Junior Data

Our Junior Data cover the 1st 2 years of schooling prior to the beginning of Norm Based Assessments which are available in NZ from Y3.

This Junior data is of high importance as it shows what the intake is like each year, and what kind of value add or progress acceleration we are able to make in those first 2 years of schooling.

On average our learners arrive at school with a functional academic level 2 years behind their chronological age.

Our teachers work well with this challenge and most of our learners show very significant acceleration of progress in these early years of schooling. The introduction of a Reception Class in 2017 has meant an easier Transition to school for our tamariki and this has continued to evolve as a collaborative play - based learning environment with a heavy focus on Oracy.

The information above shows that the number of students attending preschool has improved with 98% of our New Entrants having attended Pre-School.

In 2019 from a sample of 62 New Entrants, 98% of students attended some form of Early Childhood Education prior to starting school. The information was gathered at the enrolment interview. Although this information is requested we do not always know whether the children attended regularly. It is significant that only 1 of the New Entrants enrolled in 2019 had not attended Pre-School.

The bulk of the Kindergarten attenders were again from Pt England Kindergarten and had participated in the organised school visiting programme which occurs on a Wednesday morning. The Kindergarten teachers brought all children who were starting school to these visits, not only those expected to attend Pt England School. These visits began at least a term prior to the children starting school. This programme has been running for several years now and has proved to be successful. There has been ongoing communication and liaison with the Kindy. They have a had a new Head Teacher this year and she is keen to continue to foster the link between Kindy and School and we have tried to visit regularly. The Kindy have attended special events and occasions and celebrations at Assemblies. The visiting programme is supervised by Ms Squires and Mrs Nua. Transition meetings are held with the Kindergarten as needed. It has been great having the visits hosted in the Reception Class. This has meant a consistent face for Pt England and the children are comfortable in the Reception Room which still has play based elements to help to ensure a smooth transition.

The New Entrant/Reception teachers and the School Management Team will continue to build a working relationship with the Early Childhood Centres in the area to help the transition to school for our New Entrants. We have continued to develop and grow our relationship with Pt England Kids Centre which opened early in 2018 and they have started Transition visits on a Thursday morning. A Welcome to Pt England Prospectus has been created to share key information and the intention is that visits will made to Centres early in 2020 to ensure that this information is shared.

Parents with pre-schoolers who are known to not attend Early Childhood Centres are actively encouraged and supported to enrol at the local Centres.

After 4 Weeks at School New Entrant Testing Data

New Entrant Testing

All New Entrants are tested after 4 full weeks at school in a range of areas including the Marie Clay - Observational Survey components. For many years the results have been very similar however over the last two years we are seeing an emerging trend that suggests a shift in this (see data below). Our children have previously consistently averaged at Stanine 1-2 which places them 2 plus stanines behind the average New Zealand New Entrant. In 2019 that average continues to be just above 3. There is a significant improving trend across the stanines for this group of New Entrants with around a half of the children having stanines in the average range for a 5.0 - 5.5 yr old in Written Words.

2019

This data set includes 60 NE children.

Letter ID - 30% of the children scored a Stanine 4 - 6, 3 children, 5% had a Stanine 7, 1 child had an 8-9 Stanine, 4 children scored 0 (Stanine 1-2)

Written Words - 53% of the children scored a Stanine 4 - 6 , 6 children scored 0

Concepts about Print - 15% of the children scored a Stanine 4 - 6

Clay Words - 43% of the children scored a Stanine 4 - 6 (1 child had a Stanine 8)

2018

Letter ID - 27% of the children scored a Stanine 4 - 6 (1 child had a Stanine 7)

Written Words - 28% of the children scored a Stanine 4 - 6

Concepts about Print - 6% of the children scored a Stanine 4 - 6

Clay Words - 28% of the children scored a Stanine 4 - 6 (1 child had a Stanine 7)

2017

Letter ID - 20% of the children scored a Stanine 4 - 6

Written Words - 27% of the children scored a Stanine 4 - 6

Concepts about Print - 10% of the children scored a Stanine 4 - 6

The Underachieving Children:

The same factors as identified for many years are impacting the learning of a large group of the children.

No preschool (there is definitely a reduction in this but regular attendance at Pre-School is potentially a factor, this is reported by the Kindergarten to be a significant issue)

Poor attendance (very significant for specific students)

English as a second Language

Hearing and Vision

Speech Language Delay/Language Acquisition

General immaturity / developmental delay

Identified syndromes/conditions (these are still too often not picked up until School Entry)

General health and welfare issues

Interventions:

There are a huge range of interventions in place to support the diverse and varying needs of our learners:

Reception Class / In class Support Worker

Transition Programme (RTLB and Child Support )

Child Support in the classrooms

Quick 60 (from Year 2)

ESOL classroom support

RTLB

Public Health Nurse/Doctor

Hearing and Vision

Audiology

Home visiting

Truancy (ACES) if appropriate

The Enrolment Interview serves as a great way to find out about the background of some of the children and for the past couple of years we have encouraged our whanau to bring their New Entrant with them .

