16 A Islington Street, North East Valley, Dunedin
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 Islington Early Childhood Centre Inc are as follows:
Outcome Indicators(What the service knows about outcomes for learners) |
Whāngai Establishing |
Ngā Akatoro Domains |
|
Learning ConditionsOrganisational Conditions |
Whakaū Embedding |
Islington Early Childhood Centre Inc is a small, not for profit, community-based preschool. It is governed by a parent community. The head teacher is responsible for the day-to-day management of the service. Most teachers are long serving staff members. Progress toward the key next steps identified in the June 2018 report is evident, particularly in relation to clarifying the centre philosophy.
The centre philosophy, reviewed and redeveloped in consultation with parents, is strongly evident in the curriculum. Teachers work collaboratively to support children to develop independence, communication, and social skills, within a broad and rich curriculum. Warm interactions foster children’s positive sense of wellbeing and belonging.
Teachers understand the child as a learner in the context of home and family. They have regular conversations with parents about the learning and wellbeing of children. They make good use of this information to inform teaching practice and curriculum design. Parents actively participate in the curriculum alongside their children through regular rostered parent help.
Children hear and experience te reo me ngā tikanga Māori during centre routines, including using a personalised karakia developed in consultation with centre whānau, but have limited opportunities across the curriculum to hear and learn te reo Māori. The team are in the early stages of implementing planning to improve their collective capability in this area.
Teachers are in the early stages of exploring and using the learning outcomes in Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. While children’s learning is evident in assessment documentation, there is limited evidence of progression of learning over time in relation to the learning outcomes.
Leaders and teachers are improvement focussed. Internal evaluation is usefully linked to the strategic plan. The service is establishing new systems and tools to guide internal evaluation. The teaching team are yet to develop a deep understand Internal evaluation.
The governance committee supports children’s learning and development through responsive decision-making. Ongoing appraisal and involvement in professional learning contribute to teacher growth.
Islington Early Childhood Centre Inc will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:
explore the learning outcomes in Te Whāriki and use these in assessment practices to plan for, and show children’s progress and developing capabilities over time in relation to these learning outcomes
continue to implement planning focussed on growing teacher capability to extend the use of te reo Māori in daily conversations across the curriculum
develop the collective capability of teachers to do and use internal evaluation to identify what is working or not and for whom and prioritise actions for improvement that are focused on improving learner outcomes.
Before the review, the staff and management of Islington Early Childhood Centre Inc 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.
Dr Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini
12 August 2022
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Early Childhood Service Name |
Islington Early Childhood Centre Inc |
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Profile Number |
83006 |
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Location |
Dunedin |
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Service type |
Education and care service |
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Number licensed for |
22 children, over the age of two years |
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Percentage of qualified teachers |
100% |
|
Service roll |
23 |
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori 2, NZ European/Pākehā 18, other ethnic groups 3 |
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Review team on site |
May 2022 |
|
Date of this report |
Once report is confirmed, click here to enter a date |
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Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review, May 2018; Education Review, April 2015 |
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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.
Islington Early Childhood Centre is a non-profit community-based centre in North East Valley, Dunedin. It provides education and care for two-to-five year old children.
A parent committee governs and manages the centre. Parents contribute daily to the sessions which run from 8:30am to 1:00pm, on a rostered and informal basis. Families have long-established relationships with the centre and its teachers.
The centre is led by a head teacher who works closely with another experienced teacher. A part-time teacher has joined the long-established teaching team. Teachers operate a programme for four year old children one afternoon per week. This programme focuses on developing children's social competency, leadership and self-management skills. It also provides opportunities for smaller group excursions beyond the centre.
Key aspects of the centre's philosophy include prioritising children's wellbeing, sense of belonging, building trusting relationships and for children to become confident and competent learners.
The centre has made good progress in many of the areas identified for development in ERO's 2015 report. These include building self-review practices, strengthening assessment, children's records of learning better reflecting their language, identity and culture, and the development of a more useful strategic plan.
Children benefit from the positive, sensitive, and respectful relationships throughout the centre. Parents regularly and frequently stay at the centre to support their children's engagement in learning and that of other children. This is welcomed and encouraged by the teachers.
Teachers deliberately and naturally include fun and humour in their interactions with children. Children's language is built and extended through teachers' use of open-ended questions. Appropriate, carefully thought out support is provided for children with additional needs.
Teachers' and the centre's curriculum priorities include 'expanding children's horizons' and increasing their social competence. This is highly evident through the effective ways in which teachers promote and extend children's thinking and understanding. Strong features of the children's learning programme include:
comprehensive integration of early literacy learning, including story-telling
deliberate planning for and focus on aspects of early mathematics learning
the way their interests and ideas are recognised and nurtured
creating connections between children's experiences and the natural world around them
the ways in which parents and other family members contribute their expertise and passions to group learning.
Planning for individual children's learning is well-monitored by teachers, and communicated with parents and families. A next step for teachers is to ensure the strategies to support the intended learning are documented consistently and evaluated to show the effectiveness of these in supporting children's learning.
Children's learning is enhanced through capable, reflective leadership practices. Centre leadership is capable, collaborative and effectively supports high quality teaching practice. Leaders are making good use of professional learning and development. They show a strong commitment to internal evaluation and keeping up-to-date. Some very useful planned reviews have led to positive changes. Leaders deliberately foster and encourage strong, ongoing partnerships with families that best support the individual child.
