Forth Street, Dunedin
View on mapAkarangi | Quality Evaluation evaluates the extent to which this early childhood service has the learning and organisational conditions to support equitable and excellent outcomes for all learners. Te Ara Poutama- indicators of quality for early childhood education: what matters most (PDF 3.01MB) are the basis for making judgements about the effectiveness of the service in achieving equity and excellence for all learners. The Akarangi Quality Evaluation Judgement Rubric (PDF 91.30KB) derived from the indicators, is used to inform the ERO’s judgements about this service’s performance in promoting equity and excellence.
ERO’s judgements for Polykids are as follows:
Outcome Indicators |
ERO’s judgement |
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What the service knows about outcomes for learners |
Whāngai Establishing |
Ngā Akatoro Domains |
ERO’s judgement |
|
He Whāriki Motuhake The learner and their learning |
Whāngai Establishing |
|
Whakangungu Ngaio Collaborative professional learning builds knowledge and capability |
Whāngai Establishing |
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Ngā Aronga Whai Hua Evaluation for improvement |
Whakatō Emerging |
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Kaihautū Leaders foster collaboration and improvement |
Whāngai Establishing |
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Te Whakaruruhau Stewardship through effective governance and management |
Whāngai Establishing |
Polykids provides education and care for children from birth to five years. Centre leaders manage day-to-day operations and the teaching programme. The service has worked well to address the recommendations from the December 2017 ERO review.
Leaders and kaiako have responsive and respectful relationships with children, parents and whānau. They know children well and support them to follow their interests, learn skills to play well together, make decisions and contribute to their own learning.
Teachers foster children’s developing social and emotional competence. Children are engaged for sustained periods in meaningful experiences and activities. Transitions into, within and beyond the service are individualised and responsive to children and their whānau needs.
Infants and toddlers benefit from close relationships with primary caregivers who are sensitive to their verbal and non-verbal cues. Children with additional learning needs are well supported to develop their social and emotional wellbeing. Leaders and kaiako work closely with parents to develop individualised learning plans for these children.
Kaiako are increasingly providing opportunities for children to explore and become fully involved in a wide range of learning experiences, including learning some New Zealand Sign Language and other languages and cultures of children. Children are exposed to some aspects of te reo Māori. However, the bicultural curriculum is not yet strongly visible in the programme or the documentation.
Assessment documentation is variable in quality and does not yet reliably:
Leaders and teachers are at the early stages of effectively using internal evaluation for improvement. They are currently developing a framework intended to strengthen internal evaluation practices and processes and build shared understandings.
Collaborative leadership supports the teaching team to improve their practice and build professional capability. High relational trust is evident and modelled by leaders.
Polykids will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:
Before the review, the staff and management of Polykids 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:
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
30 April 2021
| Early Childhood Service Name | Polykids |
| Profile Number | 83054 |
| Location | Dunedin |
|
Service type |
Education and care service |
|
Number licensed for |
60 children, including up to 20 aged under 2. |
|
Percentage of qualified teachers |
80%+ |
|
Service roll |
56 |
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori 6, NZ European/Pākehā 40, Pacific 3, Other ethnicities 7. |
|
Review team on site |
March 2021 |
|
Date of this report |
30 April 2021 |
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review, December 2017; Education Review, August 2014. |
|
Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Polykids provides full-day education and care for children from birth to school age. It is located on the Otago Polytechnic campus and is operated by the polytechnic. Children of polytechnic students and staff are given priority for enrolment.
The service is licensed for 54 children, including 20 children aged under two. The centre is about to undertake major renovations to join the areas for younger and older children. This is intended to enable more flexible use of the learning space and support fluid transitions between the infant and preschool programmes in the centre.
The centre's philosophy states that it aims to 'promote children's communication and relationship skills through provision of a stimulating environment, supporting children's wellbeing and belonging, and co-constructing learning together with children.'
A new leadership team, of a centre manager and administration manager, has been appointed since the 2014 ERO review. The service has made good progress on addressing the areas identified for improvement in its last ERO review.
Children's wellbeing and sense of belonging are effectively responded to. Each child's interests, needs and preferences are well known by teachers. Teachers use this knowledge to plan activities and routines, and to adapt the learning environment to support children's learning and development. They maintain open and ongoing communication with parents in order to know about children's changing needs. Daily care routines are well managed and understood by children.
Children benefit from warm, responsive and respectful interactions with teachers. Teachers of preschoolers and infants allow space and time for children to lead their own learning, while offering choices about what might happen next. Teachers work constructively with parents, external specialists and education support workers to ensure children with additional needs can fully participate in learning alongside their peers.
The centre's curriculum responds well to children's interests and needs. Teachers plan programmes that link well to children's lives and build on children's interests. Children participate in regular walking excursions to explore their local environment - which includes the polytechnic where their parents are studying or working. The service's valued outcomes for children's learning are strongly evident in planning and assessment and in the programme. For example, teachers intentionally foster social and communication skills. Careful consideration is given to supporting those children getting ready to go to school to develop the social and self-management skills they need to adapt well to a new environment.
The new leadership team is well focused on improving the quality of education and care. To achieve this they have:
involved all teachers in meaningful and systematic self review to support improvement
redeveloped the centre's strategic plan
promoted shared understandings of the centre's philosophy, vision and goals
developed leadership amongst teachers
strengthened the way staff works together.
Service leaders and ERO agree that next steps for this service are to:
extend the way the service involves parents in children's learning, including by more frequently collecting and responding to parents' aspirations for their child's learning
build teachers' confidence and capability to respond to the cultures, identity and languages of children and their families, and to reflect these in the learning environment and programmes
continue to develop teachers' capability to evaluate the effectiveness of their teaching and programmes.
Before the review, the staff and management of Polykids 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.
To improve current practice the Otago Polykids management should:
consider simplifying the service's policy and procedure framework
establish and implement a schedule for policy and procedure review
improve guidelines and practices for assuring that teachers have met all practicing teacher criteria in each year as part of their appraisal process.
The next ERO review of Polykids will be in three years.
Lesley Patterson
Deputy Chief Review Officer Southern
Te Waipounamu - Southern Region
19 December 2017
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 |
Dunedin |
||
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Ministry of Education profile number |
83054 |
||
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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 |
54 children, including up to 20 aged under 2 |
||
|
Service roll |
54 |
||
|
Gender composition |
Girls: 26 Boys: 28 |
||
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori |
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 |
1:8 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
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Review team on site |
November 2017 |
||
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Date of this report |
19 December 2017 |
|
|
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Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review Supplementary Review Education Review |
August 2014 June 2011 March 2010 |
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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 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.