8 A Porowini Avenue, Whangarei
View on mapERO’s Akanuku | Assurance Review reports provide information about whether a service meets and maintains regulatory standards. Further information about Akanuku | Assurance Reviews is included at the end of this report.
Regulatory standards |
ERO’s judgement |
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Curriculum |
Meeting |
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Premises and facilities |
Meeting |
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Health and safety |
Meeting |
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Governance, management and administration |
Meeting |
Since the onsite visit the service has provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed non-compliance and is now taking reasonable steps to meet regulatory changes.
Whangarei Childcare Centre is a community-based service governed by a committee of parent and community volunteers. Since the last ERO evaluation in July 2016, a new manager has been appointed. The previous ERO evaluation expressed concerns around curriculum delivery. There has been progress and improvement in this area.
The service curriculum acknowledges the unique place of Māori as tangata whenua. Children’s cultures are respected and supported. A language-rich environment supports children’s learning and capabilities. The design and layout of the premises supports different types of indoor and outdoor experiences, including quiet spaces, areas for physically active play, and spaces for individual and group learning experiences.
Since the onsite visit the service has provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed the following non-compliances:
The next ERO review is likely to be an Akarangi | Quality Evaluation.
Steve Tanner
Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern)
Northern Region | Te Tai Raki
21 January 2021
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Early Childhood Service Name |
Whangarei Childcare Centre |
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Profile Number |
11513 |
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Location |
Whangarei |
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Service type |
Education and care service |
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Number licensed for |
50 children, including up to 16 aged under 2. |
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Percentage of qualified teachers |
80%+ |
|
Service roll |
57 |
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Ethnic composition |
Māori 39 |
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Review team on site |
November 2020 |
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Date of this report |
21 January 2021 |
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Most recent ERO report(s) |
Supplementary Review June 2013 Education Review July 2016 |
All services are licensed under the Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008. The legal requirements for early childhood services also include the Licensing Criteria for Education and Care Services 2008.
Services must meet the standards in the regulations and the requirements of the licensing criteria to gain and maintain a licence to operate.
All early childhood services are required to promote children’s health and safety and to regularly review their compliance with legal requirements. Before the review, the staff and management of a service completed an ERO Centre Assurance Statement and Self-Audit Checklist. In these documents they attested that they have taken all reasonable steps to meet their legal obligations related to:
As part of an Akanuku | Assurance Review ERO assesses whether the regulated standards are being met. In particular, ERO looks at a service’s systems for managing the following areas that have a potentially high impact on children's wellbeing:
As part of an Akanuku | Assurance Review ERO also gathers and records evidence through:
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Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Whangarei Childcare Centre is licensed to provide full day education and care for up to 50 children, including up to 16 infants and toddlers under two years of age.
The centre supports mostly working families and the majority of children attending are Māori. It provides education programmes that encompass bicultural values such as tuakana/teina (mixed-age relationships), manakitanga (support for children and families), and whanaungatanga (child, family and teacher connectedness). There is a strong commitment to partnerships with whānau and the local community.
The Whangarei Childcare Centre operates as a not-for-profit, community-based organisation. It has a governance and management committee that makes decisions about the strategic direction of the centre, and is well informed about the daily operation of the centre.
Since the 2013 ERO report there has been a change in centre leadership. A new centre manager brings financial expertise and management skills, and three new centre leaders have recently been appointed to their positions as leaders of the teaching team. Almost all of the fulltime staff are registered certificated teachers. Most teachers have been at the centre for many years and know children's whānau and the community well.
The centre has responded well to the recommendations in the 2013 ERO report. They have improved planning for children's learning and strengthened self-review practices.
Children in this centre are independent, confident, inquisitive and friendly. They have a strong sense of belonging to the centre and take ownership of their own learning. While learning spaces are divided into three child development areas, mixed-age play is encouraged. Children make decisions about their play and choose from the good range of activities provided. They negotiate aspects of their play and cooperate well with each other. Teachers encourage children to take care of resources and to use the learning environment respectfully.
Children enjoy opportunities to take on leadership roles. Older children share their pepeha and play a role in helping younger peers to follow centre routines, such as those that guide meal and mat times. Their language skills are well developed and they engage well in conversations with their teachers.
Children are encouraged to be accepting and inclusive of each other. Younger children are settled, aware of one another, and appear to have strong bonds with adults in the centre. Babies are cared for in a separate space from toddlers and older children. However, there are also times where toddlers mix with both the babies and with older children.
Respectful, genuine interactions are formed on a foundation of inter-generational relationships. Whānau and teachers generally live in the same community and have known each other over long periods of time. Te reo Māori is promoted as a living language.
Teachers plan the learning programme in response to children's individual learning and developmental needs. Good planning, assessment and evaluation processes are in place and children's learning stories have clear links to Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. Children's ideas and opinions are incorporated into programme planning. Mathematics, natural science and literacy are appropriately promoted.
