Palmerston North Boys’ High School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within six months of the Education Review Office and Palmerston North Boys’ High 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 

Palmerston North Boys’ High School, located in central Palmerston North provides education for boys from years 9 to year 13. The school’s mission is “to educate young men by challenging and extending them in academic, sporting, and cultural activities to develop the required knowledge, skills, values and character they need to succeed in their lives”. The school has an on-site hostel, College House, housing up to 180 students.

Palmerston North Boys’ High School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners include to:

• ensure the academic ethos of the school is retained. Continually achieve better NCEA results. Challenge pupils to earn merit and excellence grades
• develop and extend opportunities for pupils at years 12 and 13 to pursue on site and tertiary-based extension academic courses and vocationally oriented courses 
• focus on the development of literacy and numeracy skills within the core curriculum.

You can find a copy of the school’s strategic and annual plan on Palmerston North Boys’ High School’s website.

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate the effectiveness a range of curriculum opportunities has on improving literacy and numeracy outcomes and the development of tertiary based partnerships.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is to: 

• enable all students to leave Palmerston North Boys’ High School having benefitted from the opportunities to participate in a wide range of experiences, finding their individual strengths, and attaining the best qualification they can
• build on raising achievement through providing opportunities for pupils at Years 12 and 13 to pursue university and vocationally oriented courses and qualifications
• deepen leaders’ and teachers’ understanding of factors influencing progress and achievement in literacy and numeracy across the curriculum
• proactively identify gaps in learning and understand how well the school is responding to learner needs.

The school expects to see progress in the areas of:

• students leaving school having identified and gained qualifications enabling them to meet their aspirations for future success
• gathering evidence to inform which aspects of learning in literacy and numeracy are working well for learners and which are not effective
• an increased capability in identifying and responding to literacy and numeracy needs for individual learners leading to students demonstrating increased confidence and achievement in literacy and numeracy.

Strengths 

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to integrate effective cross curricular practices for the teaching of literacy and numeracy and raise achievement:

• well established teaching and learning practices strongly based on the principles of inquiry, individual thinking, deep-learning, personal excellence, and relationships of care and connectedness
• new curriculum pathways such as the Trades Building Program and a Gateway work-based learning program leading to valuable qualifications and employment 
• a well-considered framework developed for observing teaching and learning to inform potential improvements in practice 
• effective processes are in place for evaluating achievement information, using evidence-based inquiry, to improve learner outcomes.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• consolidating quality university, tertiary-based and vocational opportunities which make students highly sought after by industry providers and well placed for achieving their best qualifications during and after leaving school
• leaders mapping understanding of learner strengths and needs against the new literacy and numeracy matrices to establish priority areas for development across the curriculum
• continuing to develop and integrate explicit teaching and learning practices across the curriculum that reflect integrated literacy and numeracy and support success at all levels of NCEA
• use of Professional Growth Cycle inquiry, targeted professional development, observations and learning conversations to support teachers in meeting to the needs of diverse learners.

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

25 January 2024  

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 has a hostel, College House on site.

The school also manages Manawatu Community High School Activity Centre