Albany Junior High School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within six months of the Education Review Office and Albany Junior High 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 

Albany Junior High School is in Albany on Auckland's North Shore. The school provides education for students in Years 7 to 10. Albany Junior High School is the first purpose built junior high school for the emerging adolescent in New Zealand. A new principal was appointed in 2022.

Albany Junior High School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:

• Developing community partnership of engagement to support student wellbeing and learning
• Creating a school identity and inclusive culture for adolescent learners to learn and grow in, with confidence
• Building clarity and understanding of responsive and effective teaching and learning programmes and pathways for improved student progress and achievement.

You can find a copy of the school’s strategic and annual plan on Albany Junior High School’s website.

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how effectively the school is strengthening meaningful educationally significant connections, communication and relationships with students, whānau, and the wider community.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is to support and enhance:

• the holistic development of each student as a confident, connected, actively involved lifelong learner
• student engagement, wellbeing and learning achievement outcomes
• reciprocal learning partnerships within and beyond the school community.

The school expects to see:

• equitable and excellent progress and achievement outcomes for all students
• strengthened processes to support reciprocal learning centred partnerships with students, whānau and teachers 
• enhanced community collaborations to enrich opportunities for students to become confident, connected, actively involved learners
• continued strategic support and solutions for improved student attendance, engagement and wellbeing.

Strengths 

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to evaluate how effectively it is strengthening meaningful educationally significant connections, communication and relationships:

• the school continues to refine and strengthen conditions, actions and practices that promote learner wellbeing, resilience and optimism
• teachers are using relational and responsive approaches in order to improve student learning
• leadership is collaboratively strengthening a culture of relational trust and prioritises and plans for school improvement.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• embedding and refining assessment and reporting practices that will positively impact on equitable and excellent achievement outcomes for all students
• reviewing and strengthening community connections and collaboration to enhance reciprocal learning centred partnerships with students, whānau, teachers and the local Kāhui Ako
• continuing to embed successful strategies and solutions that lead to improved student attendance, engagement and wellbeing.

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 February 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

This school hosts a satellite class of Wilson School.