Holy Family School (Porirua)

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 12 months of the Education Review Office and Holy Family School (Porirua) 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 

Holy Family School is a state integrated Catholic primary school in Porirua East. Community partnerships and Catholic Gospel values are promoted in school practices.

Holy Family School (Porirua)’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:

• facilitate a genuine and ongoing encounter with Christ

• raise student achievement through continued development of teaching practice

• keep the wellbeing of students and the staff at the forefront of all that we do.

You can find a copy of the school’s strategic and annual plan on Holy Family School (Porirua)’s website.

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate to what extent improved evaluation practices can more effectively help staff meet the needs of students.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

• to respond effectively to known trends in achievement data

• a newly created leadership structure focused on continuing to strengthen conditions for inquiry and evaluation throughout the school

• to support staff to evaluate impacts of teaching practices.

The school expects to see increased equity in outcomes for students currently working below expected levels of achievement, particularly in number and reading skills.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support the school in its goal to evaluate to what extent improved evaluation practices can more effectively help staff meet the needs of students.

• Learners experience a school climate that recognises, embraces and nurtures their sense of cultural identity which provides strong foundations for engagement in learning.

• The learning culture is well established and consistently characterised by respect, inclusion, empathy and collaboration, underpinned by Catholic values that supports meaningful learning relationships across the school and community.

• Staff who focus on the fundamentals of effective teaching by continually questioning what students need and how best to meet those needs.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• creating a shared schoolwide plan for leaders, teachers and support staff to use data to identify, share and implement changes focused on what is working best for learners

• evaluating strategies that accelerate progress for all learners including groups of learners not currently working at expected levels

• clearly documenting effective assessment practices throughout the curriculum and using these to support learning progress.

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

27 June 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