The parent committee actively governs and supports centre operations and the teachers. It regularly consults with the wider parent group in a range of ways. Roles and responsibilities within the committee are well delegated and link appropriately with parents' interests, skills and experience. A schedule to review policies has been prioritised, however, some policies/procedures now need to align with current practices.
The committee has developed a more detailed annual section of the centre's strategic plan. It has also strengthened systems for financial management to support centre sustainability. It is now timely to consider more deliberate alignment between strategic goals (and progress towards these) and other key documents such as monthly teachers' reports, and appraisal.
The key next steps for the committee, leaders and teachers:
when planning for children's learning, teachers should ensure the deliberate strategies to support the intended learning are well communicated and evaluated against
continue to review policies and procedures for alignment between procedures and practices, in particular appraisal
more closely align progress reporting to strategic goals.
Leaders have identified, and ERO agrees, that developing specific guidelines to support the induction of new teachers will help ensure that the curriculum priorities and teaching practices desired at this centre are maintained.
The centre's philosophy for children could be streamlined. The parent committee has developed a philosophy and teachers have a philosophy for their beliefs about children's learning. While this philosophy is very evident in centre practices, it would be timely for the centre to agree on one philosophy that extends shared understandings and to review against.
Before the review, the staff and management of Islington Early Childhood Centre Inc 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 Islington Early Childhood Centre Inc will be in three years.
Dr Lesley Patterson
Deputy Chief Review Officer Southern
Te Waipounamu - Southern Region
19 June 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 |
Dunedin |
||
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
83006 |
||
|
Licence type |
Education & Care Service |
||
|
Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
||
|
Number licensed for |
22 children aged over 2 |
||
|
Service roll |
30 |
||
|
Gender composition |
Girls: 21 Boys: 9 |
||
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori |
1 |
|
|
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 |
May 2018 |
||
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Date of this report |
19 June 2018 |
||
|
Most recent ERO reports |
Education Review |
April 2015 |
|
|
Education Review |
August 2011 |
||
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 |
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Islington Early Childhood Centre is well placed to promote positive outcomes for children. It is a long established community-based service in North East Valley. A parent committee governs and manages the centre.
Twenty children attend morning sessions during the week. Four-year-old children may also attend one afternoon extension session in preparation for school. The centre programme is based on a blend of free play and structured experiences. It is provided by two qualified early childhood teachers, along with a centre support teacher and parent help,
The centre has a positive reporting history with ERO. Teachers have made good progress in addressing the recommendations in the 2011 ERO report. Self-review practices are still developing.
Children’s learning is supported by an interesting programme based on the principles and strands of Te Whāriki, the New Zealand Early Childhood Curriculum. Teachers provide a wide range of experiences for children to enjoy. These include purposeful learning opportunities for:
Teachers are responsive to children’s changing interests, strengths and needs. They value the knowledge children bring from home and use this as a starting point for learning conversations. They are skilful in the way they deliberately foster children’s ideas.
There is a family-like atmosphere where parents help in the programme and are welcome to stay and settle their children. Children and their families benefit from caring, positive relationships with their teachers. Children in this small-group setting develop strong friendships with each other. They play for long periods of time together in very well resourced indoor and outdoor areas. They help each other and have fun in their learning.
Teachers help children make connections with the local community with frequent trips to places such as the community gardens, local shops and schools. Teachers, with the help of a skilled kaiako, are building te ao Māori perspectives across all aspects of the programme.
The afternoon programme for four-year olds has a deliberate focus on helping children learn social competency and team work and extending their thinking. The teachers have established useful connections with local schools to support children when they move on to school.
As part of this review, ERO investigated how well children are supported to be capable and confident mathematical learners. Teachers have a good knowledge of mathematics and how to promote this in the centre. They ensure children have many planned and incidental opportunities for mathematical learning.
Group planning is well documented with clear intended learning outcomes and with strategies and experiences to achieve these. Teachers agree they need to strengthen the way they evaluate the group planning to more clearly show how effective they have been in supporting the learning.
Teachers seek family input and ask for parents’ wishes for their children’s learning. They are aware of children’s diverse backgrounds. Profile books are a rich record of what the child does at the centre and some key learning is highlighted. Learning records need to more clearly show:
The experienced teaching team have worked together for many years. They undertake relevant professional development to improve their teaching. They have made changes to practice as a result of this.
The teachers are working with a provider to improve their knowledge and use of self review. They acknowledge this work needs to continue.
The parent committee ensures the centre runs smoothly. Committee members have overall responsibility for the finances, policies and procedures, employment and strategic direction. They plan for change and support new parents to join the committee and take on roles of responsibility. The committee funds professional development, additional staffing and resources for the centre. They are improvement focused. The strategic plan would be more useful if it identified the long-term priorities for the centre.
Teachers identified, and ERO agrees, the next steps are to:
Before the review, the staff and management of Islington Early Childhood 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)
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 Islington Early Childhood Centre will be in three years.
Graham Randell
Deputy Chief Review Officer-Southern Southern Region
9 April 2015
|
Location |
Dunedin |
||
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
83006 |
||
|
Licence type |
Education & Care Service |
||
|
Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
||
|
Number licensed for |
22 children over two years of age |
||
|
Service roll |
31 |
||
|
Gender composition |
Boys 16 Girls 15 |
||
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori Pākehā Other ethnicities |
4 23 4 |
|
|
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 |
December 2014 |
||
|
Date of this report |
9 April 2015 |
||
|
Most recent ERO reports |
Education Review |
August 2011 |
|
|
Education Review |
April 2008 |
||
|
Education Review |
May 2005 |
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.