Bombay School

Bombay School

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report

Background

This Profile Report was written within three months of the Education Review Office and Bombay School working in Te Ara Huarau, an improvement evaluation approach used in most English Medium State and State Integrated Schools. For more information about Te Ara Huarau see ERO’s website. www.ero.govt.nz

Context 

Bombay School is located in the Bombay Hills in a semi-rural location near Pukekohe, south of Auckland. The school provides education for students in Years 1 to 8. The school continues to be an active member of the local Kaahui Ako.

Bombay School’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are to build:

  • Whakamana – empower akonga to maximise their potential with a focus on learner agency
  • Hauora – provide a meaningful and authentic local curriculum that fosters creativity, balance and wellbeing
  • Whanaungatanga – honour relationships: past, present and those to come, so that akonga can confidently forge ahead.

You can find a copy of the school’s strategic and annual plan on Bombay School’s website.

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate the effectiveness of deliberate actions to raise achievement for all akonga with a particular focus on writing and mathematics for identified groups of learners. An ongoing priority for the school is further strengthening knowledge and capability in evaluation.

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is: 

  • the school’s commitment to strengthening achievement outcomes for all students
  • the importance of continuing to develop students’ ownership and empowerment in their learning
  • the focus on increasing collective capability in evaluation for continuous improvement.

The school expects to see specific actions implemented to improve progress and increase equitable outcomes for students in writing and mathematics.

Strengths 

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to further develop evaluation knowledge and skills for enhancing student outcomes: 

  • leadership of learning that enables effective conditions for learners to succeed
  • teaching and learning programmes that enable high levels of engagement and achievement
  • cohesive leadership and stewardship that prioritise actions to support continuous improvement and equitable opportunities to learn.

Where to next?

Moving forward, the school will prioritise: 

  • further strengthening a strategic approach to teaching and learning for consistency and sustainable practice 
  • implementing deliberate actions to support progress and equitable outcomes for all students in writing and mathematics
  • increasing evaluation capability to enable collective direction and enhance continuous improvement.

ERO’s role will be to support the school in its evaluation for improvement cycle to improve outcomes for all learners. ERO will support the school in reporting their progress to the community. The next public report on ERO’s website will be a Te Ara Huarau | School Evaluation Report and is due within three years. 

Shelley Booysen
Director of Schools

1 December 2023 

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

 

Bombay School

Board Assurance with Regulatory and Legislative Requirements Report 2023 to 2026

As of August 2023, the Bombay School Board has attested to the following regulatory and legislative requirements:

Board Administration

Yes

Curriculum

Yes

Management of Health, Safety and Welfare

Yes

Personnel Management

Yes

Finance

Yes

Assets

Yes

Further Information

For further information please contact Bombay School, School Board.

The next School Board assurance that it is meeting regulatory and legislative requirements will be reported, along with the Te Ara Huarau | School Evaluation Report, within three years.

Information on ERO’s role and process in this review can be found on the Education Review Office website.

Shelley Booysen
Director of Schools

1 December 2023 

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

Bombay School - 22/08/2019

School Context

Bombay School is a semi-rural, full primary school located south of Auckland. It caters for students in Years 1 to 8. It has a roll of 348 students, 35 of whom identify as Māori.

The school’s vision is for students to be:

  • self-motivated learners with effective interpersonal skills, able to achieve their potential in all curriculum areas, using the key competencies as they engage in life-long learning
  • contributing members of the school, the community and beyond.

The school’s values are expressed as BEST – be excellent (rawe), be successful (angitu), be truthful (pono).

The school’s strategic goals for 2019 include specific achievement targets for reading, writing and mathematics, a focus on strengthening personalised learning pedagogy, and implementing the digital curriculum.

Leaders and teachers regularly report to the board, schoolwide information about outcomes for students in the following areas:

  • reading, writing and mathematics
  • student wellbeing.

Since the ERO review in 2015, a new assistant principal has been appointed, and there have been significant changes to the teaching team.

The school is a member of the Pukekohe Community of Schools (CoL)|Kāhui Ako.

Evaluation Findings

1 Equity and excellence – achievement of valued outcomes for students

1.1 How well is the school achieving equitable and excellent outcomes for all its students?

The school is achieving excellent outcomes for most students and is working towards achieving equitable outcomes for all.

The school’s achievement data for 2018 shows that most students achieved expected national curriculum levels in reading and mathematics, and the large majority of students achieved expected national curriculum levels in writing. These levels of achievement have been consistent over time.

The school’s data from 2016 to 2018 shows that levels of achievement for Māori and Pākehā students have remained comparable in reading and mathematics. There is some disparity in writing where Māori students achieve less well than their Pākehā peers. There is a pattern of significant disparity in writing where boys are achieving less well than girls. Similarly, disparity for boys in reading has remained over time.

The school’s analysed longitudinal data derived from annual student wellbeing surveys shows that Māori students feel increasingly supported in their learning and culture at Bombay School.

1.2 How well is the school accelerating learning for those Māori and other students who need this?

The school is effectively accelerating the learning of students who need this.

The school’s achievement data shows that of the students who were identified as at-risk learners at the start of 2018, most have made accelerated progress in writing, and the large majority have made accelerated progress in reading and mathematics.

