- ERO evaluates and reports on the education and care of children and young people in early childhood services and schools.
Adventureland Early Learning Centre in Ellerslie, Auckland, is owned and operated by Bright Futures Management Limited. The centre opened in 2010. It provides care and education for up to 40 children, including six children under the age of two years. This is the first ERO review of the centre.
Children benefit from a programme that is responsive to their interests. They enjoy sustained opportunities to explore their environment, practising new skills and investigating. Parent involvement in the programme is encouraged by teachers who are continuing to build their partnerships with the local community. Parents value the whānau concept of the centre and the support they receive from the teaching team and managers.
Cultural diversity is a feature of the centre. Some teachers use their home languages to support children and some also use te reo Māori in the context of children’s play. Teachers are well placed to provide a rich learning environment that better reflects the multicultural nature of the centre.
Managers have established a variety of systems for centre management and effective practices to support self-review. A collaborative approach to programme planning is being developed. Teachers should continue to refine their programme management practices and consider ways to promote greater challenge and complexity in child-initiated play.
This report identifies some good teaching practices and areas for further development and review. Centre managers have identified they need to continue to strengthen self-review processes. They also agree that it would be worthwhile to work closely with external professional providers to improve teachers’ practice and enhance the learning programme.
ERO is likely to review the service again in three years.
Before the review, the management of Adventureland Early Learning Centre was invited to consider its priorities for review using guidelines and resources provided by ERO. ERO also used documentation provided by the centre to contribute to the scope of the review.
The detailed priorities for review were then determined following a discussion between the ERO review team and the management and staff. This discussion focused on existing information held by the centre (including self-review information) and the extent to which potential issues for review contributed to positive outcomes for children atAdventureland Early Learning Centre.
All ERO education reviews in early childhood focus on the quality of education. For ERO this includes the quality of:
In addition, as this is the centre’s first review ERO decided to evaluate
ERO’s findings in these areas are set out below.
The purpose-built centre was established in 2009 and caters for children from six months up to five years of age. The centre has taken some time to establish a teaching team. The new teaching team consists of five qualified staff. Two are fully registered teachers. A team approach to professional development is resulting in some improvements in the programme.
Children’s confidence. Children are confident in their interactions with each other and with adults. They are collaborative, inclusive, and enjoy working together in small or large groups. The child-initiated programme allows children to participate in the programme with little disruption to their play. The good quality of the equipment available helps to support their play, and they are happy to play for sustained periods on their own and with their peers.
Cultural diversity. The families, staff and managers come from many different ethnic backgrounds. The programme acknowledges various cultural celebrations and seeks families’ contributions to the programme. A commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi is evident and staff and management are developing ways to strengthen this commitment in the centre.
Environment. The open-plan design of the centre provides easy flow between the indoors and outdoors. A large deck area is used to extend activities and includes an inbuilt sandpit. A large grass area allows for more imaginative and robust play. A separate outdoor area for children under the age of two years offers them the opportunity for uninterrupted safe play. Outdoor play enables children to acquire new skills, as well as enjoying physical challenge and building their confidence.
Welcoming relationships. A welcoming atmosphere is experienced by the children and their families. They have good relationships with the teachers. Parents feel well-supported and respected. The family-friendly atmosphere encourages parents to share their child’s experiences from home. Teachers share information with families in a variety of appropriate ways.
Caring teachers. Teachers’ responsive caregiving supports infants and toddlers to have a sense of belonging and wellbeing in the centre. Teachers actively join in children’s play and have warm and caring interactions with them.
Programme management and implementation. Noticeable progress has been made since the centre opened. Managers now agree they could work more with teachers to continue to:
Self review. Teachers could use self review to investigate the effectiveness of their professional practice for children and their learning. They could also review curriculum areas and resources to ensure they promote more opportunities for complex, creative and imaginative play. To support good practice, the manager should consider furnishings in the under-two area that promote independence among this age group.
Teachers could show clearer links to Te Whāriki, the NZ early childhood curriculum in their documentation of children’s learning. All teaching staff could be involved in the evaluation meetings for the over two’s and under two’s programme.
Displays. Teachers should consider lowering the photographs of children and their whānau in the under-two area to make these more accessible to children. Displays in both areas could include other languages and photos or posters of other cultures could be displayed in the environment to promote discussions and strengthen children’s familiarity with diverse cultures.
The centre is family owned and operated. The owner is the centre director and a manager oversees the operations. The supervisor mainly works on the floor, provides mentoring to staff and leads the programme planning and evaluation processes.
Useful systems. Effective processes are in place to ensure sound documentation of management systems. Financial transparency is evident and the purchase of appropriate early childhood software and computers supports teachers to document children’s learning and share information with parents.
