Hanmer Springs School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within two years of the Education Review Office and Hanmer Springs 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 

Hanmer Springs is a rural school that caters for students in years 0 to 8 from Hanmer Springs township and the surrounding Hurunui district. The school promotes the values of Empathy, Resilience, Respect, Excellence and Integrity. Students come from a diverse range ethnicities and nationalities across the small school roll of 100.

Hanmer Springs School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:

• Purpose - embracing core skills and raising achievement in literacy and numeracy; transparent and differentiated learning for every child; and improved communication between and within the school community.
• People - improving school culture and well being; forming smooth transitions to and from school acknowledging cultural diversity; and further enhancing parents’ involvement in children’s learning
• Place - further developing the local curriculum; and developing future focused classrooms and playground environments.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate the effectiveness of raising achievement in literacy and numeracy through enhancing teaching and learning programmes.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

• this is a strategic goal with intentional planned actions in place to bring about improvements in achievement across the school
• the outcome of the evaluation will set students up for success and allow them to access the curriculum in all learning areas.

The school expects to see:

• improved student achievement with individuals reaching their full potential
• robust assessment practices used consistently schoolwide
• highly collaborative, responsive and sustainable teaching practices and learning programmes.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support the school in its goal to raise achievement in literacy and numeracy through teaching and learning programmes.

• Educationally powerful connections throughout the community, local schools, preschools and whānau support that enhances learning opportunities for all students.
• Senior leaders and a stable experienced teaching team are skilled at providing leadership in curriculum, effective teaching and behaviour management strategies.
• Tuakana teina relationships across the school that provide wellbeing and learning opportunities.
• Strategic planning that provides clear direction for achievement, learning programmes and school wide systems.
• The school uses the rich alpine and forest surroundings to support their localised curriculum, both in and out of the classroom to extend rich opportunities for learning.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• developing with all stakeholders a new strategic plan to guide the school from 2023 to 2025
• continuing to focus on raising achievement in numeracy and literacy
• embedding the school values and behaviour management plan to continue to build on the positive school culture
• continuing to honour Te Tiriti by improving bicultural practices across the school.

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

27 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