Happy Valley Education & Care

1 ERO’s Judgements

Akarangi | Quality Evaluation evaluates the extent to which this early childhood service has the learning and organisational conditions to support equitable and excellent outcomes for all learners. Te Ara Poutama Indicators of quality for early childhood education: what matters most are the basis for making judgements about the effectiveness of the service in achieving equity and excellence for all learners. Judgements are made in relation to the Outcomes Indicators, Learning and Organisational Conditions. The Evaluation Judgement Rubric derived from the indicators, is used to inform ERO’s judgements about this service’s performance in promoting equity and excellence.

ERO’s judgements for Happy Valley Education and Care are as follows:

2 Context of the Service

Happy Valley Education and Care is governed and operated by an owner/director, supported by two qualified programme coordinators (PCs). PCs support educators to meet regulatory requirements and provide a curriculum that aligns with Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. All of the educators working in homes with children have an early childhood qualification. More than 75 percent of children attending have Samoan heritage.

3 Summary of findings

Children demonstrate a sense of belonging in the home setting and confidently greet visitors. Their wellbeing is supported by opportunities to make independent choices. Educators interact respectfully with children. These observable outcomes are a result of PCs working closely with educators, with a focus on how to respond positively to children’s social and emotional needs.

Children have trusting relationships with educators, and tuakana/teina relationships are evident among older and younger children. They participate in excursions, playgroups, and cultural celebrations such as Matariki and Samoan language week. These educator practices ensure that children have meaningful opportunities to connect with people and places in their world.

Children benefit from opportunities to hear kupu Māori and waiata, as well as their own home languages. They experience aspects of tikanga Māori and their own culture within daily routines. Information gathered from home visits shows a deliberate focus on ensuring children’s cultures and languages are visible in resources, wall displays and in educator practices.

The goals, principles, and strands of Te Whāriki are evident in documentation such as curriculum planning, assessment records and self-review processes. Documentation is yet to show PCs and educators consistently using the learning outcomes from Te Whāriki to inform planning and assessment. This includes providing children with resources to promote their inquiry and exploration.

The service’s philosophy is guided by Te Whāriki. Reviewing the philosophy with educators could help them to understand and implement it more deliberately. Regular self-review is undertaken by leaders. They now need to grow their understanding of how to do and use internal evaluation processes to guide improvement.

The service provider should ensure PCs have access to professional learning opportunities and a quality mentoring programme. This learning would support their professional growth and capability to work with educators to provide enhanced learning experiences for children.

4 Improvement actions

Happy Valley Education and Care will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:

Leaders and programme coordinators to grow their understanding of:

• using the learning outcomes from Te Whāriki to improve the extent to which assessment information shows children’s progress and learning over time

• using internal evaluation to monitor how well curriculum practices impact on children’s learning.

Programme coordinators to support educators to:

• provide children with opportunities and resources that promote and encourage sustained exploration, both indoors and outdoors.

5 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Happy Valley Education and Care completed an ERO 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:

• curriculum

• premises and facilities

• health and safety practices

• governance, management and administration.

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; safety checking; teacher registration; ratios)

• relevant evacuation procedures and practices.

All early childhood services are required to promote children's health and safety and to regularly review their compliance with legal requirements.

6 Actions for Compliance

During the review, the service provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed a non-compliance relating to ensuring equipment, premises and facilities are checked every day of operation for hazards to children (HS11).

Filivaifale Jason Swann
Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern)
Northern Region | Te Tai Raki

29 November 2022 

7 About the Early Childhood Service