Parklands School (Motueka)

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

Parklands School (Motueka) is located in Motueka and caters for learners in Years 1 to 8 in both English and Māori medium classes. The Māori medium rumaki is known as Taumata Kahuki. The school has KAHA values of Kotahitanga | collaborative, Ako | learn/teach, Haepapa |responsibility and Aroha |empathy.

There are three parts to this report.

Part A: A summary of the findings from the most recent Education Review Office (ERO) report and/or subsequent evaluation.

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

Part A: Previous Improvement Goals

Since the previous ERO report of January 2023, the school was to evaluate how effectively approaches to teaching and assessing reading responds to the needs of students in Years 4 to 6.

Expected Improvements and Findings

The school expected to see:

Strengthening teacher practice through implementing plans for professional learning in literacy.

• Some teachers have completed structured literacy training and have effectively strengthened their teaching practice.
• The remaining teachers are currently undertaking structured literacy professional development to enhance their literacy teaching practice.

A school-wide understanding of how reading is taught at Parklands School through the introduction of a bespoke reading progressions framework.

• A reading progressions framework is yet to be developed; instead, the school focused on developing a writing progression framework that is used to monitor individual learners’ writing progress.
• Useful systems to identify and collaboratively discuss target learners, and to document support strategies, have been implemented resulting in raised teacher awareness of these learners.

Other Findings

During the course of the evaluation, the school focused on building stronger relationships between learners and teachers, better engaging learners in school and embedding consistent behaviour expectations; these have resulted in an environment with conditions to increasingly support learner success.

The greatest shift that occurred in response to the school’s action has been an improved school culture and learners’ readiness to learn.

Part B: Current State

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

Learner Success and Wellbeing

• The majority of learners are achieving at or above expected curriculum levels in reading, writing and mathematics.
• The school is yet to address disparity in achievement for Māori and Pacific learners in reading, writing and mathematics, and for boys in reading and writing; this needs to be a priority.
• Behaviour initiatives effectively support student engagement and behaviour; incidents have reduced.
• Attendance has improved but is not yet meeting the Ministry of Education’s target for regular attendance as less than half of learners attend school regularly; the school has a goal to improve attendance by more effectively engaging learners and whānau.

Conditions to support learner success

• Leaders set and pursue a small number of improvement goals and targets including taking steps to accelerate the learning of target learners more effectively.
• Leaders establish a culture where learners and their whānau are welcomed and positive behaviour expectations are promoted; parents and staff report this as a strength of the school.
• Leaders are taking steps to foster commitment to quality teaching and equity and excellence in learning outcomes.

• Staff undertake professional learning in structured literacy to develop their knowledge and skills to improve literacy achievement for all learners.
• A new school wide assessment plan, and moderation process for writing, supports teachers in their assessment of learning to improve outcomes for learners.
• Positive relationships with learners provide a strong foundation for improving engagement, progress and achievement.

• The board is strengthening its use of learner progress and achievement data to inform planning and decision making.
• Leaders are taking steps to include whānau and iwi voice to inform decision making.
• Partnerships with support agencies are well-established; learners with additional needs are identified, increasingly supported and monitored.

Rumaki/Bilingual Outcomes and Condition to Support Learner Success

The school has a rumaki which was not reviewed at this time.

Part C: Where to next?

The agreed next steps for the school are to:

• implement, monitor and evaluate evidence-based strategies intended to accelerate the progress of target learners to know the impact of these on addressing disparity in achievement
• establish and embed school-wide teaching expectations, practices and learning progressions in literacy and mathematics
• collect, analyse and respond to progress and achievement information, including learners’ feedback, to inform consistent and coherent teaching and learning practices to improve learner progress and achievement
• strengthen the use of learner and whānau involvement and feedback to improve student wellbeing, engagement, attendance and learning outcomes.

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

Within six months:

• develop a plan, informed by learner and whānau feedback, for increasing regular student attendance
• gather and analyse learner voice on engagement, wellbeing and learning to inform decision making
• review the school’s draft literacy curriculum to ensure alignment with national curriculum changes and plan professional learning required to support staff in its implementation
• establish school-wide teaching expectations, practices and learning progressions in literacy and mathematics

Every six months:

• continue to build teachers’ and leaders’ capacity to collect, analyse and respond to progress and achievement information and learners’ feedback
• teachers review, and leaders report to the board on, the effectiveness of strategies to accelerate progress and achievement of target leaners and respond to findings
• teachers and leaders analyse and report to the board on the progress and achievement of all learners in reading, writing and mathematics and respond to findings
• leaders use observation and student voice to provide teachers with feedback about their practice to embed professional learning, support teaching consistency across the school, and improve learner outcomes

Annually:

• evaluate and report on the progress, achievement and impact of interventions for target learners to inform planning
• analyse and report to the board on student achievement in reading, writing and mathematics, separating the data to show progress and achievement for groups of target learners and to inform next steps
• collect, analyse and use student and whānau feedback to improve student wellbeing, attendance and learning outcomes and to inform decision making.

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

• improved engagement, wellbeing and achievement outcomes for all learners
• acceleration of progress and reduced disparity for groups of target learners
• increased student and whānau engagement to support wellbeing, attendance and learning and to inform decision making.

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 BooysenDirector of Schools

29 November 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