St Gerard's School (Alexandra)

What ERO wrote in its latest report

This is ERO’s report of 20 March 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

St Gerard’s School is a state-integrated co-educational school for learners from Years 1 to 8 offering education with a special Catholic character. It draws students from Alexandra and the surrounding area.

There are three parts to this report.

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

Part B: An evaluative summary of learner outcomes and school conditions to inform the school board’s future strategic direction, including 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 report in August 2022, ERO and the school have worked together to evaluate the ongoing impact of a school wide structured literacy approach on improving outcomes for all learners and on raising teachers’ pedagogical skills and knowledge.

Expected Improvements and Findings

The school expected to see:

Accelerated improvement in learners’ literacy through quality, effective teaching practice.

Teachers use an increasing range of strategies, including flexible student groupings and individual interventions, effectively to accelerate learners’ progress.

Learners and teachers gained greater clarity about what is to be learned and the next steps for successful literacy learning.

Mentoring increases teachers’ understandings about effective literacy teaching and learning and how to incorporate practices that have the greatest impact on learner progress and achievement.

Positive impact across all curriculum areas.

Learners increasingly apply skills and knowledge gained from literacy learning across other areas of the curriculum.

Teachers use clear and purposeful literacy learning structures across curriculum areas that increase learner engagement and participation levels.

The gathering of teacher and learner voice about engagement and success to inform ongoing improvements.

Learners are increasingly confident and independent in reading and writing.

Teachers sharing reflections with other staff about the effectiveness of literacy practices raises all their skills and knowledge and improving learning outcomes.

Teachers, parents and whānau work positively together to increase learner progress and achievement in literacy.

The greatest shift that occurred in response to the school’s actions is a commitment to continue with collaborative, systematic approaches to teaching and learning that improve students’ engagement and progress in learning.

Part B: Current state

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

Learner Success and Wellbeing

Outcomes for learners are becoming equitable and excellent.

Most learners achieve at or above expected curriculum levels in literacy and mathematics, with equitable levels of achievement for Māori learners.

Leaders and teachers regularly monitor learners’ achievement in literacy and mathematics to check that priority learners make expected levels of progress.

The school is initiating steps to meet the learning needs of an increasingly diverse student community, including English language learners.

Learner attendance is approaching but not yet at the Government target; most learners attend regularly.

Conditions to support learner success

Leaders foster and sustain a culture committed to learner success.

Leaders and teachers take deliberate steps to involve parents and whānau in improving their children’s progress in literacy and mathematics, particularly priority learners who need to make accelerated progress.

Leaders prioritise the development of leadership of curriculum initiatives that increase student achievement.

Leaders collaborate effectively to develop the school’s strategic plan with the staff, board and school community to ensure that strategic priorities are aligned with meeting students’ learning and wellbeing needs.

Teachers increasingly implement effective teaching and learning practices that lead to improved learner engagement and progress.

Regular evaluations of teaching, learning and assessment practices ensure that teachers provide all learners with appropriate literacy and mathematics programmes focused on learner progress.

Teachers collaboratively and purposefully apply professional learning into teaching; consistent school wide practices increasingly raise learner achievement in literacy and mathematics.

Professional learning for staff is aligned with the school’s strategic goal that learners achieve to their potential through enacting an annual plan that identifies and measures clear learner progress outcomes in literacy and mathematics.

The school develops effective conditions to support learner wellbeing and learning.

Staff develop a range of productive partnerships within the local community and with mana whenua ; the school is perceived as a welcoming and inclusive environment that benefits students’ wellbeing and sense of belonging.

The board and leaders are well informed about strengths and areas for improvement through consultation with parents, whānau and teachers, that is used to inform the school’s strategic goals and annual plan.

The board effectively supports and resources improvement priorities for improving learners’ wellbeing and learning progress.

Part C: Where to next?

The agreed next steps for the school are to:

continue to develop consistent evidence based approaches to teaching and learning school wide to meet the needs of all learners

continue to apply structured approaches in mathematics teaching and learning to increasingly benefit students' progress and achievement

reduce barriers to learning for diverse learners by continuing to implement teaching practices which respond to each learners’ languages, cultures and identities

embed strategies to improve and sustain regular attendance.

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

Within six months

teachers and leaders develop explicit expectations for learner progress and achievement using evidenced-based sequenced teaching and learning approaches

teachers and leaders use internally and externally sourced expertise to continue to build best practice in literacy and mathematics teaching to increase opportunities for learner success

Every six months

teachers and leaders use classroom observations, learner feedback and progress data to inform adapt teaching and learning initiatives and interventions to improve learning outcomes

Annually

leaders evaluate the impact of evidenced based teaching initiatives on improving learning outcomes, including the impact of interventions for accelerated progress and achievement for priority learners

leaders track, analyse and report on progress, achievement and attendance for all learners and provide information to the board to inform strategic priorities and annual planning.

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

improved learner progress and achievement

consistent, evidence-based approaches to teaching, learning and assessment school wide

improved and sustained levels of regular attendance.

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.

Sharon Kelly Director of Schools (Acting)

20 March 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 →