22 Vickery Street, Kaiapoi
View on map|
Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
Kidsfirst Kindergartens Vickery Street are well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Kidsfirst Kindergartens Vickery Street is one of 71 early learning services governed and managed by Canterbury Westland Kindergarten Association Incorporated, trading as Kidsfirst Kindergartens.
The kindergarten provides education and care for young children from two years old to school age. All teachers are qualified and certified early childhood education teachers.
The association education manager (EM) provides consistent professional advice and guidance to support the effective operation of the service.
Since the previous ERO review in 2012 there have been significant changes to the leadership and to the teaching team. The EM and teaching team have made good progress in developing assessment, planning and evaluation processes and bicultural practices. They have also had a deliberate focus on supporting the specific needs of two year olds.
The association has recognised the efforts of the teaching team in growing the roll and sustaining improvements to practices, presenting them with an association 'PROUD' award in 2017.
This review was part of a cluster of 10 kindergartens governed and managed by the Canterbury Westland Kindergartens Association.
Teachers actively foster positive and reciprocal relationships. They model care and respect for one another and for children and families.
Children have many opportunities to be involved in a range of rich curriculum activities. Creative and sensory experiences support young children to engage in exploratory play and settle well. Early literacy and mathematics are integrated into the curriculum in meaningful ways that encourage and capture children's interest in learning. Teachers value children's views and empower children to make choices and be involved in determining the pace of their day.
Tikanga Māori values are well reflected in curriculum priorities and respectful teacher practices. Māori learners have good opportunities to see their language, culture and identity valued in the programme.
Children with additional needs are well supported. Teachers work collaboratively with children, parents, whānau and external experts to help children achieve their personal best.
Well-written learning records show how teachers effectively notice and respond to the individual interests, strengths and capabilities of each child. Teachers have purposeful interactions with parents and whānau. They make meaningful connections between home and the kindergarten to further enhance children’s wellbeing and learning.
The distributed leadership approach successfully builds teacher capability and leadership capacity. The individual strengths and interests of teachers are valued and well used to enhance the curriculum available for children. Teachers work well together. They are open to new learning and focused on ongoing improvement. They are making increasingly good use of reflective practice to plan for and manage change well.
The Canterbury Westland Kindergarten Association has a well-developed and clearly understood vision. It is underpinned by targeted strategic and annual planning systems. There are close links between the kindergarten plans, internal evaluation, appraisal and professional development. The teachers are well supported by association managers and leaders to achieve the priorities of the kindergarten and to promote high quality learning outcomes for all children.
The association has a very strong commitment to providing high quality professional development to build on leadership capacity and teacher capability. It has high expectations for teaching and learning and equitable outcomes for all children. This includes a strong focus on promoting understandings of and respect for te ao Māori (the Māori world) at all levels of the organisation. The association's internal evaluation and assurance practices are being well used to inform decision making and support the strong focus on continuous improvement.
The education manager and teaching team have identified, and ERO agree, that the key next steps are to:
Before the review, the staff and management of Kidsfirst Kindergartens Vickery Street 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 Kidsfirst Kindergartens Vickery Street will be in three years.
Dr Lesley Patterson
Deputy Chief Review Officer
Te Waipounamu - Southern Region
25 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 |
Kaiapoi |
||
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
5461 |
||
|
Licence type |
Free Kindergarten |
||
|
Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
||
|
Number licensed for |
40 children over the age of two years old |
||
|
Service roll |
34 |
||
|
Gender composition |
Boys 18: Girls 16 |
||
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori |
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 |
March 2018 |
||
|
Date of this report |
25 June 2018 |
||
|
Most recent ERO reports |
Education Review |
July 2012 |
|
|
Education Review |
November 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.
Kidsfirst Kindergartens Vickery Street in Kaiapoi is open from 8.30 am and 2.30 pm on week days and has up to 30 children over the age of two years at any one time. It is licensed to take up to 40 children.
All teachers at the kindergarten are fully registered and early childhood trained and have worked together as a team for some time.
