Figure 1.--.
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Figure 1.--. |
The principal and staff have developed very good systems for ensuring that students receive a balanced curriculum within a conducive learning environment. Their curriculum delivery statements provide teachers with an overview that translates requirements into
sequential teaching units. Long-term planning from these statements, combined with more specific short term planning, is of a consistently high quality. Planning clearly reflects expectations and is used well by teachers to guide their programme delivery. Senior
managers should ensure that all teachers use clearly stated learning outcomes to ensure that these can be assessed precisely.
Many teaching practices are exemplary and provide students with learning experiences that are educationally challenging and exciting.
Students respond positively to the relevance of these and participate purposefully. Senior managers are using their Quality Assurance
Measures (QAM) to facilitate exemplary practices being demonstrated by all teachers. Effective curriculum review procedures complement the QAM, help teachers to reflect on the quality of their curriculum delivery and facilitate the provision of high quality
learning opportunities for all students in all subjects.
Mathematics programmes are well organised and generally consistent with national curriculum statements. Planning, assessment and evaluation practices are highly systematic. Resources are plentiful, of good quality and effectively used. As part of a development
focus on mathematics which is presently taking place, teachers were asked to identify areas of the curriculum in which they needed support. Advisory personnel worked with teachers on these areas. Teachers appear to have a good knowledge of the curriculum. They use effective mathematics teaching strategies and provide good coverage of the knowledge and skills strands. On the basis of tests administered early in the year, children are placed in twelve ability groups at each year level for the daily mathematics programme. This is intended to make it easier to cater for different needs by presenting each teacher with a relatively homogeneous class group. It is reassuring and appropriate that the composition of these groups is responsive to the ongoing assessment that occurs during the pre and post-testing phases and to other teacher observations. The planning template which teachers are required to use is a helpful and efficient means of focusing teachers on the essential elements of mathematics planning. However it does not contain panels indicating that the processes strands should be continuously incorporated into the programme. The curriculum leader should consider modifying the template accordingly. While problem solving is regularly taught as a separate activity, there is little evidence that developing logic and reasoning and communicating mathematical ideas are appropriately acknowledged.
The school has good systems for managing the delivery of the science curriculum and effective systems for reviewing the quality of its management. The programme overview and accompanying policy provides sufficient guidance to enable teachers to deliver the
curriculum. Teachers are currently reviewing this to ensure that it promotes appropriate coverage of the four strands each year. Resources are appropriate and well organised. Curriculum leaders assist classroom teachers to increase their own knowledge about
science learning and teaching. These actions are positive and support the delivery of science programmes. Teachers provide science programmes and activities which capitalise on the school emphasis on action learning. This emphasis promotes the development of research skills. Curriculum leaders have identified a need for teachers to deliver more investigative science and have established mechanisms to promote this.
The English curriculum is generally well taught. There are pockets of excellence in some classrooms and in some aspects of the curriculum, particularly in reading and writing. Children are encouraged to interact meaningfully with text in their novel studies. The
concept of a rich, balanced reading programme which caters for a wide range of reading abilities is prevalent. Children write copiously and in a good variety of genre. The three writing functions are given good coverage. There are one or two development matters
which should be considered. Three teachers are delegated to provide leadership in the English curriculum. One has responsibility for the whole curriculum while the
other two cover reading and the oral language strand. This is a sensible arrangement which should help to safeguard the integrity of reading and oral language. However, at present none of the three designated teachers is able to speak with confidence about the
English curriculum across the school. It is the intention of the senior managers that curriculum leaders will have oversight of the whole school. Staff should work towards fully implementing this goal. Most reading resources are of excellent quality. Others are of limited value. Staff should consider the relative merits of the SRA reading laboratory on the one hand and the wide range of readily available, superb children’s literature on the other, when making further resource purchases. There is also the related question of how relevant are skills, comprehension and language conventions exercises when they are done in isolation, without regard to the identified learning needs of children. While this is not the intention of the senior managers or curriculum leaders, some planning documents are open to interpretation in this way and therefore constitute a potential risk.
In all classrooms there is a learning climate which supports the development of oral language. Children are encouraged to interact
purposefully with each other during their investigations or other learning tasks. There is a good balance between teacher and pupil
talk. A good variety of speaking and listening activities is included formally in the planning cycle. Children are highly articulate and are
also good listeners, attributes which are put to good use by teachers in facilitating learning. The notion of public speaking, story telling
and poetry festivals is innovative and has enormous potential. Present school guidelines for introducing children to poetry, however,
are limiting and should be reviewed.
