Pongakawa School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within nine months of the Education Review Office and Pongakawa 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 

Pongakawa School, located east of Te Puke in the Western Bay of Plenty District, provides education for students in Years 0 – 8. The school aims to nurture, respect, motivate and challenge all students in a ‘second home’ environment.

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

• to sustain high achievement levels for all students in literacy and mathematics

• to continue to value, accept and celebrate all cultures through an inclusive school culture

• to continue to expand and embed a responsive, integrated and localised curriculum.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate the extent to which coherent, school-wide internal evaluation systems are supporting ongoing refinements that promote excellent and equitable outcomes for all students.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is the opportunity to:

• understand which improvement decisions and initiatives are having the greatest impact on learner outcomes

• ensure alignment of the school’s robust planning, evaluation and monitoring systems to new national guidelines.

The school expects to see consistently equitable and excellent outcomes resulting from:

• student information and stakeholder voice being gathered and analysed to inform evaluation of improvement initiatives at all levels of the school

• evaluation being used consistently to inform ongoing decision making and strategic planning focused on equity and excellence

• embedded systems for sustainable, iterative and collaborative evaluation and planning.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to use evaluation to inform improvement:

• the systems, structures and capacity to pursue consistently equitable and excellent outcomes for all

• an environment where positive and respectful relationships within and beyond the school create a sense of belonging

• leadership at all levels of the school that prioritises engaging with and responding to data to improve learner outcomes.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• continuing to use high quality student achievement information and stakeholder voice to inform evaluation and improvement at all levels of the school

• aligning strategic planning and evaluation so that evaluation findings continue to inform ongoing improvement in a coherent, iterative and sustainable way

• continuing to ensure that evaluation and decision making is focused on equitable and excellent outcomes for all.

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

7 August 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