Woodlands Full Primary School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 6 months of the Education Review Office and Woodlands Full Primary 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 

Woodlands Full Primary School is a rural school, 15 minutes east of Invercargill. It provides education for students in Years 1 – 8. The school has a goal of developing eco-literate children, who can apply digital, numeracy and literacy skills in a practical context.

Woodlands Full Primary School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:

• students achieving excellence across the curriculum
• students engaging in all aspects of school life
• leaders and teachers embracing and embedding culturally sustainable practice.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how effectively teachers implement culturally responsive practices.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

• leaders have recognised an opportunity to develop a curriculum that better reflects Aotearoa New Zealand’s bi-cultural heritage and the unique place of Māori within it
• the school has developed a continuum of practice, which provides a framework to support teachers to strengthen culturally responsive practice.

The school expects to see:

• tikanga and te reo Māori seen and heard throughout the school, every day
• teachers developing professional practice that is effective for Māori learners
• Māori students achieving success as Māori.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to evaluate how effectively teachers implement culturally responsive practices:

• experienced and stable teaching staff, who are open to new ways of working
• high expectations of learning and behaviour, which support a positive learning environment
• established relationships with external professional learning providers is continuing to build teachers confidence and competence in the use and understanding of te reo and tikanga Māori.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• leaders plan the implementation of the Cultural Relationships for Responsive Pedagogy: Continuum of Practice to identify and measure schoolwide so that culturally responsive practice is strengthened
• documenting school-wide protocols for tikanga Māori and school-wide progressions for te reo Māori to provide guidance for teachers.

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.

Kathy Lye
Acting Director Review and Improvement (Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini

31 March 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