North Haven Child Care & Education Centre

Education institution number:
70421
Service type:
Education and Care Service
Definition:
Not Applicable
Total roll:
55
Telephone:
Address:

23 Arthur Street, Timaru

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North Haven Child Care & Education Centre

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.

ERO’s Judgement

Regulatory standards

ERO’s judgement

Curriculum

Meeting

Premises and facilities

Meeting

Health and safety

Meeting

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.

Background

North Haven Child Care and Education Centre is governed by a board of trustees. A centre manager leads a team of long standing and mostly certificated teachers. Children who attend the community-based service are from diverse cultural backgrounds, including Māori, Samoan and Indian.

Summary of Review Findings

The curriculum is inclusive and responsive to children’s interests. They experience positive and respectful interactions with teachers. Play and exploration is guided by planned and spontaneous opportunities in well-resourced indoor and outdoor environments. The curriculum is informed by planning, assessment and evaluation which is collaboratively developed with whānau and aligned to Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum.

The premises and facilities support the provision of indoor and outdoor play including a separate outdoor area for children under two. There are systems for monitoring and evaluating health and safety practices. Governance and management systems and processes now show the service is meeting all regulatory standards. 

Actions for Compliance

Since the onsite visit, the service has provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed the following non-compliances:

  • the process and completion of a four-point safety check for all children’s workers who have access to children every three years.

Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care Centres 2008, GMA7A.

Key Next Steps

The next step is to:

  • strengthen the evaluation of children’s learning and use this to inform the curriculum design.

Next ERO Review

The next ERO review is likely to be an Akarangi | Quality Evaluation.

Kathy Lye
Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini

2 March 2023 

Information About the Service

Early Childhood Service Name:

North Haven Child Care and Education Centre

Profile Number

70421

Location

Timaru

Service type

Education and care service

Number licensed for

50 children, including up to 15 aged under 2

Percentage of qualified teachers

80-99%

Service roll

56

Review team on site

November 2022

Date of this report

2 March 2023

Most recent ERO report(s)

  Education Review, November 2019
  Education Review, December 2016

General Information about Assurance Reviews

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.

ERO undertakes an Akanuku | Assurance Review process in any centre-based service:

  • having its first ERO review – including if it is part of a governing organisation

  • previously identified as ‘not well placed’ or ‘requiring further development’

  • that has moved from a provisional to a full licence

  • that have been re-licenced due to a change of ownership

  • where an Akanuku | Assurance Review process is determined to be appropriate.

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

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:

  • curriculum

  • premises and facilities

  • health and safety practices

  • governance, management and administration.

As part of an Akanuku | Assurance Review ERO assesses whether the regulatory 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:

  • 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 certification; ratios)

  • relevant evacuation procedures and practices.

As part of an Akanuku | Assurance Review ERO also gathers and records evidence through:

  • discussions with those involved in the service

  • consideration of relevant documentation, including the implementation of health and safety systems

  • observations of the environment/premises, curriculum implementation and teaching practice.

North Haven Child Care & Education Centre - 26/11/2019

1 Evaluation of North Haven Child Care & Education Centre

How well placed is North Haven Child Care & Education Centre to promote positive learning outcomes for children?

Not well placed

Requires further development

Well placed

Very well placed

North Haven Child Care & Education Centre is well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.

ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.

Background

North Haven Childcare and Education Centre is a community-based education and care service. It is licensed for 50 children, including up to 15 under two years of age. Children are cared for, play and learn in two areas, each with its own outdoor area.

The service is governed by a committee, and is part of the Aoraki Community Education Trust Board.

A head teacher oversees the day-to day operation of the service and the curriculum, teaching and learning for the children over two years. A deputy head teacher has the responsibility for education and care for children under two.

The service's philosophy includes its vision and priorities for children's learning. These priorities are for children who are: competent and confident life-long learners; empowered, active, curious and creative; who feel a sense of connectedness |whanaungatanga; and who develop a sense of wellbeing for themselves and others |manaakitanga.

Since the 2016 ERO report, a new head teacher has been appointed. The centre has made very good progress in all of the areas identified in the key next steps in this report. These areas included developing and strengthening: the centre's philosophy, assessment, planning and evaluation of children's learning, internal evaluation, appraisal, strategic and annual planning and bicultural programmes and practices.