Teachers continue to strengthen their professional practice by evaluating their teaching practice and how it impacts on children's learning. Increased reflection on the balance between child-led and teacher-led learning and associated early childhood education literature should further promote the responsiveness of the programme and increase good quality learning outcomes for children.
Centre leaders have brought new ways of working to the centre. The increased involvement of long-term experienced staff in centre leadership through their participation in higher levels of decision-making and guidance for other teachers has much potential for strengthening leadership capacity within the centre. All of these new leaders are committed to supporting recent changes in how the centre is managed. Staff would benefit from ongoing external advice and guidance to support them as they move into new ways of managing the centre.
Governance committee members are improvement and progress focused. Many are also new to their roles. The governance committee has appropriately initiated a review of the centre's constitution and strategic planning, and the management team have initiated the review of the centre's philosophy. Roles and responsibilities for the governance committee have also been clarified. Good progress has been made with strengthening accountability and budgeting systems relating to the use of government funding. As a next step, the committee should ensure that reporting to parents, whānau, teachers and the community on how this funding is used, is undertaken annually.
The governance group and centre manager should continue to:
monitor and ensure an ongoing balance between teacher-led and child-led planning for children's learning
build on teachers' subject knowledge so that teachers can further extend the quality of the curriculum
strengthen performance appraisal systems to ensure they are fully inclusive of Education Council requirements.
Before the review, the staff and management of Whangarei Childcare Centre completed an ERO Centre Assurance Statement and Self-Audit Checklist. In these documents they attested that they have taken all reasonable steps to meet their legal obligations related to:
During the review, ERO looked at the service’s systems for managing the following areas that have a potentially high impact on children's wellbeing:
emotional safety (including positive guidance and child protection)
physical safety (including supervision; sleep procedures; accidents; medication; hygiene; excursion policies and procedures)
suitable staffing (including qualification levels; police vetting; teacher registration; ratios)
evacuation procedures and practices for fire and earthquake.
All early childhood services are required to promote children's health and safety and to regularly review their compliance with legal requirements.
In order to improve practice, centre managers have identified the need to review and revise some areas of centre policy and procedure. This includes those relating to the police vetting of staff who are not registered teachers, the review of emergency planning, and ensuring the child protection policy meets the requirements of the Vulnerable Children Act 2014.
The next ERO review of Whangarei Childcare Centre will be in three years.
Graham Randell
Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern
26 July 2016
The Education Review Office (ERO) is the government department that, as part of its work, reviews early childhood services throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. ERO’s reports provide information for parents and communities about each service’s strengths and next steps for development. ERO’s bicultural evaluation framework Ngā Pou Here is described in SECTION 3 of this report. Early childhood services are partners in the review process and are expected to make use of the review findings to enhance children's wellbeing and learning.
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Location |
Whangarei |
||
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Ministry of Education profile number |
11513 |
||
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Licence type |
Education & Care Service |
||
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Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
||
|
Number licensed for |
50 children, including up to 16 aged under 2 |
||
|
Service roll |
58 |
||
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Gender composition |
Boys 36 Girls 22 |
||
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori Pākehā Fijian other |
39 14 1 4 |
|
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Percentage of qualified teachers 0-49% 50-79% 80%+ Based on funding rates |
80% + |
||
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Reported ratios of staff to children |
Under 2 |
1:5 |
Meets minimum requirements |
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Over 2 |
1:10 |
Meets minimum requirements |
|
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Review team on site |
May 2016 |
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Date of this report |
26 July 2016 |
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|
Most recent ERO report(s)
|
Supplementary Review |
June 2013 |
|
|
Supplementary Review |
March 2012 |
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|
Education Review |
November 2009 |
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ERO’s overarching question for an early childhood education review is ‘How well placed is this service to promote positive learning outcomes for children?’ ERO focuses on the following factors as described in the bicultural framework Ngā Pou Here:
Pou Whakahaere – how the service determines its vision, philosophy and direction to ensure positive outcomes for children
Pou Ārahi – how leadership is enacted to enhance positive outcomes for children
Mātauranga – whose knowledge is valued and how the curriculum is designed to achieve positive outcomes for children
Tikanga whakaako – how approaches to teaching and learning respond to diversity and support positive outcomes for children.
Within these areas ERO considers the effectiveness of arotake – self review and of whanaungatanga – partnerships with parents and whānau.
ERO evaluates how well placed a service is to sustain good practice and make ongoing improvements for the benefit of all children at the service.
A focus for the government is that all children, especially priority learners, have an opportunity to benefit from quality early childhood education. ERO will report on how well each service promotes positive outcomes for all children, with a focus on children who are Māori, Pacific, have diverse needs, and are up to the age of two.
For more information about the framework and Ngā Pou Here refer to ERO’s Approach to Review in Early Childhood Services.
The overall judgement that ERO makes and the timing of the next review will depend on how well placed a service is to promote positive learning outcomes for children. The categories are:
ERO has developed criteria for each category. These are available on ERO’s website.
ERO reviews are tailored to each service’s context and performance, within the overarching review framework. The aim is to provide information on aspects that are central to positive outcomes for children and useful to the service.