Maniototo Area School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 12 months of the Education Review Office and Maniototo Area 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 

Maniototo Area School is a Years 1-13 school situated in Ranfurly. Students attend from a wide geographic area. In the last few years, the school has had a full rebuild, and a change in principal at the start of 2023.

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

• encourage each student to reach their highest possible intellectual, practical, social and recreational abilities
• provide a positive and safe environment where the physical & emotional needs of every student is cared for and nurtured
• encourage and welcome interest, support and involvement of whānau and promote school-community partnership.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how the school is building positive relationships for learning with ākonga, to enhance engagement and individual success.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

• the school is seeking to improve literacy and numeracy achievement data, as they see these as key contributors to future academic success
• the school would like to empower all students to achieve personal excellence
• attendance rates could be improved, and the school believes that attendance is critical to student wellbeing and success
• whānau engagement could be enhanced and there is potential for teachers to work more closely with whānau to develop more effective partnerships for student learning.

The school expects to see:

• culturally responsive programmes and teaching approaches
• an improvement in achievement data, especially in the priority areas of literacy and numeracy
• more frequent and effective engagement with whānau
• improved attendance data and greater in class engagement.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support the school in its goal to support the school in its goal to empower their community of ākonga, with the support of whānau, to engage successfully in learning:

• small class sizes and a collegial teaching team ensure teachers know the individual learning needs of all students well
• a shared staff commitment to develop mātauranga and te reo Māori both personally and as a school collective help Māori student to feel their culture is valued
• a strong and experienced school leadership team that leads professional development, evaluates current practice and provides meaningful feedback to teachers
• the targeted support the school has sought, accessed and implemented has enabled students with diverse learning needs to access the curriculum.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• commencing a professional development programme focused on relationships for learning
• completing a critical evaluation and reflection of current relationships with ākonga
• working with the rūnaka to review school practices to ensure they are culturally responsive and to develop more effective engagement with Māori whānau.

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

13 June 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