Opunake High School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

This Profile Report was written within 9 months of the Education Review Office and Opunake High 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 

Opunake High School is a coeducational high school located in Ōpunake, Taranaki. It provides education for learners from year 9 to 13. A new permanent school principal was appointed in term 3, 2021.

Opunake High School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:

• Huarahi: Data, structures and teaching strategies will be used to raise overall achievement in NCEA, and in year 9 and 10 literacy. There will be a continuing focus on target and priority learners
• Hauora: Relationship-based learning, positive behaviour for learning, strengthening feeder school connections, and mentoring programmes, will increase student resilience, attendance, engagement, and academic success with a particular focus on Māori
• Hāpori: Mentoring programmes, community-based events and experts will help increase community involvement in our kura, with a particular focus on engagement of Māori whānau.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how effectively the school improves the literacy progress of year 9 and year 10 learners.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

• the positive impact that improved literacy will have on learner pathway options beyond school  
• deliberate, consistently used, and collectively understood, research-based literacy strategies will support more equitable and excellent learner outcomes in all curriculum areas.

The school expects to see:

• deliberate use of literacy strategies used across the curriculum
• a growing community-wide understanding of the importance of literacy
• all learners in year 9 and 10 showing improved progress in literacy.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to evaluate how effectively the school improves the literacy progress of year 9 and year 10 learners:

• clear strategic intent to improve literacy schoolwide through carefully aligned school systems
• planned and ongoing professional learning of effective literacy strategies
• internal expertise and knowledge that can lead and embed effective literacy practices across the school.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• identifying and using effective and consistent literacy strategies across the curriculum in year 9 and year 10
• working with whānau to help learners develop strong literacy skills and confidence
• using literacy data to find out what is working, what is not working, and for whom
• using the evidence above to inform decision making.

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

26 January 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