Taita Central School

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 

​​Taita Central School​ is in Lower Hutt and provides education for students in Years 1 to 6. A new leadership team is in place, with the appointment of a new principal mid-2022 and a new deputy principal mid-2023. The school’s shared values of perseverance, outstanding excellence, whakawhanaungatanga, empathy and respect, are integral to the school’s culture and curriculum.  

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

Improvements are required to ensure learners are engaged, making sufficient progress and achieving well. 

• Achievement information shows less than half of all learners achieve at or above the curriculum expectations in reading, writing and mathematics; improvement in learner progress and achievement is required. 
• Improving equity for groups of learners, including Māori and Pacific learners, remains a priority. 
• Attendance information shows a small majority of learners attend school more than 90% of the time; leaders and teachers closely monitor and support whānau to improve the attendance rates of all learners. 

Conditions to support learner success 

Leaders foster a collaborative teaching culture and work towards high quality teaching for equitable outcomes for learners. 

• Leaders and staff promote a positive school culture with a clear focus on improving learner engagement and wellbeing.  
• A system to monitor and analyse student progress and achievement data is newly in place to inform strategic priorities; leaders and staff are taking steps to purposefully plan to address barriers to learning.  
• Leaders purposefully support and facilitate ongoing improvement and development of teacher capabilities for improved learner outcomes. 

Teachers are working towards establishing responsive teaching and learning practices school wide. 

• In the junior school, staff know learners well, work together and provide purposeful, well-paced learning experiences for all learners; this practice is developing in the senior school. 
• Teachers are strengthening capability in using data to inform responsive practices that support improved learner outcomes and address barriers to learning. 
• Leaders and teachers are improving the way they collect, analyse and interpret data to better inform teaching and learning.  

Leaders and staff are refining and strengthening school conditions, actions and practices to promote improved learner wellbeing, attendance and achievement. 

• The board and leaders are building and aligning key school practices and processes focused on learner wellbeing, achievement and engagement. 
• The board, leaders and teachers use information from a range of sources to plan for ongoing improvement. 
• Leaders and staff seek and engage in ongoing professional development, including through the local Kāhui Ako, to support learner progress and wellbeing. 
• The board, leaders and staff continue to build partnerships with parents and whānau; their views are actively sought to guide ongoing development and strategic improvement. 

Part B: Where to next?  

The agreed next steps for the school are to:  

• strengthen use of attendance and achievement information to inform responsive teaching practice and improve achievement outcomes for all learners 
• support teachers to further develop consistent, responsive teaching and learning practices with a focus meeting the many different learning needs and interests of students 
• build teachers’ shared understanding of effective strategies to enable learners to identify what their next learning steps are and how to go about achieving these 
• increase whānau engagement in their child’s learning and partnerships with the school to improve attendance and achievement outcomes. 

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

Within six months: 

• review planning, learning and assessment practices to support and promote improved attendance and achievement outcomes for all learners  
• use research informed teaching and learning practices to purposefully address barriers to learning and build teacher, student and whānau understanding of how children learn best 
• work with whānau about how they would like to be involved in their child’s learning and assist understanding about the importance of regular attendance, and the correlation between attendance and academic progress and achievement 

Every six months: 

• collect, moderate, analyse and use data to report on the progress, attendance and achievement of all learners 
• review and report on the effectiveness of changes to teaching practice, through teacher observation, collection of learner voice and learner outcomes 
• meet with whānau to sustain active participation in the planning and decision-making of the school 

Annually: 

• analyse and report schoolwide achievement data to the board, to strategically plan actions that will improve attendance, achievement and learner outcomes 
• conduct a wellbeing survey that includes aspects of responsive practices with staff, learners and families, to assist with strengthening responsive classroom practices and further engage learners 
• gather and review parent and whānau voice on the success of partnerships with the school and engagement with their children’s learning. 

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

• consistently effective and responsive teaching, learning and assessment practices schoolwide, resulting in improved achievement outcomes for all learners in reading, writing and mathematics 
• all learners being active participants in their own learning and able to talk about their next steps and what they have achieved 
• improved levels of learner attendance and whānau engagement; with a shared understanding of how to support their child’s learning, progress and achievement.  

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​ 

​​31 July 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