Lawrence Area School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report  

Background 

This Profile Report was written within 18 months of the Education Review Office and ​Lawrence Area 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 

Lawrence Area School is situated in the town of Lawrence in South Otago. It provides education for students in Years 0 – 13. Its mission is to develop lifelong learners, who are motivated, confident and willing to contribute. At the time of this report the school had a limited statutory manager in place working with the school board and leadership in the areas of communications, employment, systems and processes.

​​Lawrence Area School​’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:

• to meet the academic, sporting, cultural and social needs of all learners by providing a wide variety of subjects and learning opportunities (both in and outside of the classroom) to encourage personal success
• to provide a safe, respectful environment, where all learners feel valued, communication is effective and positive, and successes are celebrated
• to promote diversity as a source of strength and a catalyst for innovation.

You can find a copy of the school’s strategic and annual plan on ​Lawrence Area School​’s website.

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how effectively literacy programmes across the school support learners to achieve at expected levels in literacy with a particular focus on the achievement and progress of boys.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

• the school is working through the implications of changes to the National Certificate of Educational Achievement, including new requirements for literacy and numeracy
• boys continue to achieve less well than girls in reading and writing assessments
• the school has recently implemented new approaches to teaching literacy and wishes to know the impact on learning outcomes
• school leaders are looking for ways to strengthen literacy teaching across all learning areas of the curriculum.

The school expects to see:

• a coherent and highly effective literacy curriculum, that supports excellent and equitable reading and writing outcomes for students
• subject specific teachers across all learning areas sharing joint responsibility for the reading and writing outcomes of students
• boys achieving equitably with girls in literacy
• secondary students having success with the literacy requirements for national qualifications.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support it in its goal to enable all learners to achieve at expected levels in literacy:

• students are well known to teachers, who collaborate effectively to share information and plan to meet student needs
• a positive and supportive school culture that fosters a sense of belonging and community for students and their families
• a flexible, localised curriculum that reflects and responds well to students’ interests, lives beyond school and aspirations
• staff are engaged in targeted professional learning on teaching and assessing to enhance learning and achievement.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• professional learning for all staff to continue to build confidence and collective capability for the effective teaching of literacy
• developing new systems and guidelines to support and sustain consistent teaching practices that have been shown to make a positive difference for learners
• well-planned implementation of changes to NCEA that supports student success in literacy and numeracy requirements.

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​

​​11 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