Amberley 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 

Amberley School is located in North Canterbury and provides education for learners in Years 1 to 8. The school’s vision is learning with PRIDE (Hiringa | Personal Best, Whakoha | Respect, Whakapono | Integrity, Manawanui | Determination, and Harikoa |Enthusiasm. The school is a member of the Puketeraki Kāhui Ako.

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

The school is working towards equitable and excellent outcomes for learners.

• Most learners are achieving at expected curriculum level in mathematics and a majority of learners are achieving at the expected curriculum level in reading and writing.
• Some learners are not achieving as well as others; the school has yet address Māori learners achieving as well as their peers and boys achieving as well as girls in reading and writing.
• School data shows most learners report their teachers believe they can succeed and treat them fairly.
• The majority of learners attend school regularly; the school is yet to meet the Ministry of Education target for regular attendance.

Conditions to support learner success

Leadership increasingly fosters a culture committed to quality teaching, and equity and excellence in learner outcomes.

• Leaders provide professional learning and coaching that enables staff to improve their teaching practice to better support learner progress and achievement.
• Leaders build educationally focused relationships with other education providers and community groups to support learner transitions and increase opportunities for learning and success.
• Leaders set and pursue specific improvement goals, including the acceleration of learning for those not yet meeting expectations in reading.

Leaders and teachers are taking steps to provide a responsive curriculum and high-quality teaching.

• Teachers have positive and mutually respectful teacher-learner relationships that increasingly support learners to experience success.
• Teachers identify and closely monitor target learners in reading and then refine their teaching to accelerate learning progress.
• Teachers create an orderly environment where learners are supported to participate and apply new learning.

Conditions for learner success are being established.

• The board is taking steps to establish systems and processes to review its own performance.
• Leaders seek and respond to learner and whānau feedback informing decision making for school improvement.
• The majority of the staff have participated in Te reo Māori and iwi professional learning to grow their confidence and capability and are supported to include local cultural contexts in teaching and learning to engage learners.

Part B: Where to next? 

The agreed next steps for the school are to:

• Strengthen teaching and assessment practices and develop a school-wide mathematics programme to ensure consistent teaching practices which support continued progress and achievement in mathematics.
• Improve and increase capacity to evaluate and assess learning across the curriculum, using data effectively to identify, monitor, and respond to and emerging trends and patterns.
• Accelerate learning for targeted students in reading, writing and mathematics.
• Develop, implement and monitor strategies to increase regular attendance.

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

Within six months:

• plan and implement systems and strategies for improving regular attendance
• develop a schoolwide teaching and assessment programme in mathematics.

Every six months:

• review and evaluate the impact of strategies for improving attendance
• teachers review and leaders report to the board on the progress of target learners and the effectiveness of interventions being used to accelerate progress and achievement
• review and report to the board the progress and achievement of all learners in reading, writing and mathematics and responding to emerging trends and patterns.

Annually:

• review and evaluate the impact of teacher professional learning on learner outcomes 
• evaluate and report to the board the progress and achievement of all learners in reading, writing and mathematics and plan targeted actions for the next year to improve learner outcomes
• review and evaluate the impact of strategies for improving attendance.

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

• improved learner engagement and regular attendance
• accelerated progress and achievement for target learners
• increased progress and achievement for all learners.

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

13 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