Waikite Valley School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 7 months of the Education Review Office and Waikite Valley 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 

Waikite Valley school is a rural school located approximately 26km southeast of Rotorua and provides education for students in Years 1-8. The school is proud of their supportive relationships with whānau and community.

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

• improve outcomes of equity and excellence for all learners

• ensure the school is part of an educationally powerful partnership with its staff, community, whānau and local iwi.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how well enhancing culturally responsive teaching and learning practices is impacting on improving equitable and excellent outcomes for all learners.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is the need to:

• strengthen consistency of effective teaching, learning and assessment practices schoolwide

• enhance whānau and community partnerships to support positive outcomes for all learners

• develop and implement a localised curriculum

• improve learning outcomes for all learners.

The school expects to see:

• improved outcomes of equity and excellence for all learners with priority for those learners underachieving or at risk of underachieving

• effective, responsive and consistent teaching, learning and assessment practices schoolwide

• an embedded localised curriculum that meets the aspirations of all learners, families, whānau, iwi and community.

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

• collaborative and committed staff focused on implementing robust processes for monitoring and responding to learner needs

• a community that is committed to supporting positive outcomes for learners and the school.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise outcomes of equity and excellence for all learners through:

• staff professional development to improve responsive teaching, learning and assessment practices

• embedding regular and robust systems for monitoring learner progress and achievement, to effectively inform responsive teaching and learning

• engaging and partnering with whānau, iwi and community to support, develop and implement the localised curriculum.

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

17 October 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