Zayed College for Girls

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

Zayed College for Girls in Māngere is a special character Islamic school providing education for girls in Years 7 to 13. The school values are kindness, appreciation, respect and equity.

The Secretary for Education appointed a Commissioner in Term 1 2024 who currently holds all functions, powers and duties of the school board, and a Leadership Partner was appointed in Term 3 2024 to support school leadership.

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

• The large majority of students in Years 7 to 10 achieve at curriculum level expectations for reading, writing and mathematics.
• Most students who remain at school until qualification years achieve NCEA at Levels 1, 2 and 3 and University Entrance with high levels of Merit and Excellence Endorsements.
• Few students attend school regularly; regular student attendance is well below the Ministry of Education target and impacts on continuity of learning.
• Systems and processes to ensure student wellbeing, inclusion and belonging require urgent implementation.

Conditions to support learner success

• Leaders have set strategic priorities with goals and initiatives for future changes in school, staff and student ways of being.
• Leaders are taking steps to drive improvement to systems, processes, teaching and learning that foster high quality conditions for learners.
• Leadership is yet to build relational trust and collaboration at every level of the school community for staff and student wellbeing.

• Teachers and leaders establish effective systems for tracking and monitoring student achievement to ensure success.
• Students have limited opportunities to learn across the breadth of The New Zealand Curriculum as time is dedicated to incorporating the school’s special character.
• Although teachers provide collaborative learning opportunities that foster student participation; ongoing focus is required to ensure consistency of approach, improved student engagement and agency.

• Leaders have yet to implement teacher professional development that effectively promotes a positive school culture, learner engagement and wellbeing.
• Relationships between staff and students are not consistently founded on mutual trust and respect and learners do not always feel confident to seek help when required.
• The school does not currently have a board who represents and serves the school community.
• The school has not yet embedded effective systems and processes across all areas of the school.

Part B: Where to next?

The agreed next steps for the school are to:

• improve capability and distribute leadership to implement strategic priorities
• collaboratively review key systems and processes with staff to ensure clarity and consistency of implementation
• provide appropriate support for teachers and their ongoing professional learning and development so that highly effective, engaging teaching practices are used consistently across all learning areas
• prioritise a schoolwide approach to improve student safety, wellbeing, attendance and retention.

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

Within three months:

• work collaboratively with the appointed Commissioner and Leadership Partner to improve leadership capability and school conditions
• respond more systematically, deliberately and effectively to absences and significantly improve student attendance and retention
• identify priority areas for improvement from student feedback and develop a plan to improve student safety, wellbeing and school culture
• prioritise systems for review including teaching and learning, pastoral care and behaviour management, and develop a plan that ensures collaboration with teachers and regular checking that systems are embedding and being used consistently.

Every six months:

• collect, analyse and respond to student feedback and wellbeing surveys
• implement a plan for growing teacher practice which includes regular classroom observations, providing relevant feedback and reflective and collaborative support
• embed key systems and processes with expectations for staff and students and check for shared understanding and consistent implementation.

Annually:

• align leadership roles and responsibilities with strategic priorities
• analyse student attendance and retention data to inform future improvement priorities and initiatives
• collect staff and student feedback to measure progress and inform future priorities for improvement
• use evidence to analyse improvements in the areas of teaching and learning, behaviour management and pastoral care.

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

• effective distributed leadership, with systems embedded that support learner engagement and outcomes
• improvements in attendance to meet the Ministry of Education targets and retention rates
• a positive school culture based on school values; positive relationships between and amongst students and staff, and students feeling valued, confident to access support and take ownership of their learning and overall wellbeing
• consistency of teaching practices and implementation of the behaviour management and pastoral systems based on shared understandings of best practice.

Recommendation to the Ministry of Education 

ERO recommends that the Secretary for Education continues to provide tailored support through a Commissioner and Leadership Partner to provide ongoing leadership and governance capability across the school to address areas of non-compliance and drive school improvement.

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

5 November 2024

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