Pukemiro School

Findings

Pukemiro School has experienced extensive changes of personnel in all aspects of the school including the board chair, trustees, principal, and teaching staff. There is currently an emergency principal and commissioner in the school working to resolve the many issues the school faces in meeting its legal requirements to operate and govern a school. The roll has significantly decreased and there is a need for the Ministry of Education to provide comprehensive professional support to help the school provide better educational outcomes for students.

On the basis of the findings of this review, ERO ‘s overall evaluation judgement of Pukemiro School’s performance in achieving valued outcomes for its students is: Needs development.

ERO will maintain an ongoing relationship with the school to build capacity and evaluate progress.

1 Background and Context

What is the background and context for this school’s review?

Pukemiro School is located 17 kilometres west of Huntly. It provides education to students in Years 1 to 8. The roll has dropped significantly in the past 12 months. At the time of this ERO review there were 16 students attending, all of whom are Māori. Most of the students continue to travel by bus to the school from Huntly. The school currently operates two rooms but this is unlikely to be sustained on the current or projected falling roll.

The school has had a long history of poor performance. The last published ERO report was in June 2016. A specialist ERO team went on site October 2017. An ERO Special Review report was shared onsite with the school and the Ministry of Education (MoE) in March 2018 that highlighted ongoing concerns. At the end of 2018 all teachers and the principal resigned. An emergency principal was appointed for term one. At the end of 2018 the board was unable to maintain a full quota of trustees. In March 2019 the remaining trustee and the board chair resigned. A commissioner was subsequently appointed by the MoE taking up his position in April. The emergency principal resigned in May and a second emergency principal took over the position at the beginning of term two, 2019.

Significant changes to all personnel have had an impact on the school’s ability to effectively implement the key next steps identified in previous ERO reports.

2 Review and Development

How effectively is the school addressing its priorities for review and development?

Priorities identified for review and development

The 2016 ERO report identified the need for the board, principal and teachers to address the low levels of student achievement in reading, writing and mathematics. This included the need to set targets to raise achievement, monitor the progress of target students, build teacher capability to meet the needs of target students, and work with whānau to support students in their learning.

The 2018 ERO Special Review report identified Pukemiro School faced ongoing critical sustainability challenges including:

• support for leadership

• staffing recruitment and retention

• roll viability and local community enrolment

• persistent operational difficulties.

Progress

All areas identified in the previous 2016 ERO report and the 2018 special review report continue to be urgent priorities.

Key next steps

ERO, the MoE, and both emergency principals have major concerns about the reliability of the 2018 achievement information. The student achievement function (SAF) practitioner has been working with the emergency principals to accurately assess student achievement in reading, writing and mathematics. Achievement levels continue to be low. The SAF and current emergency principal are developing an appropriate teaching plan to meet the needs of individual students and accelerate the progress and achievement for those students that are below expectations.

There is an urgent need to provide an adequate induction and mentoring programme. This is needed to meet the requirements of the Teaching Council for provisionally certified teachers to ensure a quality programme of teaching and learning is delivered.

The commissioner and emergency principal are developing a plan to address the lack of policies and procedures required to effectively manage and govern the school.

The school is experiencing financial difficulties. The commissioner, emergency principal and MoE are developing a plan to address the current operational deficit.

The commissioner and emergency principal have held whānau hui to discuss the community aspirations for the school and determine immediate priorities.

3 Sustainable performance and self review

How well placed is the school to sustain and continue to improve and review its performance?

Pukemiro School is still not well placed to sustain and improve its performance. Contributing factors are:

• ongoing challenge of recruiting and retaining a teaching principal and staff

• the falling roll and lack of affordable transport to the school

• the lack of provision of quality education that is contributing to ongoing low levels of student achievement

• the financial position of the school

• the ongoing governance challenges.

Board assurance on legal requirements

Before the review, the board of trustees and principal of the school completed the ERO Board Assurance Statement and Self-Audit Checklists. In these documents they attested that they had taken all reasonable steps to meet their legislative obligations related to:

• board administration
• curriculum
• management of health, safety and welfare
• personnel management
• financial management
• asset management.

During the review, ERO checked the following items because they have a potentially high impact on student achievement:

• emotional safety of students (including prevention of bullying and sexual harassment)
• physical safety of students
• teacher registration
• processes for appointing staff
• stand-downs, suspensions, expulsions and exclusions
• attendance
• school policies in relation to meeting the requirements of the Children’s Act 2014.

The school has not met its legal obligations relating to board administration, curriculum, health safety and welfare, personnel, finance and assets.

[NAG 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]

The newly appointed emergency principal and commissioner are working on addressing these issues and seeking support from New Zealand School Trustees Association (NZSTA).

4 Recommendations

Recommendations, including any to other agencies for ongoing or additional support.

ERO recommends that the MoE continue to provide ongoing support for the school to address all the critical issues identified in this report.

ERO recommends the ongoing support of NZSTA to work alongside the commissioner and emergency principal to develop all policies and procedures to meet the legal obligations of operating a school.

Conclusion

Pukemiro School has experienced extensive changes of personnel in all aspects of the school including the board chair, trustees, principal, and teaching staff. There is currently an emergency principal and commissioner in the school working to resolve the many issues the school faces in meeting its legal requirements to operate and govern a school. The roll has significantly decreased and there is a need for the Ministry of Education to provide comprehensive professional support to help the school provide better educational outcomes for students.

On the basis of the findings of this review, ERO ‘s overall evaluation judgement of Pukemiro School’s performance in achieving valued outcomes for its students is: Needs development.

ERO will maintain an ongoing relationship with the school to build capacity and evaluate progress.

ERO’s Framework: Overall School Performance is available on ERO’s website.

Phil Cowie

Director Review and Improvement Services

Central Region

4 July 2019

About the School