St Johns Hill 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 

St Johns Hill School is in Whanganui and provides education for Years 1 to 6 students. The school seeks to develop confident, creative, lifelong learners and caring citizens, who contribute positively to a sustainable world.

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 December 2022 ERO report, the school has focused on further development and evaluation of their curriculum to achieve the school’s collective vision and valued outcomes for learner success.

Expected Improvements and Findings

The school expected to see:

Revision of the St Johns Hill School strategic plan that aligns local and national priorities.

• Collaborative redesign of the strategic plan reflects national and local school priorities, aligned to expected outcomes for learners, whānau, community and educators. 
• Shared values have been redeveloped to reflect key attitudes, attributes, and success outcomes for learners.

Leaders, teachers, and staff implement and progress key strategic and curriculum priorities that support the St Johns Hill School vision and goals for a successful 21st century learner.

• Implementation of the integrated curriculum reflects contextual learning for students and incorporates the breadth of curriculum learning areas to promote meaningful learner engagement.
• Development of the learner profile outlines the key characteristics and achievements the school is seeking for learners, as they engage in the school curriculum over time.
• Students are active participants in their learning, setting goals to promote their ongoing progress and achievement.

Evaluative information that shows the impact of the St Johns Hill School curriculum for achieving their vision and valued outcomes for all learners.

• Information gathered in relation to learner outcomes shows participation in the St Johns Hill School curriculum achieves successful student outcomes. 

The greatest shift that occurred in response to the school’s action, is building internal leadership to guide collaborative implementation of the school’s curriculum priorities, aligned to their shared vision for learner success. 

Part B: Current State

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

Learner Success and Wellbeing 

• Nearly all learners, including Māori students, achieve curriculum expectations in reading and mathematics with most learners achieving well in writing.
• Robust assessment practices ensure planning that matches to the needs of individuals and provides insights into learner progress and achievement, during a year, and over time.
• Regular monitoring and timely communication between staff, families and whānau ensures that most learners attend regularly, above the Ministry of Education’s target. 
• Inclusive practices foster a climate of respect between staff, learners, and their peers, ensuring an environment that values individuals and supports the collective wellbeing of all learners.

Conditions to support learner success

• Leaders articulate high expectations for all learners, effectively facilitate collaborative teaching teams, guide the collective capability and practice of staff, to achieve positive learner outcomes.
• Leaders’ evidence-driven decision making aligns relevant goals and targets that achieves their shared vision for learner success.
• Leaders and trustees have established relevant strategic goals that strengthen mutually beneficial partnerships and cultural practices reflective of the aspirations of mana whenua. 

• Teachers and support staff know students well, tailoring learning to meet their individual needs. 
• Teachers are highly collaborative, ensuring regular opportunities to plan together, share new learning, and apply agreed strategies for effective practice, ensures that learner needs are well catered for.  
• Curriculum delivery provides sufficient opportunities for learners to gain sound foundational skills and knowledge in literacy and mathematics and engage in integrated curriculum subjects aligned to contexts of interest.
• Classroom conditions promote learner engagement; learner participation is acknowledged and affirmed to foster their purposeful engagement in learning.  

• Purposeful learning conversations between parents, whānau and teachers encourages individual students to discuss their learning progress and establish next learning goals. 
• Established partnerships between the school, specialists, parents and whānau ensure learners with additional and complex needs receive timely intervention aligned to their specific educational needs.
• Students value the range of leadership roles they undertake to promote their shared values and take an active role in developing curriculum experiences.  
• Trustees govern effectively for their community, ensuring resourcing decisions benefit outcomes for learners.  

Part C: Where to next?

The agreed next steps for the school are to: 

• continue to seek opportunities to meaningfully engage with mana whenua to strengthen mutually beneficial learning partnerships that support their collective vision for learner success
• continue to engage staff in current professional learning and development (PLD) initiatives that further promote the inclusion of te ao Māori and te reo Māori
• use the recent self-review of Poutama Reo to develop a progressional te reo Māori framework that supports language acquisition for learners over time. 

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

Within six months:

• leaders will explore further opportunities to build engagement with mana whenua, gathering their aspirations for learner success, and utilising local knowledge that further develops curriculum contexts and experiences
• leaders will engage with staff and stakeholders in developing te reo Māori framework that aligns expected outcomes to their learner profile and establishes expectations for language acquisition across the curriculum and over time
• staff will build upon their purposeful inclusion of mātauranga Māori by continuing to extend their cultural knowledge and skills that achieve their desired outcomes for learners. 

Annually:

• staff will collectively review and evaluate the impact of their te reo framework and PLD initiatives to identify successes and inform future actions by determining outcomes for learners
• leaders will report in their statement of variance the strategies undertaken and development of reciprocal learning partnerships with mana whenua. 

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

• staff increasingly incorporate te reo Māori and cultural contexts meaningfully across the curriculum to promote learner success 
• outcomes from the learner profile reflect shared expectations of student success, including the acquisition of cultural knowledge and language
• cultural knowledge of mana whenua is evident in delivery of the schools localised curriculum contexts, narratives, and aspirations for learners’ cultural success.

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

12 August 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