Sherwood School (Hawkes Bay)

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report 

Background

This Profile Report was written within 16 months of the Education Review Office and Sherwood School (Hawkes Bay) 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 

Sherwood School (Hawkes Bay) is a rural school for students from Years 1 to 8. The school vision is ‘passion for learning in a rural environment‘.

Sherwood School (Hawkes Bay)’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:

• to grow confident, empowered students
• to respond to the uniqueness and diversity of all students to reach their potential.

You can find a copy of the school’s strategic and annual plan on the Sherwood School (Hawkes Bay) website.

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how effectively teaching practices and learner agency impacts on engagement and improves outcomes for all, particularly for students with diverse learning needs.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

• to promote and sustain equitable and excellent learning outcomes for all learners to reach their full potential
• to strengthen engagement in learning, developing student agency and self- efficacy for all learners.

The school expects to see:

• adaptive, responsive teaching practice that effectively supports all learners’ strengths and needs within an inclusive learning environment
• those learners with additional learning needs are provided with effective support to learn and progress at an appropriate pace
• learners demonstrate high levels of engagement and agency in their learning
• assessment for learning used to inform teaching and learning to support improvement of outcomes for all learners.

Strengths 

The school can draw from the following strengths in its goal to have effective teaching practices and learner agency for improved engagement and outcomes:

• positive relationships and connections to the local community through the focus of an Enviroschool and student-led learning opportunities
• a collaborative teaching team that builds capacity and capability through targeted professional learning to reduce barriers to education and support access to learning for all
• leadership in strengthening policies, programmes and practices to promote learners’ wellbeing, inclusion, and confidence in their identity, language and culture.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise: 

• professional learning to strengthen effective teaching practice to meet the diverse needs of learners including English Speakers of Other Languages
• improved recognition and response to the needs of diverse learners to support successful outcomes in learning and wellbeing
• using assessment information to better plan, evaluate progress and adapt teaching practice to respond to learners’ strengths and needs.

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

22 April 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