Taita College

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 11 months of the Education Review Office and Taita College working in Te Ara Huarau, an improvement evaluation approach used in most English Medium State and State Integrated Schools. For more information about Te Ara Huarau see ERO’s website. www.ero.govt.nz

Context 

Taita College is coeducational secondary school, located in Lower Hutt. It provides learning for students from years 9 to 13. The college’s mission is to develop the resilience and skills students need to become productive and up-standing citizens and its vision is ‘Tītiro whakarunga ki ngā puke | look upwards to the hills, aim high. At this time of this report, the college was undergoing change in its leadership team.

Taita College’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are to:

• develop a progressive curriculum that offers diverse opportunities, including a Te Ao Māori lens through building on relationships, with a link to mana whenua and local iwi
• focus on numeracy and literacy skills and achievement.

You can find a copy of the school’s strategic and annual plan on Taita College’s website.

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how well implementation of the explicit teaching of literacy is achieving equitable outcomes for learners.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

• the school has identified that many year 9 and 10 students need acceleration in literacy
• to embed consistent, evidence-based practices for teaching literacy across the year 9 and 10 curriculum in order to support and accelerate student progress and achievement. 

The school expects to see:

• teachers deliberately selecting practices and strategies for the explicit teaching of literacy in their subject areas to improve student outcomes
• systematic use of year 9 and 10 assessment data to inform planning and to evaluate the impact of this initiative
• improved proficiency in literacy of year 9 and 10 students and equity in outcomes.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to evaluate how well implementation of the explicit teaching of literacy is achieving equitable outcomes for learners:

• strengthening links with other Kāhui Ako schools are leading to more consistent transition data to inform planning
• embedded support systems monitor student progress and wellbeing, and identify those students’ needing acceleration in their learning
• relevant pathways are strategically developed for individual students in collaboration with students and their whānau
• sustained, equitable outcomes in NCEA for senior students.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• working with the Taita/Stokes Valley Kāhui Ako to strategically select appropriate assessment tools to monitor student progress in literacy across contributing schools and into year 9 and 10
• targeted professional learning in literacy strategies to strengthen teachers’ capabilities and enable consistency across learning areas
• continued data analysis to evaluate the impact of this initiative on student achievement and equity of outcomes.

ERO’s role will be to support the school in its evaluation for improvement cycle to improve outcomes for all learners. ERO will support the school in reporting their progress to the community. The next public report on ERO’s website will be a Te Ara Huarau | School Evaluation Report and is due within three years.

Shelley Booysen
Director of Schools

26 October 2023 

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