Waitotara 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

Waitotara School is a full primary located in South Taranaki providing education for students in Years 1 to 8. The school seeks to achieve connected and confident communicators, collaborators, self-managers and thinkers, that show resilience and drive their own learning.

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 October 2022 ERO report, the school has focused on evaluating how well delivery of the school’s literacy curriculum achieves equity and excellence for learners.

Expected Improvements and Findings

The school expected to see:

Embedded assessment processes and practices that support effective teaching, learning, and reporting.

• Assessment tools have been revised and reflect new approaches to literacy providing relevant information which informs teaching and learning.
• Written reports have been updated to reflect changes to literacy assessment providing appropriate information to parents and whānau on their child’s progress.

Effective teacher practice, reflective of their participation in professional learning and development (PLD), aligned to agreed expectations for delivery of the school’s literacy curriculum.

• Involvement in structured literacy PLD has strengthened the collective capability and capacity of staff to deliver clearly sequenced teaching and learning matched to the specific needs of learners.

Other Findings

The greatest shift that occurred in response to the school’s action is the impact for learners through the development of structured approaches to literacy. Implementation has strengthened teachers’ ability to consistently sequence literacy learning and ensure any identified knowledge gaps are addressed.

Part B: Current State

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

Learner Success and Wellbeing

• The majority of learners achieve at or above curriculum expectations in mathematics and reading, with slightly over half achieving in writing; raising writing achievement is a priority for the school to address, particularly for boys.
• Conditions for learning are highly inclusive; learners’ sense of wellbeing is affirmed through positive interactions between staff, students and the community.
• Regular communication with parents and whānau has impacted positively, increasing rates of attendance for learners; most students attend school regularly meeting the Ministry of Education targets.

Conditions to support learner success

• Leaders systematically use evaluative evidence to ensure identified actions for improvement that strengthen outcomes for learners.
• Leaders suitably align teacher professional learning goals and practice discussions to relevant priorities, informing a collective response that meets the needs of learners.
• The principal, staff and trustees work in partnership with parents, whānau, iwi and the community to foster a culture committed to achieving their identified priorities.

• Teachers access a range of appropriate resources to differentiate learning that is responsive to most learners needs.
• Teachers draw on Ngā Rauru resources to weave te reo Māori and mātauranga Māori across the curriculum, valuing iwi aspirations, and increasing learner confidence in their culture, language and identity.
• Design and delivery of the curriculum provides an appropriate range of practical, cultural and contextual learning experiences for students that encourage purposeful engagement in learning. 

• Staff are highly collaborative, regularly sharing practice aligned to current PLD initiatives that inform a collective response to the needs of learners.
• Parents and whānau receive relevant information in relation to their child’s learning with regular opportunities to share their knowledge and skills to actively support student learning.
• Resourcing by trustees is based on sound evidence ensuring learners requiring additional support are provided with relevant assistance to meet their specific learning needs.

Part C: Where to next?

The agreed next steps for the school are to:

• continue to communicate regularly with parents and whānau to ensure that recent improvements in attendance are sustained over time for all learners
• use current PLD for staff in writing that informs a structured, sequenced response that impacts positively on learner outcomes
• gather research in relation to successful strategies that are shown to achieve successful outcomes for boys’ literacy and evaluate curriculum delivery to inform further opportunities to strengthen practice.

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

Within six months:

• the principal will explore current research to evaluate their current curriculum provision and develop further strategies shown to foster increasingly successful outcomes for boy’s literacy
• teachers will continue their participation in writing PLD to develop the scope and sequence of the curriculum
• staff and trustees will review attendance data regularly to understand the impact of their deliberate actions on achieving regular attendance for all learners.

Annually:

• evaluate changes in delivery to the writing curriculum to understand the impact of the schools’ deliberate actions on improving the progress, achievement and engagement for all learners
• evaluate and report the impact of teaching practices and attendance initiatives on outcomes for learners.

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

• strengthened, regular attendance at school for all learners
• further development of the writing curriculum that positively impacts on the progress, achievement and engagement of learners
• established, clear expectations in delivery of the scope and sequence for teaching and learning.

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

27 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