Ilam 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 

Ilam School is situated in Christchurch and provides education for students from Years 1 to 6. There has been a change of senior leadership and board since the 2021 ERO report.

The school’s strategic plan prioritises turangawaewae, our place; ako, our learning and whanaungatanga, our culture and relationships. 

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. 

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

Part A: Previous Improvement Goals

During the past three years, ERO and the school have been working together to evaluate how the development of a consistent and responsive approach to teaching and learning in mathematics, through collaborative inquiry, ensures learners experience hauora, wellbeing and success. 

Expected Improvements and Findings

The school expected to see:

Students, staff and families engaging together to collectively enhance learning practices and outcomes.

• The majority of students achieve well in mathematics, including English language learners.
• Ongoing and collaborative professional development has improved the quality of mathematics teaching to be more responsive to students’ strengths and needs. 
• The school has implemented a range of opportunities for whānau and family to meet and discuss developments in curriculum and learning and these continue to expand through digital platforms.

Staff responding to students’ strengths and needs, including responsive practices and relationships in teaching and learning approaches.

• Students benefit from teaching and learning in mathematics that is research-informed and personalised to interests, strengths and needs. 
• An experienced language support team provides experienced assistance to English language learners and their families and shares its expertise with teaching teams, fostering collective support for diverse cultures.
• Leaders have created a common language and expectations for high quality teaching and learning in mathematics, with coherent assessment, planning and practices, and improved data analysis.

Energised and confident teachers, fostering student hauora and success.

• Students express greater engagement, confidence and understanding in mathematics, and their achievements are celebrated. 
• Teachers collaboratively identify evidence for improved achievement in mathematics and collectively seek solutions to further enhance students’ confidence and success in mathematics. 

Other Findings

During the evaluation leaders realised that prioritising one focus for development across the school with associated training to grow middle leadership and having senior leaders participating in the professional development, effectively promoted capability-building.

The greatest shift that occurred in response to the school’s action, was a culture of innovation and research-informed practice. Teachers naturally transferred their learning from mathematics into other areas of the curriculum, initiating spontaneous reviews and improvements in practice.

Part B: Current State

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

Learner Success and Wellbeing 

• The school’s analysis of reading, writing and mathematics data shows that the majority of students achieve at or above curriculum expectations, including for most Māori students.
• The school’s analysis of data shows that Pacific students’ attendance, progress and achievement is an area for continued focus and is being addressed through the school’s Pacific Plan.
• The school has strong overall attendance at 90%, leaders deeply analyse the data to identify trends in absences and opportunities to further strengthen regular attendance for some students.

Conditions to support learner success

• Senior leaders have instigated systematic improvements to grow team leadership and teaching practices, designed to strengthen student achievement in the core learning areas. 
• Team leaders effectively support staff to realise the school’s vision with a shared understanding of common practices, that foster professional growth and supportive relationships.
• Regular staff discussions are focused on learner success, sharing professional readings and research, monitoring progress and providing a collaborative forum to evaluate benefits for students. 

• Teachers provide learners with and increasingly responsive, student-centred and localised curriculum that promotes their engagement in learning. 
• The curriculum clearly outlines expectations for quality teaching that values diverse potential, seeks students’ ideas, and guides enhanced teaching and learning practices.
• Leaders have created a progressive mathematics pathway from Years 1 to 6, to sustain improved student achievement, wellbeing and engagement over time.

• Community consultation informed the principal’s appointment and strategic review, and the strategic plan prioritises further opportunities to engage with whānau, hapū and iwi voices in deliberate ways.
• A well organised learning support provision for students with specialist needs will benefit from student and family voice and perspectives being more explicitly woven through planning and review.
• The school has joined a Kāhui Ako, benefitting from new professional partnerships and greater community connections to set shared wellbeing, attendance and learning goals with local schools. 

Part C: Where to next?

The agreed next steps for the school are to: 

• continue to develop and embed the school’s Pacific education plan with families and staff to raise attendance, progress, and achievement for students from Pacific communities
• initiate formalised wellbeing surveys and further interrogate achievement data to compare boys’ and girls’ achievement, further strengthening evidence-based planning and teaching decisions
• replicate the success of the mathematics developments by creating a progressive structured literacy approach across the school
• engage with whānau, hapū and iwi in the school’s increasing integration of te reo Māori, tikanga, and mātauranga Māori through the curriculum.

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

Within six months:

• re-introduce a formal wellbeing survey to complement existing methods of gathering student feedback
• further refine individual education plans to reflect student and families’ perspectives
• meet purposefully with Pacific families to discuss and refine the school’s Pacific plan

Every six months:

• evaluate mid-year and end-of-year progress, identifying opportunities to enhance student outcomes
• continue to build evidence-based teaching and learning using a collaborative inquiry approach
• provide varied opportunities for hui and family meetings that will inform the school’s decision making

Annually:

• systematically use data to evaluate, refine and monitor the impact of professional development on literacy teaching practices, and sustaining improved student outcomes
• report to the board and community on curriculum developments, increasingly incorporating whānau and iwi perspectives
• implement the board’s formalised evaluation of its effectiveness, using the Hautu review tool.

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

• equitable Pacific learner success and engagement 
• sustained improvements in mathematics
• the design of effective and progressive structured literacy approaches
• inclusive education and Te Tiriti o Waitangi overtly woven through curriculum and culture.

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

5 August 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