St Peter Chanel Catholic School (Te Rapa)

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 18 months of the Education Review Office and St Peter Chanel 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

St Peter Chanel Catholic School caters for learners from Years 1 to 8. The school is located in Te Rapa, Hamilton.

The school’s vision statement is: Whole education. Whole person.

St Peter Chanel’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:

• Catholic Character – The students at St Peter Chanel Catholic School will receive a comprehensive education with special emphasis on their Catholic faith development
• Teachers as leaders and learners – To embed the principles of Relationship Based Teaching and Learning into all aspects of St Peter Chanel Catholic School
• Students’ learning – All students are engaged in their learning and achieving educational success and agency
• Community engagement – The curriculum has meaning for students, connects with their wider lives and engages the support of their family, whanau and communities
• Cultural responsiveness – Maori and Pasifika students achieve educational success.

A copy of the school’s strategic and annual plan on St Peter Chanel Catholic School’s website.

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how effectively has the professional learning and development been in building middle leaders capability and improving outcomes for students.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

• school leaders identified that to have long-term sustainable approach to change and continuous improvement, there needed to be a different approach to professional development
• school leaders identified a systemic change was needed to support and build teacher knowledge and understanding of the curriculum, effective planning, teaching and assessment in order to best support our learners
• using a relationship-based approach focusing on coaching and building middle leadership capability across the school means that there is greater accountability for leaders and teachers in outcomes for students.

The school expects to see:

• leaders demonstrating effective coaching, mentoring, and modelling in order to improve teaching practice
• all teachers are proficient practitioners of the school’s pedagogical approach - relationship based learning and teaching
• a focus on the way we talk about students and their learning – rejecting deficit explanations for low student achievement and engagement
• where all students are achieving to their fullest extent.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to achieve its goal: 

• experienced team leaders who are all committed to professional growth and to doing the very best for the students
• excellent guidance from an external facilitator whose main focus is to grow knowledge and leadership within the school – therefore ensuring sustainable gains
• use of research based approaches and data as a reference for identifying needs and associated actions at school-wide, team and class level
• growing robust systems and protocols which supports the middle leaders in their role of improving teacher practice and student outcomes in their area of the school.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• a continued focus on improving all students’ participation, engagement and achievement
• team leaders as coaches, supporting teachers understanding of the curriculum and effective pedagogy
• teachers understanding of theories of practice in their day-to-day classroom relationships and interactions with students and colleagues
• growing the capacity and capability of staff to undertake meaningful evaluation and monitoring. This includes regular classroom observations, coaching and mentoring, collection of student voice and following set procedures and protocols for meetings and data analysis.

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

21 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

This school is an integrated full primary school catering for children in Years 1 to 8. The current roll is 295 of which 27 are Māori, and 27 are of Pacific Island heritage. The principal and board chair are long-serving, and the recently elected board consists of a mixture of experienced and new trustees.