Remarkables Primary School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 10 months of the Education Review Office and Remarkables Primary 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 

Remarkables Primary School is located in Frankton, Queenstown. The school provides education for students in years 1 – 8. A new Principal was appointed at the start of 2022. Their mission is to nurture, inspire and grow remarkable learners.

Remarkables Primary School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:

• to implement a cohesive structured literacy approach

• to strengthen Positive Behaviour 4 Learning across the school.

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

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how effectively structured literacy is improving reading and writing outcomes for all learners, with a particular focus on those students not yet meeting achievement expectations.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is:

• having trialled a number of structured literacy platforms, school leaders wish to transition to a localised version of structured literacy that is coherent, effective and embedded across the school

• school leaders have identified learners’ progress and achievement in literacy as a priority, following the impact of COVID conditions on attendance and achievement at the school.

The school expects to see:

• an increasingly cohesive curriculum design for literacy learning across the school

• improved reading and writing outcomes for all students, particularly those students not yet meeting achievement expectations

• equitable outcomes for Māori learners.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to evaluate how effectively structured literacy is improving reading and writing outcomes for all learners:

• high quality analysis of progress and achievement information is used by leaders and teachers to know the learners, inform team planning and design programmes for targeted support that respond to learners’ needs

• strategic intervention and support for neurodiverse students and other students who are yet to meet progress and achievement expectations

• high expectations for excellent and equitable learning outcomes across the school.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• teaching staff continuing to grow their knowledge of structured literacy to embed high quality and consistent professional practice across the school

• review curriculum documentation to reflect new teaching practices and to provide clarity and guidance for teachers and all other stakeholders

• sharing information with the community to ensure the school’s new approach to literacy is well understood by whānau, to inform and strengthen their engagement with children’s learning.

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

22 May 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