Mt Roskill Grammar

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within 18 months of the Education Review Office and Mount Roskill Grammar 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 

Mount Roskill Grammar School is a co-educational secondary school catering for students from years 9 to 15. The school is located within a wider campus encompassing an early learning service, primary and intermediate school.

The school roll reflects the local area’s ethnically diverse population. The schools’ vision is to develop students who will be successful, powerful learners who are active and responsible citizens, and enshrines the schools’ values of manaakitanga, whanaungatanga and tūmanakotanga.

Mt Roskill Grammar School is part of the Puketāpapa Kahui Ako | Community of Learning. The MacLean Centre for students who live with a disability is onsite.

An extensive building programme to expand and improve the school’s facilities has recently commenced.

Mount Roskill Grammar School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:

• enhancing learner access to the wider curriculum by improving achievement in the foundation areas of reading, writing, mathematics, and science
• the consistent use of pedagogies that lead to accelerated learner progress and achievement
• strengthening the delivery of te reo Māori me ōna tikanga and mātauranga Māori for all students
• delivering a responsive, broad, and deep curriculum with a review cycle that ensures continuous improvement.

You can find a copy of the school’s strategic and annual plan on Mount Roskill Grammar School’s website.

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate the impact of the schools’ review of the year 9 and 10 curriculum. The review of the curriculum is aimed at achieving more equitable achievement outcomes by ensuring that all students have the core skills, specifically in literacy and numeracy, required to succeed in NCEA.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is to improve student achievement in literacy and numeracy as an effective way to address equity. The senior leadership’s work using the Collaborative Complex Problem-solving model (CCPS) has identified that it is critically important to provide every student with the foundational pre-requisites in literacy and numeracy to achieve NCEA and access meaningful pathways.

The school expects to see:

• a refreshed junior curriculum that delivers excellent and equitable outcomes for all students
• teachers delivering a coherent school-wide approach to accelerating student learning in literacy and numeracy
• teachers using common teaching and learning strategies for literacy across the curriculum
• student information and achievement data used effectively to ensure all students receive regular specialised teaching and learning in numeracy and literacy
• effective communication to whānau of student progresses and achievement in literacy and numeracy.

Strengths

The school can draw from the following strengths to support it in evaluating the impact of the schools’ review of the year 9 and 10 curriculum:

• effective internal evaluation practices and capability, including leadership through the CCPS model
• a professional learning community who are committed to achieving equitable outcomes for all students
• teachers who proactively engage in professional inquiry processes, focused on assessment for learning and continually strengthening their practice
• established community connections including mana whenua connections with Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei and the Puketāpapa Kahui Ako | Community of Learning
• the school continues to build equitable and excellent outcomes in NCEA and Scholarship.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise:

• embedding effective literacy and numeracy pedagogies in assessment for learning practice
• developing the teacher capabilities required to deliver Mana ōrite mō te mātauranga Māori as the school implements changes to NCEA
• building Collaborative Complex Problem-Solving leadership capability across the staff.

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

17 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