Thomson Street, Tinwald, Ashburton
View on mapAkarangi | 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 Aubrey Mason Kindergarten are as follows:
Outcome Indicators(What the service knows about outcomes for learners) |
Whakaū Embedding |
Ngā Akatoro Domains |
|
Learning ConditionsOrganisational Conditions |
Whakaū Embedding Whakaū Embedding |
Aubrey Mason Kindergarten is one of five, governed by Ashburton Kindergarten Association. A general manager is responsible for day-to-day operation, and a senior teaching team leads teaching and learning. A recently appointed acting head teacher is supported by a mix of established and new teachers. The culturally diverse kindergarten community includes small numbers of Māori children and children of Pacific heritages. Some progress has been made since the 2018 ERO report.
Children’s mana is recognised and fostered within a responsive curriculum that supports them to take increasing responsibility for their own wellbeing, the wellbeing of others and for the environment. Teachers purposefully engage with children, supporting their oral language development, critical thinking skills, and adding complexity to their play. The well-resourced learning environment encourages active exploration, physical challenge, where independence and decision making are promoted.
The centre values of whanaungatanga, manaakitanga, and rangatiratanga are well embedded. It is clearly evident that parents and whānau are welcome to spend extended time in the learning environment. This enables children to transition effectively into the centre on a daily basis.
Assessment for learning celebrates children’s progress and learning success over time. Parent aspirations are regularly sought and used to inform planning.
Aspects of children’s cultures, languages and identity, particularly for Māori and Pacific learners, are evident in the learning environment. Teachers are yet to consider cultural information, including Māori children’s whakapapa, to provide a more culturally responsive curriculum.
Leaders foster collaboration and improvement. Senior teachers effectively coach the teaching team to use relevant professional learning, to develop their practice and implement a responsive curriculum. Further refinement of the internal evaluation framework, and building teacher capability are required, to better identify effectiveness of teaching strategies on outcomes for children.
Those responsible for governance and management do not yet have relevant up-to-date systems, processes and practices to be fully assured of the effective day-to-day operation of the organisation. Some policies and procedures are not fit for purpose. Systems for monitoring compliance have not been robustly implemented across the organisation. Human resource practices are not sufficiently robust.
Aubrey Mason Kindergarten will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:
Build teacher capability to integrate te reo Māori and tikanga Māori into day-to-day teaching practice.
Integrate children’s cultures, languages and identity through the curriculum and assessment documentation.
Further refine the internal evaluation framework and build collective understanding to effectively measure and monitor the impact of actions on outcomes for children.
Those responsible for governance and management to review and improve systems, processes, policies and practices to better manage the day-to-day operation of the organisation.
Before the review, the staff and management of Aubrey Mason Kindergarten 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.
During the review, the service provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed the following non-compliance:
Ensuring medicine (prescription and non-prescription) is not given to a child unless it is given with the written authority (appropriate to the category of medicine) of a parent (HS28).
Patricia Davey
Director of Early Childhood Education (ECE)
18 October 2023
|
Early Childhood Service Name |
Aubrey Mason Free Kindergarten |
|
Profile Number |
5467 |
|
Location |
Ashburton |
|
Service type |
Free Kindergarten |
|
Number licensed for |
42 children aged over two years |
|
Percentage of qualified teachers |
100% |
|
Service roll |
51 |
|
Review team on site |
July 2023 |
|
Date of this report |
18 October 2023 |
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review, September 2018; Education Review, May 2014 |
|
Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Aubrey Mason Kindergarten provides early childhood education for children two-to-five years of age. The kindergarten is licensed for up to 42 children. Children participate in half or whole-day learning programmes, running from 8.45am to 2.45pm. Children attending the kindergarten come from diverse cultural backgrounds.
The kindergarten's vision for all children is that they will develop:
the ability to confidently lead their own learning
a sense of belonging through building positive connections with people and their local environment
an awareness of, and pride in, their unique individual identity.
Aubrey Mason is one of five kindergartens administered by the Ashburton Kindergarten Association (AKA). A manager oversees the association under the governance of a board. An education specialist is contracted to give professional advice and guidance on teaching and learning. The day-to-day operation of the kindergarten is managed by a head teacher, supported by three qualified early childhood teachers.
Since the May 2014 ERO review the kindergarten has made good progress in responding to the areas identified for development, including increasing the visibility of Māori perspectives and children's cultural identities in assessment, and improving the documentation of self review.
