350 Papanui Road, Strowan, Christchurch
View on map|
Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
BestStart Merivale is well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.
BestStart Merivale (previously ABC Merivale) operates under the BestStart management structure. BestStart is a large national organisation that owns early childhood education services across Aotearoa New Zealand.
BestStart Merivale is licensed for 50 children, including up to 16 children under two years old. The centre operates out of a renovated villa. There is a nursery room for infants and toddlers and a preschool room for older children. Each room has its own outdoor area.
There have been significant staff changes since the 2016 ERO review. The centre manager, head teacher, professional services manager and business manager are new to the centre in the last year. The centre manager and most of the staff are qualified early childhood teachers. At the time of the review a number of relievers were filling permanent positions. However, the centre uses consistent and familiar relievers to support responsive relationships with children. Progress to meet the recommendations of the 2016 ERO review has been impacted by the significant staff changes.
The centre's philosophy emphasises relationships, communication and the learning environment.
The centre manager and teachers have worked collaboratively with the centre community to develop a shared philosophy that documents their learning priorities and guides practices. The philosophy, strategic and annual goals are well aligned to support centre developments. Curriculum goals from the strategic plan are designed to improve children's engagement in learning. Managers have a shared vision for improvement and work in partnership to identify priorities, plan and improve outcomes for children.
Leaders and teachers are purposeful and intentional about resourcing the centre. This is supporting children's opportunities for learning. Children are focused, calm, and confident. They choose from a range of equipment, including natural resources. They use these in a variety of ways to extend their ideas, foster problem solving and promote their imaginative play. Displays of learning and play support children to see themselves and their families reflected in the centre. Teachers create an environment that promotes children's social interactions and relationships.
Infants and toddlers learn in a calm environment through interactions with caring staff. Resources are easily accessible to them and encourage exploration. Teachers are responsive to children's individual preferences, needs and care routines.
Teachers purposefully respond to children with additional needs. They work together as a team and with whānau to identify additional teaching strategies and successfully implement plans to support children's learning and development. Leaders seek additional BestStart and external expertise to provide further support and resources for children and their families.
Assessment, planning and evaluation processes have recently been reviewed by managers. They identified areas for improvement. Teachers observe and document children's interests, participation in the programme and learning through activities. They are in the early stages of introducing new processes to ensure that teachers are considering possible pathways for learning and planning effectively to support these. The leaders and teachers are also developing their understanding of fostering success for Māori and Pacific heritage learners.
A significant focus on building relationships and communication with families has contributed to strengthened centre practices. The managers are making regular use of parent feedback to support centre improvement. Recent changes to planning now place more emphasis on learning partnerships with parents.
The managers and teachers have a useful process for internal evaluation that is beginning to result in improvements to practices and improved outcomes for children. With the support of the professional services manager, they have used internal evaluation to improve the centre environment and resourcing. The centre leaders and teachers need to develop a deeper understanding of the evaluation process. This will better enable them to use it more confidently to evaluate practices and make improvements to the quality of teaching and outcomes for children.
BestStart has a well-established management structure. Policies and procedures provide clear guidance to centre managers and teachers for the operation of the centre and maintaining health and safety for children and adults. The professional services manager and business manager are working with the centre to build leadership capacity and capability.
BestStart managers and ERO agree that key next steps are to develop centre leaders' and teachers' understandings, knowledge and implementation of:
the service's new assessment, planning and evaluation system to improve outcomes for children's learning
strategic planning and internal evaluation processes to better evaluate the impact changes have made for children and their learning
support for Māori and Pacific children's learning success.
Before the review, the staff and management of BestStart Merivale 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.
Dr Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region - Te Tai Tini
5 March 2020
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 |
Christchurch |
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Ministry of Education profile number |
70405 |
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Licence type |
Education & Care Service |
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Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
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Number licensed for |
50 children, including up to 16 aged under 2 |
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Service roll |
58 |
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Gender composition |
Girls 26; Boys 32 |
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Ethnic composition |
Māori NZ European/Pākehā Pacific Asian Other European Other ethnicities |
7 28 3 7 5 8 |
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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 |
December 2019 |
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Date of this report |
5 March 2020 |
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Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review |
April 2016 |
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Education Review |
August 2012 |
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Education Review |
December 2008 |
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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 will depend on how well the service promotes positive learning outcomes for children. The categories are:
Very well placed
Well placed
Requires further development
Not well placed
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.
