The Cathedral Grammar School Pre-School

Education institution number:
70472
Service type:
Education and Care Service
Definition:
Not Applicable
Total roll:
34
Telephone:
Address:

2 Chester Street West, Christchurch Central, Christchurch

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The Cathedral Grammar School Pre-School

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 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 The Cathedral Grammar School Pre-School are as follows:

Outcome Indicators

(What the service knows about outcomes for learners)

Whāngai Establishing

Ngā Akatoro Domains

 

Learning Conditions
Organisational Conditions

Whāngai Establishing

Whāngai Establishing

2 Context of the Service

The Cathedral Grammar Pre-School is part of Cathedral Grammar School and is located on the same premises. It shares the school's association with the Anglican Church. A large group of children of diverse ethnic backgrounds attend the service. There have been staff changes since ERO’s 2020 Education Review. Progress is ongoing in implementing a bicultural curriculum as recommended in the previous two ERO review reports.

3 Summary of findings

Children experience a language-rich environment. There are opportunities for them to experience their home languages in daily interactions with teachers who acknowledge their diverse cultures, languages, and identities within the curriculum. This helps to promote children’s sense of belonging.

Teachers provide a curriculum where children make choices and can be independent. The learning priorities of numeracy, literacy and Christian values are evident in documentation and practice. There is a strong emphasis on supporting children to transition successfully to school.

The bicultural curriculum is developing. Aspects of tikanga Māori and te reo Māori are integrated in policies, and practice. Leaders and teachers have yet to fully incorporate te ao Māori into all areas of the daily programme, including integrating local mana whenua perspectives into the curriculum.

Teachers follow a useful process for planning, assessing, and evaluating children's participation in the curriculum. Documentation makes learning visible and takes into consideration the aspirations of parents and whānau. However, children’s progress over time in relation to the learning outcomes in Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, is not consistently evident.

Self-review practices are established and collaborative, and these result in improvements to systems and teacher practice. Internal evaluation is not yet used effectively to know whether aspects of the curriculum and practice are working well or not, and for whom.

Those involved in governance provide the service with resources to fulfil the values and priorities for children's learning. Governance has yet to ensure that all policies and procedures are fit for purpose.

4 Improvement actions

The Cathedral Grammar School Pre-School will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:

  • Continue to grow a bicultural curriculum that gives recognition to te ao Māori and local mana whenua perspectives and cultural narratives.

  • Increase opportunities for children to hear, see and speak te reo Māori in all aspects of the curriculum.

  • In assessment information, clearly show children’s learning and progress over time in relation to Te Whāriki learning outcomes.

  • Leaders and teachers to continue to build collective capability to effectively do and use internal evaluation that includes a greater focus on outcomes for learners.

5 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of The Cathedral Grammar School Pre-School completed an ERO 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; safety checking; teacher registration; ratios)

  • relevant evacuation procedures and practices.

All early childhood services are required to promote children's health and safety and to regularly review their compliance with legal requirements.

6 Actions for Compliance

ERO identified the following areas of non-compliance:

  • Records of regular excursions include the time and date of the excursion.

  • Records for the administration of medication include date and time medicine was administered.

Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood and Care Centres 2008, HS17, HS28

7 Recommendation to Ministry of Education

ERO recommends the Ministry follows up with the service provider to ensure non-compliances identified in this report are addressed.

Patricia Davey
Director of Early Childhood Education (ECE)

15 June 2023 

8 About the Early Childhood Service

Early Childhood Service Name

The Cathedral Grammar School Pre-School

Profile Number

70472

Location

Christchurch

Service type

Education and care service

Number licensed for

50 children 2 years and over

Percentage of qualified teachers

80-99%

Service roll

40

Review team on site

February 2023

Date of this report

15 June 2023

Most recent ERO report(s)

Education Review, March 2020
Education Review, December 2016

The Cathedral Grammar School Pre-School - 13/03/2020

1 Evaluation of The Cathedral Grammar School Pre-School

How well placed is The Cathedral Grammar School Pre-School to promote positive learning outcomes for children?

