Forest Lake School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 20 months of the Education Review Office and Forest Lake 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 

Ko Waikato te awa

Ko Pīrongia-te-aroaro-o-Kahu te maunga

Ko Tūheitia Pōtatau Te Wherowhero te tuawhitu te tangata

Ko Ngāti Māhanga te iwi

Ko Rotongahere te kura

Forest Lake School is situated in Hamilton and provides education for students in Years 1 – 6 in English medium and in Years 1–8 in Māori medium.

Forest Lake School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are to:

• ensure learners are at the centre

• honour the wellbeing of all

• provide tamariki with sound foundation skills in literacy and numeracy in their language of choice.

You can find a copy of the school’s strategic and annual plan on Forest Lake School’s website.

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how well consistent and collaborative practices support accelerated achievement in literacy and te reo Matatini.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is to:

• improve outcomes for all students with a focus on accelerating progress for those students who need it

• strengthen collaborative teaching practice to achieve consistent effective teaching across the school.

The school expects to see:

• improved teacher and leader capability through collaborative inquiry and effective leadership

• strengthened kaiako knowledge through collaboration and relevant professional learning and development.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support this evaluation:

• leadership and staff that are aware of the need to strengthen outcomes for students

• organisational structures that are designed to enable leaders to develop their capabilities

• a learning community that prioritises high expectations for student wellbeing.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• strengthening teachers’ and leaders’ collective capacity to collaborate in the use of achievement information to plan targeted programmes to raise levels of student achievement.

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

21 July 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