Windwhistle 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

Windwhistle School is a Years 1 to 6 school located in the Selwyn district of mid-Canterbury. It is a member of the Te Hū o Kākāpōtahi Kāhui Ako with other rural schools in the area. 

The school’s motto Together we Learn, Grow, and Thrive is underpinned by the whakataukī, Ko te manu e kai ana i te miro nōnā te ngahere; ko te manu e kai ana i te mātauranga nōnā te ao / The bird who feasts upon the miro berry owns the forest; the bird who feast upon knowledge owns the world!

There are three parts to this report.

Part A: A summary of the findings from the most recent Education Review Office (ERO) report and/or subsequent evaluation.

Part B: An evaluative summary of learner success and school conditions to inform the school board’s future strategic direction.

Part C: The improvement actions prioritised for the school’s next evaluation cycle. 

Part A: Previous Improvement Goals

Since the previous ERO report of August 2022, ERO and the school have been working together to evaluate learners’ access to a responsive curriculum, quality teaching, and opportunities to learn that promote equity and success in literacy.

Expected Improvements and Findings

The school expected to see:

Literacy learning that is more responsive to student needs, strengths and interests.

• Students confidently demonstrate their understanding of the purpose and process of writing.
• The principal initially implemented with teachers a school-wide, explicit approach to teaching sentence construction and specific resources have been invested in that promote learner success.
• Staff work closely with the Resource Teacher of Literacy to provide tailored supports for some students.

Professional development for staff would support learner success in literacy.

• The literacy focus led to a highly relevant structured programme approach, including useful opportunities to view teaching and learning at other schools to review and develop consistent practices.
• Students’ learning benefits from teachers using engaging storytelling techniques to enhance writing quality.
• Teachers have introduced a daily review activity for students to reflect on their progress in deliberate ways; students now speak knowledgeably about their goals and learning progress.

Educationally powerful connections with whānau and the community, to further support and sustain learner success.

• Teachers are growing responsive practices and knowledge of place-based learning contexts to connect students to mātauranga Māori knowledge of the local area.
• The Resource Teacher of Literacy works closely with staff to provide literacy-related workshops for parents.
• Newsletters and student reports identify helpful ways to support students’ progress and learning at home.

Other Findings

During the course of the evaluation, it was found that students responded very positively to a structured approach to literacy learning. Their increased confidence in literacy supported success in other curriculum areas.

The greatest shift that occurred in response to the school’s action was the development of deliberate routines and explicit teaching across the curriculum. This shift includes mathematics, with a tiered support system for learners who benefit from adapted teaching methods.

Part B: Current State

The following findings are to inform the school’s future priorities for improvement.

Learner Success and Wellbeing 

Students’ progress and achieve successfully in an inclusive and supportive environment.

• Almost all students are meeting curriculum level expectations in reading, writing and mathematics.
• Students demonstrate a strong sense of belonging and wellbeing and are supportive of their peers.
• A large majority of students attend regularly, and the school is meeting the current Ministry of Education target for regular attendance.

Conditions to support learner success

Leadership effectively sustains quality teaching for excellence in learner outcomes underpinned by a strong culture of care.

• Robust analysis of achievement data leaders ensures that student strengths and needs are well-known; resulting actions and programmes are personalised to promote ongoing progress and improvement.
• Led by the principal, the school has systematically aligned vision, values and strategic goals with curriculum and learning outcomes, providing coherence and clarity of purpose for students, staff and community.
• The board strongly supports the principal, staff and students, strategic goals are improvement focused, and initiatives to implement these are well resourced; ongoing training for strengthening internal review of governance roles has been prioritised.

Teaching and learning experiences foster students' confident participation in an engaging curriculum.

• The vision, ‘growing exceptional learners, people and citizens’ is reflected throughout the school curriculum, so that teachers have a clear understanding of expectations for responsive and structured practices.
• Structured and well-considered research-informed teaching approaches inform a successful learning pathway for each student in the areas of reading, writing and mathematics.
• Teachers and the teacher-aide work seamlessly as a teaching team to support students’ emerging strengths and needs.

Key conditions for success and ongoing improvement are embedded well schoolwide.

• Strong connections with whānau and families, promote ongoing community engagement in the life of the school and foster broad, and enrich experiences for students.
• Students and families are actively engaged in consultation; they identify high satisfaction with direction for improvement.
• High quality twice-yearly student reports provide great clarity for parents about strengths and ways that families can support learning at home.
• Mana whenua have gifted the school a Māori name, Te Uru Miro, in recognition of their connection to the local people and place; extending the localised context to incorporate this is a key next step.

Part C: Where to next?

The agreed next steps for the school are to:

• review and embed the developing school curriculum guidelines
• continue to undertake school board training, including formalised ways to evaluate its performance 
• further grow staff capability in using te reo Māori and te ao Māori in teaching and learning, and growing understanding of culturally responsive practices
• formalise teachers’ evaluation practices to monitor, collaboratively reflect and inquire into the impacts of teaching approaches on student outcomes.

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

Within six months:

• build regular collaborative teacher inquiry into staff meetings to formalise conversations for improving teaching and learning
• engage in externally facilitated training for the school board.

Every six months:

• use Te Whare Mauri Ora wellbeing model alongside the Kāhui Ako Hauora Rōpu, and review progress in strengthening culturally responsive practice
• monitor teacher inquiry for the impact on student well being and identify further opportunities to grow consistency of teaching practice
• continue to review and update the curriculum collaboratively, seeking multiple perspectives.

Annually:

• the school board evaluates its performance to identify opportunities for ongoing improvement
• analysis of attendance, achievement, engagement and wellbeing is reported to board and community to show improvement and consult on next steps
• ensure strategic and annual implementation planning is informed by the school’s data and consultation with students, staff and community.

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

• highly responsive curriculum and teaching that supports all students to achieve to their potential
• teacher practices that increasingly weave te reo and te ao Māori through the learning experiences
• a self-reviewing board and enhanced governance practices that influence positive outcomes for students, staff and the community
• high levels of attendance are sustained. 

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

1 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