Dargaville High School

The same report — the board assurance report of 5 June 2025 — also sets out actions for compliance: the non-compliance ERO identified during that process. This is that section of the report in full, in ERO’s words.

ERO has identified the following areas of non-compliance during the board assurance process:

Ensure the school’s child protection policy is implemented with fidelity, and staff roles and responsibilities are clear and supported by regular child protection training. [Sections 18 and 19 of the Children’s Act 2014: School boards’ child protection policies]

Follow the practice and procedure prescribed for notifying the use physical restraint. [Sections 99, 100 and 101 of the Education and Training Act 2020: limits, rules and use of physical restraint and behaviour management at registered schools; Ministry of Education (Physical Restraint) Rules 2023]

Ensure the school’s Education Outside the Classroom (EOTC) policy is implemented with fidelity, and risk management procedures align with relevant legislation and guidelines. [Health and Safety at Work Act 2015; Education Outside the Classroom (Ministry of Education)]

Ensure satisfactory safety checking of persons employed by the Board, including identity confirmation, police vetting and risk assessments of information collected. [Sections 25, 26 and 27 of the Children’s Act 2014: Safety checks of children’s workers]

Obtain Police vetting for every person before the person’s employment or engagement at the school begins. [Section 104 and Schedule 4 of the Education and Training Act 2020]

Ensure that persons without a practising certificate are not permanently appointed to a teaching position. [Section 92(2) of the Education and Training Act 2020: Restrictions on appointment of teachers]

The board has not yet addressed the areas of non-compliance identified.

Read this board assurance report on ero.govt.nz →

The roll ERO recorded, and when

ERO writes a roll into each report it publishes: a count taken for that report, on the day shown, by the review team that was there. The Ministry of Education’s current roll for this school is 406 — the figure at the top of this page, and the one to use for how big the school is now. These are a different measurement by a different body, so they will rarely agree, and a difference between them is not a change in the school.

1. September 2017

   461

   Counted while ERO’s review team was at the school. Education Review Office, report of 14 November 2017

This is one count taken for one report. It says what the roll was on that day, and nothing about how the roll has moved.

What ERO wrote in its latest report

This is ERO’s report of 5 June 2025 — “School Evaluation Report” — section by section, under ERO’s own headings, in ERO’s own order. Nothing is summarised, shortened or reordered.

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

Dargaville High School is located in the Kaipara District in the Northland Region and provides education for learners in Years 9 to 13. Over half of students are of Māori heritage who predominantly whakapapa to local hapū and Ngāti Whatua iwi.

There are three parts to this report.

Part A: A summary of the findings from the most recent Education Review Office (ERO) report and/or subsequent evaluation.

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

Part A: Previous Improvement Goals

Since the November 2022 ERO report the school has been working to strengthen teaching practices in Years 9 and 10 to prepare all ā konga for success. The school expected to see:

The effective use of teaching strategies to raise outcomes for all learners.

A focus on better supporting students with additional learning needs.

Subject areas and departments providing meaningful learning experiences.

The school has made limited progress against these priorities.

Other Findings

During subsequent ERO visits, it was found that there were additional priorities for improvement. The school responded by identifying three key improvement priorities to focus on that impact directly on student outcomes.

School leaders have been working with the Ministry of Education to develop an Action Plan focused on:

raising overall student attendance, retention and achievement with a priority on ākonga Māori

consistent assessment practices, with urgency for teachers of Years 9 and 10

accelerated rates of progress and achievement, particularly for Year 9 and 10 students in literacy and mathematics.

Part B: Current State

ERO undertook a further full onsite review of the school in April 2025. The following findings are to inform the school’s future priorities for improvement.

Learner Success and Wellbeing

Improvement is required to ensure students are attending regularly, engaged in learning, making sufficient progress and achieving well.

Less than half of students attain National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) Level 1; a large majority of students attain Levels 2 and 3 with few gaining University Entrance; disparity for Māori learners exists across all outcome measures.

A number of students do not stay at school until Year 12 and succeed.

The school is yet to develop a clear understanding about student progress and achievement in literacy and mathematics in Years 9 and 10.

Less than half of students regularly attend school; improving attendance remains an urgent priority.

Conditions to support learner success

Leadership is yet to develop effective systems and processes to improve outcomes for learners.

Leaders are yet to establish organisational conditions to drive strategic improvement and raise student attendance, engagement and achievement.

Leaders have developed a plan of action; ensuring these plans are implemented effectively, with clear and measurable progress outcomes is an urgent priority.

The current school culture does not consistently promote: high expectations the provision of high-quality teaching equity and excellence in learner outcomes.

The quality of teaching is highly variable and needs significant improvement.

Leaders and teachers are at an early stage of using achievement information to inform teaching and learning and accelerate student progress.

The planned curriculum includes learning across the breadth of the New Zealand Curriculum , with the aspirations of whānau , hapū and iwi beginning to be recognised through the delivery of the curriculum.

Teachers recognise the need to promote higher expectations for learning, progress and achievement.

Improvements to school conditions are required to enable improved outcomes for students.

The school is taking some steps to improve students’ engagement, belonging and inclusion; developing school wide systems to better support learners with complex needs to achieve educational goals is a priority.

The school is working towards a whānau based pastoral system in partnership with mana whenua ; the school should enhance communication with parents and whānau to focus on students’ attendance, learning, progress and achievement.

The school board and leaders should implement a planned approach to school improvement, informed by quality evidence and robust internal evaluation and take urgent action to ensure a physically and emotionally safe learning and working environment.

Part C: Where to next? Recommendation

Under section 171 of the Education and Training Act 2020, that a Commissioner be appointed in order to bring about the following improvements:

health and safety and positive school culture

leadership of learning and curriculum

attendance, progress and achievement

strategic and annual planning for improvement

employment.

Next Steps

The school needs to act urgently to:

strengthen school leadership

improve strategic and action and implementation planning to: set and pursue measurable goals and targets for student attendance, engagement achievement, progress and retention align and strengthen school systems, processes and organisational conditions to support these goals decide progress measures against milestones create a reporting framework that provides visibility about the progress being made towards goals

use effective strategies to improve attendance and engagement in learning

develop a school culture committed to high quality teaching and assessment practices.

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

Within three months:

address all non-compliances, prioritise health and safety concerns, and establish processes to ensure the school meets legislative requirements

implement a robust system for observing teaching and learning based on high quality practice indicators, including relevant feedback and support to improve the quality of teaching

review, clarify and align strategic documents to establish a small number of improvement targets, focused on improving outcomes for learners, including appropriate and timely ways to measure and track progress over time

establish a system for collecting consistent and reliable information about student progress and achievement that can be measured, tracked and monitored over time

Within six months:

evaluate effectiveness of systems and processes for ensuring student safety

evaluate progress of teaching and learning and support systems to inform next steps

develop a shared understanding of roles and responsibilities of teachers and leaders to achieve identified targets for improvement

comprehensively report about student progress to parents and whānau

review school culture, using student perceptions regarding expectations for equity and excellence.

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

effective school leadership that drives continuous school improvement

school systems embedded to ensure students are physically and emotionally safe

students consistently experiencing high quality teaching and learning

leaders and teachers working together to meet the school’s goals and targets

outcomes for students improving.

ERO will revisit the school early 2026 to assess progress towards improvement goals and report to the school community within the next 12 months.

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

Sharon Kelly Director of Schools (Acting)

5 June 2025

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

Read this report on ero.govt.nz →