Russell Street 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 

Russell Street School provides education for students in Years 1 to 6. The school’s vision is to empower their learners, provide an enriching learning environment and support each student to achieve personal excellence. The school has three bilingual classes (Poutokomanawa). A new deputy principal was appointed at the start of 2024.

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 at the appropriate curriculum level for reading, writing and mathematics; little disparity in outcomes for groups of learners is evident.
• Learners with additional needs are well supported and make progress against goals set in their individual education plans.
• Regular attendance is higher than the Ministry of Education 2024 target. 

Conditions to support learner success

• To accelerate the progress of learners at risk of underachievement, leaders are increasingly strategic in setting improvement goals and targets. 
• Leaders deliberately provide coaching and opportunities for teachers to lead initiatives, that further strengthen relational trust and build collective responsibility for improvement goals. 
• Leaders are developing a cohesive curriculum, as well as setting clear expectations for school-wide high-quality teaching and learning. 

• To support learner achievement and progress in literacy and mathematics, the board provides resourcing for specialist strength-based teaching; accelerated learner progress is evident.
• Teachers’ use of agreed assessment practices is improving the reliability of data and its use to support learning.
• Teachers show commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi partnership by understanding, recognising and celebrating the unique status of tangata whenua in a range of contexts.

• Teachers’ professional learning is aligned with strategic goals, achievement targets and learner needs. 
• Leaders and teachers increasingly use evidence to respond to and more closely monitor progress and achievement and take shared responsibility for learner outcomes.
• Leaders and teachers are improving the ways they communicate with parents about their children’s strengths and learning needs and are facilitating whānau participation in school decision making.
• Leaders and teachers have embedded tikanga Māori and kawa in the daily life of the school and learners understand the significance of these practices.

Part B: Where to next?

The agreed next steps for the school are to: 

• improve learner achievement and progress in literacy and numeracy for learners identified at risk of underachievement, and accelerate the progress of all learners 
• build teachers’ capability to consistently use tailored, instructional approaches and data to respond to individual learner needs  
• use an increased range of effective communication strategies with parents to enable them to actively support their child’s learning
• Support more parent and whānau engagement, participation and decision-making in the school.

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

Within six months:

• school leaders and teachers prioritise the teaching of literacy and numeracy in learning programmes, and carry out closer analysis of achievement and progress data to respond in a targeted way to those learners at risk of underachieving
• school leaders and teachers communicate and share strategies with whānau to support their child’s learning
• teachers and leaders provide feedback about practice and use coaching through teachers’ professional growth cycle conversations

Within a year:

• consolidate use of literacy and numeracy goals and progressions in teaching and learning programmes, assessment and reporting practices, including at mid and end-of-year checkpoints
• begin a school-wide review of assessment tools and assessment practice to identify the most useful tools and practices to inform learner needs 
• school leaders and teachers provide opportunities for whānau to engage with the school community, and to learn strategies to support their child’s learning

Annually:

• analyse and use school-wide attendance, achievement and progress data to strategically plan actions that will improve the achievement and learning outcomes of all students, particularly those who are most at risk of underachievement
• review and report on the use of literacy and numeracy goals and progressions and the impact on learner outcomes
• gather parent voice about the quality of learning partnerships, and the extent to which they are enabled to actively support their child’s learning, attendance and engagement; this also provides the opportunity to gather whānau perception about their connection to the school and decision making.

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

• improved learner outcomes, with an increased number of students attending regularly, achieving at or above curriculum expectation in reading, writing and mathematics, and accelerated progress for students at risk of underachievement
• teachers consistently using explicit instruction and a range of strategies to meet the expectations for high-quality, evidenced-informed teaching to improve learner outcomes
• parents, whānau, teachers and leaders have a shared understanding of learners’ aspirations, cultural identity, learning strengths and needs, and collaborate to actively support their progress and achievement.

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

3 September 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