EDUCATION REVIEW REPORT:
RICHMOND ROAD SCHOOL

JANUARY 2010

1.           About the School

2.           The Education Review Office (ERO) Evaluation

Richmond Road School continues to provide students with a good quality of education.  The 2007 ERO report highlighted the school’s commitment to bilingual education, good levels of student achievement, and the variety of learning opportunities offered, all of which continue to be positive features of the school.  The four teaching units in the school, known as rōpū, contribute to the school’s distinctive character.  Three of the rōpū are bilingual units.  Teachers in these units are fluent in the heritage languages of te reo Māori, Samoan, and French. 

The leadership of the school has changed since the last ERO review, with the new principal beginning in 2008 and the deputy principal in 2009.  The leadership team is reflective and progressive.  The principal has provided clear direction and expectations for school improvement and has developed quality assurance systems.  A high level of transparent and comprehensive self review is evident.  The board of trustees has consulted widely to update the school charter, and is well informed by comprehensive reports on student achievement and all aspects of school operation. 

Students maintain good levels of achievement, with most students achieving at or above national expectations in literacy and numeracy.  Students in the bilingual units achieve at similar levels in their heritage languages.  Student progress is closely monitored and analysed.  Students make good progress during each year and over their six years at the school.

School leaders have successfully addressed ERO’s 2007 recommendations that they continue to improve teaching practices and make better use of achievement data.  Teachers have shown a high commitment to, and have benefited from, their professional learning programme.  Students benefit from their good relationships with their teachers and with each other and are well engaged in their learning.  Students are also involved in environmental projects and benefit from school-wide developments in tikanga and te reo Māori.

ERO and the board of trustees agree that school personnel should continue to ensure that school community members develop a shared understanding of documented expectations and processes for all aspects of school operation so that these expectations become fully embedded in practice.

Future Action

ERO is confident that the board of trustees can govern the school in the interest of the students and the Crown and bring about the improvements outlined in this report.  ERO is likely to carry out the next review in three years.

3.           The Focus of the Review

Student Achievement Overall

ERO’s education reviews focus on student achievement.  What follows is a statement about what the school knows about student achievement overall.

The board, principal and teachers have high expectations for raising student achievement.  Student achievement information is collected and analysed over time through a range of assessment tools, including writing exemplars and other appropriate heritage language tools that the school has sourced or developed.

The leadership team and teachers use student achievement to set appropriate school-wide targets in both English and heritage language mediums.  Targets have been set in numeracy, reading and writing.  The leadership team and teachers monitor achievement levels closely and discuss them at school-wide and rōpū-based meetings so that they can cooperatively develop effective strategies to improve student achievement. 

The board provides a range of appropriate interventions to address students’ learning needs and talents.  Senior staff monitor the effectiveness of these through the school ‘Developing Talents Register’ and report their findings to the board.

School information shows that, across all rōpū groups, most students achieve at or above national and school expectations for their year level in reading, writing, and numeracy.  School-wide data indicate significant improvements in achievement levels from the beginning to the end of each year, and a high level of improvement from Years 1 to 6.  There is no significant difference between rōpū groups in achievement levels in English.  School-wide data on English reading from March 2008 showed that 72% of children across the school were achieving at or above national expectations, and this rate increased to 86% by the end of the year.

Māori students and Pacific students meet school expectations for their levels of achievement in English.  Their achievement levels are similar to those of all other students in the school and are similar across all rōpū.  Achievement levels in English for students in the French rōpū are at a similar level.  There are no significant differences between the achievement of boys and that of girls.

The board uses data well to plan strategically for student needs and communicates school targets and student achievement information clearly to the local community.

Students perform well in sporting, visual art, speech and cultural events.  Their successes are celebrated and highlighted regularly in school newsletters, assemblies, graduations and goal-setting meetings.

School Specific Priorities

Before the review, the board of Richmond Road School was invited to consider its priorities for review using guidelines and resources provided by ERO.  ERO also used documentation provided by the school to contribute to the scope of the review.

