Kaiapoi Borough 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

Kaiapoi Borough School is located in Kaiapoi and provides education for learners in Years 1 to 8. The school’s technology centre provides specialist education for local schools. Several changes in the leadership team have occurred over recent years. Kaiapoi Borough School’s vision is to partner with whānau to develop lifelong learners in a safe and inclusive learning environment, through the three focus areas of teaching and learning, relationships and community. 

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 students.

• Most students are achieving at or above curriculum expectations in literacy and mathematics.
• Māori students are achieving at similar levels to all students in literacy.
• Boys are achieving significantly lower than girls in writing.
• The majority of students attend school regularly; the school has strategies in place to support students and is yet to meet the national attendance target for regular attendance.

Conditions to support learner success

Leaders increasingly foster a culture committed to quality teaching and learning.

• Leadership across the school is being developed; new and middle leaders are well-supported to grow their skills and capacity through coaching and professional learning.
• Leaders increasingly use multiple sources of feedback and processes that are linked with the school’s strategic planning to identify teachers professional learning development needs.
• Leaders use evidence to plan and monitor the school’s strategic goals; focusing on improving outcomes for students will further strengthen this.

Teachers provide a curriculum that increasingly reflects local contexts and build on learners’ experiences, knowledge and understanding.

• Teachers and leaders are strengthening positive learning-focused relationships with students to enhance learning engagement and achievement.
• Teachers use a range of teaching practices to meet students’ needs and encourage questioning and problem solving to increasingly support student progress and achievement.
• Teachers increasingly provide students with a range of meaningful learning opportunities and experiences across the curriculum that reflect local contexts and respond to student learning needs.

Well aligned systems and practices are in place to support ongoing improvement.

• Student wellbeing, engagement and achievement are well-supported through trusting relationships between the board, teachers, students and whānau.
• The board and leaders work together to develop and implement the school’s strategic direction to improve outcomes for students.
• Leaders’ and teachers’ understanding of restorative and trauma informed practice is the foundation for relationships and teaching practice which meets students’ needs.
• Leaders and teachers partner with a range of external agencies to effectively support students’ wellbeing and their whānau.

Part B: Where to next?

The agreed next steps for the school are to:

• embed and monitor consistent implementation of literacy and mathematics curriculum and effective teaching practices in literacy and mathematics across the school to improve student progress and achievement
• evaluate the impact of professional learning on teaching and leadership practices and improving student outcomes
• strengthen internal evaluation processes to know what is working well and what is not and further support consistency and improved student outcomes
• continue to increase whānau engagement in learning and improve regular student attendance.

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

Within six months:

• review the mathematics and literacy curriculum programmes and teaching expectations to link with changes to the New Zealand Curriculum
• gather student feedback about wellbeing and respond to any emerging findings to further enhance student wellbeing, engagement and attendance
• review the effectiveness of middle and senior leader professional learning and its impact on improving their leadership practice

Every six months:

• review and report to the board on progress and achievement for target students to identify how well progress is being accelerated and respond to the review findings
• continue to evaluate and report to the board on student progress and achievement in reading, writing and mathematics of all students
• review the impact of strategies to improve attendance

Annually:

• review professional learning undertaken and its impact on teaching practices to improve outcomes for students
• evaluate the effectiveness of target student interventions and identify students who need further acceleration in their learning
• strengthen monitoring and review of initiatives in the annual plan to include evaluating the impact on learner outcomes, including attendance.

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

• improved student progress and achievement in literacy and mathematics
• increased consistency of effective teaching practice in literacy and mathematics to further improve outcomes for students
• more students attending regularly and greater whānau engagement in learning
• strengthened leadership practices.

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

17 October 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