Performance Statement #25
An evaluation of our students progress and achievement
Embedded Files
Develops critical thinkers who persevere and drive their own learning. Encourages students to be ambitious, creative, and curious. Promotes positive collaboration in learning and teaching. Fosters a culture of respect, inclusiveness and belonging
Develops critical thinkers who persevere and drive their own learning. Encourages students to be ambitious, creative, and curious. Promotes positive collaboration in learning and teaching. Fosters a culture of respect, inclusiveness and belonging
We have strengthened outcomes for Māori and Pasifika learners and their whānau by holding ourselves to account—consistently testing whether we are doing what we say we do, and ensuring our actions make a difference for learners.
We have clarified the purpose of our systems and aligned them to equity and impact, ensuring they deliver for those they are designed to serve.
We have built a culture of deep listening—where we notice, recognise, and respond to the voices of our learners, whānau, and staff in meaningful ways.
We have embraced difference as a strength, using it to enhance belonging, engagement, and success across our school.
We have grown and scaled effective practice, drawing on strong teaching approaches and authentic student voice to inform, shape, and improve our learning and decision-making.
Everything we do - is focused on excellent outcomes
Everything we do - is focused on excellent outcomes
Everyday is about learn something new
Everyday is about learn something new
We have sustained a clear focus on achieving excellent outcomes for all our students, staff, whānau, and wider community by strengthening a culture of collective responsibility and lifelong learning.
We have embedded reciprocal learning approaches, where expertise is recognised as fluid and drawn from across our community to inform practice and decision making.
We continue to value and leverage the knowledge of our kaiako, ākonga, whānau, and wider networks, ensuring this collective capability is actively used to support improved outcomes.
This ongoing approach has strengthened our ability to grow together and deliver equitable, high-quality outcomes for all.
We have continued to strengthen this commitment by embedding equity-focused practices across our school, ensuring our response to social injustice, unconscious bias, and racism is deliberate, visible, and sustained. Our “Be Proud” stance is reflected in the way we consistently act on our belief in every learner, staff member, and whānau backing this with targeted support, culturally responsive approaches, and purposeful allocation of resources. We have refined our systems to better identify need, respond early, and monitor impact, ensuring that those requiring additional support receive it in ways that uphold dignity, belonging, and high expectations. Through this, equity remains not just an intention, but a lived and measurable part of how we operate.
Adressing social injustice, unconscious bias and racism
Adressing social injustice, unconscious bias and racism
Our way of being
Our way of being
Whole School
Implementation of Te Mataiaho: The new Zealand Curriculum
Whole school focus on understanding the prescribed curriculum
Delivery of the NZ Curriculum
Mathematics delivered using DMIC
Delivery of Structured Literacy
Digital Technologies - presentation days
49 Staff
Professional development includes:
Laying the foundation - staff development
Staff goal setting
Team builing (challenging)
Professional learning and reflection
Structured Literacy
DMIC - Mentoring
Teaching to the North East: Relationship-Based Learning in Practice
Study or Russell Bishop's book
Financial commitment to provide this learning for all staff
Learning and participation by all staff
Leading to the North East: Ensuring the fidelity of relationship-based learning
Study or Russell Bishop's book
Financial commitment to provide this learning for Dream Team
Learning for the Dream Team
Professional learning for staff from local community providers, marae, hapu amd iwi
Weekly Staff PLD (Professional learning discussions)
Focus on curriculum, learning, assessment
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1XmHreTr0vYhYa8XuQDvdsg-DqnCqTnPLu6F9SHcltzY/edit?usp=sharing
Expertnal support and learning to support our students, staff and school
National success
Multiple students across various year levels succeeding in the Otago Problem Solving Challenge
Continuation of success at national level
(Re-use of 2024 video for viewing purpose only)
Sharing sample of excellent outcomes
Newsletter samples
Turangawaewae - Belonging
Turangawaewae - Belonging
In 2025, we continue to strengthen a sense of belonging for our Māori and Pasifika learners and their whānau, ensuring our school is experienced as their tūrangawaewae—a place where all ākonga feel they truly belong. This reflects an ongoing focus on identity, connection, and independence, where our learners see themselves, their culture, and their stories valued and visible. We are building conditions where our school is not just a place of learning, but a place our community recognises as home.
In 2025, we continue to grow a strong sense of belonging by intentionally creating a place our people experience as home where what matters to us as a community is reflected in how we learn, connect, and operate every day.
Central to this is ensuring every learner, staff member, and whānau feels valued and included. We are strengthening a culture where the conditions for belonging are visible, deliberate, and consistently enacted so that this is not something we talk about, but simply the way we are.
School culture
School culture
Our way of being
Our way of being
We continue to acknowledge and build on the strength of our diversity across our students, staff, and wider community. We are increasingly intentional in how we celebrate this diversity—not just recognising it, but using it as a foundation for learning about ourselves and each other.
