Thornbury School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

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

Thornbury School is a rural school in Western Southland and provides education for students from Years 1 to 6. A new principal started working with the school in July of 2019. Thornbury School is an Enviroschool which places importance on preserving and using the local environment. In recent years the student population has become more diverse including students for whom English is a second language.

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

• continue to raise the achievement and hauora of individual students within a balanced and integrated curriculum
• continue to develop students’ knowledge and ownership of their learning and progress
• extend and sustain positive relationships with the school and wider community.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how effectively assessment is used to guide improvements in learning and teaching.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is to:

• build a shared understanding and consistent approach amongst teachers for assessment practices
• develop in students an understanding of their learning and how well they are progressing
• ensure reliable, valid assessment data is used to support decision making to ensure equity for all students.

The school expects to see teachers and students using reliable assessment information effectively to inform and plan for their next teaching and learning steps, and further strengthening of parity between groups of students.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support it in its goal to make the most of every opportunity to build a strong foundation for life and love of learning.

• Strong relationships and partnerships at every level of the school – with students, staff, board, parents, and local community.
• High expectations and support for all students to learn at their point of challenge, experience success, and achieve their goals.
• A focus on establishing and embedding the core Thornbury values/attributes (ROCKS -honesty, strive, resilience, aroha, problem -solving and respect).

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• continuing to empower students’ ownership and knowledge of their learning
• strengthening teacher capability to effectively gather, store, analyse and use student progress and achievement data to inform teaching and learning
• establishing real-time reporting to support learning partnership with parents/whānau.

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

21 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