Argyll 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

Argyll East School is a Years 0 to 8 primary school in Central Hawkes Bay. The school’s vision is for students to live, learn, grow, kia ora, kia ako, kia tupu.

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 

• Achievement information shows that most students are at or above the curriculum expectations in mathematics and reading, and the large majority progress and achieve well in writing; outcomes for learners show no significant inequities between groups of learners.
• Learners have a strong sense of belonging, well promoted by positive teaching and learning relationships.
• Students with additional learning needs are identified, have targeted support and progress well within an inclusive learning environment.
• Attendance is below the Ministry of Education 2024 target for regular attendance; and the school is working towards addressing this.

Conditions to support learner success

• Strategic planning and improvement goals, developed in collaboration with the community, board and staff are clearly focused on equitable and excellent outcomes for all students with clear measures of success.
• Leaders regularly evaluate and review strategic goals using achievement data and report this to the board; continuing to evaluate the success of these goals on student achievement is a next step.
• Leaders and staff effectively build relational trust, resulting in collaborative approaches to relevant professional growth and responsive teaching programmes that meet the learning needs of students.

• Learners have a curriculum that increasingly reflects local contexts and provides a wide range of activities within the school environment, so they see themselves in their learning; building teachers capacity through continued growth in te reo Māori is a next step and affirmed by ERO’s evaluation.
• Teachers’ use of structured literacy and mathematics approaches is building well and supports learners’ academic achievement.
• Appropriate assessment information is used to plan classroom teaching programmes and report the progress and achievement of each learner to their parents.

• The principal, teachers and board seek and use input from the community in setting strategic priorities that clearly guide ongoing school improvement and learner success.
• Teacher capacity and capability building is supported through ongoing professional development aligned with the schools’ strategic goals; continuing to evaluate the effectiveness of the professional development is appropriate.
• Students benefit from positive teaching and learning relationships that support a strong sense of belonging within the school; their wellbeing is actively supported.

Part B: Where to next?

The agreed next steps for the school are to:

• continue professional learning to build teacher capacity through continued growth in te reo Māori
• continue to evaluate the impact of improvement strategies on student progress and achievement outcomes and the ongoing effectiveness of professional development programmes
• monitor and analyse patterns of attendance and work with the community to understand the impact of absences on progress and achievement.

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

Within three months:

• analyse attendance data and measure progress towards improving regular attendance for all groups of learners.

Every six months:

• track, monitor, analyse and report attendance to the board
• review the integration of te reo Māori in classroom programmes, so that teaching te reo Māori is embedded and teachers’ capability is enhanced
• evaluate progress and achievement data with a particular focus on the success of the ongoing impact of strategies and professional development used to enhance student achievement in reading, writing and mathematics.

Annually:

• evaluate and report attendance, progress and achievement to the board to inform future strategic improvement outcomes
• evaluate and report to the community the effectiveness of strategies and approaches that support high levels of attendance
• evaluate and report the ongoing impact of professional development and strategies used to enhance student achievement outcomes in reading, writing and mathematics.

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

• sustained achievement and improved levels of attendance
• improved fluency and frequency of the use of te reo Māori by staff and students schoolwide
• a well-established evaluation approach that focuses on improvement to learner progress and achievement for all learners in reading, writing and mathematics.

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

6 December 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