8 Rifleman Street, Wanaka
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 are the basis for making judgements about the effectiveness of the service in achieving equity and excellence for all learners. Judgements are made in relation to the Outcomes Indicators, Learning and Organisational Conditions. The Evaluation Judgement Rubric derived from the indicators, is used to inform ERO’s judgements about this service’s performance in promoting equity and excellence.
ERO’s judgements for Riverside Educare are as follows:
Outcome Indicators(What the service knows about learners) |
Whakaū Embedding |
Ngā Akatoro Domains |
|
Learning Conditions
|
Whakaū Embedding |
Riverside Educare is a privately-owned all-day service located in Albert Town. Three age-based classrooms are each led by a head teacher. A small number of Māori and children from diverse cultures attend. Since the 2018 ERO review the service has made good progress aligning Te Whāriki the early childhood curriculum to priorities for children’s learning and reviewing the philosophy.
Children are well supported as confident and competent learners in a rich, play-based curriculum. Kaiako collaboratively plan for and enact meaningful experiences for children with a focus on inquiry learning and promoting social and emotional competence. Infant and toddler wellbeing is nurtured through calm, unhurried rituals, and routines.
Open-ended resources and a spacious outdoor environment provide opportunities for children to challenge themselves. There is a strong focus on kaitiakitanga in the curriculum. Learning is extended through local nature-based excursions and engagement with the community experts.
Leaders and kaiako continue to focus on implementing a bicultural curriculum. Te reo me ngā tikanga Māori is evident in daily practice. Integrating localised narratives in the curriculum design would be beneficial to support learners and their learning.
The services philosophy, values, and priorities align to the learning outcomes in Te Whāriki. Kaiako effectively use these to assess, plan and evaluate individual learning cycles. Parents and whānau are valued partners in children’s learning. They have regular opportunities to share their aspirations, values, and perspectives. The cultures, languages, and identities of children could be better reflected within assessment documentation.
Leaders and kaiako work collaboratively to improve outcomes for children. A useful process is in place for internal evaluation. Monitoring and evaluating how well-planned actions have led to improved outcomes for all children is yet to occur. A coherent strategic plan informs decision-making which prioritises children’s learning and wellbeing. A strong culture of learning supports ongoing improvement.
Riverside Educare will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:
demonstrate their commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, by meaningfully integrating local pūrākau | stories of mana whenua into curriculum design
make visible the cultural identities and languages of all children throughout the curriculum to enhance the mana of every child and their whānau
strengthen internal evaluation processes by monitoring and documenting the effectiveness of strategies and actions in meeting the intended outcomes for children.
Before the review, the staff and management of Riverside Educare 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 | Te Tai Tini
3 October 2022
|
Early Childhood Service Name |
Riverside Educare |
|
Profile Number |
45299 |
|
Location |
Wānaka |
|
Service type |
Education and care service |
|
Number licensed for |
65 children, including up to 25 aged under 2 |
|
Percentage of qualified teachers |
80-99% |
|
Service roll |
102 |
|
Review team on site |
May 2022 |
|
Date of this report |
3 October 2022 |
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review, June 2018; Education Review, February 2015 |
|
Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Riverside Educare is a privately-owned, purpose-built centre with three classrooms and a spacious outdoor area. The centre provides full-day care and education and is licensed for 65 children, including 25 children under the age of two.
A manager has overall responsibility for the day-to-day running of the centre and has strong support from the owners. The manager was appointed to the position after the last ERO review. The children are grouped in age-based rooms, each room led by a head teacher. Since the last review good progress has been made in the areas identified for development by ERO.
The centre's philosophy is based around having meaningful relationships and providing a nurturing environment where children learn through their play.
Teachers demonstrate a strong commitment to nurturing relationships throughout the centre. Teachers in each room have children's wellbeing at the core of their practices and programmes. There are effective systems which enable teachers to build their knowledge of each child as a competent learner. Learning is supported by a curriculum that is based on the teacher's knowledge of the children in their care. Children's progress is well monitored against their individual learning priorities. This leads to future learning pathways. Leaders have established centre-wide learning priorities that are linked to the early childhood curriculum. Leaders have identified the need to review these priorities so they align more with Te Whāriki (2017).
Teachers and leaders show an ongoing commitment to providing an environment where children who identify as Māori hear, see and experience Māori language and culture within their centre.
Infants and toddlers enjoy a calm, settled environment and caring, nurturing relationships with their teachers. There are respectful interactions that follow children's needs, leads and rhythms. Consistent caregiving where a child is mostly cared for by one teacher enables that teacher to respond sensitively and with awareness of their preferences. Play and centre routines are used as opportunities for learning and times of enjoyment. The physical environment provides for children's safety, physical and emotional wellbeing and intellectual stimulation.
There are suitable systems to continue to improve the quality of provision for all children. The centre has good processes in place to ensure high quality and consistent planning for teaching. Teachers and leaders keep up to date with current research and developments in early childhood education and there is increased centre professional development. An improved strategic plan is useful in guiding developments.