Professional development: Managers have supported the teaching team and centre leaders with ongoing professional development. Some positive progress in this area has led to the teaching team being enthusiastic about their work and developing a shared understanding about how to progress the learning programme. To sustain this positive impact, managers could continue to support teachers by using external professional development facilitators.
Operation and administration. To improve management systems, managers should now develop and regularly monitor:
Good employment practices. Managers are beginning to implement formal appraisal for teachers to promote higher quality teaching practices. They could also consider clarifying roles of the management team and they should have clear, documented expectations of teachers’ practice.
Self review. Managers are beginning to establish a more collaborative approach to reviewing policies and practices to make improvements and align teaching practices with centre’s philosophy. Managers could now work with teachers to:
Before the review, the staff of Adventureland Early Learning Centre completed an ERO Centre Management Assurance Statement and Self-Audit Checklist. In these documents they have taken all reasonable steps to meet their legal obligations related to:
During the review, ERO looked at the service’s documentation, including policies, procedures and records of recent use of procedures. ERO also checked elements of the following areas that have a potentially high impact on outcomes for children:
In order to improve current practice managers and teachers should:
ERO is likely to review the service again in three years.
Makere Smith
National Manager Review Services
Northern Region (Acting)
|
Type |
All Day Education and Care Service |
|
Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
|
Number licensed for |
40 children, including up to 6 aged under 2 years |
|
Roll number |
44 |
|
Gender composition |
Girls 18 Boys 26 |
|
Ethnic composition |
NZ European/Pākehā 14, Māori 2, Indian 6, Chinese 5, Filipino 3, Middle Eastern 3, Tongan 2, other 9 |
|
Review team on site |
July 2012 |
|
Date of this report |
10 September 2012 |
|
Previous three ERO reports |
No previous report |
10 September 2012
To the Parents and Community of Adventureland Early Learning Centre
These are the findings of the Education Review Office’s latest report on Adventureland Early Learning Centre.
Adventureland Early Learning Centre in Ellerslie, Auckland, is owned and operated by Bright Futures Management Limited. The centre opened in 2010. It provides care and education for up to 40 children, including six children under the age of two years. This is the first ERO review of the centre.
Children benefit from a programme that is responsive to their interests. They enjoy sustained opportunities to explore their environment, practising new skills and investigating. Parent involvement in the programme is encouraged by teachers who are continuing to build their partnerships with the local community. Parents value the whānau concept of the centre and the support they receive from the teaching team and managers.
Cultural diversity is a feature of the centre. Some teachers use their home languages to support children and some also use te reo Māori in the context of children’s play. Teachers are well placed to provide a rich learning environment that better reflects the multicultural nature of the centre.
Managers have established a variety of systems for centre management and effective practices to support self-review. A collaborative approach to programme planning is being developed. Teachers should continue to refine their programme management practices and consider ways to promote greater challenge and complexity in child-initiated play.
This report identifies some good teaching practices and areas for further development and review. Centre managers have identified they need to continue to strengthen self-review processes. They also agree that it would be worthwhile to work closely with external professional providers to improve teachers’ practice and enhance the learning programme.
ERO is likely to review the service again in three years.
When ERO has reviewed an early childhood centre we encourage management to inform their community of any follow up action they plan to take. You should talk to the management or contact person if you have any questions about this evaluation, the full ERO report or their future intentions.
If you would like a copy of the full report, please contact the centre or see the ERO website, http://www.ero.govt.nz.
Makere Smith
National Manager Review Services
Northern Region (Acting)
ERO is an independent, external evaluation agency that undertakes reviews of schools and early childhood services throughout New Zealand.
ERO follows a set of standard procedures to conduct reviews. The purpose of each review is to:
Reviews are intended to focus on outcomes for children and build on each centre’s self review.
ERO’s framework for reviewing and reporting is based on four review strands.
Quality of Education – including the quality of the programme provided for children, the quality of the learning environment and the quality of the interactions between staff and children and how these impact on outcomes for children.
Additional Review Priorities – other aspects of the operation of a centre, may be included in the review. ERO will not include this strand in all reviews.
Compliance with Legal Requirements – assurance that this centre has taken all reasonable steps to meet legal requirements.
ERO reviews do not cover every aspect of centre performance and each ERO report may cover different issues. The aim is to provide information on aspects that are central to positive outcomes for children and useful to this centre.
Most ERO reports include recommendations for improvement. A recommendation on a particular issue does not necessarily mean that a centre is performing poorly in relation to that issue. There is no direct link between the number of recommendations in this report and the overall performance of this centre.