The centre is a member of the South Timaru Kāhui Ako |Community of Learning.

The Review Findings

The centre's collaboratively developed philosophy effectively guides decision making about children's learning and is evident in practice. Children's learning is well supported by the responsive curriculum, linked to the priorities for children's learning. Children benefit from intentional teaching strategies and opportunities to play freely and make choices about their learning. The centre's spacious environments support children to have many opportunities for exploratory and creative play. They are empowered to lead their learning as capable young individuals.

Teachers effectively assess and plan for children's learning. Teachers carefully plan to meet the learning requirements of children with additional needs and closely monitor their progress. They regularly evaluate all children's progress against their intended learning goals. This enables teachers to be able to evaluate the impact their teaching has had on children's learning.

Infants' and toddlers' learning and wellbeing is well supported. Teachers know these children and their needs well and attend to their individual needs. Children benefit from the high quality of teachers' interactions with them. Their environment is arranged to empower them as developing learners. They can therefore access experiences that support their growing independence. Infants' and toddlers' caregivers and parents receive useful information about their children's care and learning.

Children and their families' language, identity and culture are valued, celebrated and supported. There are effective reciprocal relationships between teachers and children's families which enhance children's learning and wellbeing. Teachers and leaders have strengthened their knowledge, understanding and practices with respect to te ao Māori. This is enabling children to experience a more bicultural programme.

The head teacher, in collaboration with the deputy head teacher and other teachers, has provided effective leadership and managed change for improvement well. There has been a carefully considered, strategic, responsive approach to centre-wide improvement. What matters most for children and adults has been prioritised. External support and targeted professional learning and development has been well used to manage development and change. Embedding and evaluating the effectiveness of these changes will be an important focus going forward. There is a positive culture for teaching, learning and wellbeing for all at the centre.

The head teacher has ensured that there is good alignment between the philosophy, appraisal and long and short-term planning. This planning is well monitored and usefully guides operations and developments.

Leaders are making good use of internal-evaluation systems and practices to bring about improvement. There is now an effective, consistent appraisal process in place to support building teachers' capability and the collective capacity of the centre.

Key Next Steps

The governing committee, leaders and teachers should continue to embed and evaluate the sound systems and practices already put in place. This should include ensuring consistent use of the assessment, planning and evaluation practices/procedures used for children's learning.

It would be timely for leaders and teachers to extend internal evaluation to evaluate how well the centre is achieving its valued priorities for children's learning. This will enable the governance committee and parents to know how well the centre's intended outcomes for children are being met.

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of North Haven Child Care & Education 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:

  • 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

26 November 2019

The Purpose of ERO Reports

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.

2 Information about the Early Childhood Service

Location

Timaru

Ministry of Education profile number

70421

Licence type

Education & Care Service

Licensed under

Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008

Number licensed for

50 children, including up to 15 aged under 2

Service roll

69

Gender composition

Girls 37 Boys 32

Ethnic composition

Māori
NZ European/Pākehā
Pacific
Other

12
45
3
9

Percentage of qualified teachers

0-49% 50-79% 80%+

Based on funding rates

80% +

Reported ratios of staff to children

Under 2

1:4

Better than minimum requirements

Over 2

1:9

Better than minimum requirements

Review team on site

October 2019

Date of this report

26 November 2019

Most recent ERO reports

 

Education Review

December 2016

Education Review

June 2014

Education Review

April 2011

3 General Information about Early Childhood Reviews

ERO’s Evaluation Framework

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:

Pou Whakahaere – how the service determines its vision, philosophy and direction to ensure positive outcomes for children

Pou Ārahi – how leadership is enacted to enhance positive outcomes for children

Mātauranga – whose knowledge is valued and how the curriculum is designed to achieve positive outcomes for children

Tikanga whakaako – how approaches to teaching and learning respond to diversity and support positive outcomes for children.

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.

ERO’s Overall Judgement

The overall judgement that ERO makes will depend on how well the service promotes positive learning outcomes for children. The categories are:

  • Very well placed

  • Well placed

  • Requires further development

  • Not well placed

ERO has developed criteria for each category. These are available on ERO’s website.

Review Coverage

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.