Introduction
Education
Act 1989, Sections 75 and 76
s.75 Boards to control management
of schools –
Except to the extent that any
enactment or the general law of New Zealand provides otherwise, a school’s
board has complete discretion to control the management of the school
as it thinks fit.
s.76 Principals –
(1) A school’s principal is
the board’s chief executive in relation to the school’s control
and management.
(2) Except to the extent that
any enactment or the general law of New Zealand provides otherwise,
the principal –
Subject to paragraph (a) of this
subsection, has complete discretion to manage as the principal thinks
fit the school’s day to day administration.
Governance
The Kaikohe
East School board emphasises strategic leadership rather than administrative
detail, has a clear distinction between board and staff roles, concentrates
on the future rather than the past or present, and is pro-active rather
than reactive.
Management
The board delegates
all authority and accountability for the day-to-day operational organisation
of the school to the principal.
The School and its Community
- Kaikohe East School
is a contributing school with a roll of approximately 240, of which
approximately 98% are Maori. Kaikohe East School teaches children
from Year 0 to Year 6. All students are taught the New Zealand
National Curriculum.
- The school provides
high quality educational opportunities for its students.
- The school is pleasantly
sited and well resourced. Staff, board members, and parents are
very supportive of the work of the school.
- Kaikohe East School
has a number of sporting resources (swimming pool, playing fields, sealed
court areas and two adventure playgrounds)
National
Education Priorities
Kaikohe East
School recognizes the government’s National Education Priorities:
National priorities are:
- To provide success
for all.
- To provide a safe
physical and emotional environment for students.
- To provide opportunities
for success in all the essential learning and essential skill areas
of the New Zealand Curriculum.
- To improve literacy
and numeracy.
- To develop a range
of assessment and evidence gathering practices that provides sufficiently
comprehensive data to evaluate the progress and achievement of students
and to form future teaching and learning programmes.
- To develop and implement
teaching programmes aimed at improving outcomes for students who are
not achieving, or who are at risk of not achieving, or who have special
needs.
- To improve the achievement
of Maori students.
- To report to students
and parents on achievement of individual students, and to the community
on groups of students and the students as a whole.
The school integrates
the National Educational Goals and National Education Priorities at
governance and operational levels by giving them full consideration
when planning school developments or school/class programmes.
Cultural
Diversity
The Board takes
all reasonable steps to provide instruction in Tikanga Maori (Maori
culture) and Te Reo Maori (Maori language).
When developing
policies and practices for the school every endeavour is made to reflect
New Zealand Cultural diversity and the unique position of Maori culture.
Te Reo
Parents may
choose to enrol their children in the General classes, or the Bilingual
classes. The General classes have all their instruction in English.
They also have some Maori Language instruction covering simple commands
and greetings, and basic pronunciation. Bilingual classes have
up to 30-50% of their instruction in Maori. A Kaiarahi i te Reo
is also employed to support Bilingual class programmes. Due to
the high proportion of Maori students our school takes the opportunity
to support and practise Maori protocol when appropriate and necessary.
Procedural
Information
The planning
year for the board will be from 1 January to 31 December. The updated
charter and annual report will be lodged with the Ministry of Education
by June 7 each year along with the consultation plan.
Strategic Plan
Vision
To be:
- Proud of
whom they are and where they come from
- Prepared
for and ready to accept challenges
- Learners
now and in the future
Core Values
We value the 4 Cs:
- Considerate
- Courteous
- Cooperative
- Sensible
Goals
To create a community of learners
with:
- High Academic achievement
in Literacy
- High Academic achievement
in Numeracy
To create a community of Maori
learners with:
- High Academic achievement
in Literacy
- High Academic achievement
in Numeracy
Strategies
- Foster te reo me
nga tikanga
- Deliver the curriculum
through stimulating, challenging, learner focused and enjoyable programmes.
- Increased use of
Information Communication Technology.
- Ensure the school
is staffed and resourced to achieve student’s academic potential.
- Ensure quality professional
development is provided to support needs.
- Foster the partnership
between the school and the wider community.
