Huirangi School

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 

Huirangi School is located north of New Plymouth. The school provides education for learners in Years 1 to 6. The shared vision of nurturing learners, empowering futures seeks to achieve success for all students.   

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 August 2022 ERO report, the school has focused on evaluating how well further development of the school curriculum promoted successful outcomes for all learners.

Expected Improvements and Findings 

The school expected to see:

Evaluative evidence that shows the impact of ongoing curriculum development on outcomes for students with clear alignment to their key strategic goals.

• Delivery of structured literacy and mathematics has strengthened the continuity of teaching and impacted positively on outcomes for learners.
• Sound research, aligning the concepts of Te Whare Tapa Whā (a well-being model), has informed actions and mentoring programmes for learners that promote healthy, active learning and fosters their positive physical and emotional wellbeing. 
• Ongoing development of the science curriculum has increased the breadth of student learning opportunities; this has strengthened student engagement across the curriculum. 
• Well established partnerships between the school, whānau, hapū and the community has promoted shared learning into the history of the area and supports the active participation of learners in contributing and caring for their local environment.

The greatest shift that occurred in response to the school’s action is in collaborative development of structured literacy and mathematics programmes that increasingly impact positively on 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 achieved curriculum expectations in reading and mathematics at the end of 2023 with nearly half achieving these expectations in writing. 
• Analysis of mid-year 2024 data shows a previously identified disparity in the achievement of boys in reading and writing, when compared to girls, has reduced; raising literacy achievement overall and continuing to address the disparity for boys remains a priority for the school.  
• All learners benefit from effective, inclusive practices that foster a climate of respect between staff, learners, and their peers, ensuring an environment, reflective of shared values, consistently promotes the collective wellbeing.
• A small majority of students attend regularly; the school is yet to meet the Ministry of Education attendance target.

Conditions to support learner success

• Leaders set and pursue strategic goals in collaboration with their community, clearly aligned to ongoing development of their curriculum, and actions to promote positive student wellbeing.
• Leaders effectively plan and facilitate professional learning and development (PLD) opportunities for staff, encouraging shared approaches to teaching and learning, which benefit learner progress, engagement and wellbeing.
• Leaders and staff are highly committed to addressing the different needs of students; learners identified with additional and complex needs receive a co-ordinated, and timely response, matched to their individual goals.

• Staff are highly collaborative with regular opportunities to share and apply agreed strategies designed to meet the specific needs of learners. 
• Students learn in positive classroom environments conducive in promoting their purposeful engagement in learning.
• Design and delivery of the Huirangi School curriculum, inclusive of culturally responsive contexts, provides sufficient breadth and opportunities for students to participate in meaningful learning experiences.

• Leaders’ analysis and reporting of learner progress, attendance, and wellbeing information is used appropriately by board members to inform their resourcing decisions, which impact positively on the progress, achievement, and engagement of learners.
• Leaders and teachers provide regular opportunities for parents and whānau to share their aspirations, receive information relevant to delivery of the curriculum, and develop shared goals to achieve learner success.
• Sound organisational systems and processes, inclusive of robust assessment practices, effectively support the identification, tracking and reporting of learner outcomes.
• Systematic evaluation informs relevant improvement actions and uses evidence to determine the impact on learner outcomes. 

Part C: Where to next? 

The agreed next steps for the school are to: 

• revise the boards current attendance target in line with Ministry of education’s expectations and identify relevant actions to ensure improvement in attendance continues and is sustained overtime
• develop achievement targets to address the disparity for boys in literacy and align learners working toward curriculum expectations to teachers’ professional growth cycle, supporting robust inquiry into the actions undertaken to accelerate progress 
• extend approaches to deliver structured literacy into the senior school to support continuity for learners and further raise literacy achievement. 

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

Within six months:

• leaders will gather and analyse attendance information termly to evaluate the impact of their actions on further raising the regular attendance of learners
• leaders and teachers will review literacy achievement targets for boys, gaining insights into the impact of their actions and strategies on accelerating learners’ progress 
• leaders will provide PLD for teachers to build progression of approaches to structured literacy in the senior school and analyse progress information to determine the impact on learner outcomes.

Annually:

• teachers will use the evidence from their professional growth cycle to evaluate the impact of their actions on accelerating the progress of identified learners working toward curriculum expectations in literac
• leaders will report to the Board evaluative evidence which shows the impact of planned actions, including extending structured literacy in the senior school, on literacy progress, achievement and attendance outcomes.

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

• learner attendance meeting and moving beyond the Ministry of Education’s target and being sustained over time
• targeted actions by leaders and teachers continuing to reduce the disparity for boys in reading and writing 
• effective teaching and learning of structured literacy across the school raising the achievement of all learners.

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

Shelley Booysen
Director of Schools

13 December 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