ERO’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 |
|
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-compliances and is now taking reasonable steps to meet regulatory standards.
City Kids Childcare Centre is a community-based, non-profit service, overseen by a parent committee. Day-to-day management is delegated to a centre supervisor. Families from a diverse range of cultures attend the service.
Children experience positive interactions with adults that promote their social competence and nurture reciprocal relationships. There are regular opportunities for parents and whānau to be involved in decision-making around their children’s learning. The curriculum is informed by recently improved assessment planning and evaluation processes. The curriculum acknowledges the unique place of Māori as tangata whenua.
The design and layout of the service includes quiet spaces, areas for physically active play, and space for a range of individual and group learning experiences. Some policies, procedures and templates are in the process of being reviewed and better aligned.
Next steps include:
Since the onsite visit the service has provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed the following non-compliances:
Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care Services 2008, GMA7A.
The next ERO review is likely to be an Akarangi | Quality Evaluation.
Dr Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini
19 May 2021
| Early Childhood Service Name | City Kids Childcare Centre |
| Profile Number | 60259 |
| Location | Wellington |
|
Service type |
Education and care service |
|
Number licensed for |
28 children aged over 2. |
|
Percentage of qualified teachers |
80%+ |
|
Service roll |
31 |
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori 3, NZ European/Pākehā 11, Indian 4, other ethnic groups 13. |
|
Review team on site |
February 2021 |
|
Date of this report |
19 May 2021 |
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review, November 2017; Education Review, July 2014. |
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.
City Kids Childcare Centre is located in Thorndon, Wellington. It operates as a nonprofit parent cooperative and provides all day education and care for up to 28 children, including two under 2 years. Of the 31 children attending five identify as Māori.
A small management committee of parents governs the centre with the support of a supervisor. Over December-January 2016 the centre relocated for a period of 6 weeks while the buildings underwent earthquake strengthening and updating of the internal environment.
Since the July 2014 ERO review, a new supervisor has been appointed and several changes of teachers and committee members have occurred. Changes have been made to the operations of the teaching team to better support children and their learning within the centre.
ERO's previous evaluation identified the need to further develop appraisal, assessment and evaluation practices and to strengthen understanding and implementation of evidence based selfreview and teacher inquiry processes. Some progress is evident.
Children are encouraged to be independent, confident learners. There are regular opportunities for them to learn in the local and wider community. Opportunities are made to promote science, sustainability, literacy and mathematics.
Children with diverse needs have their needs well identified and are referred to relevant support agencies. Individual learning plans are developed in consultation with parents. Teachers are starting to use assessment documentation to monitor these children’s progress against their plans and identify their next learning steps.
Children, including those nearing two years, and families are supported by established transition processes on entry to the centre and onward to primary school.
Teachers know the children well. They are focused on developing positive relationships with the children. Teachers draw on their knowledge of children’s interests to engage with them and extend their learning. Teachers have attended PLD to focus on and deepen their knowledge of supporting children to grow their social competence.
Children's learning and development are celebrated and shared through e-Portfolios, parent interviews and ongoing conversations. Whānau are actively involved in children's learning and events that strengthen relationships between home and centre, and the wider community.
Leaders and teachers are exploring ways to engage with children’s culture, language and identity. Te ao Māori is visible in the centre environment, through artefacts, resources and wall displays. A next step is for teachers to strengthen the inclusion of te ao Māori into the curriculum in meaningful ways.
Leaders identify the need to continue to strengthen assessment, planning and evaluation processes. Documentation should clearly show how teachers:
plan specific, challenging teaching strategies that directly impact on children's learning
draw on information about children's culture and parents' aspirations for their children's learning to inform assessment, planning and evaluation
monitor children's progress over time.
Processes to grow teacher practice require strengthening. An appraisal procedure for teachers should be developed and implemented urgently. This should include:
specific and challenging goals with critical feedback and feed-forward
targeted observations of teacher practice
evidence to clearly demonstrate ongoing progress in relation to the teacher professional standards
teacher inquiry into the impact of their teaching practices on outcomes for children.
The centre leader uses knowledge of current best practice to guide and inform change. Some selfreview processes consider change and how to bring about improvement. Leaders and teachers should continue to develop and increase shared understanding of effective evidence-based internal evaluation to grow practice and enhance decision making.
The management committee is supportive and improvement focused. It receives regular useful reports from the supervisor to guide decision making, and oversees issues about the overall administration of the centre.
In 2017, leaders reviewed the centre's philosophy in consultation with the community, to reflect the views of the current community and staff. A comprehensive strategic plan to guide the centre's new direction has been developed. It is timely to review and document expectations of roles and responsibilities to reflect the new strategic direction and establish what these will look like in practice. This should support leaders to gain an explicit understanding of their role.
ERO has identified, and centre leaders agree, that key next steps are to:
strengthen assessment, evaluation and planning processes
explore and implement processes to induct and grow teacher practices
improve appraisal processes including ways to evaluate the effectiveness of teaching practice
review and document expectations of the centre roles and responsibilities
develop shared understanding of effective internal evaluation practices.
In addition teachers need to build their confidence in including te ao Māori in the curriculum.
ERO suggests that the service develops a plan to address the areas for further improvement and actions outlined in this report.
Before the review, the staff and management of City Kids 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.
ERO identified an area of non-compliance relating to appraisal of staff.
To meet requirements the service needs to improve its performance by developing an ongoing process of staff appraisal that helps the service maintain and improve the quality of its education and care.
[Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care Centres 2008, GMA7.]
The next ERO review of City Kids Childcare Centre will be in three years.
Patricia Davey
Deputy Chief Review Officer Central (Acting)
Te Tai Pokapū - Central Region
29 November 2017
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 |
Thorndon |
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Ministry of Education profile number |
60259 |
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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 |
28 children, including up to 2 aged under 2 |
||
|
Service roll |
31 |
||
|
Gender composition |
Boys 20, Girls 11 |
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Ethnic composition |
Māori |
5 |
|
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Percentage of qualified teachers 0-49% 50-79% 80%+ Based on funding rates |
80% + |
||
|
Reported ratios of staff to children |
Under 2 |
1:3 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
Over 2 |
1:7 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
|
Review team on site |
October 2017 |
||
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Date of this report |
29 November 2017 |
||
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review |
June 2014 |
|
|
Education Review |
August 2011 |
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|
Education Review |
May 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:
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.