This ongoing growth is shaping a school culture where we live and learn in ways that honour different values, perspectives, and experiences—strengthening respect, connection, and collective understanding. We are also deepening how this diversity informs our curriculum, ensuring learning is authentic to our context and reflects the identities of our ākonga and whānau. Through this, our diversity continues to be a source of strength that actively shapes who we are and how we learn together.
Our way of being
Our way of being
A special place to be
In 2025, we continue to reinforce that a sense of home is built through consistent, everyday actions, not just significant events. We are strengthening a caring, relational environment where kindness and nurturing are evident from the moment our day begins.
This remains visible in the way our senior leaders actively welcome students, whānau, and visitors each morning taking the time to acknowledge and connect with every person who enters our school. Through this, our leadership continues to set the tone, modelling the values and expectations that underpin a strong sense of belonging across our kura.
Curriculum context
In 2025, our focus has shifted toward strengthening teaching and learning through structured literacy, excellence in Developing Mathematical Inquiry Communities mathematics, deliberate thinking strategies, and deepening curriculum knowledge. This work reflects our commitment to high quality, evidence-informed practice that lifts outcomes for all ākonga.
We are building collective capability across our staff to ensure consistency, clarity, and impact in how we teach—while still responding to the diverse strengths and needs of our learners. Through this, we are strengthening learner agency, confidence, and achievement, ensuring our curriculum is both rigorous and responsive to our context.
“Help fill my bucket" - Student Voice
Our strength is our people, our pride in our students and the dedication and commitment to helping our people be the best that they can be.
We recognise, value, and deliberately grow from our strengths—particularly those of our Māori and Pasifika learners and their whānau—to better meet the needs of all ākonga. This strengths-based approach informs our teaching, learning, and decision-making, strengthening engagement, identity, and achievement for every learner.
Mauria te pukenga - growing from strength to strength
Mauria te pukenga - growing from strength to strength
Our way of being
Our way of being
We build from our current strengths by deliberately identifying what is working and using this to shape the next phase of our improvement journey across our environment, learning, and practice.
We are clear on the purpose of our systems regularly evaluating what is effective and whether it is delivering the outcomes we expect. Where change is required, we prioritise decisions that strengthen outcomes for learners, ensuring any shift is purposeful, evidence informed, and an improvement on current practice.
We are also strengthening a culture of voice and agency across our community. Our students are supported to question, think, and engage deeply in their learning. Our staff are encouraged to contribute, challenge, and shape practice, knowing their expertise is valued. Our parents and whānau are actively engaged as partners, with clear opportunities to connect, ask questions, and contribute to their child’s learning journey.
Through this, we continue to grow from strength to strength, building a responsive, inclusive, and high-performing learning community.
Our way of being
Our way of being
Curriculum
We pride ourselves on our curriculum delivery. Our strengths include:
Developing Mathematical Inquiry Communities (DMIC)
Structured Literacy
Inquiry
Sports Academy
System
Planning and preparation for 2025 - #never back down never fold
Reviewing 2024 systems: what can we change to bring about better outcomes for our students
Strategic planning for 2025
Design, developing, sharing, implementing an annual plan for 2025
Hohonga waihua - Connectedness and engagement
Hohonga waihua - Connectedness and engagement
We prioritise meaningful, enduring connections between Māori and Pasifika learners, their whānau, hapū, iwi, and educators to enable excellent outcomes for all ākonga. These relationships are built on genuine partnership, mutual respect, and shared purpose.
They reflect our commitment to connecting in ways that are authentic and grounded, shaping a school culture where trust, belonging, and collective responsibility are evident in how we work and learn together.
Our school community brings together a diverse range of people students, staff, whānau, local community, hapū, and iwi each playing an important role in supporting learning and wellbeing.
We work in genuine partnership, sharing the responsibility for growing our young people, with a collective commitment to their success.
We are intentional about creating opportunities to connect, learn, and celebrate together, strengthening a sense of shared purpose and belonging across our community.
School community
School community
Our way of being
Our way of being
Collaboration,grounded in strong relationships and active engagement, is central to our way of being at Koru School.
We are deliberate in how we create, nurture, and grow these relationships, ensuring they are authentic, reciprocal, and focused on improving outcomes for our learners.
Through this, we strengthen trust, build collective responsibility, and enable our community to work together in ways that support success for all ākonga.
In practice, this means we:
are supportive of all tangata in our school and community
acknowledges and recognise the expertise brough be each individual
are open, receptive and respectful to the values of our people, school and community both through acknowledgement, learning and celebration
allow learning and practice of the values of our people, school and community
Our way of being
Our way of being
School assemblies
Our goal for '24 was to refresh our purpose for meeting as a school, how we celebrate, inspire and motivate our students while demonstrating and building what strong relationships like.
Theme for each assembly included:
Dream chasing
Pasifika celebration
Matariki - Waatea performance
Role modeling: Duff Books
Diversity
Appreciation and gratitude
Thank you to our guest who presented at each assembly - guest from within our community
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lIPXZH6uf4oWw6IP91bhvRHobuXKbMD-5eRtyhwB2Ko/edit?usp=sharing
Digital Technologies Curriculum
Strengthening the connection between curriculum and strong, positive relationships remains a deliberate and ongoing focus. We are increasingly creating authentic opportunities for learners to share their learning, including through inquiry and digital technologies presentations.