The detailed priorities for review were then determined following a discussion between the ERO review team and the board of trustees.  This discussion focused on existing information held by the school (including student achievement and self-review information) and the extent to which potential issues for review contributed to the achievement of the students at Richmond Road School.

ERO and the board have agreed on the following focus areas for the review:

·          the quality of teaching and learning in bi-literacy and literacy.

ERO’s findings in these areas are set out below.

The quality of teaching and learning in bi-literacy and literacy

Background

Previous ERO reports have commented positively on the innovative ways in which Richmond Road School has used students’ heritage languages as a medium for delivering the curriculum, and have noted good levels of student achievement.  At the time of the 2007 ERO review, senior managers identified that teachers would benefit from professional development in the teaching of writing and in the use of the national writing exemplars to improve student writing.  Senior staff also identified that children were capable decoders of print but that they needed support to understand the meaning of texts.

Since the 2007 review, staff in bi-lingual units, and in English medium classes, have focused on developing the effectiveness of teaching and learning.  Teachers have been involved in numerous professional learning opportunities, including several action research projects.  Over the last two years teachers have also been involved in a Ministry of Education literacy professional development project.   This project had a focus on writing in 2008 and, in 2009, the focus has been on reading, with an emphasis on making links between reading and writing. 

The school defines ‘bi-literacy’ as the ability to read, write and speak in two languages.  In a school setting, this means that children can transfer strategies learnt in one language to the other.  The teacher must plan for this transfer to happen and provide explicit instruction to help students to make these links.  International research and the school’s own data indicate that becoming bi-literate takes about eight years of instruction.  At Richmond Road School, teachers aim to have the children who are taught in the three bilingual units achieving as close to age-appropriate norms as possible in both English and the heritage language by the end of Year 6.  The board asked ERO to evaluate the quality of teaching in both bi-literacy and literacy.

Student progress and achievement

Students’ progress and achievement in English literacy is reported above under the heading Student Achievement Overall.

Student achievement in their heritage languages is also assessed and tracked in the three bilingual units.  In 2009, heritage language achievement levels in reading (panui) and writing (tuhituhi) for students in the Māori and French rōpū are similar to or better than their achievement levels in English reading and writing.  Achievement levels in Samoan for students in the Samoan rōpūare slightly lower than their achievement levels in English.  This variation may be because the assessment tools used by the Samoan rōpū to assess achievement in the Samoan language are under development by the school.  The assessment tools used are yet to be aligned to assessment resources used in the other bilingual units.  A positive trend of improvement, within each year level and over several years, is evident in all bilingual rōpū.

Areas of good performance

Commitment to biliteracy and literacy.  Trustees, senior leaders and teachers show a strong commitment to literacy and bi-literacy.  The school charter includes the board’s commitment to developing the school as a community that enjoys a life‑long love of language and learning and to leading the way in bilingual education.  The three bilingual units promote student achievement in both English and the respective heritage languages and have a strong impact on the character of the school.  The school-wide emphasis on continuing to improve students’ literacy skills helps to ensure that students make good progress and achieve well in reading and writing.

Professional learning programme for teachers.  A successful professional learning programme has increased teachers’ ability to provide a wide range of good quality literacy programmes.  All teachers have benefited from the focused, well coordinated approach to the organisation and delivery of professional development.  The overall effectiveness of this approach has resulted in:

·          increasing teacher knowledge about the use of assessment data to inform planning and improve student outcomes;

·          a focus on formative assessment strategies that can impact on achievement across the curriculum;

·          professional learning being aligned with school goals and with teacher appraisal;

·          sessions for teachers to share best practice and learn from each other; and

·          teachers having a clear understanding of the ways in which The New Zealand Curriculum affects planning, organisation and teaching.

The professional learning programme has increased teachers’ commitment to, and sense of collective responsibility for, improving teaching and learning.