Of the Māori students who were identified as being at risk in their learning, almost all made accelerated progress in writing and mathematics, and the large majority made accelerated progress in reading.

A large majority of the boys identified as at-risk learners made accelerated progress in reading, writing and mathematics.

A number of students identified as at-risk learners made significant accelerated progress, and the school’s data showed that many students were accelerated sufficiently to reach national curriculum level expectations.

2 School conditions for equity and excellence – processes and practices

2.1 What school processes and practices are effective in enabling achievement of equity and excellence, and acceleration of learning?

A learner-centred curriculum supports students to achieve and progress. Students’ learning needs are appropriately planned for through consistent school-wide practices. Teachers use achievement data well to group students and differentiate learning activities. ERO observed teachers using creative learning contexts and a range of effective strategies to engage students. Well-established routines support student self management and settled environments. A broad range of opportunities provides learning experiences across the breadth of the curriculum.

Inclusive practices promote reciprocal, learning-centred relationships. Students and their parents are provided with a range of opportunities to be involved in school organisation and operations. Interactions among teachers and students are positive and affirming, and tuakana teina relationships are encouraged. Students with additional needs are well supported through individualised learning plans. A collaborative team approach enables teachers to share knowledge and teaching strategies to support students.

Leadership collaboratively develops and pursues the school’s vision, goals and targets for equity and excellence. The leadership team is effectively leading learning in the school. Clear and consistent school-wide processes for identifying, tracking and monitoring target students have been developed and are effectively used to pursue equitable outcomes for all students. Senior leaders have a strong focus on continuous improvement of teaching practice and a robust appraisal process supports targeted and personalised professional development. Professional learning is responsive to student needs and includes a focus on sustaining and improving student wellbeing, and literacy and numeracy achievement.

Coherent systems and processes effectively support evaluation and inquiry. A strategic, evidence-based approach to decision making is evident at all levels of the school. Achievement data is analysed and effectively used to inform resourcing and targeted action. Regular consultation with students, parents and teachers is used to review and refine processes and practices. Leaders undertake robust ongoing self review aligned to school priorities to support strategic improvement.

Trustees are strongly focused on achieving valued student outcomes. They are supportive of leadership and the strategic direction of the school. Trustees scrutinise a range of comprehensive information to ascertain the outcomes for learners. Robust governance processes support the board to fulfil their roles and responsibilities and trustees access appropriate external advice as needed.

2.2 What further developments are needed in school processes and practices for achievement of equity and excellence, and acceleration of learning?

Leaders have developed clear expectations for teaching practice to build student agency. It is now time to revisit these expectations in order to support students to:

  • know where they are at in their learning and set individual learning goals
  • know what they need to do to achieve their learning goals
  • know how well they are progressing.

Since the 2015 ERO review, there has been a strategic focus on increasing bi-cultural aspects of school organisation and practice. ERO saw some good examples of integration of te ao Māori contexts in learning. This should now be further reviewed to extend school-wide practice.

3 Board Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the board and principal of the school completed the ERO board assurance statement and self-audit checklists. In these documents they attested that they had taken all reasonable steps to meet their legislative obligations related to the following:

  • board administration
  • curriculum
  • management of health, safety and welfare
  • personnel management
  • finance
  • asset management.

During the review, ERO checked the following items because they have a potentially high impact on student safety and wellbeing:

  • emotional safety of students (including prevention of bullying and sexual harassment)
  • physical safety of students
  • teacher registration and certification
  • processes for appointing staff
  • stand down, suspension, expulsion and exclusion of students
  • attendance
  • school policies in relation to meeting the requirements of the Children’s Act 2014.

4 ERO’s Overall Judgement

On the basis of the findings of this review, ERO’s overall evaluation judgement of Bombay School’s performance in achieving valued outcomes for its students is: Strong.

ERO’s Framework: Overall School Performance is available on ERO’s website.

5 Going forward

Key strengths of the school

For sustained improvement and future learner success, the school can draw on existing strengths in:

  • broad curriculum opportunities that encourage student engagement, learning and achievement
  • collaborative practices that support knowledge-building and strong, school-wide relationships
  • highly capable leadership that prioritises student learning through targeted action
  • effective processes to grow staff professional capability through a coherent approach that is focused on improving outcomes for students
  • internal evaluation practices that support informed decision making and ongoing strategic improvement.

Next steps

For sustained improvement and future learner success, priorities for further development are in:

  • the consistent implementation of processes to increase students’ ability to monitor and lead their own learning
  • a school curriculum that is highly responsive to students’ language, culture and identity.

Phil Cowie

Director Review and Improvement Services Central

Central Region

22 August 2019

About the school

LocationAuckland
Ministry of Education profile number1234
School typeFull Primary (Years 1 – 8)
School roll348
Gender compositionFemale 52% Male 48%
Ethnic compositionMāori 10%
NZ European/Pākehā 77%
Other 13%
Students with Ongoing Resourcing Funding (ORS)No
Provision of Māori medium educationNo
Review team on siteJune 2019
Date of this report22 August 2019
Most recent ERO report(s)Education Review October 2015
Education Review October 2012
Education Review May 2009