Review 18 March 2024
LatestTe Ara Huarau | School Profile Report
Background
This Profile Report was written within six months of the Education Review Office and Portobello 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
Located on the Otago peninsula, Portobello School is a semi-rural school for learners from Years 1 to 8. The school’s Kai Tahu cultural narrative recognises the detailed historical relationship between the area, its mana whenua and the kura.
Portobello School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are to:
- maintain and further strengthen schoolwide teaching of writing in order to raise achievement and accelerate progress in writing
- develop and implement a schoolwide approach to building learner agency.
You can find a copy of the school’s strategic and annual plan on Portobello School’s website.
ERO and the school are working together to evaluate the impact of a schoolwide approach to building learner agency to improve progress and achievement in writing.
The rationale for selecting this evaluation is that, over time:
- analysis of writing data has indicated that a focus area for the school is to ensure that all learners are making progress in writing curriculum levels
- teacher observations have identified that greater engagement and motivation can be achieved through children developing their learning-to-learn capabilities.
The school expects to see:
- growing awareness of next learning steps so that children are empowered to achieve them and make choices in their writing
- the development of learner-selected goals that show improvements in writing
- learner agency developments in writing transferred into other curriculum areas.
Strengths
The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to evaluate the impact of a schoolwide approach to building learner agency to improve progress and achievement in writing:
- staff know all children across the school and contribute to progressing each individual’s learning
- strong community interest and involvement in the school
- close connections with local runaka enrich the local curriculum through a long-term bicultural partnership.
Where to next?
Moving forward, the school will prioritise:
- Developing success indicators to show growth in learner agency and to clarify consistent expectations.
- Using a range of achievement information to evaluate improvements over time in fluency and confidence in writing as learners progress through the curriculum.
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
18 March 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