This Kindergarten is one of 62 kindergartens administered by the Canterbury Westland Kindergarten Association Incorporated, trading as Kidsfirst Kindergartens. An association Educational Support Manager (ESM) provides support for the kindergarten.
The association that governs this kindergarten is well organised and managed. It provides useful policies and procedures and a comprehensive framework for monitoring health and safety. The association incorporates a management layer in the form of education service managers and a manager of kindergarten operations who works in partnership with teachers providing ongoing educational leadership and professional development.
This review occurred at a time when the association and its kindergartens were responding to issues associated with the Canterbury earthquakes. They have been proactive in addressing these challenges.
This kindergarten hosted another local kindergarten for several terms following damage to its facilities. The impact of the earthquakes has included a reduction in the centre’s roll as families have moved from the district.
This kindergarten provides children with a suitably varied range of opportunities to engage in both indoor and outdoor play.
Strengths of the kindergarten include the:
Teachers work well as a team. They foster positive working relationships with parents. Teachers show a willingness to improve the quality of education and care they provide for children.
The head teacher and teachers recognise that the next steps for them include:
As noted by ERO and association staff, targeted professional development and support will be critical to fostering these improvements.
ERO has identified in this review, and also in the November 2007 ERO report, the need to improve the quality of teaching and learning. ERO requests an action plan to show how the recommendations in this report will be addressed.
Since the onsite stage of the review the teachers and the kindergarten association have submitted a detailed action plan of how the association will address the issues identified in this report.
ERO is confident that the service is being managed in the interest of the children. Therefore ERO is likely to review the service again in three years.
Before the review, the management of Kidsfirst Kindergartens Vickery Street was invited to consider its priorities for review using guidelines and resources provided by ERO. ERO also used documentation provided by the kindergarten 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 kindergarten (including self-review information) and the extent to which potential issues for review contributed to positive outcomes for children at Kidsfirst Kindergartens Vickery Street.
All ERO education reviews in early childhood focus on the quality of education. For ERO this includes the quality of:
ERO’s findings in these areas are set out below.
The teachers have all worked at the kindergarten for some time. Since the last review they have continued to refine some aspects of their programme and practices and have also improved the kindergarten’s physical environment.
Learning opportunities
Teachers provide children with a suitably varied range of opportunities to engage in both indoor and outdoor play. The programme has a mixture of child and teacher initiated activities.
Features of the programme include the successful integration of aspects of literacy, numeracy, biculturalism and information and communication technologies (ICT). Teachers also give appropriate emphasis to promoting children’s social and physical development. ERO observed children happily engaged in a wide variety of self-selected exploratory play.
Children’s attractively presented profiles include an interesting range of information about the activities they take part in. Learning stories include useful comments about aspects of children’s learning. Teachers offer parents the opportunity for interviews to discuss the information in profiles and their children’s learning.
Relationships
A strength of the kindergarten is the quality of relationships between teachers and children. ERO observed friendly, respectful, affirming and supportive interactions between teachers and children. Children were well behaved and confident. These relationships support children to take risks and foster their sense of well-being and belonging.
ERO saw teachers interacting positively with parents and working in ways that were supportive of them and their families.
Environment
Teachers provide children with a supportive and calm learning environment. They are responsive to children’s immediate needs and have well established routines.
Ongoing improvements are being made to the kindergarten’s physical environment in an effort to further promote children’s learning and development. There is a good range of both indoor and outdoor activities. Wall displays help to celebrate children’s learning.
Teachers should now consider increasing the range of resources children can readily access to support their exploratory play and learning.
Teamwork
Teachers work well as a team, support one another and are responsive to children’s immediate needs and concerns. They show a willingness to make ongoing improvements to the quality of education and care they provide for children.
Extending children’s learning
Teachers, as noted in the November 2007 ERO report, still need to extend the range of strategies they use to promote children’s development as capable and competent learners. For instance, they should consider how best to:
Continuity in professional development and support will be critical to helping teachers realise their commitment to ongoing improvement. Recent developments within the Association should help this to occur.
