Nayland College

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within ten months of the Education Review Office and Nayland College 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

Nayland College is a large, state, co-educational secondary school located in Nelson. It provides education for students in years 9 to 13. The school’s work is guided and informed by its SOAR values of success, opportunity, ako and respect.

Nayland College’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:

• Success: to ensure that all students strive for personal success and leave Nayland College ready for their next steps in the world.
• Opportunity: a wide range of authentic and culturally rich opportunities, both within and extra to the curriculum, empower all learners to be treaty partners and global citizens.
• Ako: to inspire all learners through positive relationships and effective teaching and learning practices.
• Respect: to develop an inclusive and equitable learning community through valuing and nurturing hauora.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate the impact of its revised, localised curriculum on year 9 and 10 student achievement, engagement, and equitable outcomes.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is to:

• improve the consistency of curriculum planning and delivery across learning areas
• increase learner agency in all areas of learning
• more effectively respond to identified target groups of students needing to make accelerated progress to achieve equitable outcomes
• evaluate the effectiveness of significant changes to curriculum design and delivery introduced for year 9 and 10 students.

The school expects to see:

• increased numbers of students achieve personalised learning success across the refreshed curriculum, and improved engagement and equity
• students showing increased learner agency in all areas of learning, exploring their strengths and what learning works for them so they know how to learn effectively
• local iwi priorities for learning woven into the localised curriculum.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support the school in its goal to evaluate the impact of its revised, localised curriculum on year 9 and 10 student achievement, engagement, and equitable outcomes.

• Agreed and established teacher profile, classroom culture guide, pastoral systems, and learning design principles are used to inform planning and reinforce expectations across the school.
• Systematic processes track students’ progress, achievement and engagement and identify those needing interventions to make accelerated progress.
• Partnerships with mana whenua and whānau Māori are growing and helping to identify priorities and inform curriculum and evaluate curriculum development.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• further targeted professional learning to develop teachers’ cultural capabilities and to upskill them in providing quality teaching and learning to students with additional needs
• implementing and evaluating the impact of improved academic mentoring, tracking and reporting processes to monitor progress, achievement and engagement, and identify students in need of targeted interventions
• continued strengthening of connections with whānau, community and mana whenua to inform and evaluate curriculum development.

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

28 March 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

The school holds the management contract for the local alternative education provider and is the managing school of the Top of the South Trades Academy.