Halfway Bush School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 18 months of the Education Review Office and Halfway Bush 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 

Halfway Bush school is a contributing school located in a semi-rural hilltop suburb three kilometres from Dunedin City. The school vision is Taputakinoi – Throw the Challenge High to provide an education that meets the needs of all children.

Halfway Bush School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:

• raising literacy achievement levels for all students, with a particular focus on priority learners
• to monitor and evaluate the impact of structured literacy through improved outcomes for all learners.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate the effectiveness of the school wide structured literacy approach that aims to lift and sustain progress and achievement for all learners, with a particular focus on priority learners.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

• school leaders have identified key groups of priority learners currently needing support to meet progress and achievement expectations in literacy
• a desire to strengthen specific and targeted structured literacy teaching practices across the school to be more responsive to the needs of learners
• recent community consultation has indicated support for a structured approach to the teaching of literacy.

The school expects to see:

• increased success for learners who are not yet meeting expectations in literacy
• a consistent approach to the explicit teaching practices that positively influence outcomes for learners
• strengthening partnerships with whānau around children’s literacy learning.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal in literacy teaching, learning outcomes and partnerships with parents:

• experienced leaders, who build strong learning-focused relationships across the school community
• pedagogical expertise within the school that supports the implementation of a structured approach to literacy
• learners’ voices are valued, contributing to student agency across the school.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• strengthening internal evaluation capability to analyse achievement data so that the school can be more responsive in forward planning for improving outcomes for learners
• ongoing professional learning across the school to ensure effective, consistent literacy teaching and learning
• continuing to build learning-focused relationships with preschool and new entrant parents about the school’s approach to literacy.

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

20 July 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