Central Auckland Specialist School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report 

Background 

This Profile Report was written within six months of the Education Review Office and ​Central Auckland Specialist 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

This report is part of a nationally coordinated evaluation of 27-day specialist schools during the second half of 2023. This included the development of day specialist school evaluation indicators by ERO with significant input from principals, staff and the Special Education Principals’ Association of New Zealand (SEPAnz). 

Context  

Central Auckland Specialist School is in Three Kings, Auckland. It provides education for students with intellectual disabilities, many of whom may also have physical, sensory or behaviour disabilities. Students are aged between the ages of five to 21 years old and are funded through the Ongoing Resourcing Scheme (ORS). The school has a base school and 10 satellite sites located in local host schools.  

The school employs a specialist therapy team that includes speech and language therapists, occupational therapists and physiotherapists who support the learning and wellbeing of students. The school also operates a large specialist teacher outreach service that supports ORS funded students enrolled in 33 schools in the Central Auckland area as well as providing fundholder services for a local primary school. 

In 2023, Central Auckland Specialist School opened Manulele o le Lumanai, a Samoan bilingual satellite class providing specialist education within a bilingual context where students can grow and express what it means to be Samoan. This is the first bilingual unit in a specialist school in New Zealand. 

The school continues to navigate and manage roll growth pressures along with the employment and property demands associated with this. 

The schools vision statement is ‘Inspiring Engagement, Realising Potential’ which is realised through its ‘Mahi Tahi’ approach to personalised curriculum.  Mahi Tahi enables students to successfully access the New Zealand Curriculum, and documents progress and achievement within authentic and meaningful contexts.  

​​Central Auckland Specialist School​’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for students are: 

• curriculum: develop and deliver a responsive curriculum through effective pedagogy 
• capacity: grow our people, places, systems and structures to meet the projected growth of the school 
• connection: strengthen our connections with whānau, host school, community agencies, services and each other. 

You can find a copy of the school’s strategic and annual plan on ​Central Auckland Specialist School​’s website. 

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how effectively all staff use teaching and learning pedagogies to strengthen student engagement to increase equity and excellence. 

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is to:  

• continue to use evidence-based teaching pedagogies that move beyond differentiation to personalisation of learning using a strengths-based approach 
• further strengthen schoolwide capability and capacity in the use of internal evaluation to sustain effective teaching and learning practices. 

The school expects to see all students: 

• realise their aspirations through their realising the school graduate profile  
• increase their voice and choice in their own learning.  

Strengths  

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to evaluate how effectively all staff use teaching and learning pedagogies to strengthen student engagement to ensure equity and excellence. 

• A positive and purposeful school culture that celebrates students’ cultures and promotes wellbeing and sense of belonging. 
• Highly effective and well-established leadership which establishes a strategic direction and schoolwide systems and processes that effectively lead a culture for school improvement. 
• A schoolwide commitment for all staff to collaboratively develop best pedagogical practices to ensure the progress, achievement and learning outcomes for all students. 
• An adaptive school curriculum that is innovative, creative and strengthened as it responds to individual students and supports highly personalised learning pathways. 
• Strong, positive and trusting relationships underpin partnerships within the school and between whānau, host schools and the wider community. 

Where to next? 

Moving forward, the school will prioritise: 

• continuing to strengthen teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge and evidence-based teaching practices 
• developing and embedding a shared language of engagement for learning for students and staff 
• strengthening evaluative processes and capabilities to ensure systematic, coherent and connected evaluation practices for ongoing school improvement and learner success.  

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​ 

​​9 April 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