St Peter's School Te Kura Haoika

What ERO wrote in its latest report

This is ERO’s report of 20 September 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

St Peter’s School Te Kura Haoika is an integrated Catholic primary school located in Christchurch and provides education for students in Years 1 to 8. A new principal has recently been appointed. The school’s values of whakaute , rangimarie , māia , pākiki and manaakitanga underpin all aspects of the school.

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 to what extent changes in assessment practices led to improved excellence and equity in achievement outcomes for all students.

Expected Improvements and Findings

The school expected to see:

Assessment for learning that identifies well-defined next steps for future learning.

High levels of achievement have been sustained for individuals and groups of learners over time.

The school has implemented standardised assessment and learning progressions in literacy with clearly stated learning intentions and well aligned next steps.

Enhanced teacher moderation of students' work against expected outcomes for learning.

Collaborative comparison of student work and teachers’ judgments of student work has enhanced teachers' capability to describe student achievement against curriculum levels and strengthened intentional teacher practice.

Other Findings

During the course of the evaluation, it was found that the greatest shift that occurred in response to the school’s action was strengthened assessment for learning practices to better track and monitor learner progress and inform intentional next steps for teaching and learning in literacy.

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 equitable and excellent.

Almost all students are achieving at or above expected curriculum levels in reading, writing and mathematics; consistency of teaching practice in mathematics has been identified as an area for further development.

Learners experience a positive learning climate underpinned by a successful schoolwide commitment to wellbeing and respectful relationships.

The majority of students attend school regularly; the school has not yet met the Ministry of Education’s attendance target.

Conditions to support learner success

Strategic and effective leadership drives improvement to systems, processes, teaching and learning.

Leaders purposefully select and implement professional learning for teachers targeted to improving outcomes for learners.

Leadership effectively fosters professional collaboration across staff and prioritises schoolwide consistency of teaching practice.

Leaders clearly communicate the school vision and goals; these are at forefront of decision making for continuous school improvement.

Learners experience high quality teaching practices and meaningful learning programmes.

Student progress and achievement is tracked and monitored effectively by teachers using a suitable range of assessment tools; appropriate targeted interventions are in place for students identified as requiring additional support.

The local curriculum provides relevant and broad opportunities to learn; strengthening collaboration with local iwi has been identified by school leaders as an area for development.

Effective processes for guiding positive student behaviour for learning are strongly linked to the school values and involve whānau in decision making.

Key conditions that underpin successful schooling are strongly embedded and well-aligned.

The supportive board demonstrates a clear understanding of its governance role; school improvement is prioritised in strategic planning and implementation.

Leaders regularly scrutinise wellbeing information to monitor that all students’ cultures, languages and identities are respected, and they feel valued within the school.

Purposeful partnerships with local schools, external agencies and the wider community enhance teaching and learning. The board, leaders and teachers actively seek a range of information to identify what is working well and where to next.

Part C: Where to next?

The agreed next steps for the school are to:

extend the effective changes made to the literacy approach to enhance teaching practices in mathematics

strengthening consistency of teacher practice to raise student achievement in mathematics

deepen relationships and collaboration with local iwi to continue to build on mātauranga Māori

further engage with the school community to develop strategies to increase rates of student attendance.

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

Every six months:

evaluate changes to teaching practice in literacy to determine what has worked well and identify areas for further strengthening

continue teacher professional development in mathematics and consolidate understanding of the phases of learning in mathematics

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

Annually:

review the impact of teaching and learning programmes on achievement outcomes to know what has been successful and what needs further improvement to inform ongoing strategic direction

track, monitor and report to the board on all learner progress, achievement, and attendance to identify next strategic actions.

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

a local curriculum for literacy and mathematics that is embedded and responsive to emerging needs

sustained high levels of equitable achievement that continue to build excellence in learner outcomes

partnerships with local iwi that extend teaching practice and learning opportunities for students

more students attending regularly.

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

20 September 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 →