Runanga School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 24 months of the Education Review Office and Runanga 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 

Runanga School is a rural school 10 km north of Greymouth on the West Coast of the South Island. It caters for Year 1 to 8 learners from Runanga and the surrounding district. The school’s teaching approaches are aimed at being a blend of direct instruction, inquiry and play based learning. The school values of "Be Respectful, Be Responsible, Be Safe, Be a Learner" are embedded into the school culture through following the positive behaviour for learning (PB4L) philosophy, with an emphasis on positive nurturing relationships between learners and staff.

Runanga School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are to:

• improve levels of engagement, behaviour, progress and achievement across the school
• continue to develop a localised curriculum to meet the needs of all learners
• embed a tailored structured literacy approach to improve learner achievement in literacy.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate the impact of structured literacy on student engagement and achievement. 

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is: 

• student achievement in reading and writing is variable
• to survey students to better understand their attitudes to reading and writing
• to measure the impact of professional development on building teacher knowledge and understanding in literacy. 

The school expects to see:

• an improvement in reading and writing progress and achievement 
• learners confidently using literacy skills to access all learning areas of the curriculum
• better informed teaching and learning practice that will lead to clear and accurate schoolwide planning, assessment, and reporting.

Strengths 

The school can draw from the following strengths to support the school in its goal to evaluate the impact of structured literacy on student engagement and achievement. 

• Leaders and teachers know the students and their whānau well.
• Stable teaching staff who plan collegiately and collaboratively to improve outcomes for students.
• Tuakana teina relationships enable older students to support younger students.
• Trustees are well informed and supportive of improving literacy outcomes.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise continuing to: 

• monitor engagement and attendance 
• build positive relationships between school and whānau to further enhance learning opportunities for all students
• develop rigorous, formative assessment practices to better inform planning and teaching focused on the area of reading
• strengthen the curriculum so it is more localised and cohesive using the already revised learning areas as a model.

ERO and school leaders have concerns about 

• achievement levels in the senior classroom
• strategic and annual planning focusing on outcomes for learners.

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

22 January 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