High quality teaching and learning.

Kia ora koutou,

If you were to follow some media stories you would be led to believe that the Year 1-8 students in our country need to be taught the basics better. I can reassure you our teachers are doing a fantastic job teaching and adapting the curriculum for our students, with particular focus and priority on reading, writing, and mathematics.

If you walk into a Year 1-8 class, you will see our teachers doing just that. Reading, writing, and mathematics are priorities in the classroom, whether teaching a specific scope and sequence (structured literacy) or applying those newly learnt techniques to other curriculum areas. Our teaching staff can confidently identify where our students are up to in the curriculum using the developed learning progressions we share with whānau | families. Toward the end of last term, our evaluative partner from the Education Review Office visited our classrooms coming to the same conclusion. 

Correct - over the past three years there has been a loss of learning through the impact of COVID-19, including lockdown, learning from home, and isolation requirements keeping students from school. Last term we presented to our School Trustees evidence of last year's progress. The exciting news is:

• In Reading, 85% of our Year 1-10 students progressed at the expected level of progression or more. Of that group, 48% progressed with accelerated learning (that is where a student has progressed more than one year's worth of learning in one year).
• In Writing, 88% of our Year 1-10 students progressed at the expected level of progression or more. Of that group, 53% progressed with accelerated learning.
• In Mathematics 83% of our Year 1-10 students progressed at the expected level of progression or more. Of that group, 55% progressed with accelerated learning.

This clearly shows that with a more consistent year, we are very able to make up for the loss of learning that took place in 2020-2021.

In 2022 NCEA, 94.4% (80.8% national average) of our Level 1 students achieved their Numeracy requirements and 96.3% (81.6% national average) achieved their Literacy requirements.

What this shows is our students are learning the "glue" to the curriculum. Literacy and numeracy skills allow our students to access all parts of the curriculum. These excellent outcomes are a result of (to name but a few):

• powerful student, family, and teacher relationships
• high quality trained and qualified teachers
• responsive learning support
• a feeling of safety and wellbeing
• low student to teacher class ratios

We are very proud of our achievements from 2022 as we continue to grow together, learn together and shine together. 

Ngā mihi | thank you,

Mike Hart
Tumuaki | Principal
Te Kura o Te Poho Rakahua
Oxford Area School