Blaketown School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 24 months of the Education Review Office and Blaketown 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 

Blaketown School is a full primary school located near Greymouth and provides education for students in Years 1 to 8. The school’s values are Manaaki | Respect; Takohanga | Responsibility; and Manawaroa | Resilience. Blaketown School has a focus on co-constructed, inquiry learning under their motto: ako tahi tātou | together we learn. Since mid-2021, the school has been led by a first-time Principal who is a long-serving staff member at Blaketown School.

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

• to ensure learning is inclusive, student-focussed and authentic to further develop student ownership and understanding of their own learning
• for all students to continue to progress in reading, writing, and mathematics
• to accelerate learning for those students who have been identified as needing it.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate the impact of their literacy programme on reading approaches, teaching practices, achievement, and engagement in Years 1 to 8.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is that the:

• school has identified that a significant group of students are achieving below expectations in reading, and, in particular, reading comprehension
• Māwhera Kāhui Ako has a focus on reading and is facilitating access to professional learning opportunities for reading.

The school expects to see:

• improved student achievement in reading and writing throughout the school, with accelerated progress for those students identified as needing it
• increased knowledge and skills of staff in teaching and assessing reading.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support the school in its goal to evaluate the impact of their literacy programme on reading approaches, teaching practices, achievement, and engagement in Years 1 to 8:

• All staff, support and teaching, are engaging in regular professional learning which is growing capability.
• Teachers collaborate when planning for learning, growing a consistent approach.
• The established programme for positive behaviour encourages and supports inclusive learning and student ownership of their learning.
• Networking with other local schools who have a collective goal to reinvigorate reading in the area.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• ongoing professional learning around strategies for literacy learning to sustain progress
• the board, leaders, and teachers will gather valid information, scrutinise it to inform decisions about next steps for priority learners, and monitor and report on the sufficiency of progress.

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

30 May 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