Professional leadership.  The principal has set clear expectations for planning, goal setting, monitoring and evaluation.  Guidelines and processes have been developed in order to increase teacher accountability for improved student outcomes.  The principal is ably supported by the deputy principal in ensuring that senior managers provides a good role model to others in focusing on improvement.  Systems have been put in place to support teachers to meet expectations for ways in which their professional learning should be applied in practice.  School leaders ensure that board members receive high quality reporting on all aspects of school operations and are aware of the need to consult with the school community.

Self review.  The recently-updated school charter provides clear strategic goals and key objectives for school development.  Strategic and annual planning is of a high standard and is well aligned.  Quality assurance procedures have recently been upgraded.  The school has strong self-review processes, with appropriate data collected and analysed, and next steps identified.  Honest self-review documents are produced in all areas of school operations and findings are reported to the board.  These strategies help to ensure that the diverse needs of students are met and that their learning is extended.

Quality of teaching.  Teachers are consolidating effective teaching practices, and ERO observed examples of high quality teaching.  Students in many classrooms benefit from lessons in which:

·          programmes are well planned and well managed, tasks are purposeful, and learning outcomes are used to make learning explicit;

·          achievement data are used to plan differentiated lessons for groups of students with identified needs;

·          questioning is used effectively to encourage deeper thinking, and to assess student understanding;

·          classroom learning environments support and promote high levels of student interest and motivation;

·          relationships among students and between teachers and students are respectful; and

·          teachers use resources that have been specifically developed to meet the needs of students learning heritage languages.

These strategies contribute to a high standard of student engagement in learning and provide consistent experiences to support student learning and achievement.

Areas for improvement

Embedding good practice.  Teachers have made good progress in using data to inform their planning.  They should now consolidate these practices and more consistently implement strategies that encourage students to take more responsibility for their own learning.  These practices are likely to encourage students to have increased:

·          knowledge of their own achievement levels;

·          responsibility for setting goals relating to their learning needs;

·          awareness of the steps needed to reach these goals; and

·          involvement in developing success criteria related to learning expectations.

In addition, teachers’ use of formative teaching strategies could be developed by:

·          providing students with fuller written comments on the areas in which they have achieved well and the areas in which they need to improve, and relating their comments to the stated learning intentions and success criteria; and

·          making more use of plenary sessions so that students have increased opportunities to reflect on their own progress and achievement.

Development in these areas would lead to less variability in practice and greater student participation in their own learning.

Developing shared understandings and distributive leadership.  Senior leaders have established and documented clear expectations for effective school operation.  They could now take time to develop and communicate a shared understanding of these expectations.  Strategies to achieve this could include:

·          creating opportunities for teachers to share best practice across the school as well as within rōpū;

·          continuing the development of distributed leadership in the school by supporting teachers with management responsibilities to meet the requirements of their updated job descriptions; and

·          continuing to consult with teachers and with all members of the school community.

Developing a common understanding should lead to all parties having shared ownership of and responsibility for school improvement initiatives.

Developing the use of information and communication technologies (ICT).  To enable the school to meet all requirements of The New Zealand Curriculum, it is now timely to develop its infrastructure and capacity for the use of ICT.  This will enable teachers to better integrate the use of ICT in teaching and learning programmes.  

4.           Areas of National Interest

Overview

ERO provides information about the education system as a whole to Government to be used as the basis for long-term and systemic educational improvement.  ERO also provides information about the education sector for schools, parents and the community through its national reports.

To do this ERO decides on topics and investigates them for a specific period in all applicable schools nationally.

During the review of Richmond Road School ERO investigated and reported on the following areas of national interest.  The findings are included in this report so that information about the school is transparent and widely available.

Success for Māori Students: Progress

In this review, ERO evaluated the extent to which the school was familiar with the Māori Education Strategy – Ka Hikitia: Managing for Success and progress made since the last review in promoting success at school for Māori students.

The school reports it has taken Ka Hikitia into account when revising planning documents for this year.

Since the last ERO review, the percentage of students who identify as Māori has reduced slightly from 24% to 20%.  Of these students, 79% are enrolled in Te Whānau Whāriki. 

Richmond Road School’s Te Whānau Whāriki Māori bilingual unit is going through a period of significant staff change.  While teachers are focused on improving student outcomes, they have been working steadily to build strong professional and collaborative relationships within their team. 

