Whanganui High School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within eight months of the Education Review Office and Whanganui 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

Whanganui High School is co-educational, for ākonga from Years 9 to 13. It is located in the mana whenua of Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi in the city of Whanganui.

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

• developing understanding of mātauranga Māori using kawa and tikanga in teaching and learning
• to prepare the school community effectively for the NCEA change programme and to ensure the development of future pathways for all students
• to promote and respond actively to student and staff hauora and well-being.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how effectively school conditions promote attendance and engagement in learning, for all ākonga.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

• to clearly identify those school conditions that work best to support improved attendance and engagement, particularly for identified groups of ākonga
• to action schoolwide, those conditions that work best to support improved attendance and engagement.

The school expects to see:

• improved attendance, engagement, achievement, and wellbeing as well as effective pathway support for all ākonga, particularly those in identified groups
• staff responding to ākonga in shared and well understood ways that reflect the kawa and tikanga of the school
• improved partnership and raised expectations from ākonga, whānau, staff and the wider community.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support the school in its goal to evaluate how effectively school conditions promote attendance and engagement in learning for all ākonga:

• established tracking and monitoring systems that help to identify academic and pastoral needs
• a large range of opportunities offered to ākonga to enrich the learning experience to promote engagement.

Where to next?

Moving forward, for equitable and excellent outcomes the school will prioritise:

• developing a plan to use a range of information to deeply inquire into what works, and what does not work, to improve the attendance and engagement of all ākonga
• further building the capability of staff to collectively respond to ākonga using shared and well understood practices that promote improved attendance and engagement
• finding ways to work in partnership with ākonga, whānau, staff and the wider community, to raise the expectations of attendance and engagement in school.

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

13 December 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

This school manages the Alternative Education provision for Whanganui.