Tai Tapu School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 10 months of the Education Review Office and Tai Tapu 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 

Tai Tapu School is a full primary school, located in Canterbury’s Selwyn District. It provides education for learners in years 1 to 8. The school’s vision is ‘making a difference to self, others, and environment’ and its values are manaaki | respect, māia | courage, tipu | growth, and hononga | connection. A new principal has led the school since October 2019.

Tai Tapu School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:

• a high-quality local curriculum which promotes equity, ownership, and high aspirations for all
• that its plan is wrapped with the cloak of hauora | wellbeing for all and mana ōrite | all actions must provide equal value to all learners.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate the impact of its refreshed curriculum on ākonga engagement and achievement outcomes.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is the school:

• has identified that Mātauranga Māori could be better incorporated across the curriculum
• is focused on growing agency so that students can demonstrate ownership, control, and responsibility for themselves and their learning.

The school expects to see:

• Mātauranga Māori incorporated across the curriculum relevant to its context, iwi, and whānau
• students confidently demonstrating ownership, control, and responsibility for themselves and their learning.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to evaluate the impact of its refreshed curriculum on ākonga engagement and achievement outcomes:

• the school’s curriculum and student achievement plan provide evidence-based approaches which monitor student progress, achievement and inform learning programmes
• collaboration between teachers led to the development of an agreed definition of student agency in this school
• consultation with students, staff, Board, and community formed the school’s vision and values which underpin learning, culture, community partnerships, and review.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• further consultation with whānau Māori and tangata whenua to inform curriculum relevance and planning
• growing agency so students have ownership, control, and take responsibility for themselves and their learning
• strengthening internal evaluation to measure the impact of changes across academic learning, school culture, people, tools and resources, teaching, and leadership.

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

30 October 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