge the collective effort, responsibility and commitment by all to ensure that the child remains at the heart of the matter.

Context 

Deanwell School is in Hamilton and provides education for students in Years 1 to 6. The school uses the metaphor of the korowai to enhance learning in language, culture and identity. The school’s MANA values support students to learn through manaakitanga, aumangea, ngātahi and ako. 

There are three parts to this report.

Part A: A summary of the findings from the most recent Education Review Office (ERO) report and/or subsequent evaluation.

Part B: An evaluative summary of learner success and school conditions to inform the school board’s future strategic direction, including any education in Rumaki/bilingual settings. 

Part C: The improvement actions prioritised for the school’s next evaluation cycle. 

Part A: Previous Improvement Goals

Since the previous October 2022 ERO report, ERO and the school worked together to evaluate how effectively teaching and learning programmes are raising overall levels of achievement for all students and enabling equity for Māori students and boys.

Expected Improvements and Findings

The school expected to see deliberate actions implemented to improve the quality of explicit teaching across the school and enable sufficient learning progress for students in literacy.

• The school-wide approach to literacy teaching enables students to get regular, explicit and consistent teaching and learning across the school.
• Students who make insufficient progress are clearly identified and their progress carefully tracked and monitored.
• Achievement information is well analysed and shows improvement in equitable outcomes for Māori students and boys.

Other Findings

The greatest shift that occurred in response to the school’s action has been that most target students have made accelerated progress in reading and writing over a two-year period and overall levels of achievement in literacy have increased.

Part B: Current State

The following findings are to inform the school’s future priorities for improvement.

Learner Success and Wellbeing 

• The majority of students achieve at or above expected curriculum levels in reading, writing and mathematics.
• Māori student achievement has improved significantly, but some disparity remains in literacy and mathematics compared with Pākehā achievement; Pacific students achieve as well as or better than other groups of learners; boys and girls achieve at similar levels; students with additional needs make appropriate progress in relation to their individual goals.
• Data shows the school’s approach to behaviour learning acknowledges the holistic needs of students, improves relationships and supports overall wellbeing.
• The school is not meeting the Ministry of Education’s targets for attendance; improving rates of regular attendance for the majority of students is an ongoing priority for the school.

Conditions to support learner success

• Provision of regular professional learning, coaching and mentoring develops teacher and staff knowledge, confidence and capability to meet the ongoing needs of learners.
• Clearly documented guidelines and expectations for teachers support detailed planning, explicit teaching and consistency of practice across the school.
• Effective data analysis informs responsive planning and targeted action to raise achievement and improve equitable outcomes for identified students.

• Respectful and affirming relationships between teachers, students and whānau promote positive partnerships for learning.
• Strengthened inclusion of te reo, tikanga, mātauranga and te ao Māori enriches cultural learning opportunities and supports students to have a strong sense of belonging.
• An increased focus on learners gaining sound foundation skills in literacy enables students to participate and learn in a range of contexts across the curriculum.

• The school’s approach to promoting cultural relationships and the sustained partnership with the kaumatua contribute to upholding Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
• Leaders and the board work collaboratively to identify and plan strategic improvement priorities and make appropriate resourcing decisions to enable equitable opportunities for students to learn and succeed.
• Leaders and teachers regularly use research and evidence to inform changes to practice and improve conditions for learning.

Part C: Where to next?

The agreed next steps for the school are to: 

• continue to strengthen teaching and assessment practices to accelerate learning for identified students, raise overall levels of achievement, and enable equitable outcomes for Māori students
• develop the school’s approach to explicit teaching in mathematics to promote higher levels of achievement and learner success
• further engage with whānau to implement effective strategies to increase rates of regular attendance and minimise barriers to learning.

The agreed actions for the next improvement cycle and timeframes are as follows.

Every six months: 

• continue to monitor school targets in attendance, progress and achievement to consider the effectiveness of current practices and inform further targeted planning and action
• continue to build collective capability to develop, implement and review explicit teaching strategies to support accelerated learning in mathematics
• continue to engage with whānau and students to gather perspectives on ways to further support improved student attendance and respond to ongoing needs.

Annually:

• extend the analysis of a variety of data to evaluate and report on the quality and effectiveness of school actions and teaching practice to improve outcomes for learners.

Actions taken against these next steps are expected to result in:

• increased rates of regular attendance, improved overall levels of mathematics achievement and equitable outcomes for Māori students
• the strengthening of high-quality internal evaluation practices that continue to inform future priorities and direction for continuous school improvement.

ERO’s role will be to support the school in its evaluation for improvement cycle to improve outcomes for all learners. The next public report on ERO’s website will be a School Evaluation Report and is due within three years.

Me mahi tahi tonu tātau, kia whai oranga a tātau tamariki
Let’s continue to work together for the greater good of all children

Shelley Booysen
Director of Schools

21 October 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