Havelock School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report 

Background

This Profile Report was written within 12 months of the Education Review Office and Havelock 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 

Havelock School caters for students from year 1 to 8 and is situated in the centre of Havelock township. The school’s vision is that all children should enjoy their learning, achieve their potential and become independent life-long learners. Tuakana teina relationships are valued across the school and encapsulated in the whakatauki, Mā te tuakana te teina e tōtika, Mā teina tuakana e tōtika - The older will lead the younger and the younger will lead the older.

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

• to accelerate the learning of all students through robust assessment practices that inform responsive teaching practices
• to provide a curriculum that offers a range of opportunities for students to set, achieve and evaluate their goals
• to foster a culturally responsive school environment that supports the wellbeing of staff and students.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how effectively a purposeful and consistent approach to relationship-based teacher practice strengthens student agency, relationships with whānau and improves outcomes for learners.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is: 

• The Board and the Principal recognise the need for more open and reciprocal relationships between the school and whānau.
• School systems and processes have been designed to better support student progress throughout the school.

The school expects to see:

• students having ownership of their learning 
• school values known by students and whānau and more evident in everyday practice 
• more whānau engaged across a wider range of contexts within the school
• increased whānau awareness of teachers’ responsiveness to their child’s academic, social and emotional needs
• further uptake and implementation by teachers of the attendance engagement action plan.

Strengths 

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to evaluate how effectively a purposeful and consistent approach to relationship-based teacher practice strengthens student agency, relationships with whānau and improves outcomes for learners:

• strong connections with Ngāti Kuia who have provided the school with their aspirations for tamariki through their education plan
• leadership supports teachers to engage in weekly evaluations of the data around priority learners to increase teacher accountability for learner progress
• the creation and implementation of a successful student engagement programme which has increased attendance and learning outcomes for students across the school.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• listening to and acting on student voice so that students’ ideas and preferences are evident in planning
• professional learning to support relationship-based teaching and learning so that teachers can be coached to sustain new practices 
• increased opportunities for whānau to communicate with the school.

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

23 February 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