All areas of good performance and areas for improvement noted in the main body of this report also apply to this section.

Areas of progress

Student achievement.  High school-wide expectations for raising student achievement are realised in the achievement levels of Māori students.  Student achievement information collected over the last three years for reading and writing indicate that Māori students make progress from the beginning to the end of each year in both English and te reo Māori.  By the end of Year 6, Māori student achievement levels in English are similar to school-wide achievement levels, where most students are achieving at or above national expectations.  Achievement in te reo Māori is at a similar level.

Areas for further improvement

Strengthening relationships with whānau.  Te Whānau Whāriki staff have implemented a number of strategies to promote open communication and build positive relationships among themselves and with rōpu whānau.  With significant staff change, strengthening relationships will need ongoing attention to maximise partnerships that support student learning.

The Achievement of Pacific Students: Progress

In this review ERO evaluated the progress the school has made since the last review in improving the achievement of its Pacific students and in initiatives designed to promote improved achievement.  The percentage of students at the school who are of Pacific ethnicities has remained stable since the last ERO review at 33%.  Two-thirds of the Pacific students are Samoan.  Approximately 65% of the Pacific students, including 81% of the Samoan students, are enrolled in the Mua i Malae Samoan bilingual unit.

All areas of good performance and areas for improvement noted in the main body of this report also apply to this section.

Areas of good performance

Continued momentum and focus.  Teachers in Mua i Malae have continued to develop appropriate resources for teaching and learning in the heritage language.  Pacific student achievement in English literacy is at similar levels to those of other students in the school, with most students achieving at or above national expectations.  Achievement levels in Samoan reading and writing for Mua i Malae students improve during each year and over Years 1 to 6.  Teachers have maintained strong links with the adjacent aoga amata and have developed links with a local intermediate school, which is developing a Samoan bilingual unit.

Areas for improvement

Embedding good practice.  Developments in the use of data to inform planning, and the increased use of formative teaching strategies, have contributed to students developing confidence in both Samoan and English languages.  Teachers should now sustain and develop these good practices in order to continue to improve student outcomes.

Preparing to Give Effect to the New Zealand Curriculum

Schools are currently working towards implementing The New Zealand Curriculum by February 2010. During this review ERO investigated the progress Richmond Road School is making towards giving full effect to the curriculum as part of its planning, organisation and teaching practice.

ERO found that school leaders and teachers at Richmond Road School are making good progress towards giving effect to The New Zealand Curriculum in their planning, organisation and teaching.

Including Students with High Needs

During this review ERO investigated the extent to which the board and school leaders of Richmond Road School provide an inclusive education for students with high needs.  This included collecting evidence about the school’s policies, processes and practices to support the enrolment and induction of students with high needs and to support their participation and achievement at school.  The information collected during this review will contribute to information that will be reported in a national education evaluation report.

Prior to a review, a board of trustees and principal attest in the Board Assurance Statement that they have taken all reasonable steps to meet their legal requirements including those detailed in Ministry of Education circulars and other documents.

The board of Richmond Road School was asked to attest to whether it had ‘ensured that teachers of students with disabilities, and other contact staff, have a sound understanding of the learning needs of students with disabilities and, where necessary, have put in place support systems centred on each individual with disabilities.’  The board was also asked to attest that‘policies and procedures that relate to students who have special education needs are implemented without discrimination’.

ERO’s findings confirm these attestations.  Highly effective programmes are provided.

5.           Board Assurance on Compliance Areas

Overview

Before the review, the board of trustees and principal of Richmond Road School completed an ERO Board Assurance Statement and Self-Audit Checklist.  In these documents they attested that they had taken all reasonable steps to meet their legislative obligations related to:

·          board administration;

·          curriculum;

·          management of health, safety and welfare;

·          personnel management;

·          financial management; and

·          asset management.

During the review, ERO checked the following items because they have a potentially high impact on students’ achievement:

·          emotional safety of students (including prevention of bullying and sexual harassment);

·          physical safety of students;

·          teacher registration;

·          stand-downs, suspensions, expulsions and exclusions; and

·          attendance.

