Gisborne Girls’ High School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within seven months of the Education Review Office and Gisborne Girls’ 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 Girls’ High School, located in Te Tairāwhiti, provides education for students in Years 9 to 13. The school seeks to prepare young women to stand tall in the world they will move forward into. A shared journey ‘from who we are to who we want to be’ is prioritised through the school’s core philosophy of Hinetu.

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

• to teach and embody our values in order to foster a safe and supportive environment
• to ensure student voice is an essential part of our school community
• to support all students to realise their potential
• to provide a diverse and relevant curriculum.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate the extent to which a focus on giving mana ōrite mo te mātauranga Māori is supporting Māori students to achieve educational success.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

• a genuine commitment to meeting responsibilities under Te Tiriti o Waitangi
• the difference it will make to a large number of learners, particularly Māori learners
• close alignment with the school’s, student written and led strategic plan.

The school expects to see:

• staff and students having the confidence to speak te reo Māori and participate and lead in authentic Māori contexts
• staff and students applying their understanding of mātauranga Māori perspectives and beliefs
• processes and practices that actively engage whānau, hapū and iwi in decision making
• Māori students achieving academic or vocational success linked to their individual and whānau aspirations.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to support Māori students to achieve success as Māori:

• an inclusive culture where students are central to and participate in significant decision making
• cultural capacity and responsive practice in areas of the school that can provide insight into effective practice
• the capacity to use stakeholder voice and student achievement information to understand the impact of improvement actions.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• redeveloping curriculum in all areas of the school through a mātauranga Māori lens
• continuing to build teacher capacity in and understanding of te reo, tikanga and mātauranga Māori
• using student and whānau voice, and student information to know the impact of shifts to curriculum and practice on outcomes for Māori learners.

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

7 August 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