Wakatipu High 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 

Wakatipu High School is a co-educational Years 9 to 13 secondary school in Queenstown within the Wakatipu basin. The school’s flexible learning environment campus development was completed in 2022. A new principal began in 2023.

The school’s vision for its learners is reflected in its Ākonga Profile which is for every student to gain their best possible qualification, to develop holistically and acquire the capabilities for lifelong learning. This vision is underpinned by the school’s values of excellence, responsibility, resilience, inclusion and respect.

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, including any education in Rumaki/bilingual settings. 

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

Part A: Previous Improvement Goals 

In the past three years the school and ERO worked together to evaluate accelerating the progress of students in the junior school, with a focus on key aspects of the school’s Ākonga Profile, beginning with literacy.

Expected Improvements and Findings

The school expected to see:

An increased proportion of Year 10 learners achieving at or above Level 5 of the New Zealand Curriculum in literacy by the end of the year

• The school has strategically, progressively and effectively increased the number and proportion of students achieving at or above curriculum level 5 in reading and writing. 

All learners advancing in their levels of literacy achievement

• The school has advanced and can show increased levels of literacy achievement for almost all learners across a range of measures.

More equitable outcomes for learners

• The school has successfully accelerated achievement for boys and significantly reduced the disparity in their achievement in relation to girls’ achievement. 
• Māori and Pacific learners are experiencing increasingly equitable outcomes in the senior school. The school continues to consistently and deliberately focus on equitable outcomes for these students in literacy in the junior school.

A comprehensive framework for literacy

• A useful and comprehensive school wide literacy strategy has been developed and implemented to effectively guide teaching and learning to support learner outcomes. The framework is wide ranging in its scope and is strategically resourced to provide conditions for success. 

Improved evaluative capabilities across the school.

• The school has continued to broaden its collective capacity to undertake evaluation. This has been systematically extended throughout the school, enabling all staff to make purposeful use of the extensive range of learner information that it collects and analyses.

Other Findings

The greatest shift that occurred in response to the school’s actions have been to extend teachers’ capability and capacity to provide targeted teaching and support for literacy learning and progress throughout the school.

Part B: Current State

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

Learner Success and Wellbeing

• Most senior students achieve NCEA at their respective levels with almost all students achieving NCEA Level 2. There is increasing parity in boys’ achievement of NCEA Levels 1 and 2. Over half of all Year 11, 12 and 13 students gain endorsements in NCEA. Māori students achieve as well as non-Māori students at NCEA Level 2. There is currently some disparity for these students in their achievement of Levels 1 and 3 and University Entrance. Almost all Pacific students achieved NCEA Levels 2, 3 and University Entrance.
• More junior students have begun to achieve the school’s Ākonga Passport Award which reflects learners’ engagement, effort and participation in their all-round education at the
  school.
• Māori learners are well supported to achieve success with a strong sense of their cultural identity. Most Māori learners report that their family’s culture is valued by the teachers and the school.
• Systematic wellbeing approaches serve learners and their whānau, parents and families well. School practices and actions are consistently inclusive with students leading diversity initiatives.

Conditions to support learner success

• Leadership effectively and collaboratively develops and enacts the school’s priorities.
• Leaders drive the school’s coherent approach to continuous improvement.
• Ensuring equity and excellence for Māori and Pacific learners is a consistent focus. 

• Teachers provide a responsive, rich, broad, and localised curriculum which is adapted to meet the learners’ individual needs and interests.
• Curriculum design and leadership are enhancing how and when students learn, in order to adapt to changing environments.

• The school very effectively uses a coherent, well-led strategic approach to progress and achieve all school priorities.
• The school has many well-established and educationally powerful connections to support student learning outcomes.
• Community collaborations continue to be sought or extended for learners and their whānau.
• Evaluation for improvement continues to be extended more widely in the school to underpin strategic priorities and identify where gains can be made. Evaluation continues to be systematic and rigorous.

Part C: Where to next?

The agreed next steps for the school are: 

• embedding the school’s progressive Māori language strategy to continue to build staff and students’ capability in Te Reo Māori supporting equity and excellence for all Māori learners.
• ensuring the school’s recently developed teaching and learning model is implemented and embedded for consistently high-quality teaching and learning.
• continuing to evaluate literacy and numeracy teaching and learning to enable ākonga to achieve success in the co-requisites required for senior qualifications.

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

Within six months

• Leaders will evaluate baseline data and create an annual plan for 2024 for each of the above priorities.
• Leaders will ensure high-quality teaching, learning and mātauranga Māori are included in learning area goals and teachers’ professional learning and planning.
• The school will host whānau advisory group and whānau hui specifically focused on the school’s Māori language strategy plan.

Every six months:

• Leaders and teachers will track and monitor each of these priorities for improvement and adapt their strategies accordingly.
• The board will receive regular reporting in relation to each priority.
• The school will facilitate a Māori student hui focused on students’ sense of cultural identity and how well supported they feel.

Annually:

• Leaders will review mātauranga Māori, high quality teaching and learning and literacy and numeracy as strategic priorities.
• The school will set annual plans targets within each of the above strategies.
• Teachers and leaders will continue to gather student ‘voice’ to inform the evaluation of each strategy.

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

• Māori learners being consistently well supported to achieve success with a strong, secure sense of their cultural identity
• a progressive Māori language strategy plan which reflects whānau aspirations
• the school’s high-quality teaching and learning model is well established and teaching practice is consistently evaluated against this model
• an increased proportion of students achieving literacy and numeracy co-requisites by the end of Year 10, including for Māori and Pacific students.

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

17 April 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