Charter 2008

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 –
- Shall comply with the board’s general policy directions; and
- 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.

Assessment.

What is currently happening?

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.

How to improve.

What can we do?

room practice focus

- Teachers will:

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

Monitoring and reporting.

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.

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.

Goal 2 - Numeracy

By November 2008:

We will increase the number of pupils achieving above national expectations.

Assessment.

What is currently happening?

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.

How to improve.

What can we do?

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.

Monitoring and reporting.

Have we been successful?

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

Goal 3 (Oral language): To have teaching staff implement planned and focussed oral language programmes based on the pupils’ needs.

- - - - Collect baseline data to determine expectations.

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.

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.