57 Oxford Street, Tawa, Wellington
View on mapERO’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 |
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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 |
At the time of the review, ERO found the service was taking reasonable steps to meet regulatory standards.
Millie’s House Oxford St Kindy, formerly BestStart Oxford St Kindy, is one of five early childhood services owned by the Millie’s House group. A centre manager, and an assistant manager, have responsibility for day-to-day operations. A small number of the culturally diverse roll are of Māori or Pacific heritage.
Tamariki benefit from a range of experiences and opportunities that kaiako provide to enhance their learning and development. Their preferences are respected, and they are involved in decisions about their learning. Kaiako are inclusive, and responsive to tamariki as confident and competent learners. Parents and whānau have regular opportunities to communicate with kaiako and be involved in decision making about the learning focus of their tamaiti.
The curriculum acknowledges and reflects the unique place of Māori as Tangata Whenua. Tamariki have opportunities to develop knowledge understanding of the cultural heritages of both parties to Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
Leaders have suitable health and safety practices in place and changes are made when required.
Next steps include:
make visible in individual assessment documents the learning and progress of the tamaiti in relation to the learning outcomes in Te Whāriki
increase the visibility of the cultures and languages of tamariki in their assessment documentation.
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
15 November 2022
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Early Childhood Service Name |
Millie's House Oxford St Kindy |
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Profile Number |
60264 |
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Location |
Tawa, Wellington |
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Service type |
Education and care service |
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Number licensed for |
34 children over 2 years old |
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Percentage of qualified teachers |
80-99% |
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Service roll |
52 |
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Review team on site |
October 2022 |
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Date of this report |
15 November 2022 |
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Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review, February 2020; Education Review, November 2015 |
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.
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.
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.
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Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
BestStart Oxford Street Kindy is well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
BestStart Oxford Street Kindy operates under the umbrella of BestStart Educare Limited (the organisation). The service is licensed for 34 children and serves a diverse ethnic community. Of the roll of 65, eight children identify as Māori and three of Pacific heritage. Sessional and full-time care and education is offered.
The organisation's national management team sets the strategic direction for each service. A regional professional service manager (RPSM), business manager (BM) and professional service manager (PSM) have oversight of teaching and learning, financial management, staff appraisal, teacher registration and professional development. Day-to-day operation of the centre is the responsibility of the centre manager.
Most of the teaching team have been appointed including the head teacher since the November 2015 ERO report.
The philosophy, underpinning teaching and learning, emphasises the importance of relationships, intentional teaching and tikanga practices. The service's vision is "Aroha. The heart of your learning journey."
The 2015 ERO report identified areas for development including use of self review to inquire into and improve teaching and the curriculum. Progress in these is evident.
Children confidently participate in activities and play experiences for sustained periods. Teachers are welcoming, inclusive and respectful. The learning environment is well developed. Play and work spaces are richly resourced and well organised to invite children's participation.
Teachers effectively allow children the space and time to develop and test their thinking with the use of natural and open-ended resources. Science, literacy, mathematics and the arts are integrated into the programme in meaningful ways.
The newly implemented planning for learning for individual children is not yet embedded in practice. Learning outcomes are documented. Ongoing evaluation of how well children are meeting their learning outcomes should identify next steps for teachers practice and learners.
Children's individual assessment documents show useful information about their interests, skills and participation in the curriculum. As a next step, teachers should clearly demonstrate how their relationships with families enriches planning and assessment documentation, including promoting stronger acknowledgement of children's culture, language and identity.
Teachers demonstrate highly inclusive practice. Children with additional learning needs are identified and effectively supported to fully participate in the curriculum. External agencies provide support when required, in consultation with families. The recently developed transition process supports children moving into the centre. Positive relationships with local primary schools enable children to transition smoothly.
The head teacher is developing the bicultural curriculum with a strong focus on te reo me ngā tikanga Māori. This is increasing the teaching team capability, understanding and awareness of te ao Māori across the curriculum.
Teachers have prioritised the importance of building meaningful relationships with whānau Māori leading to the development of authentic pepeha. The service has identified that continuing to strengthen their newly established relationship with local iwi is a next step.
Centre leaders demonstrate a strong commitment to enacting the vision of the service. Clearly defined roles and expectations for the teaching team supports consistency of practice. A useful framework provides guidance for undertaking internal evaluation. A next step is for teachers to develop an understanding of internal evaluation to enable them to more effectively evaluate their practices and the impact the curriculum has on children's learning outcomes.
A well-considered appraisal process has been developed by the organisation to grow and develop practice. Teachers are encouraged to inquire into the effectiveness of their teaching. Purposeful appraisal goals focus on strengthening leadership and practice to support children’s learning and wellbeing.
BestStart senior managers effectively foster a collective sense of responsibility to implement the vision, values and mission of the organisation. They are reflective and highly improvement focused. Systems and processes have been well developed to strengthen teacher’s capability and positively impact on children’s learning.
Service leaders have a shared commitment and work collaboratively to meet strategic goals and objectives for the benefit of children, whānau and community.
Priorities are for leaders and teachers to further develop:
a bicultural curriculum
the reflection of children's culture, language and identity in assessment documentation
an understanding and use of internal evaluation.
Before the review, the staff and management of BestStart Oxford Street Kindy 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.
Dr Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region - Te Tai Tini
19 February 2020
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 |
Wellington |
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Ministry of Education profile number |
60264 |
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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 |
34 children aged over two years |
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Service roll |
65 |
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Gender composition |
Female 36, Male 29 |
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Ethnic composition |
Māori |
8 |
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Percentage of qualified teachers |
80% + |
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Reported ratios of staff to children |
Over 2 |
1:10 |
Meets minimum requirements |
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Review team on site |
December 2019 |
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Date of this report |
19 February 2020 |
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Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review |
November 2015 |
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|
Education Review |
November 2012 |
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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:
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.
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.
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.