Richmond View School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 16 months of the Education Review Office and Richmond View 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 

Richmond View School is an area school located in Blenheim, providing education for students in Years 0 to 13. The school caters for a range of ethnicities and continues to value relationships with mana whenua. The school’s strategic plan states that they are a vibrant, supportive community, where every student is valued for their individuality and where they are encouraged to pursue excellence, using the gifts God has provided.

Richmond View School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:

• differentiation as the focus for all teaching practices to personalise learning experiences for students
• responsive teaching with an emphasis on student outcomes to strengthen teaching practice in literacy.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate the extent to which a wider variety of teaching practices in literacy across the school improves student outcomes.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is based on observation, data and personalised knowledge of each learner. Staff agreed on the need to add a wider variety of teaching tools and methods to accelerate literacy outcomes for learners across the school.

The school expects to see:

• earlier achievement gains for students who find literacy learning a challenge
• more personalised responsive inquiry-based teaching practices
• an increase in students’ confidence in literacy across Years 0-6
• an increase in student achievement outcomes across all subjects in the middle and senior school.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to evaluate the effectiveness of teaching practice and student outcomes in literacy across the school:

• a collaborative leadership team that focuses on continuous improvement
• a strong inquiry-based culture that enables all teachers to have important conversations about teaching and learning
• learning-centred partnerships with parents that build a strong sense of whanaungatanga
• an environment for learners where manaakitanga is evidenced through the Christian values of humility respect and excellence.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• researching the right tools and expertise to inform different approaches to the teaching of literacy
• using middle and senior school data to retrospectively view progress and achievement to inform the teaching of literacy across the school
• continuing to build staff knowledge and capability around the teaching of literacy, so that it transfers into everyday practice and supports an increase in student achievement outcomes across all subjects in the middle and senior school.

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 Services (Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini

11 April 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