These are the findings of the
Education Review Office's latest report on Orewa North School.
1 Context
What are the important features of this school that have an impact on student
learning?
Orewa North School is a well established school catering for students in Years 1
to 6. The school roll continues to be stable. The number of students identifying
as Māori has increased significantly over the past three years, bringing a
change to the school's ethnic composition.
The school's positive culture provides a sound foundation for learning. Students
benefit from teachers' caring and supportive approach and the settled classroom
environments they create. Students come to school as willing and enthusiastic
learners. Parents are made welcome and encouraged to be involved in school
activities. The school continues to enjoy, and students benefit from, high
levels of parent and community support.
The Board of Trustees works effectively with the Parent Teacher Association to
ensure that the school is well resourced. The school is continually updating and
improving resources for students. Ongoing development of property and grounds
continues to beautify the site and enhance outdoor opportunities for students.
2 Learning
How well are students learning - engaging, progressing and achieving?
The school's comprehensive range of student achievement information indicates
that students
achieve well and have positive attitudes towards their learning.
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Achievement information includes the
results from individual assessment tools which show how well students
are meeting school indicators and benchmarks for achievement. ERO notes
that some teachers could make better use of assessment information to
plan more systematically for the learning
needs of individual students.The
school has made good progress in reporting student achievement in
relation to the National Standards. Achievement information is well
analysed to identify students who would benefit from additional support.
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Senior staff monitor the
progress and achievement of groups of students, including Māori and Pacific
students and year level cohorts. The school reports that students make good
progress over time.
More specific class by class monitoring of student achievement would assist
senior leaders to identify where classroom programmes could be improved so that
students are more likely to reach their potential. Comparing the school's
overall levels of achievement with that of other schools of a similar decile and
type, could enable the school to better gauge its success in promoting learning.
How well does the school promote Māori student success and success as Māori?
Several teachers successfully affirm Māori students' culture, language and
identity. They do this by incorporating Māori themes in their programmes and
using practices that acknowledge the cultural heritage of Māori students. Māori
students and non-Māori students benefit from the successful kapa haka group
which is trained by skilled parents.
Overall, however, ERO notes that there is limited recognition of New Zealand's
bicultural heritage in evidence across the school. Previous school initiatives
aimed at embedding Māori cultural experiences have not been maintained or
extended. With an increasing number of students who identify as Māori, school
leaders should make building staff capability to meet the Government's goal of
Māori students achieving success as Māori a higher priority.
School leaders' analysis of National Standards achievement information indicates
that the majority of Māori students achieve at National Standards. However, they
are not appropriately proportionally represented among the students achieving
above the National Standards.
School leaders could consider the merits of setting a target to redress this.
They have appropriately set achievement targets to support Māori students at
risk of not achieving. Māori students who receive additional support programmes
make good progress while participating in them.
The school has identified some attendance issues with a small group of Māori
students. The
school should review the effectiveness of the steps it has taken to address
this. More
emphasis on providing culturally responsive teaching to meet the needs of Māori
students
may help to improve the engagement of this group of students and of Māori
students more
generally.
3 Curriculum
How effectively does this school's curriculum promote and support
student learning?
Aspects of the school's curriculum effectively promote and support
student learning well.
These include:
- a strong focus on the core subjects
of reading, writing and mathematics
- frequent opportunities for students
to be physically active
- good use of local facilities as
resources for learning
- well functioning special needs
provisions for students needing extra learning assistance
- supportive classroom environments in
which students feel positively motivated to learn.
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Professional development for teachers has focussed on literacy/written language,
numeracy,inquiry learning and Information Communication Technology. Lead
teachers support their peers to implement new approaches. In order to ensure
that all students benefit from new approaches, senior staff should monitor how
well teachers are implementing them. Higher expectations for implementation,
improved teacher appraisal processes and further support and guidance could help
all teachers to better embed new practices and approaches.
Teachers have begun to develop a long-term outline of inquiry learning that
should broaden the curriculum for students. This development provides a good
opportunity for teachers to consider how to offer students increased
opportunities to make choices about what and how they learn. School leaders
should also reflect on ways to ensure that this new curriculum approach results
in programmes that are sufficiently challenging and interesting for students.
More open consultation processes may also provide better opportunities for the
parents and students to be involved in curriculum review and development.
School leaders maintain strong links with the local college. The college's
requirements are incorporated into teaching programmes in order to assist senior
students' transition to secondary school.4
Sustainable Performance
How well placed is the school to sustain and improve its performance?
The school has the capacity to sustain its performance.
The senior management team is long serving and knows teachers, students and
families well. Teachers are collegial and supportive of students and each other.
The school has a high profile in the community which is maintained through
strong links between senior managers and other local schools and with the
community in general. The board operates efficiently. Trustees continue to
support the school and generously fund teacher professional development. The
school's open-door practices promote good relationships with the community. All
of these factors help to create a stable foundation for the school to sustain
its performance.
School leaders and the board use good self-review processes in their strategic
and annual planning. By making increased use of review information the board and
principal could further enhance the school's development. A useful approach
would be to use self review findings and recommendations as a basis for
developing action plans which outline relevant goals and strategies to promote
development. Regularly monitoring and evaluating progress in relation to these
action plans would significantly enhance the school's cycle of self review and
its capacity to further improve students' learning.
Provision for international students
The school is a signatory to the Code of Practice for Pastoral Care of
International Students established under section 238F of the Education Act 1989.
No international students were enrolled at the time of the ERO review.
Board assurance on legal requirements
Before the review, the board of trustees and principal of the school completed
the ERO Board Assurance Statement and Self-Audit Checklists. In these documents
they attested that they had taken all reasonable steps to meet their legislative
obligations related to:
- board administration
- curriculum
- management of health, safety and welfare
- personnel management
- financial management
- asset management.
During the review, ERO checked the following
items because they have a potentially high
impact on student achievement:
- emotional safety of students (including
prevention of bullying and sexual harassment)
- physical safety of students
- teacher registration
- stand-downs, suspensions, expulsions and
exclusions
- attendance.
In order to improve current practices, the board should ensure that risk
analysis management
system plans (RAMS) are prepared prior to students going on trips and camps.
If you would like a copy of the full report, please download it
HERE
or see the ERO
website
http://www.ero.govt.nz
