Woodville School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within twenty-seven months of the Education Review Office and Woodville School 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 

Woodville School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:

• Inspire, connect, and challenge learners through innovative practice that delivers positive outcomes.
• Innovative leadership, teaching, learning and assessment.
• Positive relationships and hauora for our learners and all our people.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how school culture and achievement can be strengthened by evidence-based evaluation of what works for learners.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

• The school analysis of 2022 data identified reading is the strongest curriculum area with 63% of the school achieving within or beyond expectations. However, achievement is not equitable for all learners, the school wants to improve the achievement of all learners particularly those who need to make accelerated progress in reading, so achievement is equitable, and learners are well placed to access the curriculum across all subject areas.
• An increase in the school roll since 2021 and the arrival of new teachers and students provided an opportunity to revisit values and how these are reflected in the school culture. Power Values have been refreshed and strengthened by Positive Behaviour for Learning (PB4L) and the school now has a wide range of information it can use to identify areas of focus.
• Recognition of the significance of high rates of regular school attendance as being a foundation for learner achievement.

The school expects to see an improved learning culture within the school and greater equitable outcomes for student achievement.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to raise achievement in reading and create a culture of positive relationships by using an approach to learning grounded on recognised research that results in improved learning outcomes for every student:

• work already underway in the school utilising the Better Start Literacy Approach (BSLA) and Positive Behaviour for Learning (PB4L)
• improved collaborative relationships with parents and whānau, local community and marae resulting in more learning-focused conversations that are developing shared values that support student achievement
• staff with existing capability and experience of improving outcomes in key curriculum areas through professional development and coaching.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• embedding structured literacy and PB4L into the school and supporting teachers with resourcing, relevant PLD, and realistic school-wide expectations
• promoting open, honest, and consistent communication between whānau and school
• addressing attendance issues by engaging key stakeholders and supports for re-engaging learners with the school
• evaluating success and applying the principles of effective internal evaluation and improvement to other curriculum areas such as mathematics.

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

12 September 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