Improving planning, assessment and evaluation
ERO agrees with the ESM, head teacher and teachers that further improvements are needed in the quality of:
Professional development and self review
There is now a need for teachers’ professional development and support to clarify their vision for the kindergarten and establish a clearer set of shared beliefs and expectations about what counts as high quality teaching and learning.
To support developments and inform future decision making, the kindergarten’s self review programme and appraisal processes should place greater focus on evaluating and improving the quality of teaching and learning.
Before the review, the staff of Kidsfirst Kindergartens Vickery Street completed an ERO CentreManagementAssurance Statement and Self-Audit Checklist. In these documents they have attested that they have taken all reasonable steps to meet their legal obligations related to:
During the review, ERO looked at the kindergarten’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:
ERO and kindergarten personnel agree that the head teacher and teachers should:
4.1 review and clarify their vision and expectations regarding high quality teaching and learning
4.2 use a wider range of teaching approaches to enhance children’s learning and development
4.3 improve programme planning, evaluation and assessment
4.4 extend provisions for professional development, support and self review.
Since the onsite stage of the review the teachers and the kindergarten association have submitted a detailed action plan of how the association will address the issues identified in this report.
ERO is confident that the service is being managed in the interest of the children. Therefore ERO is likely to review the service again in three years.
Graham Randell
National Manager Review Services
Southern Region
|
Type |
Sessional (Kindergarten) |
|
Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
|
Number licensed for |
40 children |
|
Roll number |
32 |
|
Gender composition |
Boys 21 Girls 11 |
|
Ethnic composition |
NZ European/Pākehā 26; Māori 5; Other Ethnicities 1 |
|
Review team on site |
May 2012 |
|
Date of this report |
23 July 2012 |
|
Previous three ERO reports |
Education Review November 2007 Education Review August 2004 Accountability Review December 2000 |
These are the findings of the Education Review Office’s latest report on Kidsfirst Kindergartens Vickery Street.
Kidsfirst Kindergartens Vickery Street in Kaiapoi is open from 8.30 am and 2.30 pm on week days and has up to 30 children over the age of two years at any one time. It is licensed to take up to 40 children.
All teachers at the kindergarten are fully registered and early childhood trained and have worked together as a team for some time.
This Kindergarten is one of 62 kindergartens administered by the Canterbury Westland Kindergarten Association Incorporated, trading as Kidsfirst Kindergartens. An association Educational Support Manager (ESM) provides support for the kindergarten.
The association that governs this kindergarten is well organised and managed. It provides useful policies and procedures and a comprehensive framework for monitoring health and safety. The association incorporates a management layer in the form of education service managers and a manager of kindergarten operations who works in partnership with teachers providing ongoing educational leadership and professional development.
This review occurred at a time when the association and its kindergartens were responding to issues associated with the Canterbury earthquakes. They have been proactive in addressing these challenges.
This kindergarten hosted another local kindergarten for several terms following damage to its facilities. The impact of the earthquakes has included a reduction in the centre’s roll as families have moved from the district.
This kindergarten provides children with a suitably varied range of opportunities to engage in both indoor and outdoor play.
Strengths of the kindergarten include the:
Teachers work well as a team. They foster positive working relationships with parents. Teachers show a willingness to improve the quality of education and care they provide for children.
The head teacher and teachers recognise that the next steps for them include:
As noted by ERO and association staff, targeted professional development and support will be critical to fostering these improvements.
ERO has identified in this review, and also in the November 2007 ERO report, the need to improve the quality of teaching and learning. ERO requests an action plan to show how the recommendations in this report will be addressed.
Since the onsite stage of the review the teachers and the kindergarten association have submitted a detailed action plan of how the association will address the issues identified in this report.
ERO is confident that the service is being managed in the interest of the children. Therefore 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.
Graham Randell
National Manager Review Services
Southern Region
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.
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.