Whanganui East 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 

Whanganui East School has students in Years 1 to 6. Participation in the school curriculum, He Waka Eke Noa, seeks to inspire students to learn, create and communicate, demonstrate, and live the shared values of respect for themselves, others, and the environment. 

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 February 2023 ERO report, the school has focused on further development of their localised curriculum to ensure equitable and excellent outcomes for all learners.  

Expected Improvements and Findings

The school expected to see:

Learners experiencing and identifying a strong sense of identity and belonging to school through engagement in He Waka Eke Noa.

• Curriculum design is suitably inclusive of parents, whānau, iwi, and the community, ensuring the aspirations for learner success are shared and enacted. 
• Curriculum experiences value the culture, language, and identity of learners; tikanga and mātauranga Māori are woven across the curriculum. 
• Learners’ sense of belonging is enhanced using deliberate strategies, aligned to mana potential, focused on promoting positive relationships and interactions at school.

A positive impact for learners in their progress, achievement, and engagement through their participation in the school’s localised curriculum.

• Progress and achievement information shows students' progress well over time. 
• Engagement in learning is fostered through demonstrating shared values and establishing routines and practices that recognise and respond to the needs of learners.   

The greatest shift that occurred in response to the school’s action, is in collaborative development of the localised curriculum to respond and adapt to the needs of learners and reflect the aspirations of parents, whānau, iwi and their community.

Part B: Current State

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

Learner Success and Wellbeing 

• The large majority achieve at expected curriculum levels in reading, writing and mathematics; leaders and teachers have identified priority learners and are aligning their inquiry processes to evaluate the impact of their actions on achieving positive hauora for learners and accelerated progress. 
• Staff and trustees seek multiple ways to ensure regular student attendance, and foster positive school engagement, reflected in an upward trajectory in overall attendance in 2024.
• Learners with additional and complex learning and engagement needs are suitably identified; comprehensive tracking and monitoring of learner outcomes informs a tailored response in supporting learner hauora, wellbeing and inclusion at school. 

Conditions to support learner success

• Leaders ensure alignment between the needs of learners, teacher professional learning goals and the provision and delivery of professional learning development (PLD).
• Leaders and trustees use evidence to determine relevant strategic and annual goals designed to promote continuous improvement for their community and to benefit learners. 
• Parents and whānau have relevant opportunities, and timely information in relation to learner outcomes, to encourage their active involvement in school life and support their child’s learning and engagement at school. 

• Staff involvement in PLD, aligned to relevant priorities, has established shared approaches in delivery of the school curriculum.
• Regular opportunities for staff to collaborate and share practice promotes increasingly consistent delivery of agreed expectations for effective teaching and learning. 
• Contextual learning opportunities and classroom environments encourage purposeful learner engagement through consistent use of strategies aligned to the elements of mana potential, affirming positive inclusion and wellbeing for learners.

• Staff have inclusive, well established, reciprocal partnerships with local community groups, and other educational services and providers; these partnerships enhance delivery of the curriculum and support learners as they transition in, through and out of school.
• Trustees effectively undertake their roles and responsibilities; they work collaboratively with their community to ensure decision-making reflects their shared vision for learner success.
• The funds of knowledge from parents, whānau and iwi are valued in design and delivery of the curriculum, establishing a collective vision for learner success.

Part C: Where to next?

The agreed next steps for the school are to: 

• align targets for learners working toward curriculum expectations and actions to promote positive hauora to teacher inquiry, informing evaluation into the impact of actions on learner outcomes
• facilitate further PLD for staff to strengthen their collective knowledge and capability to deliver effective teaching and learning strategies that meaningfully enhance learner agency (students' confidence in discussing their progress and determining their next learning steps) 
• implement the action plan from review of Poutama Reo to further develop progressional te reo Māori opportunities for learners.  

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

Every six months:

• leaders and teachers will review the outcomes of priority learners, identifying students successfully on track to accelerate their progress, and learners requiring further additional support or adapted strategies, to achieve successful outcomes 
• leaders will facilitate PLD for staff to build their collective capability to increasingly implement agreed strategies to strengthen learner agency
• leaders will review their progress against their Poutama Reo action plan to determine the school is increasingly building effective practices aligned to their expected outcomes.

Annually:

• teachers will share the evidence and impact of their teaching as inquiry to evaluate their practice on strengthening outcomes for priority learners
• leaders will gather information from teachers and students to evaluate the impact of teaching and learning strategies for promoting greater learner agency 
• leaders will gather information in relation to Poutama Reo to understand and evaluate the impact of their deliberate actions on achieving continuous improvement aligned to their expected outcomes. 

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

• targeted actions that strengthen outcomes for priority learners, accelerate their progress in reading, writing and mathematics and achieve positive hauora for individual learners
• intentional use of agreed and effective teaching strategies that purposefully scaffold increasing learner agency 
• evaluation of Poutama Reo that shows the school is increasingly embedding the actions from their te reo Māori strategy, building on ways in which learners see and hear their culture, language, and identity.

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

1 July 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