Tairua School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 12 months of the Education Review Office and Tairua 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 

Tairua School is in the seaside community of Tairua on the Coromandel Peninsula. It provides education for children in Years 1 to 8. The principal and staff are experienced, and the roll has remained stable over time. The school curriculum is underpinned by a learner profile based on the values, skills, attitudes, dispositions and knowledge needed to contribute to society, and aspires to achieve its vision to ‘Develop Globally Minded Citizens’.

Tairua School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are to:

• ‘Build Teacher Capabilities’ to sustain a focus on growing teaching practice that will continue to promote equitable and excellent outcomes for all learners.
• ‘Develop an Effective Learning Culture’ that provides a localised and responsive curriculum and interacts with local contexts to realise the aspirations of all learners, whānau and the wider community.
• ‘Enhance Culturally Responsive Practice’ to further strengthen the engagement of students, whānau and teachers in reciprocal learning focused partnerships.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how well teacher capability building and the local curriculum are sustaining equity and excellence.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

• The school monitors and evaluates practices and actions in relation to how well students are achieving expected outcomes. Recent information has identified areas of the curriculum for refinement.
• Systematic gathering of information from the community and students over time will promote iterative and strategic planning to provide the best possible outcomes for all learners.

The school expects to see:

• highly equitable and excellent outcomes for students as a result of focusing on increased teacher and learner assessment capability
• consistent and shared understanding of best practice teaching and increased coherence within the local curriculum.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support it in its goals:

• local networks and connections that promote collaboration with the purpose of providing enriching opportunities for students
• leadership that consistently prioritises and plans for school improvement and for equitable and excellent outcomes
• coherent organisational conditions that promote monitoring, evaluation, inquiry and knowledge building.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• further building collaborative processes focused on improving the impacts of teaching on student learning and achievement
• continuing to adapt and respond to the changing needs of students to provide a localised curriculum reflective of the community of Tairua
• sustaining the use of systematic, collaborative inquiry and internal evaluation to ensure the impact of strategic actions is evidenced.

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.

Phil Cowie
Director Review and Improvement Services (Central)
Central Region | Te Tai Pūtahi Nui

25 November 2022

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