Salford School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 18 months of the Education Review Office and Salford 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 

Salford School is located in Invercargill and provides education for students in Years 0 to 6. The current principal joined the school in 2019.  

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

• promotion and commitment to enhancing social, emotional and physical well-being (hauora)

• relevant, connected, collaborative, responsive local curriculum and innovative, inclusive teaching for excellence

• increased student agency and authentic learning opportunities through ICT and digital technology, e-learning and associated resources that support individual, cultural and developmental differences.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate the effectiveness of its schoolwide approach to improving equity and excellence in writing, with coherent links to the school’s key strategic priorities of hauora, local curriculum and digital technology.   

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is that the school has identified:

• that progress and achievement in writing overall is relatively low, with little value added from mid-year to end of year

• that some groups of learners are struggling to make sufficient progress in their writing.

The school expects to see a more coherent approach to review and development of approaches to writing that will increase parity in progress and achievement for some learners. An outcome of the evaluation will be the development of a schoolwide writing curriculum based on what works best for this school’s priority learners.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support the school in its goal to improve equitable and excellent outcomes for learners in writing:

• refined and strengthened systems and practices that promote learner wellbeing and resilience, including provision of a range of culturally responsive wellbeing approaches and services

• leaders and the board are well informed of the achievement of priority learners and make effective resourcing decisions to better support and accelerate progress

• increasingly collaborative practices within syndicates and the support of a specialist teacher in classes is building teacher capability to deliver and assess a more coherent writing programme.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• continuing to develop coherent, consistent school wide expectations for planning, teaching and assessing writing

• building educationally powerful connections with whānau and parents as partners in strengthening outcomes for learners

• monitoring and evaluating the impact of its strategic actions on the improvement of writing, especially for those priority learners who need to make accelerated progress.

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

7 February 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

This school hosts a Ruru Satellite Class on site.