Waimate Main School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within six months of the Education Review Office and Waimate Main 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 

Waimate Main School provides education for students from Years 1 to 6 in Waimate township. It’s values of “Think, Care and Achieve” are central to the school’s mission to support students to reach their personal excellence.

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

• empower teachers to engage effectively with students to progress their learning

• build strong learning partnerships between home, school and community and to develop students’ ability to take increasing responsibility for their learning

• develop the environment and school culture to optimise learning for the students.

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

ERO and the school are working together to deepen teachers’ understanding and implementation of evaluation and use evaluation findings to improve learning for students and address areas of disparity.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

• for teachers to identify aspects of teaching, and programmes that are or are not having a positive impact on students’ learning

• to strengthen further, a culture of evaluation and ongoing improvement.

The school expects to see responsive teaching practices that use strategies and programmes that have proven to be most effective in raising student achievement.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support it in its goal to deepen teachers’ understanding and implementation of evaluation and use evaluation findings to improve learning for students.

• Staff who are responsive to the individual needs of students which supports their learning and wellbeing.

• Useful systems for close tracking of individual and groups of students’ progress and achievement which helps the identification of learning support needs.

• Staff who are improvement focused and who are committed to growing their competency in te reo and tikanga Māori to better support Māori learners.

• A school-wide programme which promotes a positive and welcoming school culture where students can feel included, cared for, and well supported to learn.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• ongoing adaptations to teaching practices so that approaches and programmes being implemented are those which have been proven to be most effective in raising student achievement

• continuing to make learning evident so that parents can be effective partners in their child’s education

• ensuring actions to address disparity are specific and targeted

• developing student agency (students knowing how well they are achieving, what their goals are and how they will reach them).

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.

Kathy Lye
Acting Director Review and Improvement (Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini

18 April 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