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Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
ABC Merivale is well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
ABC Merivale operates under the Best Start management structure. Best Start, previously known as Kidicorp Ltd, is a large national organisation that owns early childhood education and care centres across New Zealand.
Licensed for 50 children including 16 under twos, this centre provides two different full-day programmes in separate rooms to meet the varying care and learning needs of children. The recently-reviewed philosophy of empowering children to become increasingly independent is aimed at building positive foundations for life-long learning.
As a result of the Canterbury earthquakes, the centre staff and children shifted to temporary premises for a number of months. This was managed very well, with staff receiving strong support from Best Start managers and from their parent community. The centre operates out of a villa that has now been completely renovated and upgraded. Some areas have been extended to provide increased space for children and staff to use.
The centre provides daily meals for all children including hot food at lunchtime. The changing menus reflect the centre's focus on nutritious food that children enjoy.
Centre leaders have made good progress addressing the recommendations for improvement in the 2012 ERO report related to written records of children's learning and self review. Since that time, there have also been some changes to centre staffing. ABC Merivale is actively involved with a local education cluster that is focused on positive outcomes for children.
Children benefit from the warm and welcoming centre environment that prioritises their wellbeing and sense of belonging. Learning activities and resources provide a wide range of opportunities for children to explore and follow their interests. Positive interactions and relationships are evident between children and their teachers.
Teachers make flexible use of learning spaces and resources to meet the children's changing needs and interests. Programmes and learning stories are based on observations of children that identify and inform the learning focus for group and individual teaching. Children are regularly able to explore and choose activities that stimulate their interest and curiosity.
Parents have good opportunities to contribute their ideas and feedback regarding their children's learning and wellbeing. Centre leaders and teachers keep them well informed about their child's progress and have a variety of ways of keeping them up to date with centre programmes and developments.
Children in the under two programme each have a primary caregiver. This helps to strengthen children's sense of attachment and growing independence as they progress through their time in the nursery. Teachers in this area use very good processes for identifying and monitoring individual children's learning and wellbeing. Parents have ongoing opportunities for input into this.
Centre programmes and activities provide children with some opportunities to learn about te reo and tikanga Māori. Some of the interesting wall displays created by children capture centre activities that promote an understanding of te ao Māori.
Children with particular social, emotional or learning needs are very well supported by centre leaders and teachers. They readily access external expertise for children who need extra support. Teachers work hard to build knowledge, skills and practices to ensure that their support for children matches their specific needs.
Transitions into, within and out of the centre help children to settle and prepare for the next stage of their development. Positive relationships with contributing schools and clear transition processes and systems benefit children and their families.
Centre leadership reflects and promotes high expectations for the best outcomes for all children. The culture of collaboration among leaders and teachers enables them to actively share their strengths and contribute to centre programmes and goals for improvement.
The centre manager, professional service manager and business manager work in partnership to successfully implement Best Start management systems including quality assurance and strategic planning processes. These include:
an annual centre review that identifies strengths and next steps for improvement
provision of relevant internal and external professional development for centre staff
leadership support for centre managers
compliance and accountability monitoring.
Since the previous ERO review, centre leaders and staff have made some improvements to their self review practices. This is enabling them to clearly identify their next steps for ongoing improvement in a number of areas.
Centre leaders have identified, and ERO agrees, that the priorities for improvement are to:
continue to strengthen assessment practices, especially in regard to consistently evaluating learning, identifying next steps and the specific strategies teachers will use to extend learning
further increase the visibility of te ao Māori in centre programmes, practices and learning stories
continue to build capability and expertise in internal evaluation across all staff.
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.
The next ERO review of ABC Merivale will be in three years.
Chris Rowe
Deputy Chief Review Officer Southern (Acting)
14 April 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.
|
Location |
Christchurch |
||
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
70405 |
||
|
Licence type |
Education & Care Service |
||
|
Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
||
|
Number licensed for |
50 children, including up to 16 aged under 2 |
||
|
Service roll |
58 |
||
|
Gender composition |
Girls: 23 Boys: 35 |
||
|
Ethnic composition |
Pākehā Māori Other |
43 8 7 |
|
|
Percentage of qualified teachers 0-49% 50-79% 80%+ Based on funding rates |
80% + |
||
|
Reported ratios of staff to children |
Under 2 |
1:4 |
Better than minimum requirements |
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Over 2 |
1:8 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
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Review team on site |
February 2016 |
||
|
Date of this report |
14 April 2016 |
||
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review |
August 2012 |
|
|
Education Review |
December 2008 |
||
|
Education Review |
June 2006 |
||
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.