Kaipaki School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within six months of the Education Review Office and Kaipaki 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 

Kaipaki School is a full primary school for students from Years 1 to 8. The school is located equidistant between Cambridge and Hamilton. Kaipaki School is part of the Te Oko Horoi Kāhui Ako|Community of Learning.

Kaipaki School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:

• to continue to develop a culture of active ownership of learning by embedding the responsive curriculum with a literacy focus
• to further develop the ‘Kaipaki Way’ promoting positive behaviour for learning through a focus on learning dispositions of collaboration, communication and critical thinking
• to continue to build the team of learners including students and staff, through wellbeing initiatives and growing leadership capabilities
• to continue connecting the community with learning, through local histories and the environment.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate the extent to which learning dispositions (critical thinking, collaboration and communication) raise achievement for those students whose progress needs accelerating, and extends the progress of others.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

• to support the school=wide focus on active ownership of learning through the use of dispositions and to evaluate the impacts of this approach on learner outcomes
• to support the school focus on equity and excellence for all learners including Māori, Pacific and learners with additional needs
• to support further growth of focused and effective teaching and learning strategies across the curriculum
• to ensure the school has the most effective systems, processes and resources in place to support learning.

The school expects to see:

• equitable and excellent outcomes for all Kaipaki learners
• a refined approach to strengthening the use of dispositions in learning, informed by evidence from stakeholders (learners, teachers and whānau)
• systems, processes and resources in place and utilised to support the growth in learner dispositions.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths in its goal to evaluate the extent to which the use of learning dispositions accelerates progress and raises achievement of all students:

• leaders who are experienced, collaborative and committed to improving outcomes for all learners
• a well-developed and established framework and approach focused on the use and measurability of dispositions to enhance the learning process and outcomes
• a school community who are willing to contribute their perspectives to enhance learning in the school.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• designing the evaluation to ensure the voice of all stakeholders contributes to building understanding about the role of dispositions in learning outcomes
• reviewing the teaching of dispositions, to more fully understand what is happening across the school
• reviewing the expected outcomes of each disposition and analysing the relationship with progress and achievement outcomes to more fully understand the impacts on learners.

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.

Phil Cowie
Director Review and Improvement Services (Central)
Central Region | Te Tai Pūtahi Nui

4 November 2022 

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