West Melton School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 12 months of the Education Review Office and West Melton 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 

Te Kura o Papatahora, West Melton School is located in a semi-rural area west of Christchurch and situated in a fast growing area of Selwyn. The school provides education to ākonga from Years 1 to 8. The vision is to develop “Innovative, Connected and Empowered Learners”, driving their passion for learning supported by the “DRIVER” school values (Determination | Aumangea, Respect | Whakaute, Integrity | Ngākaupono, Vitality | Hiringa, Empathy | Aroha, Reslience | Manawaroa).

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

• increase learner agency and engagement in the fundamental foundations of English and Mathematics, placing equal importance on the broader New Zealand Curriculum and local curriculum
• promote a happy, passionate, fun, confident and resilient school community for all ākonga
• strengthen partnerships with the immediate and wider community to enhance learning opportunities. 

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how well teaching and learning strategies are improving learner agency and engagement in mathematics.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is to investigate how effective recently implemented mathematics initiatives such as Developing Mathematical Inquiry Communities (DMIC), are in supporting the successful engagement and learning needs of students. This will include identifying their next steps in developing a common practice model and ensuring that teaching and learning programmes and practices are inclusive.

The school expects to see the development of a unified understanding of mathematics teaching pedagogy with a consistent approach when using effective teaching strategies and practices in mathematics to promote equitable and excellent learner outcomes.

Strengths 

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to evaluate effective teaching practices and knowledge in mathematics and the impact of this on student achievement and engagement.

• A well-established strategic and annual plan that clarifies action and provides indicators of success.
• Leadership that works collaboratively and is focused on pursuing the school vision, goals and targets for equity and excellence for all learners.
• Effective use of external agencies to support improved outcomes for all learners.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise: 

• feedback and feed forward as part of the school coaching model to ensure coherent and consistent practices across the school
• professional learning for new teachers around the way they teach mathematics at West Melton School.

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

11 December 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