Eketahuna School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within fourteen months of the Education Review Office and Eketāhuna 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 

Eketāhuna School is a rural primary school for students from Years 1-8 centrally located between Masterton, Pahiatua and Palmerston North. The school community comes from the town and surrounding rural areas of Nireaha, Rongokokako, Newman and Rongomai.

Eketāhuna School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are to keep learners and their whānau at the centre of education through:

• placing learners and their whānau at the centre of education
• creating great educational opportunities and outcomes that are in reach of every learner
• delivering relevant, quality teaching and leadership making a difference for learners and their whānau.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate to what extent the use of tailored assessments, early identification of individual needs and support of needs through whānau and school partnerships lays the foundation for students being prepared for learning, resulting in accelerated progress.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

• teacher evaluation and classroom observations identified learners who would benefit from support in developing a readiness to learn personalised plan
• that end of year data from 2021 indicated that with tailored support some students could make accelerated progress in literacy.

The school expects to see increased foundation skills and levels of engagement resulting in students who are better prepared for learning and experience success as learners supported by a community of school and whānau.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support the school in its goal to improve learning and hauora outcomes for students through specific identification of needs and partnerships with whānau.

• An inclusive learning climate that is positive and promotes engagement through well-organised systems, effective teaching, collaborative teamwork and ownership of the progress of all learners.
• Schoolwide identification and support for all students, especially the inclusion of students with diverse and high needs is well considered, highly responsive, individually tailored and builds strong partnerships for learning progress and achievement.
• An empowering and purposeful classroom culture strengthened by participation of whānau and community in the delivery of learning activities and fosters rich student engagement and curiosity.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• developing teaching resources to further support diagnostic approaches in preparing students for learning
• trialling assessments and resources as part of individual education plans that meaningfully includes whānau in the learning journey
• engaging with whānau in partnership learning conversations tailored to the specific needs and strategies of their children so they can support ongoing success.

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

8 August 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