Manaia School (Taranaki)

School Evaluation Report

Tēnā koutou e mau manawa rahi ki te kaupapa e aro ake nei, ko te tamaiti te pūtake o te kaupapa. Mā wai rā e kawe, mā tātau katoa.

We acknowledge the collective effort, responsibility and commitment by all to ensure that the child remains at the heart of the matter.

Context 

Manaia School (Taranaki) is located in the township of Manaia and provides education for students in Years 1 to 8. The school’s vision is to promote learners to be confident, connected, actively involved lifelong learners. A Limited Statutory Manager was appointed in 2023 to support board governance. 

There are three parts to this report.

Part A: A summary of the findings from the most recent Education Review Office (ERO) report and/or subsequent evaluation.

Part B: An evaluative summary of learner success and school conditions to inform the school board’s future strategic direction, including any education in Rumaki/bilingual settings.

Part C: The improvement actions prioritised for the school’s next evaluation cycle.

Part A: Previous Improvement Goals

Since the December 2022 ERO report, the school has focused on evaluating how well delivery of the school’s literacy curriculum achieves equitable and excellent outcomes for learners in Years 3 to 8. 

Expected Improvements and Findings

The school expected to see:

Effective assessment practice, teaching and learning, that reflects shared strategies, new approaches and supports delivery of literacy.

• Teaching, learning and assessment practice is increasingly reflective of strategies and approaches in delivery of structured literacy in the junior school. Progress information shows learners are benefiting from structured literacy.

The school’s curriculum is documented overtime to reflect shared expectations for teaching and learning in delivery of the literacy curriculum.

• Participation of teachers in literacy professional learning and development (PLD) in the junior school has strengthened their understanding of structured literacy; increasingly impacting positively on the progress and achievement of learners.

The greatest shift that occurred in response to the school’s action is in recognising and using the knowledge and skills of staff that build collective practice which promotes improved outcomes for learners.

Part B: Current State

The following findings are to inform the school’s future priorities for improvement.

Learner Success and Wellbeing 

• A small majority of learners, including Māori students, achieve at or above curriculum expectations in reading, writing and mathematics.
• An identified disparity in literacy outcomes for boys is a priority for the school to address.
• Learners’ sense of wellbeing is evident and affirmed through positive interactions between staff, students and their peers.
• The school is approaching the Government target for regular attendance with a small majority attending regularly.

Conditions to support learner success

• Leaders, across the school, appropriately support teachers’ understanding of shared curriculum expectations and use of teaching resources.
• Leaders suitably gather information from parents and whānau to inform relevant strategic priorities to guide ongoing improvement.
• Leaders continue to appropriately guide the implementation of revised assessment systems and practices to strengthen teaching, learning and reporting to parents, whānau and the board.

• Teachers are collaborative and well supported by external facilitators to build their practice, aligned to established curriculum priorities that are increasingly responsive to the diverse needs of learners.
• Learning environments reflect shared values, fostering positive relationship between teachers, students and their peers that encourage purposeful learner engagement.
• Delivery of the curriculum increasingly reflects local contexts in ways learners can see themselves, their identity and culture. 

• Teachers provide appropriate opportunities for parents and whānau to share their aspirations and are encouraged to attend information workshops aligned to curriculum delivery.
• Staff build and sustain strong educationally focused relationships with other education providers, networks, hapū and iwi, that increase opportunities for learning and foster positive student outcomes.
• The board receives regular information in relation to learner outcomes to ensure their decision making is aligned to the needs of learners and staff.

Part C: Where to next?

The agreed next steps for the school are to:

• revise the board’s current attendance target to the Government targets and align relevant actions to strengthen regular attendance
• develop achievement targets and related actions that focus on addressing the disparity in boys’ literacy
• embed structured literacy in the junior school and extend this approach into senior classes to support continuity for learners and further raise literacy achievement
• engage teachers in further professional learning and development (PLD) for assessment to fully implement the recently introduced student management system (SMS) and build their knowledge of assessment for learning strategies to strengthen teaching and learning.

The agreed actions for the next improvement cycle and timeframes are as follows.

Within six months:

• analyse, review and report outcomes of the school’s actions aligned to their targets to achieve levels of regular attendance and address the disparity in literacy outcomes for boys
• provide PLD in structured literacy for teachers in the senior school and implement an agreed approach to ensure continuity in curriculum delivery for learners across the school
• engage teachers in assessment PLD to increase their collective understanding of the SMS and build their assessment practice to strengthen teaching, learning and reporting to parents and whānau

Annually:

• evaluate changes in delivery of literacy to understand the impact of the schools’ deliberate actions on raising achievement overall and addressing the disparity for boys
• evaluate and report in the schools’ statement of variance the impact of actions undertaken to raise levels of regular attendance aligned to the Government’s targets
• review the extent to which changes made to assessment processes and practices have impacted on teaching, reporting and outcomes for learning.

Actions taken against these next steps are expected to result in:

• improved learner outcomes that are sustained over time with no significant inequities for groups of learners
• rates of attendance are improved and sustained over time
• effective teaching and learning in approaches to structured literacy
• capable and confident use of assessment information and of strategies that respond to the diverse learning needs of students.

ERO’s role will be to support the school in its evaluation for improvement cycle to improve outcomes for all learners. The next public report on ERO’s website will be a School Evaluation Report and is due within three years.

Me mahi tahi tonu tātau, kia whai oranga a tātau tamariki
Let’s continue to work together for the greater good of all children

Sharon Kelly
Acting Director of Schools

8 April 2025

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