Annual Plan
– 2008 Goals
Goal
1 - Literacy
By November 2008:
- We will see an increase
in yr 3 - 6 pupils achieving at or above the national expectations in
STAR reading
- We will see an increase
in pupils achieving at or above national expectations in the observation
survey
- We will see an increase
in pupils achieving at or above the national norms measured by asTTle
writing for years 4 – 6 and compared to the exemplars for years 1-3.
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| Assessment.
What is currently happening? |
How to improve.
What can we do? |
Monitoring and reporting. |
| Reading
STAR results show only 5.6%
achieve above the expected levels (stanine 7 – 9) in reading comprehension.
Year by year results show that, although pupils achieve closer to national
norms as they move through the school, the movement is from “below”
to “at expectations” level and the percentage above norm remains
fairly constant.
Writing
AsTTle results show a similar
pattern in written language to reading. We have a fair percentage in
the middle bands but far too many pupils in the “below” group and
not enough in the “advanced” group.
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room practice focus
- Participate in a
professional development programme that will respond to needs identified
thorough student achievement data
- Strengthen formative
assessment (AtoL) and literacy learning in reading, writing and oral
language through support from Lead Teachers and cluster learning opportunities/workshops;
- Strengthen teaching
strategies and pedagogical and content knowledge of reading, writing
and oral language.
Planning/ Implementation/
Evaluation Cycle
Data will be gathered twice
a year with norm referenced tools
- Reading
– STAR (although we are going to trial asTTle)
- Observation survey
- Running Records
(PM Benchmarks)
- Writing
– asTTle and/or National Exemplars;
- The analysis of
data will be the focus of at least one syndicate meeting per term.
- Outputs and outcomes
will be reported to the BOT
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Lead teachers to ensure all
new teachers receive relevant induction to formative practice and effective
literacy learning
Teachers to be appraised on
their use of formative practice and effective literacy learning
Lead teachers and the principal
will work collaboratively to ensure the professional development learning’s
are implemented at the classroom level.
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Goal
2 - Numeracy
By November 2008:
- We will increase
the number of pupils achieving above national expectations.
|
| Assessment.
What is currently happening? |
How to improve.
What can we do? |
Monitoring and reporting.
Have we been successful? |
| Appraisal
Teaching staff have indicated
that the initial enthusiasm for maths that was so strong after the introduction
of the numeracy project has cooled somewhat. At least half of teaching
staff indicated a desire to boost their teaching of numeracy as an appraisal
goal for 2008.
Pupil achievement
While “I can…” sheets
are being regularly updated and reporting shows a greater awareness
of children’s achievement and their “next steps”, comparison with data from 2006 and
2007 shows that since the initial boost, straight after the numeracy
project, increases in pupil achievement has plateaued.
While we have a significant
percentage of pupils on track and few achieving significantly below
expectations, we also have very few achieving above expectations.
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Professional Development
We assessed the staff needs
through the 2007 appraisal round.
We will plan up to eight staff
meetings on maths.
- Analysis of data
of pupil attainment.
- Planning evidence
based group and class programmes.
- Time tabling and
management.
- Review content of
curriculum and resources available.
- 2 or 3 on best practice
and pedagogy including video analysis and/or observation of lessons
- We may need to have
a staff member go through the whole programme.
- We will provide
teacher release time to visit other classes or schools to look at maths
programmes.
- We will video lessons
which show best practice in maths teaching and analyse these at staff,
syndicate or learning circle meetings.
- We will send staff
representatives to selected in-service relative to the needs of the
school or staff member.
- We will use TEAM
Solutions for support.
Curriculum
Update all numeracy project
resources
Community involvement
We will hold a maths day or
days to encourage parental and pupil interest in maths
Property
– resources
We will review current resources
and renew enthusiasm and use of them.
- Budget to maintain
resources to the standard set up during the ENP.
- Purchase texts etc
to expand and improve the resources available through systems such as
the activity folders.
- Regularly update
staff on any new resources and continue to improve the accessibility
of activities and similar resources.
Sustainability
- Identify, train,
acknowledge and determine the responsibilities for two lead teachers
of numeracy.
- Ensure all permanent
teaching staff members are trained in the numeracy project and develop
an induction programme for future use.
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Appraisal
Numeracy will be a focus of
class observations for the QA round and this will show;
- Formative assessment
- Evidence based planning
- Best practice pedagogy
- Pupils involved
in meaningful activities.
