Sacred Heart School (Waikiwi)

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 9 months of the Education Review Office and Sacred Heart School (Waikiwi) 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 

Sacred Heart School (Waikiwi) is a state integrated, Catholic primary school for children in years 0 – 6. It is located in Waikiwi, a northern suburb of Invercargill. The school’s mission is to ‘provide children with a secure, caring learning environment, helping them to reach their potential (to be confident, connected, actively involved life-long learners); integrating cultural awareness and Christian values and understanding through their Catholic faith.

The school’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are to:

• give all students the opportunity to achieve their highest potential in literacy and numeracy

• grow collaborative and leadership capabilities of staff, students and leaders

• support equity and excellence by providing a local and responsive curriculum

• nurture a living Catholic faith community where each person encounters the living God, grows in the knowledge of Christ and His teachings, and responds to the call to give Christian witness.

You can find a copy of the school’s strategic and annual plan on Sacred Heart School (Waikiwi)’s website.

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how effectively the school’s writing curriculum supports learners to meet the expectations of the Literacy Learning Progressions, which support the New Zealand Curriculum.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is the school:

• is part of the Southland Special Character Schools’ Kāhui Ako, which has a focus on Literacy outcomes for life-long learning

• has recently implemented the Better Start Literacy Approach (BSLA) in two junior classrooms and The Code across the whole school and wishes to evaluate the impact of both

• has identified a need to improve learners’ handwriting skills and fluency to better meet the writing demands of the curriculum across all learning areas.

The school expects to see increasingly consistent and effective teaching practice, and improved writing outcomes for all learners, particularly those learners who are yet to meet expectations in writing.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to evaluate the writing curriculum:

• the school has a change and improvement plan with clearly identified priorities that is enhancing collaborative professional practice conversations  

• the school is developing meaningful partnerships through the Kāhui Ako, which is providing targeted professional learning  for all staff in the effective teaching of writing.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• professional learning to upskill teachers in high quality teaching practice across the literacy curriculum

• leaders and teachers building their capability in the collection, analysis and use of literacy assessment information

• implementing a school-wide scheme to improve learners’ handwriting skills and fluency.

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

13 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