The centre has processes in place to know what is working well and what needs improvement. Findings and subsequent plans lead to improved practices and better outcomes for children. Internal evaluation plans do not include finding out how well they are fulfilling their philosophy and learning priorities.
The leaders and teachers need to review centre-wide learning priorities for better alignment to the revised Te Whāriki document. This should lead to increased use in children's planning and evaluation of learning.
Leaders need to review how well they are achieving the centre's philosophy and learning priorities to know how well the curriculum is supporting all children's learning.
Before the review, the staff and management of Riverside Educare Ltd 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.
The next ERO review of Riverside Educare Ltd will be in three years.
Dr Lesley Patterson
Deputy Chief Review Officer Southern
Te Waipounamu - Southern Region
29 June 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.
|
Location |
Albert Town |
||
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
45299 |
||
|
Licence type |
Education & Care Service |
||
|
Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
||
|
Number licensed for |
65 children, including up to 25 aged under 2 |
||
|
Service roll |
96 |
||
|
Gender composition |
Girls: 47 Boys: 49 |
||
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori Pākehā Other |
5 73 18 |
|
|
Percentage of qualified teachers 0-49% 50-79% 80%+ Based on funding rates |
80% + |
||
|
Reported ratios of staff to children |
Under 2 |
1:3 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
Over 2 |
1:8 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
|
Review team on site |
May 2018 |
||
|
Date of this report |
29 June 2018 |
||
|
Most recent ERO report(s)
|
Education Review |
February 2015 |
|
|
Education Review |
November 2011 |
||
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.
|
Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Riverside Educare is a privately-owned service located within the new Albert Town Riverside housing development near Wanaka. The centre has been open for 5 years and provides education and care for children from birth to school age. The centre is divided into three rooms with easy access to a large outdoor area. The centre manager/owner and her team aim to provide a high quality learning environment with meaningful relationships at the heart of what they do.
Since ERO visited the centre in 2011 the leadership team has worked hard with the teachers to strengthen their positive team culture. They have reviewed a number of important aspects of the service and continue to make improvements to the programme and to teaching practice.
The centre manager, staff and teachers are committed to promoting children’s learning, development and wellbeing. They work well together to build positive relationships with children and their families. The teachers gather information from children and parents to support them in providing activities and experiences relevant to each child’s interests and development. Children with unique abilities and needs benefit from the inclusive atmosphere and the extra support they receive from teachers and outside agencies as appropriate.
Children learn and play in an attractive environment that is well resourced with good-quality equipment. They settle well and confidently pursue activities of interest. Children are focused on learning. They set themselves challenges which they are motivated to achieve. Children work with purpose alone or in groups, independently or with teachers. Many children have strong connections with friends and they relate to teachers as friends in a similar way.
Other features of the service that have a positive impact on children’s learning include the:
The three head teachers and centre manager are focused on improvement. Self review supports the general development of the service and has been particularly effective in building effective teaching practice.
The systems used to assess children’s learning and to plan how learning can be extended have been reviewed and continue to develop. The same applies to bicultural practices. The teachers are committed to building their own and children’s familiarity with the Māori culture and te reo Māori.
ERO agrees with the centre manager that she needs to further develop the strategic plan. The service’s priorities are currently expressed through a vision, a mission statement, a set of principles, the centre philosophy, intended outcomes and six priorities for learning. These need to be simplified, then action plans developed to show how these aspirations will be achieved over time.
The centre manager and leadership team also need to plan the further development of:
Self review has led to positive changes in centre practice. The next step is to focus on evaluating the impact of these changes on children’s learning. It would also be useful to develop the review schedule to ensure key aspects of the operation are reviewed regularly over time. The schedule needs to include leadership, quality of interactions and the impact of teaching and learning practices on priority learners.
Before the review, the staff and management of Riverside Educare Ltd 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.
At the time of the on-site stage of this review some non-teaching staff had not been police vetted and there was no process in place to ensure police vets would be renewed every three years. This issue has been addressed.
The next ERO review of Riverside Educare Ltd will be in three years.
Graham Randell
Deputy Chief Review Officer-Southern
10 February 2015
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.
|
Location |
Wanaka |
||
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
45299 |
||
|
Licence type |
Education & Care Service |
||
|
Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
||
|
Number licensed for |
65 children, including up to 25 aged under 2 |
||
|
Service roll |
117 |
||
|
Gender composition |
Girls 59 Boys 58 |
||
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori Pākehā Other |
19 93 5 |
|
|
Percentage of qualified teachers 0-49% 50-79% 80% Based on funding rates |
80% |
||
|
Reported ratios of staff to children |
Under 2 |
1:3 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
Over 2 |
1:6 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
|
Review team on site |
December 2014 |
||
|
Date of this report |
10 February 2015 |
||
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review |
November 2011 |
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.