Pupil achievement
Using “I can.” sheets to
determine levels, results will show that the percentage of pupils achieving
at or above national expectations will increase over the year.
Reporting
- BOT School focus
report
- BOT Numeracy report
- 2008 variance report
to MoE
- Report to community
via newsletter
End of year school reports
to parents. |
Charter Consultation Plan
The Kaikohe East School Board
consults annually with the Maori community and wider community.
Processes for consultation
include:
- School Newsletters
- Parent and Board
Meetings
- Parent Teacher Interviews
- Meet the Teachers
evenings
- Whanau meetings
- Informal dialogue
- Home visits
- Curriculum Evenings
- School Questionnaires
and Surveys
Annual Variance Report 2007-8
Goal
1 (Numeracy) To increase the number of pupils achieving above national
expectations. |
| Assessment.
How did we get on?
Appraisal
At least half of teaching staff
indicated a desire to boost their teaching of numeracy as an appraisal
goal for 2007. Because of the time taken on our literacy goals however,
numeracy did not gain the emphasis it required. We have, however, made
it a major goal for 2008 and a comprehensive in-service programme has
been organised with TEAM Solutions.
Pupil achievement
While “I can…” sheets
are updated regularly we are unsure of the consistency of assessment
and one of the 08 goals is to ensure we have valid assessment data.
Our goal was to increase the
number of pupils understanding above the expectations by 50% and decrease
those understanding below expectations by 50%. This did not happen
Possibly through a better awareness
of expectations, pupils were assessed at a lower level than a year ago.
There is no evidence that our pupils have gone backwards in maths so
we presume teachers are being more realistic when assessing a pupil
as “can” or “cannot”. There is a clearer picture of what it
requires for a child to be assessed at a certain level.
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What did we do over 2007?
Professional Development
One new staff member went through
the ENP programme.
We held three staff meetings
on maths. The last of these was based on data of pupil attainment. One
was on Basic facts and one was on consistency in the taking of “I
Can…” sheets.
Very few teachers used any
of their teacher release time to visit other classes or schools to look
at maths programmes. Most teachers concentrated on oral and written
language.
The “Cross sector” maths
focus group has met regularly and a Kaikohe Maths focus group is active.
Member schools which include KES share goals, priorities, activities
and, for 2008, a possible opportunity for teaching staff to up skill
with a post graduate paper on maths.
Numeracy is our major focus
for 2008. We have a very comprehensive in-service programme planned
in conjunction with TEAM Solutions for the year.
Professional development
- One teacher attended
lead teacher days.
- A focus group meeting
for junior teachers was attended by all our junior staff.
- All permanent teaching
staff and most relievers are trained in the numeracy project.
- Staff have been
regularly updated on any new resources.
Property
– resources
- The budget was sufficient
to maintain resources to the standard set up during the ENP.
- Texts etc were purchased
to expand and improve the resources available through systems such as
the activity folders.
We have yet to find a better
way to store activities and similar resources that make them more accessible.
Monitoring and reporting.
Appraisal
Numeracy was one focus of class
observations for the QA round and showed that, in general, teachers
were using;
- Formative assessment
- Evidence based planning
- Best practice pedagogy
- Pupils involved
in meaningful activities.
Reporting was evident through:
- BOT School focus
report
- BOT Numeracy report
- 2008 variance report
to MoE
- Report to community
via newsletter
- End of year school
reports to parents.
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Goal
2 (Written Language):
Increase the number of pupils writing above the expectations and
decrease those writing below expectations by 50% |
| Assessment
(How did we get on?)
At least twice a year all children
are assessed in written language using a comparison against the national
exemplars. Year 3 children are considered
to be “on track” when writing at or between levels 1(ii) and 2(i).
Year 4 children are considered
to be “on track” when writing at or between levels 1(iii) and 2(ii).
The results show that while
our teachers in the junior school are making progress in decreasing
the percentage of children achieving below national expectations
and we can be happy with the percentage working at expectation,
we have yet to get a significant percentage of writers achieving
above expectations.
It appears our pupils hit a
brick wall around mid level 2. Only 2 pupils began year 6 assessed at
level 3 with another 2 assessed as transitioning from level 2 to level
3.
