Thorndon School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 18 months of the Education Review Office and Thorndon 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 

Thorndon School, located in Wellington, provides education for learners from years 1 to 8.

Thorndon School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:

• Poutama: strong learner achievement

• Ukaipōtanga: celebrating our identity as a community

• Hanga Whare: strengthening our systems and processes for now and the future.

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

ERO and the school are working together, using the context of writing, to evaluate how effectively schoolwide systems and processes are:

• supporting all learner’s continuous achievement and improvement

• building leader and teacher collective capacity and culturally sustainable practices

• strengthening learning partnerships with whānau.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is: 

• that the board and leaders have prioritised the acceleration of learners’ achievement in writing through the alignment of systems and processes, building leaders’ and teachers’ capacity and culturally sustainable practices and strengthening learning partnerships with whānau.

The school expects to see the alignment and strengthening of systems and processes, the building of collective leadership and teacher capacity, curriculum knowledge and effective practice, learning partnerships with whānau, and the lifting of the achievement of all learners.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support the school in its goal to evaluate how well schoolwide systems and processes are building leader and teacher collective capacity, culturally sustainable practices, for learner’s continuous improvement:

• a newly established collaborative leadership model that prioritises sustainable change and supports the continuous achievement of mokopuna

• engaged and highly supportive whānau committed to improving the achievement of mokopuna.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• the development and alignment of schoolwide systems and key documents to guide, support and build leaders’ and teachers’ capacity and curriculum knowledge, culturally sustainable practices and whānau learning partnerships that will accelerate learner achievement in writing.

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

20 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