Mangaweka 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

Mangaweka School is a full primary school located in the Rangitīkei district and provides education for learners from Years 1 to 8. The school has a new principal and a newly established board of trustees. The school’s values Mana, Aroha and Whānau support the vision for learners to be kind in their relationships, curious about the world around them and creative with their thinking. 

There are two parts to this report.

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

Part A: Current State

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

Learner Success and Wellbeing 

Most learners make sustained progress and achieve well at the appropriate curriculum level in reading and mathematics.

• Achievement information from 2023 for Years 1 to 8, show that most learners achieved at or greater than the expected levels in reading and mathematics including Māori students; improved outcomes in writing for all, remains a focus for teachers. 
• Positive levels of attendance (above Ministry of Education targets) are achieved using a range of 
  well-considered approaches; leaders and teachers closely monitor student attendance to respond and encourage engagement. 

Conditions to support learner success

Leadership increasingly fosters an improvement mindset for high quality teaching.

• Leaders set improvement goals and targets with focus on increasing the progress and achievement of learners at risk of not achieving.
• Leaders and staff collaboratively set expectations for high-quality, evidence-based teaching that are monitored; evaluating the impact of these practices on learners’ progress and improvement is strengthening. 
• Leaders have built strong connections and trust between staff and whānau for a collaborative approach to school improvement, focused on learner outcomes.

The school’s curriculum and responsive teaching practice provides purposeful, challenging, and 
well-paced learning.

• Learners engage, inquire and apply new learning within an inclusive, positive environment that acknowledges who they are.
• To engage and meet the needs of learners, teachers access local context and resources and increasingly integrate tikanga Māori and mātauranga Māori in learning.
• Leaders and teachers are strengthening the way they collect, analyse and interpret data to better inform teaching and learning.

The school has well aligned systems and practices for improvement and learner success.

• Leaders, the board and staff continue to actively strengthen partnerships with whānau and mana whenua, to support Māori learners achieving educational success as Māori. 
• Leaders and staff seek and engage in ongoing professional development, including through the local Kāhui Ako, to support learner progress and wellbeing. 
• Collaborative learning partnerships with parents and whānau assist teachers to purposefully address any barriers to learner success; parents and whānau are respected for what they bring to their child’s learning and their views are actively sought and bring about school improvement. 

Part B: Where to next?

The agreed next steps for the school are to: 

• further strengthen teachers’ shared understanding of effective strategies to enable learners to identify what their next learning steps are and how to go about achieving these
• strengthen use of achievement information to inform teaching practice and improve achievement outcomes for all learners, particularly in writing
• further modify the school's evaluation process so that it is more useable and focuses on what is most significant for improved learning outcomes.

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

Within six months:

• identify learners at risk of not achieving and set targets to improve their progress and achievement
• continue to investigate and transfer successful classroom practices across the school, to promote improved outcomes
• explore progressions for writing, outlining key transition points and alignment to the curriculum
• review and develop a systematic way to monitor the progress and impact of key improvement actions, particularly in writing

Every six months:

• use assessment information to adjust programmes and practice, to achieve greater progress for learners
• moderate, monitor and report on the progress and achievement of all learners, with a particular focus on writing targets
• teachers review and share best teaching practice to support learner success

Annually:

• look closely at achievement information and include the perspectives of whānau and learners, to identify initiatives that have been most successful in accelerating progress in reading, writing and mathematics
• analyse and report schoolwide achievement data to the board, to strategically plan actions that will improve achievement and learner outcomes. 

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

• all learners can talk about their learning, next steps and what they have achieved
• improved and sustained learner progress and achievement in reading, writing and mathematics
• consistency of effective and responsive teaching, learning and assessment practices schoolwide, resulting in improved achievement outcomes for all learners, particularly in writing
• embedded, systematic evaluation practice that effectively uses multiple sources of evidence to determine the impact of actions and deliberate decision making on the outcomes for 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

14 June 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