Active Explorers Shakespeare Street

Education institution number:
45292
Service type:
Education and Care Service
Definition:
Not Applicable
Total roll:
38
Telephone:
Address:

24 Shakespeare Street, Greymouth

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Active Explorers Shakespeare Street

1 ERO’s Judgements

Akarangi | 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 Active Explorers Shakespeare Street are as follows:

Outcome Indicators

ERO’s judgement

What the service knows about outcomes for learners

Whakaū Embedding

Ngā Akatoro Domains

ERO’s judgement

He Whāriki Motuhake

The learner and their learning

Whakaū Embedding

Whakangungu Ngaio

Collaborative professional learning builds knowledge and capability

Whakaū Embedding

Ngā Aronga Whai Hua

Evaluation for improvement

Whakaū Embedding

Kaihautū

Leaders foster collaboration and improvement

Whakaū Embedding

Te Whakaruruhau

Stewardship through effective governance and management

Whakaū Embedding

2 Context of the Service

Active Explorers Shakespeare Street is part of Evolve Education Group 2 Ltd, which owns three early childhood centres on the West Coast. A regional quality manager and an area manager oversee and support the implementation of Evolve’s policies, procedures, and processes. The centre manager is responsible for day-to-day operations of the service.  

3 Summary of findings

Children have many opportunities to learn and succeed within an inclusive learning environment. Kaiako actively foster respectful, responsive partnerships with parents, whānau, community and specialist agencies. They use sensitive approaches to remove barriers to encourage children’s participation in the curriculum.

The values of manaakitanga and whanaungatanga underpin the culture of care and support a strong sense of community within the service. Kaiako demonstrate shared values and beliefs about ways of working with children, and the importance of knowing children in the context of their family and cultural backgrounds. Children benefit from a responsive curriculum that promotes relationships, respect, identity and independence. Strengthening the use of te reo me ngā tikanga Māori is a key focus for kaiako.

Children are well supported to confidently explore a wide range of learning experiences within the well-resourced, free-play environment. They are encouraged to make independent choices and engage in uninterrupted and peaceful play. Kaiako are yet to evaluate how well learning priorities are achieved across the curriculum for different groups of children.  

Assessment for learning documentation acknowledges children’s successes and progress overtime and enhances their mana and learner identity. It is appropriately informed by parent/whānau perspectives and aspirations. Documentation could more strongly align to the learning outcomes in Te Whāriki- the early childhood curriculum and make children’s cultural identities more explicit.

Leaders are strong positive advocates for children, alongside their parents and whānau. Children are at the heart of all decision making. Relational trust enables collaboration. Kaiako are reflective and work well together to develop their professional knowledge and expertise. They are at the early stages of embedding new formal internal evaluation processes.  

The Evolve management team provide ongoing support to kaiako. They develop, implement and evaluate cohesive management processes and comprehensive policies and procedures. Ongoing assurance and accountability practices inform targeted professional development and promote ongoing improvement. The distributed approach to leadership values and makes good use of the individual strengths of kaiako.

4 Improvement actions

Active Explorers Shakespeare Street will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement. Leaders and kaiako to:

  • promote further success for Māori children through increasing understandings of Māori theories and pedagogies, and building confidence to integrate the language and culture of Māori children throughout the curriculum  
  • consistently use the learning outcomes in Te Whāriki to provide the basis for assessment for learning, and show how overtime they build each child’s cultural identity
  • evaluate how well their curriculum is helping them to achieve their identified priorities for children’s learning and use this information to adapt practice.

5 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Active Explorers Shakespeare Street 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

7 September 2021 

6 About the Early Childhood Service

Early Childhood Service Name

Active Explorers Shakespeare Street

Profile Number

45292

Location

Greymouth

Service type

Education and care service

Number licensed for

30 children, over the age of two years

Percentage of qualified teachers

80%+

Service roll

43

Ethnic composition

Māori 7, NZ European/Pākehā 31, Other ethnicities 5.

Review team on site

June 2021  

Date of this report

7 September 2021

Most recent ERO report(s)

Education Review, June 2017, Education Review, August 2013.

Scenicland Pre School - 27/06/2017

1 Evaluation of Scenicland Preschool

How well placed is Scenicland Preschool to promote positive learning outcomes for children?

Not well placed

Requires further development

Well placed

Very well placed

ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.

Background

Scenicland Preschool is one of three centres in Greymouth owned by the nationwide Evolve Education Group. It provides all-day education and care for a maximum of 30 children from two years of age to five years.

