Pembroke School (Oamaru)

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 18 months of the Education Review Office and Pembroke School (Oamaru) 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 

Pembroke School (Oamaru) is a contributing primary school for students in Years 1-6 located in northern Oamaru. The school’s vision for learners is that they will all demonstrate the school’s REAL values of respect, excellence, action and learning.  

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

• ensure appropriate programmes are in place to support student wellbeing and to help develop the school values
•  review the teaching and learning of literacy with a particular focus on writing
• promote inclusive education practice that enables all students to maximise their learning opportunities.

You can find a copy of the school’s strategic and annual plan on Pembroke School (Oamaru)’s website.

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how well the school’s inclusive curriculum and teaching practices are meeting the needs of diverse learners.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is that the school has:

• noticed increasing numbers of students with diverse learning needs
• prioritised significant resourcing to provide learning support for students with diverse needs
• identified learning and wellbeing outcomes for students with diverse needs have been disproportionately impacted by interrupted education during the COVID 19 pandemic.

The school expects to see:

• high levels of student attendance and engagement
• students report having a sense of belonging and inclusion in the school and pride in their individual identities
• students experience high expectations for their learning and progress and achieve to their potential.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support the school in its goal to support positive wellbeing and learning outcomes for diverse groups of learners:

• the commitment of school governance and leadership to provide inclusive, equitable opportunities to learn for all students
• significant resourcing for the provision of learning support for diverse learners that enhances access to the curriculum
• a wide range of customised learning programmes and interventions that respond to the needs of learners
• strong collaboration with families and external agencies promotes positive outcomes for learners.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• strengthening collaborative planning between teachers and learning support staff to meet the needs of diverse learners
• strengthening monitoring and evaluation of the quality of education provision and learning outcomes for diverse learners
• supporting teachers’ capability to meet the diverse needs of learners – with a particular focus on neurodiversity and trauma-informed practice.

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

7 September 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