This review was part of a cluster of five kindergartens reviewed in the AKA. The association is a member of the Hakatere Kāhui Ako|Community of Learning (CoL).
Children experience a rich and well-resourced learning programme and environment that promotes their engagement, exploration and developing competencies across the breadth of the curriculum. Opportunities to develop early literacy and numeracy skills and knowledge are meaningfully woven through the programme and environment.
Teaching practices and the learning programme very effectively support children to develop the positive outcomes identified in the kindergarten's vision for learners. Teachers use assessment practices well to get to know children's individual interests, strengths and learning needs. They value and draw on the knowledge and wisdom of parents and whānau to enhance their understanding of children as confident, capable and culturally diverse learners. They use this information to plan purposeful and authentic learning opportunities that extend children's thinking and learning.
New Zealand's indigenous Māori culture is celebrated and acknowledged throughout the programme and environment. All children hear te reo Māori being used as a living language and have Māori perspectives incorporated naturally alongside their everyday learning. Teachers take time to learn about the cultures and values of all children's families and find ways to reflect and value this in their learning.
Teachers have a deep understanding of the theories and approaches that underpin effective early childhood teaching. They are improvement focused and participate actively in ongoing professional learning. This professional knowledge is evident in the quality and intentionality of their interactions with children. Teachers are particularly mindful of the way they respect and nurture children's initiative and natural curiosity and model and encourage children's ability to enact the kindergarten's values of respect for self, others and the environment.
Children with additional needs are quickly identified and teachers work closely with families to develop appropriate learning goals and associated teaching strategies. When appropriate, teachers advocate strongly for children's access to specialist learning support.
The kindergarten is located across the road from Tinwald Primary School. Kindergarten children and new-entrant children in the school enjoy reciprocal visits and shared activities. Kindergarten and school teachers collaborate closely to support children's positive transition to school.
Effective leadership has ensured that the quality of teaching and learning has been well sustained over time. Leaders have:
developed useful annual planning which keeps teaching staff focused on the vision and goals of the kindergarten and of the association
maintained an unrelenting focus on positive outcomes for children and their families
led and modelled reflective practice and regular self review
led and modelled highly respectful relationships with children and their families and with teachers.
The Ashburton Kindergarten Association's vision and strategic goals are well known and reflected in individual kindergarten annual plans. The association has a sound policy and procedures framework in place to provide guidance for kindergarten operations and the monitoring of health and safety. The quality of teaching and learning in each kindergarten is regularly evaluated by the contracted education specialists. These evaluations are detailed and inform association planning and resourcing.
Leaders and teachers have access to relevant professional development and leadership support. The association actively supports equity of outcomes for children by funding additional teaching resource and a speech-language therapist to support work with children with additional needs. Some progress has been made in addressing the areas for development from ERO's 2014 review, including supporting a number of leaders and teachers to participate in professional learning about culturally responsive teaching practice. This continues to be an area of focus for the association, given the growing diversity of kindergarten rolls.
The key next steps for teachers, with the support of the Education Support Manager (ESM) are to continue to:
The association board, manager and ERO agree that aspects of governance can be improved by:
Before the review, the staff and management of Aubrey Mason Free Kindergarten 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.
The next ERO review of Aubrey Mason Free Kindergarten will be in four years.
Alan Wynyard
Director Review & Improvement Services Southern
Te Waipounamu - Southern Region
3 September 2018
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 |
Tinwald, Ashburton |
||
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
5467 |
||
|
Licence type |
Free Kindergarten |
||
|
Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
||
|
Number licensed for |
42 children aged over 2 years |
||
|
Service roll |
55 |
||
|
Gender composition |
Girls: 27 Boys: 28 |
||
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori |
6 |
|
|
Percentage of qualified teachers 0-49% 50-79% 80%+ Based on funding rates |
80% + |
||
|
Reported ratios of staff to children |
Over 2 |
1:10 |
Meets minimum requirements |
|
Review team on site |
June 2018 |
||
|
Date of this report |
3 September 2018 |
||
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review: |
May 2014 |
|
|
Education Review: |
March 2011 |
||
|
Education Review: |
September 2007 |
||
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:
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.
|
Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
Aubrey Mason Free Kindergarten is well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Aubrey Mason Kindergarten is one of five kindergartens administered by the Ashburton Kindergarten Association. A manager oversees the association under the governance of a board. An education service manager provides advice and guidance to teachers on the curriculum and programme. The head teacher manages the day-to-day operation of the kindergarten. The kindergarten provides care and education for children from two years old until school age and serves a wide community, including children from surrounding rural areas.
