Highfield School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 14 months of the Education Review Office and Highfield 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 

Highfield School is a primary school for children in Years 1-8 located in Timaru. The school includes a specialist classroom for ongoing resourcing scheme (ORS) funded students. The school’s vision for students is that they thrive in their learning through a focus on creativity, wellbeing and identity.

The school’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:

• Ako – engaging teaching and learning and responsive curriculum

• Auahatanga – provision of learning opportunities and environments that foster creativity

• Hauora – programmes and practices that foster student health and wellbeing

• Tuakiri – inclusive, culturally responsive practices and relationships that foster pride in identity.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how well the school’s inclusive, culturally responsive curriculum and teaching practice is supporting positive learning and wellbeing outcomes for diverse learners.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is that the school has a diverse school roll, both in terms of ethnicities and abilities, and is committed to providing excellent, equitable learning outcomes for all.

The school expects to see:

• ORS funded learners, neurodiverse learners and learners with specific learning difficulties thriving socially and academically

• Pacific learners progressing and achieving at expected rates and levels in literacy and numeracy

• Māori and other students having authentic opportunities to participate in tikanga Māori, growing in their knowledge of mātauranga Māori and progressing in te reo Māori learning.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support it in its goal to support excellent and equitable outcomes for diverse learners:

• school governance and leadership that is committed to inclusion and equity for all

• inclusive school culture that promotes a sense of belonging for all students

• strengthening inclusive teaching practices that are increasingly removing barriers to learning for diverse students

• developing school-wide expectations, guidelines and structures for the delivery of culturally responsive and inclusive curriculum and teaching.

Where to next?

Moving forward the school will prioritise:

• continued development of teacher capability to deliver inclusive, culturally responsive curriculum and teaching

• collaborative development of school-wide plans and guidelines for inclusive, culturally responsive curriculum and teaching

• ongoing review and evaluation to know about the effectiveness of curriculum and teaching practice on learning outcomes for diverse students.

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

1 August 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