Newfield Park School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 10 months of the Education Review Office and Newfield Park 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 

Newfield Park School is situated in south Invercargill. It provides education for students in Years 1 to 6. The mission statement is: ‘a vibrant learning community, who work together to empower children to succeed through learning.’

Newfield Park School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:

• to be active participants in their own wellbeing
• to be active participants in their own success.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how effectively the school’s curriculum provides opportunities for students to strengthen their assessment capabilities.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

• leaders wish to enact the community’s aspiration to empower their students to be active participants in their wellbeing and success, including success as learners
• the school has developed a Matrix for Assessment Capability, which identifies the knowledge and skills that students will require to be assessment capable learners.

The school expects to see:

• increasingly consistent teaching practice that supports all students to be active participants in decisions about their learning, including setting their own learning goals, understanding how they might best achieve them and how they will know when they have been successful
• all students strengthening their ability to identify their own strengths and limitations and use this awareness to improve learning outcomes.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to evaluate how effectively its curriculum provides opportunities for students to strengthen their assessment capabilities:

• a culture of collective ownership, where school leaders, staff, students, trustees and the wider community are working together with a shared purpose to support children’s wellbeing and success
• leaders have taken a strategic approach to developing and aligning key curriculum documents that clearly identify their aspirations for assessment capable learners.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• develop an implementation plan with teachers to grow their shared knowledge, understanding and use of the Matrix for Assessment Capability and Ako
• clarify and embed the teaching practices that will strengthen learners’ assessment capability and develop the resources to give effect to the matrix in classrooms
• fully utilise the functionality of the school’s Student Management System to support teachers to make and record judgments about students’ assessment capability progress.

Kathy Lye
Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini

22 March 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