Pokuru School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

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

Pokuru School is located in a rural community of Waipa and provides education for students in Years 1-6. The school sits on the south-west slopes of Mount Kakepuku and promotes environmental learning. It has strong links to the Te Awamutu Rural and Roses cluster of schools.

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

• to increase the number of students achieving and support accelerated learning for target students
• to improve attendance rates across the school
• to support and strengthen relationships to develop a localised curriculum.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate the effectiveness of school processes and practices to improve outcomes for all learners with a particular focus on achievement and attendance. Strengthening partnerships for learning with parents, whānau and the Māori community to develop a localised curriculum is an ongoing priority for the school.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

• the opportunity it provides to respond effectively to school data to accelerate learning, raise achievement in literacy and enable equitable outcomes for identified groups of students
• the school’s commitment to working with parents and whānau to increase rates of attendance to minimise barriers to learning.

The school expects to see further actions implemented to enable increased attendance and success for all learners.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to improve outcomes for all learners:

• leadership that promotes an inclusive school whānau that contributes to a sense of belonging and positive culture for learning
• the provision of ongoing professional learning, coaching and mentoring that supports effective collaboration and builds collective capacity and consistency of practices
• well established school processes that identify and support the individual needs of learners.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• strengthening the analysis of data to support effective internal evaluation and inform further targeted action for continuous improvement
• continuing to build teacher capability to address the needs of all learners and support accelerated learning outcomes
• further engaging with parents, whānau and the Māori community to implement a responsive localised curriculum.

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

4 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