ERO’s investigations did not identify any areas of concern. 

6.           Recommendation

ERO and the board of trustees have developed the following recommendation:

6.1              that trustees, school leaders and teachers continue to ensure that school community members develop a shared understanding of documented expectations and processes for all aspects of school operation so that these expectations become fully embedded in practice.

7.           Future Action

ERO is confident that the board of trustees can govern the school in the interest of the students and the Crown and bring about the improvements outlined in this report.  ERO is likely to carry out the next review in three years.

Richard Thornton
National Manager Review Services
Northern Region

19 January 2010

To the Parents and Community of Richmond Road School

These are the findings of the Education Review Office’s latest report on Richmond Road School.

Richmond Road School continues to provide students with a good quality of education.  The 2007 ERO report highlighted the school’s commitment to bilingual education, good levels of student achievement, and the variety of learning opportunities offered, all of which continue to be positive features of the school.  The four teaching units in the school, known as rōpū, contribute to the school’s distinctive character.  Three of the rōpū are bilingual units.  Teachers in these units are fluent in the heritage languages of te reo Māori, Samoan, and French. 

The leadership of the school has changed since the last ERO review, with the new principal beginning in 2008 and the deputy principal in 2009.  The leadership team is reflective and progressive.  The principal has provided clear direction and expectations for school improvement and has developed quality assurance systems.  A high level of transparent and comprehensive self review is evident.  The board of trustees has consulted widely to update the school charter, and is well informed by comprehensive reports on student achievement and all aspects of school operation. 

Students maintain good levels of achievement, with most students achieving at or above national expectations in literacy and numeracy.  Students in the bilingual units achieve at similar levels in their heritage languages.  Student progress is closely monitored and analysed.  Students make good progress during each year and over their six years at the school.

School leaders have successfully addressed ERO’s 2007 recommendations that they continue to improve teaching practices and make better use of achievement data.  Teachers have shown a high commitment to, and have benefited from, their professional learning programme.  Students benefit from their good relationships with their teachers and with each other and are well engaged in their learning.  Students are also involved in environmental projects and benefit from school-wide developments in tikanga and te reo Māori.

ERO and the board of trustees agree that school personnel should continue to ensure that school community members develop a shared understanding of documented expectations and processes for all aspects of school operation so that these expectations become fully embedded in practice.

Future Action

ERO is confident that the board of trustees can govern the school in the interest of the students and the Crown and bring about the improvements outlined in this report.  ERO is likely to carry out the next review in three years.

Review Coverage

ERO reviews do not cover every aspect of school performance and each ERO report may cover different issues.  The aim is to provide information on aspects that are central to student achievement and useful to this school.

If you would like a copy of the full report, please contact the school or see the ERO website, www.ero.govt.nz.

Richard Thornton
National Manager Review Services
Northern Region

GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT REVIEWS

About ERO

ERO is an independent, external evaluation agency that undertakes reviews of schools and early childhood services throughout New Zealand.

About ERO Reviews

ERO follows a set of standard procedures to conduct reviews.  The purpose of each review is to:

·         improve educational achievement in schools; and

·         provide information to parents, communities and the Government.

Reviews are intended to focus on student achievement and build on each school’s self review.

Review Focus

ERO’s framework for reviewing and reporting is based on three review strands.

·         School Specific Priorities – the quality of education and the impact of school policies and practices on student achievement.

·         Areas of National Interest – information about how Government policies are working in schools.

·         Compliance with Legal Requirements – assurance that this school has taken all reasonable steps to meet legal requirements.

Review Coverage

ERO reviews do not cover every aspect of school performance and each ERO report may cover different issues.  The aim is to provide information on aspects that are central to student achievement and useful to this school.

Review Recommendations

Most ERO reports include recommendations for improvement.  A recommendation on a particular issue does not necessarily mean that a school is performing poorly in relation to that issue.  There is no direct link between the number of recommendations in this report and the overall performance of this school.