Leadership and assessment

Design elements

Target for support (strengths and needs)

This support is aimed at strengthening school leadership. Effective leadership has a significant impact on whole of school and individual classroom practice linked to student achievement.

Expected outcomes

The needs the programme will meet for students or schools/kura:

• Strengthened capability of the schools’ Senior Leadership Team (SLT) in focusing on educational processes required for accelerated progress for all students and particularly for student target groups, and Māori enjoying education success as Māori.
• Development of specific aspects of leadership and assessment capacity of school leaders relating to the identified needs of individual participants and linked to the outcomes of the New Zealand Curriculum (emphasis on literacy and numeracy outcomes).
• Māori enjoying education success as Māori, and developing a school’s capacity for continuous improvement. This includes responding to specific Ministry requirements set from time to time, including needs identified by student achievement practitioners.
• Increased capacity of first-time principals to act as effective chief executives of their schools, in particular, in relation to National Administration Guidelines 2 to 6.

Delivery design (who, how long, interactions)

This PLD provides differentiated approaches that reflect individual school contexts with a focus on culturally responsive pedagogy.

• The in-depth programme is in-school support tailored to meet the identified needs of the school, linked to school data and annual planning.
• The flexible responsive intervention for schools that have specific need.
• Support of first-time principals in management.

This usually involves a designated mentor that works alongside the leadership team, or clustering of schools where appropriate, to make the most effective use of the resource.

How will the support contribute to classroom practice (tier1) and school capability?

Effective leadership has been shown to have a significant impact on student achievement when leading learning within their school.

How will the support contribute to building educationally powerful relationships with parents, whānau/family, hapu, iwi, and community?

Leadership and Assessment professional learning and development includes:

• the development of teacher knowledge about the value and importance of linking learning at home with learning at school
• a focus on ensuring that all parents and whānau are supported to understand where their children are currently at in their learning, and what their next learning steps will be
• a focus on the importance of culturally responsive learning and teaching that values the cultures, identities, and languages of all learners and their parents, families, and whānau.

Methods of delivery and time commitment

Provision of PLD is tailored to meet the needs of the school and the time commitment is negotiated with the school in consultation with the regional MoE.

How is support monitored and measured in terms of outcomes?

Change in depth and intensity of provision is dependent on progress with the identified needs of the principal, particularly for first-time principals and for principals of schools with high proportions of priority learners with lower than expected achievement.

What needs to be sustained?

Effective leadership in every school, particularly in the use of data to undertake school-wide self-review, and improvement planning aligned to the evidence of what works.

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