Marie Clay 6 Year Observational Survey Data 2019

Within 2 weeks of each child turning 6 years old they are tested on the 6 Year Observational Survey (Clay). The data is analysed and used both formatively by the teacher for planning, and as summative information for school wide data gathering and analysis. The lowest scoring students are considered for Quick 60 or to a Specialist Service after discussion with our Special Needs Committee as to what might be the best and most appropriate intervention.

2014 reading level mean yellow 2 (Level 7/ 5.3 yr)

2015 reading level mean yellow 3 (Level 8/ 5.3 yr)

2016 reading level mean blue 1 (Level 9/ 5.6 yr)

2017 reading level mean blue 1 (Level 9/ 5.6 yr)

2018 reading level mean yellow 2 (Level 7/ 5.3 yr)

2019 reading level mean yellow 3 (Level 8/ 5.3 yr)

The average Reading Level has improved slightly in 2019. Our teachers have continued to inquire into their own practise throughout 2019 and the Reception Class has continued to develop links with our EC's to ensure a smooth and consistent transition to school for our tamariki.

Our big goal for 2020 is to once again continue to build those Language Acquisition Skills and to ensure that we are systematically and explicitly building these foundations as an integral part of our Literacy and Inquiry Programmes. The Junior Team have been and will continue inquiring into more effective methods for teaching these skills as they continue to use the ipad to make learning more personalised and rewindable. They have also been trained in the ENGAGE Programme this year which will be fully implemented in the Junior classrooms in 2020. ENGAGE is designed to support the development of self-regulation skills in children aged 3 - 7, by playing games in the classroom.

Five teachers (3 from Team One, and 2 from Team 2) attended a training day in mid September, where they talked about the need for students to learn to regulate their emotions. They were given some games that cover three areas - emotional regulation (feeling), cognitive regulation (thinking), and behavioural regulation (doing). It was suggested that regular use of the games (and especially the scripted explanations given to the students) can have a positive effect on student self-regulation. The games are fun and simple. Assessments on the effects of the games are done on a regular basis (focussing on four or five students in the class).

The teachers all came back to school with a number of games (approx 40), and the desire to really give the programme a go. It was expected that each class would have half an hour of game time daily - could be 3 x 10 minutes, or 2 - 15 minutes. In 2019 Team One have been using the games, and have been impressed with how well our students have responded. It’s early days, and they haven’t been as consistent as they’d like, but are looking forward to doing so much better in 2020. They have seen the effect the games are having, and anticipate positive results as they work on them next year.

We are looking forward to ongoing input from Jannie van Hees for Professional Development in this area.

We need to continue to closely track and monitor the progress of these chn. via the 5 Week Graphs and ensure that they are getting enough regular access to Literacy within their timetables. In 2019 we have continued this tracking in to Year 2 to ensure that we are monitoring our outcomes and planning appropriate interventions or support as necessary for those who are not making expected progress. We need to better ensure that our Juniors are being tested more regularly including their comprehension as they progress through the levels as they learn to read.

Data for 74 students in this cohort was available at the time of writing this report. All students were tested within 2 to 3 weeks of their 6th birthdays or of them being at school for 40 weeks.

The cohort includes:

Male - 36

Female - 39

Maori - 13

Pasifika - 54 . (Tongan 19/ Samoan 17/ CIM 12/ Niu 5/ Other PP 1)

Pakeha - 2

Others - 5

Expected level for a 6 year old: Green

2019

A total of 20 children 27% are working at Green or above.

A total of children 23 = 31 % are working at the Yellow to Blue Level and are identified as the priority learners.

2018

A total of 14 children 18% are working at Green or above.

A total of 27 children = 35 % are working at the Yellow to Blue Level and are identified as the priority learners.

Priority Learners:

Male - 8

Female - 15

Maori - 4

Pasifika - 15

Others - 4

Student's at Risk:

2019 31 = 42% (Red and Magenta) are Candidates for Quick 60 or Specialist Referrals.

2018 37 = 47% (Red and Magenta) are Candidates for Quick 60 or Specialist Referrals.

2017 16 = 31% (Red and Magenta) are Candidates for Quick 60 or Specialist Referrals.

2016 18 = 29% (Red and Magenta) are Candidates for Quick 60 or Specialist Referrals.

2015 30 = 37.5% (Red and Magenta) are Candidates for Reading Recovery or Specialist Referrals.

We continue to have a significant number of children that will go in to 2020 needing a great deal of support. This is an area that needs close consideration and resourcing.