Tumuaki Korero
In mid January, I got notification that ERO (Education Review Office) will be coming to review our school in Term 1 of this year. The last review of Ōhoka School was in September of 2017. They will be arriving here on Monday 24th February, and spending four days here in the school. ERO’s intent is to ensure that all learners in our system are successful and would like to support our school’s improvement journey. External review should be seen as a process that contributes to a school’s efforts to be a high quality and successful learning organisation. The week will be kicking off with our new head students giving the ERO team a school tour and then the senior leadership team will be doing a presentation to share aspects of our school: what our successes and challenges have been and what our next steps are in terms of school improvement. During the week there will be other meetings with ERO (BOT, staff and students etc). We look forward to sharing the findings with you in the coming weeks.
Our Ako Hui interview meetings (teachers, parents and students) are scheduled in Week 7 of this term. The dates for these are Wednesday 18th March and Thursday 19th March. The purpose of these interviews are to talk about the year so far, discuss goals and actions to support learning. We will let you know very soon, when bookings are open.
At the end of 2019, our teaching team looked closely at our achievement data in reading, writing and maths, to help us to form achievement targets for 2020. It is a ministry requirement that schools are identifying areas of need, who their priority learners are and how they will be accelerated through the year.
What does our current student achievement picture look like?
Reading 79% of all students are at/above curriculum expectations
Writing 70% of all students are at/above curriculum expectations
Maths 81% of all students are at/above curriculum expectations
Writing continues to be an area of need (and not dissimilar to the national achievement picture). Within this group of priority learners who are not achieving at curriculum expectations, there are more male students at risk (65% working at/above) compared to their female counterparts of 78% at / above. Māori students are also at risk in this curriculum area (67% achieving at/above) compared to non-Māori of 71% at/above curriculum expectations. We have formulated very specific achievement targets in each team in the school, identified who these learners are and what needs to happen to accelerate their learning over 2020. The main focus is student engagement in writing; getting students fizzing, engaged and wanting to write as well as supporting them with the skills and strategies they need to develop.! We will be sharing more information as the term goes on about how to help at home to support this achievement target.
At our recent BOT meeting, we talked in depth about our school roll. We have started the school year off on 145 students (we had 163 at the end of last year) with many new students starting this year already, which is fantastic. As you are all aware, the drop in school roll over the recent years has impacted our financial situation. So that we are in a more stable financial position, we would like to be at 200 students in the next 18months (180 by the end of this year). It’s important to have goals! We wanted to share our goals with you, as I know so many of you are really championing for our school out in the wider community, and I thank you for that. Once ERO has gone, it is going to be a real focus; actively and strategically marketing and promoting the school in the aim of getting new enrolments. Recruitment drive, here we come! I would also welcome any ideas, and will be starting a ‘think tank’ parent group, for those passionate and interested in this - will share details of an initial meeting/ get together to share ideas, shortly.
This week is Wheelie Wednesday! Our students love this. For those new to the school, it is an opportunity for our students to bring along their bikes, skateboards, scooters (helmets compulsory). Under supervision, students will be able to use their wheels during the lunch hour that day, in our hall car park.
This coming Friday is our school disco and will be held in the Ōhoka Village hall on Mill Road. Years 1 to 4 students (preschoolers welcome!) from 6 - 7.30pm and Year 5 to 8 from 7.30 - 9.00pm. $5 entry per school student. Only Ōhoka students please. We need a few more helpers - dishing out pizza and ice blocks; helping out on the door; making sure there's no mayhem and post disco clean up. If you can spare some time to help with this event that the kids love - then email Pattie Pegler on peglerp@gmail.com or call on 027 512 6777. She'll be delighted to hear from you!
That’s all from me! Have a super week everyone.
Kate