Tuturau Primary School

School Evaluation Report

Tēnā koutou e mau manawa rahi ki te kaupapa e aro ake nei, ko te tamaiti te pūtake o te kaupapa. Mā wai rā e kawe, mā tātau katoa. 

We acknowledge the collective effort, responsibility and commitment by all to ensure that the child remains at the heart of the matter. 

Context  

​​Tuturau Primary School​ is located in Southland and provides education for students in Years 1 to 6. The school values of respect – whakaute, responsibility - takohanga and aroha - manaaki underpin decision making and interactions across the school. 

There are two parts to this report. 

Part A: An evaluative summary of learner success and school conditions to inform the school board’s future strategic direction, including any education in Rumaki/bilingual settings. 

Part B: The improvement actions prioritised for the school’s next evaluation cycle. 

Part A: Current State 

The following findings are to inform the school’s future priorities for improvement. 

Learner Success and Wellbeing

• Most students achieve at or above curriculum expectations in mathematics and a large majority of students in reading and writing. 
• Outcomes for Māori students in writing and mathematics have shown a significant improvement; the priority to improve student achievement in reading remains. 
• There is a continuing need to improve excellent and equitable outcomes for all students in writing particularly for boys. 
• Less than a third of students attend school regularly, the school is not yet meeting the Ministry of Education targets for regular attendance; this remains a priority. 

Conditions to support learner success

• Leadership undertakes comprehensive consultation with students, staff, whānau and community to gather aspirations that inform improvement priorities. 
• Leaders foster a highly collaborative team culture; staff are reflective and open to new approaches to improve learner success and wellbeing. 
• Teachers and leaders analyse an appropriate range of student achievement information to set improvement priorities and next steps in learning; they continue to strengthen these practices.

• Learners’ engagement is strengthened through deliberate connections to the localised curriculum; teachers engage in professional learning that improves their understanding and capability in tikanga Māori and mātauranga Māori. 
• Leaders and teachers set targets and use evidence-based interventions to facilitate ongoing innovation, improvement and to develop teacher capabilities for improved outcomes for learners. 
• Teachers work collaboratively to inquire into their teaching practices to better understand what is working well and inform next teaching steps.

• Teachers and leaders deliberately foster meaningful relationships with local education providers and community groups to strengthen teachers’ capability and support improved wellbeing and achievement outcomes for learners. 
• Leaders and teachers maintain a strong focus on improving culturally responsive practices across all areas of the school; continued consultation with whānau, hapū and iwi is identified as a next step for a schoolwide approach to the teaching and learning of te reo Māori. 
• The embedding of formal evaluation processes across all strategic priorities to ensure initiatives are improving outcomes for learners has been identified as a next step. 

Part B: Where to next? 

The agreed next steps for the school are to: 

• engage with students, parents and whānau to identify strategies to improve regular attendance at school 
• continue to strengthen teaching practice to improve outcomes for Māori students' achievement in reading and boys in writing 
• develop a more targeted and strategic approach to evaluating school priorities for ongoing improvement. 

The agreed actions for the next improvement cycle and timeframes are as follows. 

Within three months: 

• consult with students and parents to understand attendance issues and develop an improvement plan 
• teachers undertake professional development to better understand effective literacy practices that support improved outcomes for Māori students in reading and boys in writing 
• research what effective internal evaluation looks like and develop a shared approach for leaders and teachers to review what is working to improve outcomes and for whom. 

Every six months: 

• collate and analyse student attendance, progress and achievement data for trends and patterns, and use this to inform next improvement priorities 
• use internal evaluation to improve leaders and teachers understanding of which initiatives are effective and identify next steps for improved engagement and achievement outcomes for learners. 

Annually: 

• continue to use and report to the board student wellbeing, engagement, progress and achievement data to inform responsive decision making, and effective strategies for improving attendance, teaching and learning 
• use an embedded evaluation process to understand the impact of attendance initiatives and professional development on improving teacher practice and raising student outcomes; use this to inform planning for continued improvements. 

Actions taken against these next steps are expected to result in: 

• increased student engagement in learning and more students attending regularly 
• improved outcomes in reading for Māori students and writing for boys 
• a fully embedded evaluation process to inform strategic direction. 

ERO’s role will be to support the school in its evaluation for improvement cycle to improve outcomes for all learners. The next public report on ERO’s website will be a School Evaluation Report and is due within three years. 

Me mahi tahi tonu tātau, kia whai oranga a tātau tamariki 
Let’s continue to work together for the greater good of all children 

Shelley Booysen 
Director of Schools 

​​23 January 2025​ 

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