Tawa School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within two years of the Education Review Office and Tawa 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 

Tawa School is situated in one of Wellington’s northwest suburbs and provides educational opportunities to students in Years 0 to 8.

Tawa School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are for all students:

• to experience success in their learning through an engaging, child-centred curriculum

• to feel safe, welcome and included.

You can find a copy of the school’s charter, strategic and annual plans on Tawa School’s website.

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate the impact of new literacy teaching strategies being trialed throughout the school. This will include the impact of new teaching practices on teacher efficacy and student achievement. It will also include the development of community understanding of literacy learning and how whānau are best able to support their children with their literacy learning. The rationale for selecting this evaluation is a desire to:

• raise the achievement of students across the school in reading and writing

• to continue to improve the effective teaching of literacy in Tawa School.

The school expects to see all students actively engaged in their learning and achieving educational success. That teachers will regularly discuss learning and the impact of their actions on student progress. It also expects to know parents have an increased understanding of the literacy learning process and are using this to support their children’s’ learning.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support the school in its goal to effectively integrate new literacy practices into the delivery of its local curriculum:

• identifying and implementing those strategies that make the biggest difference to student learning outcomes

• staff who are open to professional learning and moving to an evidence-based approach to teaching and assessment

• leadership that is supportive and seeks continual improvement and better outcomes for students – both social and educational.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• the implementation of key strategies into teaching and learning programmes throughout Tawa School to raise literacy achievement levels across reading, writing, oral language and spelling

• increased discussions between staff that result in informed changes to teacher practice.

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

6 June 2023 

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