Westland High 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

Westland High School is located in Hokitika, on the South Island’s West Coast, and provides education for learners in Years 7 to 13. The school offers delivery in te reo Māori in its bilingual education unit. The school’s values are whanangatanga, manaakitianga, kaitiakitanga and rangatiratanga. 

There are two parts to this report. 

Part A: An evaluative summary of learner outcomes and school conditions to inform the school board’s future strategic direction, including 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

• The school is initiating additional support in literacy and mathematics for Year 7 to 10 learners; information over time indicates that the majority of learners who join the school with below expected achievement levels in literacy and mathematics make significant progress to successfully gain national qualifications in the senior school. 
• The majority of learners achieve at each level of the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA); the school is beginning to address disparity in Māori learner achievement.
• Learners have personalised pathways that suit their aspirations, interests and next steps in further study, training or employment beyond school.
• The school has improving levels of regular attendance that are approaching, but not yet at, the Ministry of Education’s national target; just over a third of learners attend regularly.

Conditions to support learner success

• Leaders have improved academic tracking processes so that learners at risk of not achieving to their potential are identified more effectively and timely interventions are made that improve outcomes.
• Heads of learning areas are initiating steps to develop teachers’ capacities to hold increasingly clear and high expectations about learners’ progress and achievement.
• The school provides leadership opportunities for students in range of roles that increasingly contribute to achieving the school’s vision and implementing its values.

• Leaders and teachers are initiating steps to improve the coherence, planning and delivery of teaching and learning programmes in order to improve student engagement and success.
• Teachers are increasingly adapting their practice to make learning accessible for students and more responsive to their needs.
• Teachers are expanding the school’s localised curriculum to include local histories, outdoor education, conservation and agriculture, to better address students’ learning interests and vocational aspirations. 

• In consultation with local iwi and the school community, leadership is developing a bilingual policy and procedure to guide school operation, build bilingual capability and develop a learner-focused, bicultural curriculum to improve engagement.
• Leaders have introduced a whānau group structure that is strengthening the development of learners’ resilience, competencies and connections to each other; restorative practices are increasing learner responsibility to uphold the school’s values. 
• Leaders and teachers continue to establish productive partnerships with tertiary and training providers, businesses and employers, providing vocational pathways for senior learners.
• The board examines learner performance, including monitoring attendance, engagement, achievement to evaluate improvement and plan next steps.

Part B: Where to next?

The agreed next steps for the school are to:

• use learner data to inform teaching and wellbeing practices that support students to attain their highest possible standards in educational achievement and qualifications
• use research-based evidence to develop practices that increase engagement of Māori learners and their whānau, to reduce barriers and promote excellent and equitable outcomes for all students and particularly Māori learners
• strengthen teaching and leadership across the school to empower and support learners’ competency development so that they build positive, respectful relationships
• implement strategies that improve and sustain levels of regular attendance.

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

Within six months

• leaders and teachers continue to analyse achievement information to determine which teaching and curriculum interventions are raising Māori achievement and lifting outcomes for all learners to achieve a minimum school leaver achievement rate of Level 2 National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA)
• teachers continue to support achievement in the Common Assessment Activities (CAAs) in literacy and numeracy to increase learner achievement pathways.

Every six months

• leaders and teachers strengthen engagement with iwi, hapū and whānau to meaningfully incorporate te reo Māori and tikanga Māori into the everyday life of the school and to build a learner-focused, bicultural curriculum
• leaders and teachers continue to gather and respond to learner wellbeing data to evaluate the implementation of restorative practices within the school.

Annually

• leaders analyse and report attendance, retention, engagement and achievement data to the board and use it to inform teaching practices and curriculum development that improve learner outcomes
• leaders continue to engage with learner wellbeing information to inform and improve school-wide wellbeing initiatives
• leaders and teachers implement strategic actions across learning areas to align and respond to outcomes information and the implementation plan to improve learner outcomes
• leaders and teachers develop practices to connect with the cultures, identities and languages of Māori learners to raise outcomes.

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

• improved engagement and equitable progress and achievement across curriculum areas for all learners, including Māori learners
• giving increasing effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi through a greater partnership with Māori learners and whānau and the development and implementation of a learner-focused, bicultural curriculum
• increased indicators of learner wellbeing and competency development
• improved and sustained regular attendance.

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

5 December 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