Otautau School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within six months of the Education Review Office and Otautau 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 

Otautau School is located in Western Southland and provides education to students in Years 1 to 8. Students come from the local village and the wider farming area. Over recent years the student population has become more culturally diverse including students for whom English is a second language.

Otautau School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are to:

• develop academically powerful children who have a love for learning and know how to learn
• increase the number of students achieving excellence in reading, writing and mathematics
• develop a ‘fantastic and caring’ culture within the school where students are given the opportunity to build their understanding and knowledge of skills for learning, and how to live their values
• promote wellbeing practices that enable all students and staff to work as a caring, inclusive and cohesive learning community.

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

ERO and the school are working together to build evaluation practice across the school using writing as a context.

The rationale for selecting this focus is:

• leaders want to develop a shared understanding of, and a consistent approach to implementing rigorous evaluation
• the school has identified a need to ensure parity for all to succeed.

The school expects to see consistent evaluation practices and parity of outcomes for all learners.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support it in its goal to build evaluation practice across the school using writing as a context and enable success for every learner.

• There are positive relationships at every level of the school and with the wider community.
• Provision is made for all students to have equitable opportunities to learn and succeed.
• Teachers prioritise empowering students to know about and take responsibility for their learning.
• There is a strong focus on the wellbeing of the whole child and staff.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• broadening students’ scope of experience within the mathematics and literacy curriculum
• further strengthening the evaluation process to improve students’ achievement in writing.

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.

Dr Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini

28 September 2022 

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