Springfield School

What ERO wrote in its latest report

This is ERO’s report of 3 December 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

Springfield School is a contributing primary school and caters for students in Years 1 to 6. Springfield School identifies five key cultural competencies of Manaakitanga, Whanaungatanga, Ako, Tangata Whenuatanga, and Wānanga underpin the curriculum.

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 previous ERO report of July 2022 the school evaluated how well the local curriculum and teaching practices support students’ engagement, wellbeing, and achievement.

Expected Improvements and Findings

The school expected to see:

Programmes which have a clear focus on meeting the abilities, needs, skills and interests of students

The well-developed local curriculum is now strongly aligned with The New Zealand Curriculum, it has a focus on science and reflects the interests and needs of students.

Excellent and equitable achievement, wellbeing, and engagement outcomes for all students.

Student achievement is increasingly equitable, and most students are achieving at the expected curriculum level.

Priority students are identified, and their needs are met through intentional planning and teacher practice.

The greatest shift that occurred in response to the school’s action was the embedding of structured literacy and the incorporation of local history and contexts into the school curriculum.

Part B: Current State

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

Learner Success and Wellbeing

A large majority of students make sustained progress and achieve at the appropriate curriculum level.

Most students achieve at or above the expected curriculum levels in reading, writing and mathematics.

All Māori students achieved at or above the expected curriculum level in reading, writing and mathematics.

Teachers prioritize student well-being and holistic development and nurture social and emotional skills, promoting empathy, resilience, and self-regulation.

The school has not achieved the Ministry of Education’s 2024 target with less than a third of learners attending school regularly.

Conditions to support learner success

Effective school leadership has a clear vision for learner success and the required steps needed to achieve this.

Parents, whānau and teachers work together with students to identify their strengths and learning needs, set goals, and plan responsive learning strategies and activities.

Strong professional relationships and shared leadership positively reinforce the school’s values and priorities, this enhances learners’ wellbeing and sense of belonging.

Teachers prioritise student well-being and holistic development by nurturing social and emotional skills, promoting empathy, resilience, and self-regulation.

Learner’s experience and benefit from high quality teaching practice and meaningful learning programmes.

Learners are well known by all staff, those at risk of not making expected progress are closely monitored and specific actions are taken to address their learning needs.

Clear expectations for teachers and learners result in settled and learning focused classrooms.

Teachers regularly review the curriculum to ensure it continues to engage learners, meet their needs and reflects the local context.

Teachers and the principal actively upskill their knowledge to ensure teaching programmes reflect tikanga Māori and te reo Māori.

The school has well-aligned systems and effective conditions for successful outcomes.

The board is highly supportive and has clear understanding of its governance role.

Purposeful partnerships with local schools, external agencies and the community enhance teaching and learning.

A wide range of feedback from learners, staff and the community is used well to inform resourcing decisions for improvement.

Part C: Where to next?

The agreed next steps for the school are to:

embed the local curriculum and continue to evaluate planning and teacher practice to identify ongoing improvements

engage with the community to better understand attendance issues and develop shared processes to support students to regularly attend school

continue to strengthen leaders and teachers use of internal evaluation to inform areas for development.

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

Every six months :

consult the community to better understand attendance issues and develop shared processes to support students to regularly attend school

teachers and leaders undertake evaluation of the impact of professional development on improving teacher practice and raising student outcomes to inform planning for continued improvements

Annually :

gather and analyse assessment data to inform next steps for learning and evaluate the effectiveness of teaching programmes

review the local curriculum to ensure it aligns with strategic priorities and report to the board on progress and where to next

gather staff, student and whānau feedback and ideas and respond to identified needs and aspirations of stakeholders

analyse and report on attendance data and refine processes to support more students to attend school regularly.

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

more students regularly attending school and making progress with their learning

sustained and improved outcomes for learning

meaningful evaluation supports continuous improvement schoolwide.

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

3 December 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 →