Whitiora School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background 

This Profile Report was written within 18 months of the Education Review Office and ​Whitiora 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 

Whitiora School is located in the centre of Hamilton within the boundaries of Ngāti Wairere, the local hapū. It caters for students in Years 1 to 8 and offers instruction in both Māori and English. The guiding mission of the school is “Whakapono ki a koe - Be true to yourself”. 

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

• grow and strengthen powerful partnerships to support the Whitiora localised curriculum 
• build strong inclusive relationships through valuing ākonga identity, language and cultural competencies 
• grow pouako knowledge, skills, and capabilities to be deliberate with formative assessment, planning and teaching. 

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how well strengthening an assessment for learning approach will further accelerate the progress of all students, particularly those who are performing below expectations. 

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is to:  

• further accelerate the progress of students who need this 
• increase the effectiveness of tracking, monitoring and reporting of student progress and achievement including reporting outcomes to the Board 
• the school knows that when students are making progress they are more likely to attend school regularly 

The school expects to see: 

• an increasing number of students achieving curriculum expectation 
• assessment for learning practices growing student agency and engagement in learning 
• an improvement in regular attendance at school. 

Strengths  

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to strengthen the assessment for learning approach to accelerate the progress and engage all students, particularly those who are performing below expectation. 

• A strategic and effective response to the numbers of students with pastoral needs. 
• A strong and well-articulated commitment by leaders and teachers to equity and to enacting the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. 
• A well-developed and school-wide learning progression framework utilised in mathematics. 

Where to next? 

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:  

• completing the development of learning progressions frameworks in literacy, te reo matatini and  
  pāngarau to support learners to increase responsibility for their learning 
• facilitating effective use of learning progressions for monitoring, tracking, and reporting of progress and achievement 
• ensuring systems and processes for managing attendance are robust and consistently implemented. 

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​

​​2 May 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