Invercargill Activity Centre

Background

Introduction

The Invercargill Activity Centre is one of 14 Activity Centres in New Zealand that cater for secondary school students (Years 9-13) who are at risk of disengaging from mainstream schooling and low educational, social and vocational outcomes.

Activity Centres provide a specialised learning programme which will lead to increased attendance, engagement and achievement at school, social outcomes and successful transition rates.Registered teachers support students to increase their achievement and engagement in education guided by an Individual Learning Programme (ILP) which is responsive to the needs of each student.The ILP details the student’s learning goals and is developed in partnership with the student, teacher, parents/whānau and enrolling school.

A key component of the programme for activity centre students is to successfully transition back into the enrolling school or move on to further education or employment.

James Hargest College is the managing school for this activity centre. The board of trustees holds governance responsibility for the Activity Centre and is responsible for providing a high quality educational service in a physically and emotionally safe learning environment.

Terms of Reference

This review is based on an evaluation of the performance of the Invercargill Activity Centre in relation to the terms of reference developed with the Ministry of Education. The terms of reference are:

• management and governance practices including planning, internal evaluation and professional capacity building

• the use of information to plan and implement individual programmes for, and with, students, and to monitor their progress

• support for students to achieve improved social and educational outcomes

• educational and social outcomes for students, including the extent to which students’ learning has been accelerated

• students’ experience of interagency support for them and their families

• transitions in and out of the Activity Centre.

The key evaluative question is:

How effective is this Activity Centre at achieving positive outcomes for students?

Context

This Activity Centre is a part of five integrated student support services provided by the Invercargill Student Support Network (ISSN). The centre’s operation is overseen by the network’s trust, and the board and principal of its managing school, James Hargest College School.

The network’s experienced director co-ordinates this and other network support programmes. Five local secondary schools make use of the centre to support selected students to stay engaged in education.

At any one time, the centre maintains a roll of up to 10 students, many of whom are in Years 9 & 10. In any one year, over twenty students are involved in the centre’s twenty-week programme.

The centre has a lead teacher and one other teacher, a support staff member and the services of the network’s caseworker. Those involved with the centre place a strong focus on helping students to successfully return to their enrolling school, primarily through supporting them to improve their behaviour and work habits.

The managing school, director and lead teacher have had a long association with the centre and this has helped to provide good continuity in policy, programmes, practices and links with schools.

The centre’s last ERO review in January 2013 concluded that it was providing an effective programme for its students. In particular, the review affirmed the quality of management and teaching practices along with transition and reintegration processes. The main review recommendation related to improving internal evaluation. Strengths apparent at that time are still clearly evident and better evaluation practices have been developed.

Findings

How effective is the Activity Centre at achieving positive outcomes for students?

The centre is successfully promoting positive outcomes for many of its students. Tracking of students who attended the activity centre in 2016, and remained in the district, show significant numbers are still engaged in education. Most students were still attending school while others are involved in alternative education or training.

Many students made significant improvements in their behaviour, work habits and attendance while at the centre. Student progress in academic areas is most evident in the gains made in literacy learning.

Māori students achieve similar outcomes to their peers.

What is the quality of governance and leadership of the Activity Centre?

Governance and leadership of the centre is effective.The board, along with the network trust, actively supports the work of the centre. For instance, the board has made significant improvements to the quality of centre facilities and the learning environment for students. The board, with the support of its principal and centre director, has very good systems in place to ensure it meets its obligations.

The managing school’s principal is professionally engaged with the director and lead teacher and is a strong advocate for the centre and its students. The centre is well led and managed by its director. The robust systems she has developed effectively support the operation of the centre.

The centre’s managing principal, director and staff actively liaise with schools within the network. This liaison promotes a shared commitment across enrolling schools to supporting students, fostering a strong sense of partnership among key people and a collective responsibility for students.

Functional centre planning, shared curriculum leadership, good provision for professional development, and useful internal evaluations result in ongoing improvements to the quality of education and support for students.

Trustees, leaders and centre staff have high expectations and a strong commitment to doing all that is possible to support the centre’s students. They have consistent expectations for students and respectful, consistent behaviour management practices that take into account each student’s uniqueness.

