Whakamaru School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 14 months of the Education Review Office and Whakamaru 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 

Whakamaru School is a rural school located northwest of Taupō, providing education for students from Years 1 to 8.

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

• have a learning environment that motivates, inspires, and creates high quality outcomes for students while growing creative thinkers for life

• have a community that feels engaged, included, well-informed, and understand the importance of whanaungatanga and manaakitanga (relationships) between all stakeholders

• provide a safe, comfortable, and spacious environment that invokes community pride while strengthening student outcomes.     

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how well the school provides students with a responsive curriculum through effective teaching pedagogy in play-based learning, that improves their engagement, learning opportunities and equitable literacy and mathematics outcomes.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

• recognition that disengagement has affected learning progress and outcomes for students

• that play-based learning is viewed by the school as a natural way that students learn; learning through Play is a developmental and culturally centred approach to a child’s learning.

The school expects to see:

• effective assessment for learning - developing student’s learning-to-learn capabilities; students receiving timely, specific, descriptive feedback and questions from teachers to challenge their thinking

• explicit instruction in learning strategies (such as goal setting, self-monitoring, and deliberate practice) to strengthen learners’ ability to take control of their learning

• students participating and learning in caring, collaborative, inclusive learning communities; respectful and productive relationships that value difference and diversity.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to evaluate the responsiveness of the curriculum through effective teaching pedagogy in play-based learning:

• well used internal evaluation process that include teaching capability building through the Professional Growth Cycle; wellbeing surveys to gather student voice; and involving parents in evaluation of the effectiveness of the curriculum

• ongoing review of the curriculum document to ensure it is responsive to learner needs

• use of reading, writing and mathematics data to gauge curriculum effectiveness.  

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• developing Iwi connections with the support of local whanau, hapū, the Māori Achievement Collaborative (MAC), and trusts Raukawa, Tūwharetoa and Wairarapa Moana ki Pouākani to improve Māori learner outcomes

• more closely tracking play-based learning to inform curriculum coverage and learner progress and achievement.

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

27 October 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