Marfell School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within eight months of the Education Review Office and Marfell 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 

Marfell School is located in a western suburb of New Plymouth and provides education for students in Years 1 to 6. A specialist unit, Whare Manaaki, caters for students with high and complex needs. The school has strong links to the local and wider community.

Marfell School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:

• raising student achievement with a well-resourced, balanced, and integrated curriculum

• working with the wider community to have sustainable and strong home and school partnerships.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how well school conditions are contributing to improving outcomes for all students and raising overall levels of achievement. Monitoring student progress to inform targeted planning and increasing rates of attendance are ongoing priorities for the school.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

• the opportunity it provides to respond increasingly effectively to school data to accelerate learning and raise student achievement in literacy and mathematics

• the school’s commitment to removing barriers to learning and empowering parents, families and whānau in positive learning partnerships.

The school expects to see increased attendance and success for all learners.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to raise achievement and improve outcomes for all learners:

• leadership that promotes an inclusive school whānau that contributes to a sense of belonging and positive culture for learning

• teaching and learning practices that identify and support the individual needs of all learners

• stewardship that prioritises resourcing to enable equitable opportunities for students to learn.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• extending the analysis of student achievement data to support effective evidence-based evaluation and inform further targeted action for continuous improvement

• continuing to strengthen teacher capability to address the ongoing needs of all students and support accelerated learning outcomes

• further engaging with parents and whānau to support student learning and implement effective strategies to increase rates of attendance.

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

15 June 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