Omarama School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 16 months of the Education Review Office and Omarama 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 

Omarama School is a small, full primary school, located in the Waitaki District near the southern end of Te Manahuna | the Mackenzie Basin. It provides education for learners in years 1 to 8. Omarama School’s whakataukī is ki te whei ao, ki te ao mārama e |learning and thriving together in the place of light. The school’s LIGHT values of learner, inclusive, grow, happy and truthful, are used to guide learning. At the time of this report an acting principal was leading the school until the newly recruited principal began.

Omarama School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are that all will be:

• successful learners who will gain the skills and attitudes necessary to become valued members of society
• successful, confident, connected actively involved, lifelong learners, fully prepared to take up the opportunities and challenges ahead of them.

A copy of the school’s strategic and annual plan is available on request from Omarama School.

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate the impact of focusing the school’s approach to positive behaviour on student engagement and achievement, initially in writing.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is ensuring the school continues to:

• gather and analyse student and whānau voice, and progress and achievement information, to better inform planning and evaluation of learning initiatives to improve outcomes
• strengthen systems and planning so that every learner is able to attain their highest possible standard of educational achievement.

The school expects to see:

• all learners engaging, progressing, and achieving well in writing
• the breadth and depth of the school curriculum incorporating accelerated learning strategies for those learners identified as needing it.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to evaluate the impact of focusing its approach to positive behaviour on student engagement and achievement, initially in writing.

• Children are known for who they are and what they bring to learning.
• The school’s programme for positive behaviour is strengthening the teaching and learning culture.
• Open and honest dialogue between the school leadership and governance is enhancing decision making for improvement.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• developing shared expectations for effective teaching, planning, and informed programmes of learning
• building understanding of effective evaluation so that the impact of changes on outcomes for learners is known and is reported to the board and community.

ERO has concerns about:

Formalised processes for strategic and annual planning for school improvement, and the analysis of student achievement and variance need fully implementing. These processes must include regularly reporting to the school community.

Recommendations

The school continues to focus on valued outcomes for learners while embedding effective systems for leadership of learning and governance during this period of change.

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

9 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