How effective are the selection and transition processes?

The centre has effective selection and transition processes. Students from the enrolling schools have fair and equitable access to the centre. Well-established selection practices result in the enrolment of those students who are most likely to benefit from attending the centre.

Transition processes actively involve the enrolling school, student and whānau/caregivers in decision making. Transitions are well managed, enabling students to settle into the centre quickly and re-engage in learning.

Staff place a strong emphasis on, and are successful in, building positive relationships with students through respectful and productive interactions. This results in students being able to learn in what is usually a calm, welcoming and nurturing environment.

How well does the Activity Centre identify the social, emotional and academic needs of each student?

The centre identifies and responds very well to the social, emotional and academic needs of students.

Centre staff and the network case manager ensure a good variety of information from a range of sources, including enrolling schools and family/whānau, is obtained to accurately identify a range of student needs.

Teachers get to know each of their students very well. They actively seek to establish student strengths and interests and use these to motivate and provide meaningful learning experiences for students. Teachers use the information they gather to ensure literacy and mathematics programmes in particular are highly personalised, and students are supported in ways that help them to better engage in their learning.

The director, case manager and teachers use in-depth information about students’ social and emotional needs to successfully maintain assistance from external agencies that already support students and their whānau. Where gaps in support are identified, the network caseworker acts as a strong advocate for students. As a result, she is often successful in accessing additional support from some of the twenty local support services she has links with.

How well do the specialised learning programmes meet the needs of each student?

Overall, the centre’s specialised learning programme meets the needs of each student very well. The centre’s curriculum provides students with sufficient opportunities to learn and experience success in a variety of areas. These include good opportunities to develop key competencies along with opportunities to expand their interests.

The centre programme achieves a good balance between centre and community-based experiences that help to motivate students. The programme gives appropriate priority to students improving their behaviour and work habits in meaningful contexts so that they are better prepared to return to their schools.

Academic learning is highly individualised, and linked directly to the goals in students’ ILPs and weekly targets. Teachers make appropriate adjustments to programmes as a result of student responses, regular assessments and emerging issues and interests.

The quality of students ILPs varies, particularly in the quality of some learning objectives. This limits their usefulness, particularly in regard to assessing some aspects of student progress.

The centre makes effective use of Te Kura (The Correspondence School) to foster student engagement and progress in literacy, mathematics and also in other curriculum areas of interest to the student. The curriculum has been successful in incorporating aspects of te ao Māori in ways that affirm the cultural heritage of Māori students. The centre makes good use of the skills of specialise staff in teaching areas such as art, physical education, music and technology.

Teachers use a suitable variety of approaches to engage and support students in their learning. They place appropriate emphasis on students taking responsibility for their own learning and behaviour. This helps students to increase their independence and develop better work habits.

Regular assessments, including student self-assessment, are well used to acknowledge and report progress and to appropriately adapt programmes and practices. Teachers are making increasing use of reflective practices to make or plan further improvements to the learning opportunities they provide for students. This reflection has resulted in plans being put in place to extend students’ career education opportunities.

How effectively are students prepared for their future pathways?

Students are very well supported to transition back to school. Enrolling schools maintain contact with their students during their time at the centre. Reporting practices make sure key people at the student’s enrolling school and families are kept well informed about their progress and any issues that arise. This helps schools to be well prepared for the return of their students.

Centre staff make sure transition practices are flexible enough to take into account each student’s needs and circumstances. Centre staff provide the students and school staff with some useful advice and guidance, particularly during the early stages of transition.

Recommendations

ERO affirms the priorities the centre staff have established for ongoing centre improvement. These include exploring further ways of incorporating career pathways into the curriculum and extending the range of strategies used to support students to develop resilience.

Centre leaders should also review the quality of ILPs in ways that result in the learning objectives for students being specific enough to evaluate their progress accurately.

Dr Lesley Patterson

Deputy Chief Review Officer Southern

Te Waipounamu - Southern Region

15 November 2017

About the Activity Centre