Mahinawa Specialist School and Resource Centre

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 6 months of the Education Review Office and ​Mahinawa Specialist School and Resource Centre​ 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

This report is part of a nationally coordinated evaluation of 27-day specialist schools during the second half of 2023. This included the development of day specialist school evaluation indicators by ERO with significant input from principals, staff and the Special Education Principals’ Association of New Zealand (SEPAnz).

Context

Mahinawa is a day specialist school in Porirua for students between the ages of 5 to 21 years. All students have ongoing resourcing scheme (ORS) funding. These students learn across a range of settings, including at the base school, eight satellite sites in local host schools and a transition unit for rangatahi aged between 18 and 21 years.

The school has a specialist therapy team that support students’ wellbeing and access to learning. The school’s specialist teacher outreach service works with ORS funded students enrolled in four local schools.

The school continues to navigate and manage roll growth pressures along with the employment and property demands associated with this.

The school mission is ‘Being the best we can be’. The school has the expectation that all within their community will achieve to their best. The school whakatauki ‘He waka eke noa – We are all in this together’ reflects how they endeavour to work with whānau, ākonga and the wider community to support all to succeed.

The vision for Mahinawa Special School and Resource Centre is to become a centre of excellence for special education for young people with special needs. This is supported by the school’s shared beliefs of:

• equity – all students have a right to succeed and be heard
• respect – for ourselves, each other, and our environment
• courage – be proud and stand up for our students and our school
• fun – enjoying learning and celebrating achievements
• contribution – everyone is valued and has a part to play.

​​Mahinawa Specialist School and Resource Centre​’s current strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:

• encouraging the best community engagement
• building the best learning opportunities
• developing the best staff delivering the best programmes for learners.

You can find a copy of the school’s strategic and annual plan on ​Mahinawa Specialist School and Resource Centre​’s website.

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate to how effective the curriculum is in responding to the unique profile of learners to promote equitable outcomes for all.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is that school leaders have high expectations of themselves, their staff and learners. They have identified that their key next step is to lift the intentional effectiveness of teaching across the school to respond to the uniqueness of their learners.

The school expects to see consistent and effective intentional teaching across the school that promotes equitable wellbeing and learning outcomes for all learners.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to evaluate to how effective the curriculum is responding to the unique profile of learners to promote equitable outcomes for all.

• Targeted individual planning approaches that cater to a diverse range of learners and promotes success with achieving learning goals.
• A school culture and climate that promotes wellbeing and care for all in community.
• Leadership that aligns key school conditions within a culture for improvement to support the implementation of the school’s strategic plan and direction.
• Carefully monitoring and knowing about the impact of teaching and support programmes.
• Whānau and learner voice is effectively utilised to support planning for student wellbeing and learning.
• Staff demonstrate effective teaching and support for learning and enact high expectations for learners and their success.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• schoolwide professional development supporting and promoting staff cultural competency
• further internal professional learning and development about intentional teaching to ensure shared staff understanding
• a review of school assessment practices
• strengthening relationship-based teaching programmes.

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​

​​7 June 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