18 Station Road, Otahuhu, Auckland
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 Akarangi Quality 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 St Andrews Christian Pre-School are as follows:
Outcome Indicators(What the service knows about outcomes for learners) |
ERO's judgementWhakaū Embedding |
Ngā Akatoro Domains |
|
Learning ConditionsOrganisational Conditions |
Whakaū Embedding Whakaū Embedding |
2 Context of the Service
St Andrews Christian Pre-school is governed by a board under the jurisdiction of St Andrews Presbyterian Church. The centre provides education and care for children who come from a diverse community. The centre’s Christian-based philosophy values children’s individuality. The centre manager is supported by a team of three registered and three unregistered teachers.
Children show a strong sense of belonging and cultural identity. They develop independence and social skills and are encouraged by teachers to lead daily routines. Children make choices about their play and have easy access to an environment that is well resourced. Children with additional needs are inclusively supported and have equitable opportunities to access the curriculum and learn alongside their peers.
Teachers integrate the languages and cultures of Māori and Pacific children throughout the curriculum. Te reo Māori and Pacific languages are used in teachers’ daily interactions with children and in children’s individual development planning. Cultural celebrations and a range of available resources value and reflect these cultures.
Curriculum design and implementation are strongly underpinned by Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. Teachers are responsive to children’s needs and facilitate their learning through a range of activities and experiences. Teachers and leaders are exploring how to support older children to plan for their learning and contribute to co-designing the service’s curriculum.
Assessment records capture children’s learning and dispositions and show continuity of learning and parents’ perspectives. Parents and whānau are well informed about their children’s learning through regular conversations with staff.
Teachers take responsibility for identifying their own professional learning that is relevant to their practice. They regularly reflect on this learning, and this contributes to changes in teaching practice. Leaders have planned professional learning to support teachers to continuously improve outcomes for learners.
Internal evaluation is viewed as an ongoing process that informs change and improvement. Evaluations should be guided by questions to establish the quality, effectiveness or value of a curriculum aspect or teachers’ practice on outcomes for children.
Leaders collaboratively enact the centre’s philosophy, vision and goals. There are high levels of relational trust among the centre manager, staff and the board. The centre manager reports regularly to the board on governance and management, as well as outcomes for learners.
St Andrews Christian Pre-School will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning. To continue to embed:
Increased opportunities for older children to set goals, and lead and assess their own learning alongside their whānau.
Strategically and cohesively plan professional learning to enhance teachers’ ability to continuously improve outcomes for learners.
Implement the professional growth cycle to enhance the service’s current processes for internal evaluation and teachers’ teaching and learning inquiries.
Before the review, the staff and management of St Andrews Christian Pre-School 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.
Filivaifale Jason Swann
Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern)
Northern Region | Te Tai Raki
20 July 2022
|
Early Childhood Service Name: |
St Andrews Christian Pre-School |
|
Profile Number |
25059 |
|
Location |
Otahuhu, Auckland |
|
Service type |
Education and care service |
|
Number licensed for |
40 children over 2 years of age |
|
Percentage of qualified teachers |
80-99% |
|
Service roll |
36 |
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori 7, NZ European/Pākehā 5, Tongan 12, Samoan 8, |
|
Review team on site |
February 2022 |
|
Date of this report |
20 July 2022 |
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review, November 2018 |
|
Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
St Andrews Christian Pre-School provides free education and care for children who come from a culturally diverse community. The centre can cater for up to 40 children over the age of two years between the hours of 9 am and 3 pm. The centre is governed by a board under the jurisdiction of St Andrew's Presbyterian Church. The centre manager/supervisor is accountable for the day-to-day running of the preschool.
The centre's Christian based philosophy values the individuality of children and whānau, learning through play, and being connected with the local community. It also promotes children's thinking and self-discovery, and encourages them to be researchers in a safe, loving and nurturing environment.
The centre employs four registered teachers. They are well supported by three other experienced staff. An experienced centre manager was employed at the beginning of 2017.
The 2016 ERO report acknowledged the caring environment and the support children had for their learning from teachers who were responsive to them as individuals. It also identified several areas requiring improvement, including governance and management, managing children's behaviour and supporting their oral language development. The report noted that teachers should make greater use of te reo and tikanga Māori when working with children. The new centre manager is supporting teachers to make very good progress in these areas, and is working well with the governing board.
