Roxburgh Area School

What ERO wrote in its latest report

This is ERO’s report of 10 May 2024 — “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

Roxburgh Area School is a rural school, located in Central Otago. It provides education for learners in Years 1 to 13. The school’s values are respect | whakaute ; integrity | pono ; personal excellence | te hirango whaiaro ; positive relationships | whakawhanaungatanga ; engagement | mamahi ; and responsibility | haepapa .

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

Over the previous two years, the school has been focused on addressing disparity in achievement outcomes for some students, through more culturally responsive learning programmes and teaching approaches and embedding a formal evaluation process.

Expected Improvements and Findings

In this time the school expected to see much better academic results for groups of students, particularly some Māori learners, who were not experiencing enough success. How well the changes to teaching were improving achievement would be closely monitored through rigorous evaluation.

The school has introduced targeted literacy and numeracy strategies and programmes and is consistently implementing these to address the disparity in outcome for some students in Years 1 to 8.

School achievement information is well analysed and used. It shows disparity is significantly reducing in mathematics and, to a lesser extent, in writing. Equity is increasing.

The school’s Te Ao Māori Action Plan is in the early stages of implementation. Cultural capacity is building. Te ao Māori is becoming an accepted part of the school’s everyday life. A stronger sense of belonging for all students is evident.

Leaders and teachers have strengthened evaluation practice to better know if their new teaching strategies are working, for which students, and why or why not. A rigorous, formal, established process focuses on student outcomes. This needs to become well-embedded and used consistently.

The greatest shift that occurred in response to the school’s action is the growing understanding of te ao Māori by staff, students and the school community.

Part B: Current State

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

Learner Success and Wellbeing

Most students at Roxburgh Area School are engaged, make good progress and achieve very well.

The school’s 2023 achievement information shows that the majority of students achieved at or greater than the expected levels in reading and writing. Overall outcomes for students in mathematics were significantly lower than those for literacy.

There is increasing equity for groups of learners.

All students who needed extra support to succeed in literacy, numeracy and the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) made better than expected progress over the course of the year.

NCEA achievement rates are very good, however the school is striving for students to achieve more excellence grades and improved endorsement rates.

Conditions to support learner success

Strategic and effective leadership drives improvements for learners.

Student achievement data is used to identify students at risk of not achieving and to strategically target supports through a Student Achievement Action Plan .

Leaders and teachers engage with, learn through, and use evaluation to assist decision-making for improvement.

The school is embedding a culturally sustaining curriculum and increasingly high-quality teaching practices.

Students benefit from teachers who know them as individuals and intentionally target teaching and programmes to meet their needs.

Teachers include local context into teaching and learning programmes and the vocational pathways in the senior school.

Key conditions to support success and improvement are well-aligned and embedded.

Systems are in place to quickly identify individual students who need extra support or extension and provide them with tailored learning programmes.

Improved use of a formal evaluation process helps leaders and teachers to better know the impact of teaching strategies and programmes for student success.

The school establishing positive partnerships with whānau and iwi with the purpose of responding to the aspirations of the educational outcomes whānau Māori want for their children.

Part C: Where to next?

The agreed next steps for the school are to:

target mentoring of all Year 9 to 13 students for success in NCEA

raise student achievement in mathematics and writing

fully embed a formal evaluation process across all strategic priorities

continue to implement the intentions of their Te Ao Māori Action Plan.

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

Within six months:

Teachers, with students and whānau | parents, establish individual academic goals for mentoring for students in Years 9 to 13.

Teachers undertake professional development to raise achievement in mathematics and writing.

Every six months:

Leaders, with staff, track and monitor the progress of NCEA students towards reaching their agreed goals.

Leaders, with staff, report to the board on student achievement in reading, writing and mathematics, and respond to emerging needs as required.

Teachers share best teaching practice in literacy and numeracy across the school to support students’ success in the new literacy and numeracy co-requisites for NCEA.

Annually:

Teachers use a reflective, evaluative process to find out about the impact of the teaching practice as part of their Professional Growth Cycle.

Leaders evaluate the impact of Te Ao Māori Action Plan by including the perspectives of students, whānau and iwi.

Curriculum leaders provide evaluative reports to the board to inform strategic resourcing.

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

improved outcomes in mathematics and writing across the school

students able to talk about their academic progress with clarity

improved rates of NCEA endorsements for senior students

all learners supported to succeed at their point of challenge, as identified in the Student Achievement Action Plan.

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

10 May 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

Read this report on ero.govt.nz →