Kelston Girls’ College

School Evaluation Report

Tēnā koutou e mau manawa rahi ki te kaupapa e aro ake nei, ko te tamaiti te pūtake o te kaupapa. Mā wai rā e kawe, mā tātau katoa. 

We acknowledge the collective effort, responsibility and commitment by all to ensure that the child remains at the heart of the matter.

Context 

Kelston Girls’ College, located in the western side of Auckland City, provides education for students in Years 9 to 13. The school's values are: Respect ourselves, Manaaki i a Tātou, Respect others, Manaaki i a Rātou and Respect Community, Manaaki i te Hapori. A feature of the school is the bilingual units for te reo Māori and gagana Samoa and lea faka Tonga.

There are two parts to this report.

Part A: An evaluative summary of learner success and school conditions to inform the school board’s future strategic direction, including any education in Rumaki/bilingual settings. 

Part B: The improvement actions prioritised for the school’s next evaluation cycle. 

Part A: Current State 

The following findings are to inform the school’s future priorities for improvement.

Learner Success and Wellbeing 

Learner outcomes are becoming more equitable. 

• A small majority of students in Years 11 to 13, make good progress and achieve well in National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA), in Levels 1, 2 and 3, including Pacific learners; NCEA Level 1 results are higher than the previous five years.
• Less than half of Year 13 achieve University Entrance; the school has yet to address inequity for Māori students in NCEA attainment.
• Achievement and progress information in literacy and mathematics is gathered for Year 9 and 10 students; however, analysing for overall success, trends and patterns needs further development. 
• The school is well below the Ministry of Education target for attendance; recently, some improvement in regular attendance is evident.

Conditions to support learner success

Leaders progressively strengthen school conditions to support learner success, in a culturally respectful environment. 

• Leaders' commitment to and recognition of the many cultures of learners and their families are encompassed in the curriculum, school values and the different and wide-ranging opportunities available.
• The school has purposefully developed relationships with other education providers to enhance opportunities for students, through qualifications and programmes within and beyond school.
• The board and leaders are building strong and learning-focused relationships with whānau, families and the community.

The school’s curriculum is responsive to most students’ learning needs, interests and cultural identities, to improve their engagement and outcomes. 

• Students have many and varied opportunities to learn across the breath of The New Zealand Curriculum, with a focus on foundation skills in literacy and numeracy.  
• Teachers create orderly and respectful environments where learning time is purposeful, and students are focused and engaged.
• Leaders and teachers collaboratively adapted the curriculum and timetable, and co-designed learning programmes to increase student engagement, progress and achievement; the impact of these changes is reflected in steadily improved Level 1 NCEA attainment. 

The school is strengthening systems, structures and practices to bring about learner success and improvement over time.

• Bilingual units in te reo Māori, gagana Samoa and lea faka Tonga are distinctive features of the school, and demonstrate the valuing of learners’ knowledges, languages, cultures and identities. 
• Vocational Pathways programmes, such as Trades Academy, Gateway and work experience provide students with meaningful career-based activities, and engagement in chosen qualifications and relevant work experience.
• Leaders and teachers increasingly use data to track student progress and achievement; this is an area for further development to more fully inform curriculum review and teaching and learning decisions.  

Part B: Where to next?

The agreed next steps for the school are to: 

• make better use of Years 9 and 10 data to inform all levels of school decision making and targeted support and pathway planning for learners
• use a robust evaluation process to look at the strategies currently seen to be working for Pacific learners and from this identify steps to improve Māori student achievement, particularly in NCEA
• respond to analysed patterns in attendance with strategies that increase rates of regular attendance for all students; consideration is given to working with whānau and families to understand the correlation between attendance and progress and achievement 
• continue to review and refine curriculum planning to further strengthen teaching and improve outcomes, particularly for Māori students. 

The agreed actions for the next improvement cycle and timeframes are as follows.

Within six months:

• review strategies to improve Māori student attendance, engagement and achievement and incorporate this in the school’s improvement priorities within strategic and annual planning 
• use relevant attendance data to work in partnership with parents, whānau and community to monitor and raise student attendance and engagement
• extend a purposeful feedback loop into the evaluation process strengthen review and refinement of the curriculum and further enhance effective teaching and improve outcomes.

Six monthly:

• report to the board on the impact of strategies to improve attendance, equity, and achievement at all levels
• provide progress information towards meeting achievement goals in NCEA
• analysed Year 9 and 10 achievement data is reported and used after mid-year testing is concluded.

Annually:

• for all year levels, comprehensive, evidence-based reporting to the board on the impact of strategies to improve and equity in achievement, and to inform next steps
• well-analysed attendance data, reported to the board on a termly basis (based on Ministry of Education targets and reported termly in Everyday Matters data), is scrutinised annually to identify trends and patterns and further actions 
• for all year levels, evaluate the impact of the curriculum and teaching practices on student engagement and outcomes and inform next steps.

Actions taken against these next steps are expected to result in:

• for all year levels, improved attendance, progress, and achievement
• equity of outcomes for Māori learners
• further improvements to the integrated curriculum and teaching practice, to enhance student learning and success.

ERO’s role will be to support the school in its evaluation for improvement cycle to improve outcomes for all learners. The next public report on ERO’s website will be a School Evaluation Report and is due within three years.

Me mahi tahi tonu tātau, kia whai oranga a tātau tamariki
Let’s continue to work together for the greater good of all children

Shelley Booysen
Director of Schools

23 September 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