Aurora College

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 23 months of the Education Review Office and Aurora 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 

Aurora College is a co-educational year 7 – 13 school in Invercargill. A new Principal began at the College in September 2022.

Aurora College strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:

• To develop an engaging, localised and connected Junior Curriculum that meets students’ individual needs so they can experience educational and cultural success at Aurora College.

• To use data to inform teacher practice and continue to develop teacher pedagogy in the classroom to reflect a student-centred approach.

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

ERO and the school are working to evaluate how the school can measure successful outcomes of curriculum development for learners, particularly in Years 7-10.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is as follows:

• build on the school’s history of providing culturally responsive and inclusive learning environments through improving tracking and monitoring progress to better inform teacher practice

• develop and implement a coherent Literacy and Numeracy pathway for years 7-10

• review the Junior Curriculum to ensure that it is engaging, localised and connected

• strengthen school-wide practices for planning, delivering, assessing, and reporting on progress and achievement.

The school expects teachers to know the learner and understand their educational needs to be successful across all curriculum areas. Learners who need to make accelerated progress will be supported to do so.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support the school in improving outcomes for learners.

• Positive classroom relationships and teachers who know their students well.

• A sustained focus on student wellbeing.

• Learning environment responsive to the needs of individual students.

• Culturally responsive and relational pedagogy is a focus for all teachers and is being embedded within the classroom.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise the following:

• to develop senior and middle leadership capabilities within the school. This will enable effective change management needed to meet the strategic priorities

• develop and implement a coherent Literacy and Numeracy pathway for years 7-10 and support teachers in their delivery of Literacy and Numeracy across the school

• develop internal evaluation to support gathering, analysing, and using student data to improve understanding and develop learning programs that meet the individual student learning needs.

ERO has concerns about

The sufficiency, quality and effective use of achievement information to:

• set meaningful schoolwide targets for improvement

• track and monitor accelerating learner progress and achievement to inform curriculum programmes

• evaluate the impact of changes being implemented on improving student outcomes.

Recommendation

The school continues to focus on valued outcomes for learners while embedding effective leadership and governance during this period of change. To bring about the improvements identified ERO recommended that the Ministry of Education provide additional tailored support to the school.

The Ministry of Education is working alongside the 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 (Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini

27 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