Since the March 2011 ERO review there have been changes in staff, including the appointment of an experienced teacher to the head teacher role.
This review was part of a cluster of four reviews in the Ashburton Kindergarten Association.
Children are viewed as competent and confident learners. Teachers help them talk about their ideas and theories. Children confidently share their knowledge with other children (ako) and help each other in the programme (tuakana teina).
Teachers have positive, affirming and respectful interactions with children. They listen carefully to children, respond appropriately and effectively support children to make choices and lead play. Teachers use a range of effective strategies to extend children’s learning and ideas. They model appropriate use of te reo Māori. Teachers show a good understanding of tikanga Māori principles and how these are reflected in the kindergarten programme.
Other positive features of the programme include:
the way teachers effectively support children to develop social skills and successful relationships with each other
good opportunities for children’s interests in literacy and music to be supported and extended.
Children benefit from a wide range of learning experiences. The kindergarten is well resourced. Teachers ensure that resources are well targeted to extend on children’s interests and learning. Teachers think about how the environment can be improved to better support children’s learning. Children can see artefacts of their culture reflected in the environment.
Teachers regularly share information about children’s interests and abilities and use this information effectively to plan an interesting programme. Recent initiatives in planning and assessment are helping teachers focus more on the purposeful and specific teaching strategies. Assessment shows that teachers know individual children well. These records are informative and clearly show children’s learning and progress. Teachers have developed better systems to find out about parents’ aspirations for their children.
Children with additional learning needs are well supported within the programme. A speech language therapist, employed by the association, is providing targeted support for some children and their families. This initiative is helping to increase teachers’ knowledge about the most effective strategies they can use to support children’s language development. Teachers make good use of their links with the local school and other agencies to help children move on to school successfully.
Teachers work well together. They support each other’s learning and understanding of assessment and planning developments. They use their strengths and knowledge to identify appropriate professional development. The head teacher and education service manager are providing good support and guidance to teachers. The introduction of indicators of good practice is helping teachers reflect more regularly and deeply on their practice and outcomes for children.
The kindergarten association has a comprehensive policy and procedure framework in place to provide good guidance for kindergarten operations and the monitoring of health and safety. Association goals are well known by all staff. These appropriately include a goal focused on promoting leadership. Since the 2011 ERO review, the association has improved the quality of the information the manager receives about the effectiveness of each kindergarten’s programme. A useful initiative to support children’s participation in early childhood education is the association’s ‘no fees’ policy.
The teaching team has identified, and ERO agrees, that some aspects of assessment, planning and self review could be strengthened. These include the teaching team developing further ways to:
incorporate children and parents’/whānau perspectives about their children’s learning more as part of the planning, assessment and self-review processes
increase the visibility of Māori perspectives in assessment
celebrate children’s cultural identities in assessment
document self review more clearly so that changes in practice are better recorded and evaluated.
The new association board has identified that board members require more training to familiarise themselves with their roles and responsibilities, and further develop the following areas of governance:
association strategic planning
the board’s role in supporting kindergartens to respond to priority learners within their communities, such as the growing populations of children and families from Māori and Pacific backgrounds and children who do not have English as their first language.
Before the review, the staff and management of Aubrey Mason Free Kindergarten 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:
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; 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 Aubrey Mason Free Kindergarten will be in three years.
Graham Randell
National Manager Review Services
Southern Region
29 May 2014
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 |
Ashburton, Mid Canterbury |
||
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
5467 |
||
|
Licence type |
Free Kindergarten |
||
|
Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
||
|
Number licensed for |
42 children, aged two years and over |
||
|
Service roll |
60 |
||
|
Gender composition |
Boys 32 Girls 28 |
||
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori NZ European/Pākehā Pacific |
4 50 6 |
|
|
Percentage of qualified teachers 0-49% 50-79% 80% Based on funding rates |
80% |
||
|
Reported ratios of staff to children |
Under 2 |
||
|
Over 2 |
1:10 |
Meets minimum requirements |
|
|
Review team on site |
April 2014 |
||
|
Date of this report |
29 May 2014 |
||
|
Most recent ERO reports |
Education Review |
March 2011 |
|
|
Education Review |
September 2007 |
||
|
Education Review |
August 2004 |
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:
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.