Children are settled and demonstrate a sense of belonging. They benefit from warm, positive and supportive relationships with their teachers. Children have opportunities to develop their social skills and they talk confidently with adults. They respect their environment and play well together. The programme is designed to give the opportunity to make choices about their play for most of the day.
The staff have responded to the recommendations in the 2016 ERO report by focusing on children's social competence and oral language. Teachers engage children in conversations, recognising their role in promoting children's oral language. They listen to children and give them time to respond to questions and suggestions. Teachers are increasingly confident about reflecting New Zealand's dual cultural heritage by using te reo Māori in their interactions with children.
Assessment of programme planning and of children's learning has been strengthened. Teachers plan for groups and individuals. They write individual development plans (IDPs) for each child and assess their progress towards identified goals. There are some very good examples of learning stories in children's portfolios that also show parent contributions. Teachers could now consider working together to strengthen the planning for groups of children.
Teachers support children's home language and cultural identity through the programme and in the environment. Some teachers use children's home languages to communicate with children and their whānau. This helps support children's transition to the centre and strengthens the partnership between families and centre staff. Teachers could now encourage parents to contribute more to assessment and planning processes. Making parents' aspirations and goals for their children more visible in the IDPs, could help teachers and parents to work together to evaluate the effectiveness of the programme in helping children reach their individual goals.
The centre manager is providing effective leadership for the centre. She continues to improve management systems while providing effective professional leadership to staff. She has a clear improvement focus and takes a considered approach to managing change. She works with staff, engaging them collaboratively, encouraging professional growth and building leadership.
The centre manager has reintroduced staff appraisals. Staff are now engaged in processes that help them to reflect on their practice and participate in relevant professional learning and development. The appraisal system now needs to be aligned with the Education Council standards.
The roles and responsibilities of the proprietors, governance board and centre managers have been clarified since the last ERO review and financial accountability has been strengthened. The board's strategic plan provides a useful guide for centre improvement. Leaders are aware of the further work necessary to ensure that centre policies, practices and documentation are consistent with current regulatory requirements. The manager regularly reports to the board on progress towards strategic goals.
Internal evaluation is used well by the staff to identify areas for improvement. They conduct formal documented reviews as well as informal reflections of practice and operations. These reviews are helping to promote ongoing centre improvement.
Centre leaders agree their next steps are to:
identify teaching strategies that support children to increase the complexity of their play to support extended learning
continue refining documentation of children's learning and of teachers' planning and evaluation
continue to build teachers' understanding of Te Whāriki 2017 through ongoing professional learning and development
use evaluative questions and indicators of best practice to strengthen internal evaluations.
The manager has responded promptly to ERO's recommendations. Recently created processes and templates to support development in these areas should now be implemented and their effectiveness evaluated.
Before the review, the staff and management of St Andrews Christian Pre-School 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 manager should implement recently improved processes and embed new expectations in relation to health and safety policies and procedures, including:
The next ERO review of St Andrews Christian Pre-School will be in three years.
Violet Tu’uga Stevenson
Director Review and Improvement Services
Te Tai Raki - Northern Region
16 November 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 |
Otahuhu, Auckland |
||
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
25059 |
||
|
Licence type |
Education & Care Service |
||
|
Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
||
|
Number licensed for |
40 children over 2 years of age |
||
|
Service roll |
37 |
||
|
Gender composition |
Boys 19 Girls 18 |
||
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori |
10 |
|
|
Percentage of qualified teachers |
80% + |
||
|
Reported ratios of staff to children |
Over 2 |
1:6 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
Review team on site |
September 2018 |
||
|
Date of this report |
16 November 2018 |
||
|
Most recent ERO report(s)
|
Education Review |
January 2016 |
|
|
Education Review |
January 2011 |
||
|
Education Review |
October 2007 |
||
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 |
The service provides well for children's care and wellbeing. However it needs to strengthen strategies for teaching and learning and improve the structures for governance and management.
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
St Andrews Christian Pre-School has been providing care and education in Otahuhu for forty years. It offers morning and six hour sessions for two to five year olds in a Christian-based environment. The multicultural staff have established warm relationships with the largely Māori and Pacific community.
