Kumara 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   

​​Kumara School​ is a small semi-rural school in the Kumara community on the South Island West Coast. It caters for students from Years 1 to 8 in a co-educational environment. The school’s vision is “Mining every opportunity” so the students will be confident, successful, lifelong learners. 

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  

Most students make sustained progress and engage well in learning. 

• A large majority of students achieve at or above expected curriculum levels in reading, writing and mathematics.  
• Students express a strong sense of belonging and pride in the school; the school’s values underpin decision making and contribute positively to the wellbeing and learning of all students. 
• A majority of students attend school regularly; the school is not yet meeting the 2024 Ministry of Education target for regular attendance at school.  

Conditions to support learner success 

Strategic and effective school leadership builds and sustains high quality systems and processes for teaching, learning and wellbeing. 

• The principal has established and sustained high levels of relational trust and a culture of evidence-based teaching that targets areas of identified learning needs. 
• Staff work together to intentionally plan how they will improve student outcomes. 
• The principal and teachers actively engage learners, staff, parents, whānau, and local iwi to ensure the school’s vision, values and priorities reflect community aspirations.  

Students experience high quality teaching and learning and a wide range of meaningful learning opportunities. 

• Learners engage well in the localised and culturally relevant curriculum; that is targeted to individual learnings needs and interests.  
• Teachers intentionally use tuakana teina approaches to motivate and challenge students to lead their learning; this strengthens positive and respectful learning relationships.  
• Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) is embedded within the curriculum; this is increasing students' engagement and progress in reading and writing.  

Key organisational conditions that support learner success are well established. 

• The board and staff have developed strong relationships with the community and external agencies; this supports student wellbeing and extends opportunities to learn from and about their local community.  
• Leaders and teachers set a culture of high expectations for learning and behaviour; students know, understand and respond well to consistency across the school.  
• The board is strategic, and highly outcome focused; they use comprehensive information well to make effective resourcing decisions to target what is best for the students. 
• Students feedback and ideas are gathered and specifically used to inform learning contexts, experiences outside of the classroom and sustain the positive school culture. 

Part B: Where to next? 

The agreed next steps for the school are to:  

• continue to embed the localised curriculum so that more students achieve well in reading, writing and mathematics 
• extend the current assessment framework so that monitoring across the localised curriculum is strengthened  
• review initiatives and strategies in place to identify further improvement in rates of regular attendance. 

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

Every six months: 

• track and monitor the progress and attendance of students, to identify what is working well in the curriculum and inform where to next  
• teachers inquire into their practice and share strategies that are supporting the successful implementation of curriculum changes, both nationally and locally  
• continue to grow teacher confidence and capability in using the strengthened assessment framework to inform consistent and responsive planning for improvement 

Annually: 

• leaders and teachers evaluate the impact of the localised curriculum on improving student achievement, attendance and engagement; and report improvements to the board and community and seek feedback for where to next  
• review and report to the board on how well the school is realising community aspirations, identifying progress towards strategic priorities and contribution to ongoing improvements.  

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

• highly engaged and motivated students who are achieving well 
• a responsive localised curriculum that adapts to learners’ interests and needs 
• the board, parents and community well informed about improvements in attendance, progress and achievement. 

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 

​​3 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