Collingwood Area School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 24 months of the Education Review Office and Collingwood Area 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

Collingwood Area School is rurally located in Collingwood, in Golden Bay, and is a member of Kāhui Ako ki Mohua. The school provides education for students in Years 1 to 13, fostering the values of Manaakitanga/Care, Ako/Learn, and Kaitiakitanga/Give. The school’s vision is ‘Connecting to others, our environment, and the future’. The school has completed a significant building project, with new purpose-built classrooms that opened in 2024.

Collingwood Area School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:

• embedding renewed values and vision to guide school direction and culture
• creating a Māori Education Plan to ensure Māori students experience success, as Māori
• authentically connecting the localised curriculum to the Mohua environment, with iwi support
• successfully implementing changes to NCEA, for senior students’ success.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate leadership of responsive curriculum and teaching innovations, including relationships designed to strengthen learner success and wellbeing. 

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is: 

• the board and leaders initiated a comprehensive strategic review and revisioning process that has prioritised further growth of the localised curriculum, and associated wellbeing, teaching and learning practices
• leaders have initiated a team coaching model and professional inquiry groups, assisting teachers to collaborate and purposefully reflect on the effectiveness and impact of their practice, and grow teaching and relationships that are highly attuned to learner strengths.

The school expects to see collaborative teaching teams consistently enacting a responsive pedagogy of relationships for learning, including culturally responsive relationships. Whānau, families, iwi and the wider community will be highly involved in curriculum developments and the life of the school. Students will enjoy engaging in meaningful learning that builds on prior knowledge and strengths, fosters the school’s values, and promotes wellbeing, learning and achievement at all levels of the school.

Strengths 

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to evaluate leadership of responsive curriculum and teaching innovations, including relationships designed to strengthen learner success:

• Analysed achievement data shows the majority of learners achieving well in relation to New Zealand Curriculum expectations, and a consistently strong pattern of NCEA success for senior students over time, who enjoy small class sizes and personalised, varied learning opportunities.
• A welcoming, friendly and caring school culture is evident, where wellbeing and positive relationships are prioritised, and individual strengths and talents are valued and proactively nurtured.
• Mana whenua is continuing to work in partnership with the school to support an authentic weaving of a cultural narrative through the school’s developing curriculum, teaching and relationships.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• using their ‘evaluation for improvement’ plan to investigate current teaching and learning approaches, including relationships for learning, to identify opportunities for further curriculum and practice developments
• leaders working with staff, students, whānau and families to define and formally document their collective expectations for quality teaching and learning practices across the school, arising from the internal evaluation
• honing leadership systems and structures that build, embed and monitor agreed teaching approaches, fostering consistent implementation of the curriculum in action, and promoting positive, mana-enhancing relationships for learning.

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

15 April 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