Gisborne Boys’ High School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 13 months of the Education Review Office and Gisborne 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

Gisborne Boys’ High School is located in central Gisborne and provides education for young men in Years 9 to 13 from the Te Tairāwhiti region. The school’s philosophy encourages students to ‘choose their attitude’ and achieve their potential. A new principal was appointed in 2022.

Gisborne Boys’ High School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:

• teaching and learning - staff will foster, lead and promote student engagement in learning programmes and opportunities
• student support and wellbeing - each young man will be encouraged and supported to participate, excel in academic, sporting, cultural and social achievement in an environment that takes all reasonable steps to be inclusive
• whānau and community - the school will improve the achievement of young men through strong relationships with whānau, iwi and the wider community.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate the extent to which effective teaching and learning meets students’ cultural, identity and learning needs to promote equitable and excellent outcomes for all learners, particularly for Māori and Pacific students.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is the need to:

• improve equity and excellence in learning outcomes for all learners
• continue to develop shared understanding of effective teaching and learning practices and apply these consistently
• strengthen reciprocal community partnerships that support Māori learners and their whānau to plan and pursue their educational pathways
• strengthen the responsiveness of the local curriculum to meet learners’ cultural, language, identity and learning needs.

The school expects to see:

• highly developed and consistent teaching practices that result in increasingly equitable outcomes for Māori and Pacific learners
• Māori and Pacific learners engaged and experiencing success in a culturally inclusive, community supported school
• a responsive, rich, broad localised curriculum that embeds mātauranga Māori and supports access to meaningful pathways.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to have effective teaching and learning practices that meet students’ needs for equitable and excellent outcomes:

• leadership prioritises school improvement with a focus on equity and excellence for Māori and Pacific learners and priority learners
• commitment of staff to building capability in effective teaching and learning, inclusive of te ao Māori, te reo Māori, me ona tikanga and mātauranga Māori
• leadership seeks a range of stakeholder voices, including student, whānau and iwi voice, to inform change for continuous improvement
• robust systems and processes for tracking, monitoring and reporting student attendance, engagement, retention and achievement.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• strengthening connections with the community, whānau, hapū and iwi to build reciprocal relationships and inform curriculum design to support improved learner outcomes.
• continuing professional learning to strengthen teacher capability and consistency in effective teaching and learning including literacy and numeracy to improve learner outcomes.

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

10 November 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