Not well placed

Requires further development

Well placed

Very well placed

The Cathedral Grammar School Pre-School is well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.

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

Background

The Cathedral Grammar Pre-School is part of the Cathedral Grammar School and is located on the same site. The preschool is managed by the principal on behalf of the school board. The head of preschool manages the day-to-day operation of the service and is part of the school leadership team. It shares the school's association with the Anglican Church.

Most children who attend are aged between three-to-five years. Many of the children go on to attend the school.

Since the December 2016 ERO review there has been a number of changes to staffing, including the appointment of a new head of preschool in January 2019. All teachers are qualified and registered early childhood teachers.

Leaders and teachers have been responsive to the areas identified for further development in the 2016 ERO report. This includes refining assessment and planning practices, continuing to build bicultural practices, increasing staff understandings and use of internal evaluation, and improving policies and procedures.

The preschool's vision and philosophy give emphasis to:

  • children being at the heart of practice and the curriculum

  • a play-based approach to learning and teaching

  • nurturing strong connections and reciprocal relationships with parents, whānau and the wider community

  • Te Tiriti o Waitangi and bicultural practices

  • valuing the home language, culture and identity of children and families

  • the traditions and teachings of the Anglican faith.

The Review Findings

Leaders and teachers actively foster respectful and reciprocal relationships with children, parents and whānau. They provide an inclusive and welcoming learning environment. The home culture, language and identity of children and families are acknowledged and valued. Te ao Māori is evident in practices and is given prominence in the curriculum and the environment.

Teachers promote a rich and broad child-centred and well-paced curriculum. They provide authentic learning experiences that are responsive to children's interests, ideas, strengths and capabilities. Emphasis is given to encouraging child choice, independence and social competencies. Children’s creativity is fostered through deliberate acts of teaching that extend oral language, thinking and reasoning skills. Literacy and numeracy are integrated in ways that are meaningful for children.

The learning programme is enhanced by purposeful links to the school curriculum, resourcing and exploration of the local community. The strong partnership between the preschool and the school promotes collective responsibility for children’s learning and wellbeing. Children are well supported to make successful transitions to the school.

Teachers use a range of effective strategies to communicate with and involve parents in children’s learning. They provide detailed information about children's learning and the curriculum, including informative displays and well-written, individualised learning records.

Highly effective pedagogical leadership promotes a strategic and considered approach to change management, including building teacher capacity and leadership capability. The 2019 annual planning of preschool priorities is deliberately aligned to internal evaluation, professional learning and appraisal goals. There is a well-led and considered internal evaluation framework. This supports teachers' evaluative thinking and considerations for ongoing improvement. Leaders and teachers work collaboratively with a strongly-shared focus on providing positive learning outcomes for children.

Key Next Steps

The head of preschool has identified, and ERO agrees, that the key next steps are to:

  • review the philosophy of the preschool to better reflect current practice and Te Whāriki
  • plan strategically for 2020 preschool priorities, and regularly monitor, evaluate and report on these
  • continue to build te ao Māori perspectives and bicultural practices, including the development of a localised curriculum
  • further develop the appraisal policy and processes to better align to the Teaching Council requirements.

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of The Cathedral Grammar School 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.

Dr Lesley Patterson

Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)

Southern Region - Te Tai Tini

13 March 2020

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

Christchurch

Ministry of Education profile number

70472

Licence type

Education & Care Service

Licensed under

Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008

Number licensed for

50 children, over the age of two

Service roll

25

Gender composition

Male 17, Female 8

Ethnic composition

NZ European/Pākehā
Chinese
Other Ethnicities

10
11
4

Percentage of qualified teachers

80% +

Reported ratios of staff to children

Over 2

1:8

Better than minimum requirements

Review team on site

November 2019

Date of this report

13 March 2020

Most recent ERO report(s)

Education Review

December 2016

Education Review

July 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

The overall judgement that ERO makes will depend on how well the service promotes positive learning outcomes for children. The categories are:

  • Very well placed

  • Well placed

  • Requires further development

  • Not well placed

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.