A brief look at individual,
analysed samples from year 5 and 6 indicates that it is probably the
deeper features rather than the surface features that are holding our
pupils from progressing beyond level 2P. Our literacy team will collect
more data in 2008 to check on this assumption.
We will begin to use asTTle
in 2008 so these graphs might not be as valid in 2009. |
What did we
do over 2007?
- One staff member
is part of the Junior Language initiative JulS this will continue in
2008. The teacher has been brought onto the literacy team
- The Kpal team kept
active as school literacy leaders. They held four staff meetings, two
based on analysis of school wide data.
- Although funding
was budgeted to allow staff to meet three or four times a year in groups
of four to compare, analyse and discuss the implications of literacy
related data, we ran into the age-old problem of finding enough relievers.
- The teachers working
in the new entrant classes did however get together two or three times
although their focus was on language as a whole, not just writing.
- An adequate budget
was set to provide quality resources for each syndicate.
- One focus for 2007
was oral language. We felt this needed to be strengthened to allow progress
in literacy at an earlier level.
- Staff members are
still facing uncertainty over a school wide spelling programme. We have
been unable to find an “unbiased expert” to recommend a system.
Teacher Appraisal
QA visits indicated that teachers:
- Continue to use
exemplars to convey expectations and model quality writing
- Are developing skills
and strategies for specific teaching points, particularly with deeper
features.
- Have strengthened
the linking of reading and writing, using one to enhance the other.
- Share goals and
expectations with the pupils. By so doing they give pupils the skills
to set personal goals.
What next?
- In-service will
be held early in 2008 to introduce asTTle writing to replace comparison
of exemplars for children on level 2 or higher.
- We will continue
to look for a proven spelling programme.
- We will continue
with our involvement in JULS.
- We will continue
with our involvement in KPAL although we will need one or two new literacy
team members.
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Goal
3 (Oral language): To have teaching staff implement planned
and focussed oral language programmes based on the pupils’ needs.
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Assessment:
- Baseline data was
to be collected and analysed to determine what our children could and
could not do and to set expectations of achievement. We ran into problems
straight away when we discovered there appears to be no simple, quick
and reliable oral language test. (We have JOST and SEA but they are
not normed and take half an hour each)
- ARBs are not suitable
for our needs and nor are exemplars.
- We made initial
contact with a school in Christchurch that has set up its own assessment
system. It looks promising and could form the basis for our own in-house
assessment system in the future.
- Because we couldn’t
provide baseline data we don’t really know if oral language achievement
improved over the year but we are confident that teaching skills in
oral language developed.
What did we do?
- Oral language was
our professional development focus for 2007.
- Two staff were be
made responsible for oral language programmes (one senior, one junior
syndicate)
- A budget was set
that allowed resources to be built up.
- Time was allocated
to allow teachers to meet in small groups (about 4) to discuss and analyse
pupil achievement in oral language
- Three staff
meetings focused on oral language
- We were unable to
organise a workshop that focused on oral language as it appears neither
TEAM Solutions nor Auckland University have staff members who are responsible
for oral language.
- Observations of
class lessons were conducted by members of the focus group and two teachers
were videoed for analysis at a staff meeting.
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How
successful were we?
- QA and observations
showed that most junior school teaching staff implemented planned and
focussed oral language programmes based on the pupils’ needs. There
is a feeling that we could make more changes in the senior syndicate.
- An oral language
sect ion was developed for the school report form.
- Developmental programmes
were implemented in four junior classrooms.
- Talk to learn programmes
were implemented for three groups of 5 – 6 year olds who appeared
to have slower oral language development.
- Although time was
allocated to allow teachers to meet in small groups to discuss and analyse
pupil achievement in oral language it proved very difficult to find
relievers to release all staff. This activity did take place with the
year 0 and year 1 teachers but it tended to cover language as a whole
rather than concentrate on oral language. ( That is not to say that
the groups were not a success)
What next?
- The language team
will continue to meet once or twice a term.
- Oral language will
continue to be part of the QA round.
- One team member
will trial the oral language assessment tools developed by the school
in Christchurch and compare the usefulness and reliability of the results
with JOST.
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