The centre is administered by an informally constituted board under the jurisdiction of St Andrews Presbyterian Church. Currently there are no clear guidelines for the membership, roles or responsibilities of the board. This has led to a lack of transparency and accountability in some of its operations. Many responsibilities have been delegated to the centre supervisor. The sudden loss of the longstanding supervisor in 2013 has resulted in the lapse of some systems and documentation as others have strived to gain knowledge and understanding of management tasks.
In 2010 ERO reported that teachers had well developed systems for managing the programme for children and high expectations for their learning and behaviour. These are now areas that the current staff need to improve. They have undertaken professional development courses and have begun using self-review processes to identify more effective teaching strategies and practices.
Children show a strong sense of belonging in the centre. They arrive eager to play and are warmly welcomed into a well-resourced, attractive environment. Children confidently engage in independent play and enjoy free access to the outdoor environment. While many children cooperate well with their peers, others struggle with taking turns, accepting guidance from adults or interacting calmly when disputes arise. Teachers need to establish consistent, positive behaviour management strategies before children will be able to engage in deep, meaningful learning.
Teachers know children well and are responsive to individual interests and personalities. They recognise the different needs of two year olds and separate them for some routines and activities. When teachers work closely with children, engaging them in genuine conversations, children sustain their play well and begin exploring new ideas. The challenge for teachers is to consistently provide opportunities to extend children's thinking and support them to develop their oral language skills. A focus on the interests of groups of children, particularly boys, could provide purposeful contexts for channelling their exuberance and energy.
Teachers each have a designated group of children whose interests guide the activities they plan. They informally share their programme ideas at weekly meetings, but have not recently had a cohesive programme plan to guide their work with children. Teachers have undertaken a significant review of their assessment practices and documentation which has led to improvements in children's ‘Learning Journey’ portfolios. They now need to use the knowledge they have gained through this process to plan for learning, develop the bicultural content of the programme and promote the values that underpin the Christian philosophy of the centre.
Parents who were interviewed during ERO’s review appreciate the caring environment provided for their children. They value teachers’ interest in children's wellbeing and are pleased about the play, learning and cultural experiences their children enjoy. Parents feel well informed about their children's learning and acknowledge opportunities to give feedback and comments during review processes.
The supervisor has endeavoured to maintain management responsibilities since taking on the role in 2013. There has not been strong support from the governance board. However, the recent appointment of a new chairperson has initiated positive improvement. The chairperson is still investigating the structure and systems of the board but has established a strategic plan, begun policy reviews and provided support for the supervisor. As the acting contact person for the centre, she is concerned that the board has no constitutional foundation, nor a process for electing members. She is addressing these matters.
The chairperson and the supervisor agree that governance and management responsibilities should be clarified and clearly documented. It is a priority to develop transparency in relation to board membership and the use of government funding.
Centre leaders should also work with advisers to make improvements in:
Before the review, the staff and management of St Andrews Christian Pre-School 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:
In order to improve current practices leaders should ensure that all staff who are not registered teachers are police vetted every three years. Teachers should also review aspects of their evacuation drills, excursion procedures and strategies for dismissing children at the end of sessions.
ERO identified areas of non-compliance relating to teachers’ appraisal and programme delivery. To meet requirements the service needs to improve its performance in the following areas:
Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care Centres 2008, Reg 43(a i-vi), C8, C10; Reg 47 (1a), GMA7.
ERO recommends that the service consult with the Ministry of Education and plan to address the key next steps and actions outlined in this report.
The next ERO review of St Andrews Christian Pre-School will be within two years.
Graham Randell
Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern
18 January 2016
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 |
Otahuhu, Auckland |
||
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
25059 |
||
|
Licence type |
Education & Care Service |
||
|
Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
||
|
Number licensed for |
40 children, including up to 0 aged under 2 |
||
|
Service roll |
31 |
||
|
Gender composition |
Girls 19 Boys 12 |
||
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori Pākehā Tongan Cook Island Māori Fijian Indian Samoan other |
8 1 7 5 4 4 2 |
|
|
Percentage of qualified teachers 0-49% 50-79% 80% Based on funding rates |
50-79% |
||
|
Reported ratios of staff to children |
Over 2 |
1:8 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
Review team on site |
November 2015 |
||
|
Date of this report |
18 January 2016 |
||
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review |
January 2011 |
|
|
Education Review |
October 2007 |
||
|
Accountability Review |
December 2002 |
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.