PAUA Early Childhood - Eltham - 13/03/2013

1 The Education Review Office (ERO) Evaluation

PAUA (preschoolers at home uniquely achieving) provides home-based education and care for young children within communities throughout New Zealand. PAUA’s Christian philosophy is strongly reflected in the way the service advocates for all children, acknowledging their rights to high quality and inclusive early childhood education.

PAUA educators receive support from visiting teachers who guide their practice and build reciprocal relationships with children and their families. The team leader inducts and supports visiting teachers. The founding director is the overall manager, providing vision and inspiration to the team of visiting teachers, educators and administration staff. Parents are assisted to choose the educator’s home that best suits them and their child. Care and education is flexible to meet the different requirements of families and whānau.

Children experience warm and responsive interactions with adults and each other. Professional leaders and educators work cooperatively to create appropriate environments and activities that promote children’s development and exploration. Visiting teachers provide high quality resources for educators to use in responding to children’s interests. The early childhood curriculum Te Whāriki underpins teacher and educator practice.

Management takes all reasonable steps to provide safe physical and emotional home environments.

Future Action

ERO is likely to carry out the next review in three years.

2 The Focus of the Review

All ERO education reviews in early childhood focus on the quality of education. For ERO this includes the quality of:

the programme provided for children
the learning environment
the interactions between children and adults.

The Quality of Education

Background

This is the first ERO review for the Eltham PAUA Network. PAUA philosophy underpins practice. A team of visiting teachers inducted and supported by the team leader, support and guide educators.

Review Findings

Governance and management personnel have a good knowledge of, and capacity, to carry out their roles and responsibility. Ongoing reflective practice for themselves, visiting teachers and educators is valued and supported. Planned strategies to build leadership capability enhance positive outcomes for children. Rigorous processes guide and monitor practice in educators' homes to promote the health and safety of all.

Leaders understand the importance of relationships, which are based on mutual respect and trust. Teachers and educators seek and value parent and whānau aspirations and expectations, working collaboratively and responsively to achieve them.

Some visiting teachers identify possible learning pathways for children and educators. They mostly model assessment and documentation of children’s learning. Information and communication technologies continue to be used successfully to capture and communicate children’s learning. Leaders have identified and ERO agrees that visiting teachers and educators should:

continue to investigate ways to include a stronger parent/ whānau contribution to children’s learning and assessment
further strengthen communication between visiting teachers and families
focus on incorporating next steps in both educators’ and children’s learning journals.

Children engage in a wide range of child-initiated, play-based experiences. Educators access community facilities to provide children and adults with additional activities and regular social interaction in a larger group.

Educators, whose homes were part of a sample visited by ERO, demonstrate respectful and affirming relationships with children. They promote and model positive values and behaviours. Children’s interactions with each other are amicable and enjoyable. Educators nurture and respond sensitively to children’s physical and emotional needs. Children with diverse needs are accepted and supported to fully participate in, and contribute to a programme based on their interests.

Leaders display a strong commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi and developing a bicultural perspective through partnerships, policies and practices. They recognise and ERO agrees that:

visiting teachers should continue to strengthen their knowledge of te reo me ngā tikanga Māori and share and model this with educators.

PAUA leaders successfully establish a culture in which children are first and foremost valued, celebrated and affirmed for who they are and what they bring to their learning.

3 Management Assurance on Compliance Areas

Overview

Before the review, the management and staff of PAUA Early Childhood - Eltham completed an ERO Home-Based Education and Care Assurance Statement and Self-Audit Checklist. In these documents they attested that they had taken all reasonable steps to meet their legal obligations related to:

curriculum standard
premises and facilities standard
health and safety practices standard
governance management and administration standard.

During the review, ERO checked the following items because they have a potentially high impact on outcomes for children:

emotional safety (including behaviour management, prevention of bullying and abuse)
physical safety (including behaviour management, sleeping and supervision practices; accidents and medication; hygiene and routines; travel and excursion policies and procedures)
staff qualifications and organisation
evacuation procedures and practices for fire and earthquake.

4 Future Action