The Evolve Education Group provides a policy and management framework and a range of support systems. Daily centre operations are delegated to the centre manager who is distributing leadership roles to other staff.

Since ERO's 2013 review there have been major changes in management and the teaching team. The centre was bought by Evolve Education Group in 2015. None of the present staff have been at the centre prior to August 2016. The current centre manager was supporting the centre on a part-time basis for five months before being appointed full time in January 2017. A new Evolve Education Group area manager has also been recently appointed. The new teaching team continue to develop the next steps identified in the 2013 ERO report.

This review was part of a cluster of three reviews in the Evolve Education Group in the Greymouth area.

The Review Findings

Children benefit from a broad and rich programme that is responsive to emerging interests. Their ideas, suggestions and opinions are listened to by teachers, responded to and used to extend their learning experiences. Teachers' conversations show genuine interest in children's ideas and their home life. Teachers interact with children in purposeful ways, helping children to talk about and extend their ideas and thinking. They recognise the importance of fostering children's literacy and mathematical learning.

Children have good opportunities to learn about caring for the natural environment and to develop understandings about sustainability and the natural world. Teachers actively participate alongside children in meaningful play and support children to collaborate together. Children are able to make choices about how and where to play. The carefully considered and attractive inside environments are well resourced to support children's involvement in the programme. An easily accessible large outdoor area provides ample opportunities for children's physical play supported by the teachers' planning.

Teachers use some te reo Māori when they interact with children and they are committed to extending their bicultural practices. They could now review the learning programme to consider their practices from a bicultural perspective, and to increase their knowledge and use of tikanga and te reo Māori.

Respectful and caring relationships are evident between teachers, children and their whānau. The centre is welcoming and inclusive and is respectful of children's cultures and needs.

Teachers explicitly consider parents' aspirations for their children's learning in their planning. Parents have many opportunities to talk with teachers. Teachers are improving the way that children's learning is made visible to their parents. Parents/whānau are encouraged to join in, share ideas and provide feedback about centre programmes and events.

The new centre manager and teachers have a clear, shared vision for centre practices to make improvements for outcomes for children and their whānau. This includes strengthening planning and assessment. Collaborative approaches are supporting team development. The centre manager is building leadership across the centre. A professional learning culture is developing that is helping teachers to reflect on the quality of their practice.

Good documentation for internal evaluation, provided by the Evolve Education Group, is now in place. The templates for strategic planning, also recently introduced, allow for good review and strategic thinking for future developments. Evolve also introduced a new staff appraisal system in March 2017. Recent improvement to the appraisal process will help to ensure that future endorsements meet the requirements of the Education Council. Teachers could benefit from on-going professional development to effectively use this new documentation.

Key Next Steps

Centre leaders and ERO agree that the next steps are for the centre to:

  • prioritise embedding evaluation practice, including an evaluation schedule

  • successfully complete the philosophy review so that it reflects the current teaching team, children and whānau values

  • successfully embed the new planning and assessment practices

  • strengthen transition to school

  • continue to strengthen bicultural awareness.

Evolve Education Group should now support the centre manager in successfully implementing new Evolve policies and practices. 

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Scenicland Preschool 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.

Next ERO Review

When is ERO likely to review the service again?

The next ERO review of Scenicland Preschool will be in three years.

Dr Lesley Patterson

Deputy Chief Review Officer Southern (Te Waipounamu)

27 June 2017

The Purpose of ERO Reports

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.

2 Information about the Early Childhood Service 

Location

Greymouth

Ministry of Education profile number

45292

Licence type

Education & Care Service

Licensed under

Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008

Number licensed for

30 children, aged over 2

Service roll

46

Gender composition

Girls: 24

Boys: 22

Ethnic composition

Māori
Pākehā
Other ethnicities

10
31
5

Percentage of qualified teachers

0-49% 50-79% 80%+

Based on funding rates

80% +

 

Over 2

1:8

Better than minimum requirements

Review team on site

April 2017

Date of this report

27 June 2017

Most recent ERO report

 

Education Review

August 2013

3 General Information about Early Childhood Reviews

ERO’s Evaluation Framework

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.

ERO’s Overall Judgement and Next Review

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:

  • Very well placed – The next ERO review in four years
  • Well placed – The next ERO review in three years
  • Requires further development – The next ERO review within two years
  • Not well placed - The next ERO review in consultation with the Ministry of Education.

ERO has developed criteria for each category. These are available on ERO’s website.

Review Coverage

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.