Many aspects of the visual language strand are covered in information technology programmes, but visual language as part of English
programmes has not yet been fully explored. This could be the next area for development for the English curriculum leader. If the
intention is to treat the visual strand as a part of other curricula, then care should be taken to ensure that it does not lose its integrity in
terms of achievement objectives and learning outcomes. The school library is a superb learning resource. It is used effectively by all teachers with the able support of the library staff. Teachers should consider developing a sequential programme of library skills to ensure that no child leaves the school without being suitably equipped to make full use of this valuable resource.
Teachers plan and deliver high quality technology programmes. For the most part, students receive these programmes in a specialist setting. Classroom teachers deliver some aspects of the programme, in particular the technology area of production and process.
Programmes address the three strands through activities based around six technology areas. There is a high degree of student-centred
activity in the teaching practices being implemented.
Students are specifically timetabled for a rotational programme designed to cover a two year period. The specific time allocation
ensures that all students experience a variety of activities designed to increase the scope and sophistication of their ideas, skills and
understanding.
The board and teachers take account of the necessity to provide a safe environment for the teaching of technology. Health and safety
policies and procedures form an integral and important part of the planning and teaching practices in each of the technology areas.
Students are taught the safe use of equipment and resources and how to identify potential hazards. Students receive a high quality specialist ICT programme as part of their technology rotation. The scope and sequence of the programme is carefully planned to provide students with learning experiences that encourage the gathering of information, organising and analysing information and composing and publishing work. Students are taught in an extremely well resourced information and communications centre. They have access to multi media computers, video equipment, scanners, CD Rom drives and telecommunication resources.
Teachers are well placed to deliver the social studies curriculum when it becomes mandatory next year. The curriculum leader has undertaken useful inservice training and has used this to support her colleagues in becoming familiar with the curriculum. The
curriculum leaders have prepared a content overview which enables teachers to select appropriate and relevant contexts for study. They have also developed planning formats that assist teachers with their selection and implementation of achievement objectives.
Teachers have used the overview and their generous budget allocation to ensure that their teaching resources are suitable and flexible for curriculum integration. They have conducted a timetable analysis to monitor the amount of time teachers allocate to social studies. These teachers have used information from their effective review procedures as a basis for their draft social studies policy statement. The thorough social studies curriculum management systems facilitate student and staff learning. The school’s emphasis on action learning is clearly evident in the programmes in action. Teachers use effective teaching practices that enable students to develop and apply useful skills through challenging and relevant exploration of interesting activities. Although many
of the activities are successfully integrated with other learning areas, the social studies focus is clearly maintained. Students respond positively to their learning experiences and are able to confidently discuss the purposes and implications of their various studies.
The specialist music programme is well planned and delivered. The programme meets all current syllabus requirements. Lessons have a good pace and students have the opportunity to listen and respond to music, to read and record musical notation and to play an
instrument. Students are also able to participate in an increasing number of school-wide musical activities which include choirs, an
orchestra and a band.
Good assessment systems underpin the delivery of the programme. Assessment relates clearly to the objectives being taught. The
teacher has good profile information about each student’s musical abilities and interests. This has enabled her to identify students with
potential and to structure her programme to meet the needs of students who require further support.
Visual art programmes are planned and structured to involve students in using different sources of motivation, in making artworks and
understanding art in cultural and social contexts. The teacher clearly communicates her expectations of students in terms of work
output and commitment. Consequently, students are focussed and manage their time in the art room well.
The board and staff demonstrate the value they place on students’ artwork by displaying carefully mounted work in a number of public areas in the school. The tile mural completed by the foundation students is an eyecatching centrepiece for students, staff and visitors to
the school.
The board and management clearly have a commitment to ensuring that there is a Mäori dimension to the school’s curriculum. The board has a policy on taha Mäori. Visitors to the school are welcomed with a powhiri. A curriculum leader in Mäori has been
designated. Some teachers successfully incorporate tikanga me te reo Mäori into their classroom programmes and appropriately evaluate learning outcomes. Excellent work is occurring in one syndicate where the leader has used the limited Mäori budget to
provide a koha for regular visits by a kaiarahi reo. However, much work remains to be done before it could be said that the school is fully meeting its obligations under the National Educational Guidelines regarding the unique place of Mäori in New Zealand society.
The curriculum leader in Mäori will need the active and ongoing support of the management team in order to satisfactorily carry out his schoolwide responsibilities. In many classrooms there is presently very little evidence of a Mäori dimension in the curriculum. A sequential programme of Mäori studies should be developed in conjunction with professional development for all staff. The marked disparity between the quite comprehensive aims and objectives in the taha Mäori policy and its very basic expected learning outcomes
should be addressed. The meagre Mäori budget should be increased.
Given the composition of the school’s community, it is perhaps understandable that te reo me nga tikanga Mäori have not received a
higher priority. However, it should be remembered that Mäori children have the right to have their language and culture reflected in the
school curriculum, and that all other children have the right to learn about New Zealand’s indigenous language and culture.