Our students are confidently presenting to peers, classmates, whānau, and the wider community—lifting the purpose, ownership, and pride in their learning. These opportunities are strengthening engagement and reinforcing learning as meaningful and connected.
Attendance continues to show positive growth, reflecting increased engagement, a stronger sense of belonging, and the impact of our collective approach.
Reporting process
Strengthening the reporting of student achievement has remained a key priority, with a clear alignment to updated reporting expectations and government priorities. We have refined our approach to ensure reporting is timely, transparent, and focused on what matters most, progress and achievement in reading, writing, and mathematics, alongside our curriculum learning.
Our reporting now more clearly reflects where learners are at in relation to curriculum expectations, with purposeful commentary that highlights what students know, can do, and what their next learning steps are. This ensures consistency, clarity, and a stronger line of sight for learners, whānau, and teachers.
We have also prioritised the conditions for high quality reporting, including the deliberate allocation of time. This is strongly supported by our community, and our staff honour this by ensuring reporting is meaningful, accurate, and impactful.
Parent interviews continue to be a significant part of this process, structured as a dedicated school wide event. These hui provide a valuable opportunity to share progress, strengthen partnerships, and work collectively with whānau to support each learner’s ongoing success.
Historical relationships
The importance of connectedness is the recognition of historical connections and the value of community.
To be genuine in a relationship requires genuine effort to support each other over a period of time and not being restricted to singlular ebvents.
School culture
A consistent reflection from visitors is the genuine warmth and welcome they experience from our people. This is not by chance—it is the result of deliberate, sustained practice over time, and is now deeply embedded in our school culture.
Our environment reflects who we are. The way we greet, connect, and acknowledge others creates a strong sense of belonging from the outset, reinforcing our values in action and shaping the daily experience of our kura.
Board visibility
Through the development of the strategic plan, the Board has actively sought opportunities to engage with our community creating space to listen, connect, and discuss the direction of the school through focus groups and existing relationships.
We warmly welcome our newly elected Board members and acknowledge the strengths, perspectives, and commitment they bring to this role. We are fortunate to have strong, longstanding relationships across our Board and value the depth of expertise that supports our kura.
It is also a point of pride that a number of our Board members, past and present, are former students, reflecting the strength of connection to our school and the ongoing legacy of our community.
“A good education can change everything" - Student Voice
Transparency in learning is important, and if our children are struggling, or learning gaps are identified, these get addressed.
At Koru School, giving effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi is an integral part of how we operate, guiding our commitment to equity, partnership, and success for all.
We actively acknowledge the ongoing relationship between the Crown and Māori by upholding the rights, identity, and aspirations of Māori within our school. This is reflected in how we work in partnership with whānau, hapū, and iwi, ensuring their voices are valued and inform our direction.
Through this, we are strengthening a shared sense of identity, deepening relationships, and ensuring that Māori perspectives are meaningfully embedded across all aspects of our school.
Giving effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi / The Treaty of Waitangi
Giving effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi / The Treaty of Waitangi
Our way of being
Our way of being
Te Tiriti o Waitangi and Te Ao Maori have become apart of our way of being at Koru School.
Our way of being includes creating, nurturing and growing an environment that:
is supportive of all tangata in our school and community
acknowledges and recognise the expertise brough be each individual
is open, receptive and respectful to the values of our people, school and community both through acknowledgement, learning and celebration
allow learning and practice of the values of our people, school and community
We would like to acknowledge our on-going gratitude to our community partners, hapu and iwi for supporting our school with our journey.
Papatuanuku Kokiri Marae
Koha Cafe
Kai Ika
Maara
Makaurau Marae
Te Wai-o-Hua / Te Aki Tai / Te Ahiwaru
Te Ahiwaru Trust
Waikato Tainui
Iwi Partners - acknowledgements
Iwi Partners - acknowledgements
Our way of being
Our way of being
Matariki celebration
Supporting Papatuanuku Kokiri Marae with their 2025 Matariki celebration
Ambassador marae visits
21 Nga Rangatira (Year 7-8) Ambassadors:
- Kai Ika programme
- Maara contribution
- Leadership development / support (includes Kiwi Can)
- Service to others
Papatuanuku Kokiri Marae
"Always challenge us" - Student Voice
We love our open learning environments, support with transitioning to secondary school, our leadership team and teachers because of the passion they have for our children, focused on our needs, with a sense of humour, care and value.
Compliance Statements
Compliance Statements
Statement of compliance with employment policy
This statement serves as our affirmation that Koru School is commited to adhering to all relevant emploment laws and regulations, as well as our own internal policies.
Koru School is also commited to ethical and sustainable work practices, ensuring fair treatment of employees and adherence to legal standards
“What we learn becomes a part of us" - Student Voice
We love our open learning environments, support with transitioning to secondary school, our leadership team and teachers because of the passion they have for our children, focused on our needs, with a sense of humour, care and value.
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