Aquinas College

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within eight months of the Education Review Office and Aquinas College 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 

Aquinas College is a state integrated Catholic school located in Tauranga. The school caters for students from years 7 to 13. 

Aquinas College’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:

• Empowering Every Learner: a commitment to empower every learner to achieve equitable outcomes and personal excellence within the Catholic educational environment
• Educationally Powerful Partnerships: a commitment to establishing educationally powerful connections, fostering reciprocal relationships that enhance student learning and outcomes
• Tūrangawaewae: a commitment to cultivating a positive college culture, guided by the Catholic ethos and dedicated to upholding the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how effectively the school’s curriculum is designed, enacted and reviewed to respond to the strengths and needs of all students to accelerate their progress and raise achievement.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is: 

• to ensure the curriculum is designed to meet the needs of the 21st century learner
• to consider local contexts and the cultural responsiveness of the curriculum
• to ensure the key competencies are well-considered in curriculum delivery
• to raise overall achievement and ensure equitable outcomes for all.

The school expects to see:

• culturally sustaining and adaptive teaching, learning and assessment practices
• enhance and sustain equitable outcomes, to ensure equitable and excellent outcomes for all students over time
• a responsive curriculum that meets the changing needs of students.

Strengths 

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to evaluate how effectively the curriculum is designed, enacted and reviewed to respond to the strengths and needs of all students to accelerate their progress and raise achievement.

• a collaboratively developed strategic direction to support the school improvement journey
• a culture of high expectations underpinned by the well-developed special character of the school
• comprehensive use of data to inform best practice to support equity and excellence
• well-established internal evaluation processes. 

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• fostering inclusive teaching and learning environments grounded in Catholic values
• developing culturally responsive and adaptive teaching strategies
• embedding Mātauranga Māori throughout the curriculum.

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. 

Shelley Booysen
Director of Schools

21 March 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