103A Fifteenth Avenue, Tauranga
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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.
Nurtured at Home is a privately owned company providing home-based care for children in the wider Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Hawkes Bay and Gisborne areas. The Bay of plenty service includes two networks across the region. Nurtured at Home Bay (2) network is a quality-funded network where all educators have the required level of training and qualification. Each educator cares for up to four pre-school aged children at any one time in the educator's home. The network is licensed for 80 children including 40 up to the age of two years. Currently there are 67 enrolled including 26 Māori children.
The owner is a qualified and experienced early childhood teacher. She provides governance and leadership support for the network. The leadership structure includes a service manager and a team providing administrative, financial, training and development and quality assurance support to the networks.
Nurtured at Home (Bay) 2 currently employs two fully-registered teachers. One of whom has recently been appointed to additional responsibilities for coordinating training and development for visiting teachers and educators. Each visiting teacher takes responsibility for up to 18 educators and the children in their care.
The service philosophy and vision aims to provide high-quality early childhood learning in safe, nurturing and fun home environments. The service recognises five guiding principles that include fostering a love of learning, partnerships that enable children to reach their full potential, nurturing, safe places to work, being a leader of best practice and recognising and valuing the importance of the youngest children in society.
This is the first review for this network.
Educators are providing a safe, positive and nurturing environment for children. Their homes provide interesting and varied learning environments for children. Many educators are responsive to the languages and cultures of children and families. The service takes a considered and culturally responsive approach to the placement of children with educators, especially where additional needs are identified on enrolment. Visiting teachers use their observations of children in the educator's home to give guidance and advice, and recommend any necessary referrals when special educational or developmental needs are identified.
Visiting teachers and educators know children well. Children also participate in regular and interesting outings and trips organised by the service. Younger children have access to an appropriate range of materials and equipment that support their literacy and mathematics learning.
Children up to the age of two years, experience respectful, nurturing interactions during care moments such as feeding and nappy changes. Records show that care routines are responsive to the individual needs and rhythms of children. Babies benefit from the calm and unhurried practice of familiar and trusted educators. These interactions effectively promote their wellbeing and belonging. Older children have frequent opportunities to build leadership and take responsibility as they interact with younger children in family-like settings. These experiences support the development of their social competencies and self-esteem.
Educators are well supported to build their professional skills and capabilities. As part of their training programme, educators have opportunities to participate in workshops to build their knowledge and understanding of good practice and care for children. Educators recently participated in workshops to build their understanding of the revised Te Whāriki, the New Zealand curriculum for early childhood.
Visiting teachers maintain comprehensive records of visits and identify emerging interests and strengths of individual children. They provide a variety of resources and materials to support children's learning. Educators and visiting teachers document children's learning and progress in individual portfolios, which are valued by families and increasingly accessible to them online.
Māori children and their families experience respectful and responsive care in educator homes. Visiting teachers provide information and workshops to build educator understanding of Māori values and perspectives. The service recognises the need to continue to develop and implement a local, bicultural curriculum and embed practices that reflect the cultural values of Māori whānau and families and promote success for Māori children.
Visiting teachers provide strong leadership as they respond to the differing needs of each educator in their home setting. They provide regular feedback to educators about their practice, offer advice and guidance where it is needed and monitor health and safety practices. In addition, educators can attend regular playgroups and participate in planned trips and outings.
A next step for the service is to strengthen the intentional planning, assessment and documentation of children's learning. Visiting teachers and educators need to ensure planning adds complexity and interest to meet the needs of all children's learning. They need to enhance the learning partnership with families in relation to their child's programme.
Leadership models reflective practice, and places a high priority on establishing meaningful, respectful relationships throughout the network. They take additional responsibilities for overseeing self-review practices for the organisation nationally. Leadership is collaborative and collegial. They have established a useful annual in-house conference that provides professional learning for visiting teachers.
The service benefits from the governance support provided by the owner and leaders. Leadership and management roles and responsibilities are clearly defined and adapted to meet the needs of the service. Comprehensive policies, procedures guide the services day-to-day operations and enable them to meet regulatory requirements. A particular strength is the commitment of the leaders to reduce barriers to participation and promote equitable opportunities for all families to access home-based care.
The owner and leaders should continue to build the effectiveness of self review by developing shared and agreed criteria of best practice to guide the ongoing development of the service and better enable it to meet the intent of the Mission statement and guiding principles.
Consideration should be given to:
a review of the service's overarching vision and philosophy to better reflect the bicultural heritage of Aotearoa New Zealand
enriching the learning partnership amongst educators, families and visiting teachers.
Before the review, the staff and management of Nurtured at Home Bay (2) completed an ERO Home-based Education and Care 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 Nurtured at Home Bay (2) will be in three years.
Lynda Pura-Watson
Deputy Chief Review Officer Waikato
Te Tai Miringa - Waikato / Bay of Plenty Region
17 April 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.
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Location |
Bay of Plenty |
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Ministry of Education profile number |
46617 |
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Institution type |
Homebased Network |
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Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
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Number licensed for |
80 children, including up to 40 aged under 2 |
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Service roll |
67 |
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Standard or Quality Funded |
Quality |
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Gender composition |
Boys 36 Girls 31 |
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Ethnic composition |
Māori |
26 |
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Number of qualified coordinators in the network |
2 |
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Required ratios of staff educators to children |
Under 2 |
1:2 |
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Over 2 |
1:4 |
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Review team on site |
February 2018 |
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Date of this report |
17 April 2018 |
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Most recent ERO report(s) |
No previous ERO reports |
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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 the draft methodology for ERO reviews in Home-based Education and Care Services: July 2014
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.