Russell School (Porirua East)

School Evaluation Report

Tēnā koutou e mau manawa rahi ki te kaupapa e aro ake nei, ko te tamaiti te pūtake o te kaupapa. Mā wai rā e kawe, mā tātau katoa. 

We acknowledge the collective effort, responsibility and commitment by all to ensure that the child remains at the heart of the matter. 

Context 

​​Russell School (Porirua East)​, located in Wellington, provides education for learners in Years 1 to 6. The school’s vision, “Our purpose is to connect across the community, for greater combined strength, ensuring the voice of the children, and whānau action their own learning and development, reflecting our identity and culture” is underpinned by the school’s HEART values of Honesty, Empathy, Aroha, Respect and Teamwork, and the Porirua East Kahui Ako’s VAI vision of Voice, Action and Identity. 

There are two parts to this report. 

Part A: An evaluative summary of learner success and school conditions to inform the school board’s future strategic direction, including any education in Rumaki/bilingual settings. 

Part B: The improvement actions prioritised for the school’s next evaluation cycle. 

Part A: Current State  

The following findings are to inform the school’s future priorities for improvement. 

Learner Success and Wellbeing

• Schoolwide data on the progress and achievement of learners against expected curriculum levels is not evident. 
• Classroom teachers track and monitor individual learners progress, but schoolwide achievement information is not analysed to know the impact of teaching and learning on learner outcomes. 
• Regular attendance is lower than the Ministry of Education 2024 target, with less than half of learners attending school regularly; staff work with whānau and external agencies to support the regular attendance of students. 

Conditions to support learner success

• Leaders create a positive environment that is inclusive, values diversity and promotes student wellbeing for learning. 
• Leaders report student results from standardised testing and the progress and achievement of target students to the board; reporting progress and achievement against curriculum levels is needed to enhance the board’s ability to target resourcing to those learners who need this. 
• A strong commitment to increasing student attendance is evident with ongoing wrap-around support and initiatives in place; including this focus in the school’s strategic planning to ensure continued monitoring of the impact of these is a next step.

• Culturally responsive teaching and learning experiences support engagement in learning; appropriate professional development supports this. 
• Teachers foster positive classroom relationships that empower students to ask for help with their learning when they require this. 
• Learners with additional needs are well supported and make progress against appropriately challenging goals set in their individual education plans; external agencies are involved when needed.

• The school’s HEART and VAI values are evident across all aspects of school life and underpin the inclusive response that enhances students’ attendance, wellbeing, engagement and learning. 
• Orderly and well-resourced learning environments foster student engagement; the board appropriately resources equipment to support active participation in learning opportunities. 
• Teachers integrate te reo Māori and tikanga Māori in classroom environments promoting success for Māori ākonga; all staff respond culturally to tangata tiriti and tangata moana, strengthening their commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi. 
• Deliberate actions are in place to strengthen positive relationships with whānau and the school community; developing stronger learning partnerships with whānau is an area of focus for the school. 

Part B: Where to next? 

The agreed next steps for the school are to: 

• collate and report schoolwide student progress and achievement against curriculum levels to the board, enabling them to identify trends and patterns and respond to support the acceleration of learners who need this 
• strengthen assessment practices to provide stronger evidence of the impact of teaching and learning, and to inform teaching to accelerate learning 
• continue the focus on increasing the regular attendance of learners through strategic planning and wrap-around support 
• continue to extend the strong relationships with whānau into reciprocal learning partnerships to promote ongoing improved outcomes for learners. 

The agreed actions for the next improvement cycle and timeframes are as follows. 

Within three months: 

• ensure that 2024 end-of-year student data is collated, and schoolwide student progress and achievement against curriculum levels is analysed and reported to the board to inform the strategic direction of the school 
• ensure that the regular attendance of students continues to be a priority by including this in upcoming strategic planning. 

Every six months: 

• continue to analyse attendance and achievement information to know the impact of strategic planning and resourcing to inform next steps for learners and to respond to any areas that require acceleration 
• continue to work with whānau and external agencies to promote the regular attendance of learners. 

Annually: 

• review and report the impact of teaching and learning programmes on achievement outcomes to know what has been successful and what needs further improvement to inform ongoing strategic direction 
• analyse and report attendance patterns and trends to inform the ongoing planning for improving the regular attendance of learners. 

Actions taken against these next steps are expected to result in: 

• clear and coherent student progress and achievement information, to inform next steps for learners and to respond to any disparity identified 
• students progressing and achieving against the curriculum, and attending school regularly 
• reciprocal learning partnerships between parents, whānau and the school that inform strategic direction and planning and support learner success. 

ERO’s role will be to support the school in its evaluation for improvement cycle to improve outcomes for all learners. The next public report on ERO’s website will be a School Evaluation Report and is due within three years. 

Me mahi tahi tonu tātau, kia whai oranga a tātau tamariki 
Let’s continue to work together for the greater good of all children 

Shelley Booysen 
Director of Schools 

​​10 February 2025​ 

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