About Us

Background

Ferguson Intermediate (Otara) caters for year 7 and 8 students in Otara, South Auckland. The school’s vision is ‘excellence through working as one’ and the school values are mana (respect), haumarutanga (safety), haepapatanga (responsibility) and manawaroa (resilience). The school is part of the Te Puke ō Taramainuku Kāhui Ako. 
Ferguson Intermediate (Otara)’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are:
develop and embed learner agency 
accelerate achievement
strengthen educationally powerful connections with parents, families and whānau.
ERO and the school are working together to evaluate how effectively leaders and teachers use achievement and engagement information to implement strategies to accelerate the progress and achievement of all learners.
The rationale for selecting this evaluation is: 
- achievement is variable across the school
- leaders seek to improve teachers’ understanding and use of achievement and engagement information 
- a new school structure was introduced in 2023, and school leaders are in the process of evaluating its effects.

The school expects to see:
teachers consistently using engagement and achievement data to respond to learning needs and support accelerated progress and achievement 
strong learning-focussed partnerships between learners, teachers and whānau.

Strengths 
The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal to evaluate how effectively leaders and teachers use achievement and engagement information to implement strategies which accelerate progress and achievement.
- learners are proud of their languages and cultures and feel these are valued at school
- systems and processes are in place to support teachers to improve their practice
- leaders and teachers are open to learning new approaches to teaching
- the school continues to build strong relationships with whānau and external agencies.