Ohuka 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

Ohuka School is a Years 0 to 8 country primary school north-west of Wairoa. A new principal was appointed at the start of term 3, 2024. The schools’ vision is to prepare students for a lifetime of learning in a physically and emotionally safe environment.

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 for 2023 shows that most learners achieve at the appropriate curriculum level for reading and writing; a small majority progress and achieve well in mathematics.
• Outcomes for learners show no significant inequities between groups of learners; moderation of students’ achievement in reading, writing and mathematics is a priority to accurately report achievement.
• The school is significantly behind the Ministry of Education target for regular attendance.

Conditions to support learner success

• Leadership is beginning to plan and co-ordinate the school’s local curriculum to ensure it meets learner needs.
• Leadership is beginning to use achievement and evidence to plan and monitor improvement strategies; a next step is to evaluate the impact of these strategies on learner progress and achievement.
• Learners with diverse needs are a next priority for the school through more deliberate planned support and nurturing with bespoke learning programmes.

• Students are purposefully engaged and respond well to explicit teaching and structured programmes in literacy and mathematics.
• Students have a curriculum that increasingly reflects local contexts and provides a range of activities, so they see themselves in their learning; reviewing the local curriculum to reflect the views of the school’s current community is a next step.
• Assessment information is used to report the progress and achievement of each learner; strengthening assessment practices and more closely monitoring progress over time is a next step to support learner outcomes.

• The principal and board seek and use input from the school community in setting strategic priorities that guide ongoing school improvement and learner success.
• Assessment information, that includes addressing learning needs, provided by the principal to the board assists resourcing decisions to align to priorities for learner success.
• Students benefit from positive teaching and learning relationships that support a strong sense of belonging within the school.

Part B: Where to next?

The agreed next steps for the school are to:

• monitor and analyse patterns of attendance, and work with the community to understand the impact of absences on progress and achievement
• the principal and staff strengthen assessment processes, including moderation and their data analysis for more in-depth understanding of the progress and achievement of all students
• review the school’s local curriculum, schoolwide systems, processes and practices, to ensure these reflect the current direction of the school.

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

Within three months:

• undertake a review of school systems, processes, and practices to inform strategic planning
• more clearly identify target students to closely monitor their progress and achievement and inform reporting

Every six months:

• review and evaluate progress against targets and actions in the school’s annual plan, including attendance targets, to inform next steps to improve learner achievement, success and engagement
• monitor the progress of identified learners and the impact of key initiatives on learner outcomes; meet with parents to share impact of actions taken to inform learning partnerships

Annually:

• evaluate the impact of strategies used to improve attendance and engagement to understand the impact of absences on progress and achievement
• analyse achievement data to evaluate the impact of learning programmes on accelerating progress for identified priority learners and report the outcomes to the board
• evaluate the outcome of actions taken to progress the school’s strategic direction; identify what has been successful and what needs further development for continued improvement.

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

• high levels of student’s achievement in literacy and numeracy sustained over time
• improved attendance
• aligned systems, processes and practices that support improvement priorities moving forward.

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

10 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