Mā Maketū, mā Pātapu, mā Keepa, Mā Tinirau, mā Poutini.
Whakatau, whakatau, whakatau mai rā ki Tōtara Puku.
Ko Aotea te waka
Ko Ruapehu te maunga
Ko Whanganui te awa
Ko Te Atihaunui a Paparangi te iwi
Ko Whanganui East te Kura
Ko tēnei te whakatauki: “He waka eke noa”
A canoe which we are all in with no exception
We are all in this together
What makes Whanganui East School the school of choice:
Whanganui East School opened in 1904 and is situated in Whanganui East and is a U4, contributing primary school that caters for students from Year 1 to Year 6. The current roll is 193 students.
Our school vision provides a consistent approach to ensuring respectful relationships through collaborative consultation with the whole school community ‘’He waka eke noa” The Board, school leaders and staff work alongside our whānau to foster respectful productive partnerships for learning within the school community. We draw on community resources and initiatives to enhance learning opportunities and student wellbeing. Consultation with the community includes:
- Community surveys and questionnaires
- Report back on strategic goals
- Informal/formal discussions with whānau/caregivers (community events, Focus Parent Evening, home visits, phone calls etc)
- Regular Learning Conversations and follow up conversations to ensure positive outcomes for students
- School newsletters, Notice boards, Assemblies
- School Webpage and Facebook
- Information Enrolment Pack
- Board of Trustees Newsletter
Our Waharoa (Gateway) is held up strongly with Kotahitanga and our pillars (Ako and Hauora). The school is currently undergoing positive change to strengthen the pillars. We know that we need governance and leadership that is strategically effective, learning partnerships that are inclusive and equitable, students needs are met socially, culturally and academically and students are affirmed to their cultural connections.
Key Strengths of the school as identified by the Education Review Office in December 2017 were:
- A relentless focus on improving learning through robust and coherent school wide systems
- Professional leadership focussed on growing the effectiveness of teaching strategies
- Responsiveness and inclusive approaches for learning
School staff consists of the Principal, Deputy Principal, Assistant Principal, 8 fulltime teachers, 2 part time teachers, Office Administrators, Property Manager and 2 permanent and 2 Fixed Term Teacher Aides. We maintain positive staff morale and a climate of professional congeniality. We ensure staff have appropriate Professional Development to support growth of practice.
The school operates 9 classrooms, a well resourced up to date library, 2 adventure playgrounds, a purpose built sandpit and well maintained grounds.
We have a playgroup permanently onsite open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday to provide Early Childhood Education for pre-schoolers from 9am until 1pm.
On March 19th 2018, we were pleased to have onsite Totara Puku Kindergarten (Early Learning Centre for 0-5 years).
We participate extensively in all sporting activities across the year and take part in competitive sporting events which our children do very well at. We offer children all sporting codes and we have strong support from whānau. We conclude the year with a Sports Prizegiving to acknowledge effort across the year both in and out of school sporting events. During summer we use the local community swimming pool as part of our Physical Education programme and the children swim 4 days a week until the pool closes for the season. We have a very strong focus on Water Safety Skills.
Our senior students (Year 5 & 6) participate in camp every second year and they are well supported by parents. Students are given the opportunity to fundraise towards the cost of camp. Students are encouraged to attend camp which are at the beginning of the year as this is a great opportunity for students to develop a range of social skills. Most activities at camp involve team work, which is great to bond as a class and to develop friendships.
We offer a range of Leadership roles across the school, Respect Leaders, Peer Mediators, Road Patrollers, Librarians and the Environmental Team. Leadership provides children with the opportunity to identify and display effective communication and interpersonal skills.
We are a Kick Start Breakfast school and the Kickstart Breakfast programme is the only school breakfast programme of its kind within New Zealand to provide healthy breakfasts to children. Alongside support from the NZ Government, Sanitarium provides the Weet-bix, Fonterra provides the Anchor milk and with our volunteers we are able to offer the Breakfast Club five mornings a week in the hall. We are a ‘Fruit in Schools’, and students are offered fresh fruit daily. The programme is funded by the Ministry of Health and managed by the produce organisation United Fresh. The key objectives for Fruit in Schools are to see: Children eating more fruit and vegetables, promoting health through a whole school approach and an increased awareness and implementation of healthy eating and physical activity.
Whanganui East School is a Sun Smart school and students and staff are required to wear a hat during daylight saving and the grounds provide a range of shaded areas for students to sit in the hottest part of the day.
As a ‘Duffy’ School we are able to provide our students with a wide selection of books to choose from to take home and share with their families each term. We are very lucky to have the Rotary, Lions Club and Harrex Log Loaders as sponsors who enable us to purchase the books.
We have a very active Board of Trustees who are fully involved and have an effective working relationship with the staff and community. The Board have worked hard to develop our school Vision that guides our school goals and are regularly reviewing policy and practice. The Board are also committed to providing resources necessary to achieve our Strategic Goals.
The learner-focused outcome indicators are organised in terms of the vision of The New Zealand Curriculum and Te Marautanga o Aotearoa: “confident, connected, actively involved, lifelong learners”. These indicators are drawn from The New Zealand Curriculum and Te Marautanga o Aotearoa and reflect the education system’s aspirations for every learner as an outcome of schooling in New Zealand.
Each domain contributes to the goal of improving student outcomes. Effective communities of learning are characterised by high quality practices in all domains and those practices are integrated and coherent.
The domains educationally powerful connections and relationships and responsive curriculum, effective teaching and opportunity to learn have the most significant influence on outcomes for students.
The relative impact of these domains on student outcomes is driven by stewardship, leadership of conditions for equity and excellence, professional capability and collective capacity and the effective use of evaluation, inquiry and knowledge building processes for improvement and innovation.
At Whanganui East School, our Strategic planning is based around the School Evaluation Indicators, which identify six domains that have the most significant influences on improving student outcomes, each of which relates to the National Administration Goals. The following Evaluation Indicators provide teachers with the Strategic Goals for 2020 – 2022.
2020 2022 Charter 2020 Charter/Strategic Goals/Annual Plan
