Knapdale School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 15 months of the Education Review Office and Knapdale 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

Knapdale School is a small rural school near Gore. It provides education for students in years 1-8. A new tumuaki was appointed to the school in 2022. The school’s vision is to seek, to strive, to find and to never give up. The school’s values of Respect (Whakaute), Responsibility (Kawenga) and Resilience (Aumangea) play a major part in ensuring that there is a caring environment in which tamariki can learn.

Knapdale School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:

• that all tamariki progress in reading, writing and maths

• to accelerate the rate of progress for students who are not able to fully access the curriculum at the appropriate level.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how Knapdale School can deliver a consistent and appropriate literacy program across the school and to understand to what extent these changes are improving learning outcomes for all students.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

• that there have been variable trends in literacy achievement and the staff want to respond to ensure equity and excellence for all learners

   

• the staff recognise the importance of supporting their targeted learners

• the school want to support children with diverse needs to experience success in literacy

• the Kāhui Ako has provided PLD support in literacy to support consistency of teacher practice.

The school expects to see:

• review and assessment of existing and new practices with analysis and ongoing monitoring of the improvement actions

• evaluation of the impact of the tumuaki, teachers and learning assistants on enhancing students’ learning, progress, and achievement in literacy

• consistent implementation of literacy programmes across the school.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support it in its goal to improve outcomes for learners in literacy:

• strong relationships with the parent and wider community that enhance learning partnerships

• authentic learning that helps to embed a localised curriculum

• a positive learning environment with well established respectful relationships that promote learner engagement.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• the strengthening of the literacy programme

• embedding new learning and good practice in literacy schoolwide.

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

28 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