474 Pakuranga Road, Pakuranga, Auckland
View on mapERO’s Akanuku | Assurance Review reports provide information about whether a service meets and maintains regulatory standards. Further information about Akanuku | Assurance Reviews is included at the end of this report.
Regulatory standards | ERO’s judgement |
| Curriculum | Meeting |
| Premises and facilities | Meeting |
| Health and safety | Meeting |
| Governance, management and administration | Meeting |
Since the onsite visit, the service has provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed non-compliances and is now taking reasonable steps to meet regulatory standards.
Trinity Kindergarten is governed by the Howick Pakuranga Methodist Early Childhood Trust board and includes parent representatives. There are seven staff including six qualified teachers. A head teacher works closely with an administrator to oversee daily operations. A small number of Māori children are enrolled.
Teachers are engaged in meaningful, positive interactions to enhance children’s learning and nurture reciprocal relationships. The curriculum respects and supports the right of each child to be confident in their own culture and encourages children to understand and respect each other. Children’s preferences are respected, and they are involved in making decisions about their learning experiences.
There are a range of opportunities to enhance and extend their learning – both indoors and outdoors. The curriculum provides a language-rich environment that supports children’s learning.
Service leaders must ensure processes and procedures are monitored and consistently implemented to maintain regulatory requirements.
Next steps include:
During and since the onsite review, the service provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed the following non-compliances:
The next ERO review is likely to be an Akarangi | Quality Evaluation.
Patricia Davey
Director of Early Childhood Education (ECE)
21 February 2024
| Early Childhood Service Name | Trinity Kindergarten |
| Profile Number | 10177 |
| Location | Pakuranga |
| Service type | Education and care service |
| Number licensed for | 45 children over 2 years of age. |
| Percentage of qualified teachers | 100% |
| Service roll | 45 |
| Review team on site | December 2023 |
| Date of this report | 21 February 2024 |
| Most recent ERO report(s) | Education Review, June 2018; Education Review, May 2014 |
All services are licensed under the Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008. The legal requirements for early childhood services also include the Licensing Criteria for Education and Care Services 2008.
Services must meet the standards in the regulations and the requirements of the licensing criteria to gain and maintain a licence to operate.
All early childhood services are required to promote children’s health and safety and to regularly review their compliance with legal requirements. Before the review, the staff and management of a service 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:
As part of an Akanuku | Assurance Review ERO assesses whether the regulatory standards are being met. In particular, ERO looks at a service’s systems for managing the following areas that have a potentially high impact on children's wellbeing:
As part of an Akanuku | Assurance Review ERO also gathers and records evidence through:
|
Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Trinity Kindergarten operates in a facility alongside the Trinity Methodist Church in Pakuranga. It is licensed for 40 children over two years of age. The centre offers two morning sessions each week for children aged from two to around three and a half years of age, and three school-day sessions for older children. The roll includes small numbers of Māori and Pacific children, and others from diverse backgrounds.
The centre's philosophy promotes Christian values and learning approaches that cater for the individual strengths, interests and needs of children. It highlights the importance of parent involvement in children's learning. The kindergarten has a spacious indoor environment and two generous outdoor spaces. One of these outdoor areas is newly completed and caters more for the learning and play of older children.
The 2014 ERO report noted many positive aspects of the centre. It identified next steps for the centre that included improving internal evaluation, strategic planning and the teacher appraisal system. The report also recommended that teachers engage in professional learning to further improve planning, assessment and evaluation. All these next steps have been very well addressed.
Since 2014, the kindergarten has a new teaching team comprising experienced and long-serving teachers, and teachers who are new to the centre. The head teacher leads the team and an administrator oversees daily management. The centre is a registered charity and operates as a non-profit organisation. It continues to be governed by a trust board that includes church elders and parent representatives.
Children experience a very calm and settled kindergarten environment. They have open access to learning materials and varied resources that reflect and support their curiosity and interests. Teachers know families and children well. They respond well to the aspirations that parents have for their children and encourage parents' ongoing contributions to enhance children's learning. As a result, children have a strong sense of belonging and security in their kindergarten. They play happily and are kind to each other.
Teachers are gentle and respectful with children and work closely alongside them. They promote children's oral language skills and prompt, guide and support their play and learning. Teachers recognise children's capabilities. They encourage children's independence and support them to take risks in their learning. The outcome of these good practices is that children are confident and highly engaged in the programme.
The environment is designed purposefully to enhance the learning of different age groups of children. High quality resources provoke the interest of younger children. Learning programmes for older children extend their interests through inquiry. Literacy, numeracy and science learning are incorporated naturally into children's play. Teachers support children's awareness of, and respect for, te reo Māori. Displays celebrate children's learning experiences and provide very good information for parents.
Teachers work together as a collaborative team to plan and respond meaningfully to children's individual strengths and dispositions. They identify specific and individualised next steps for each child and highlight the deliberate role of the teacher in extending children's learning. Teachers' participation in professional learning has supported the development of a relevant curriculum that focuses on promoting positive outcomes for children.
Alongside the use of digital learning stories, teachers will evaluate whether it is feasible to hard copy portfolios so that children have opportunities to revisit their learning. Teachers are also in a good position to document a localised curriculum that incorporates their valued priorities for children's learning. These priorities include Christian perspectives, family cultures, community features and aspects of Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. This development would build on teachers' responsiveness to children's varied interests and capabilities.
The kindergarten is very well led by a capable head teacher and skilled administrator. Teachers are valued and have very good opportunities for leadership. They appreciate the strong focus placed on professional learning to continually strengthen their teaching practice.
Internal evaluation is well understood and used as a tool to promote ongoing change and improvement to all aspects of the kindergarten. It includes inquiry focused teacher appraisals and regular reporting to the trust board against strategic goals, and health and safety indicators.
Trust board members are dedicated to promoting the quality of early learning for children. They bring varied professional expertise and strong governance acumen. Together they have accessed external training to enhance their understanding of their governance roles and responsibilities. Very good financial management means that the board resources the kindergarten generously. Significantly, board members scrutinise how well the kindergarten continually improves outcomes for children.
Key next steps identified by the board, teachers and ERO include:
redesigning the current strategic planning framework to improve the clarity of the service's long-term vision and goals
incorporating a bicultural focus in the kindergarten's policy framework, philosophy and professional learning to better reflect current practice and guide ongoing development.
Before the review, the staff and management of Trinity Kindergarten 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.
The next ERO review of Trinity Kindergarten will be in four years.
Julie Foley
Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern (Acting)
Te Tai Raki - Northern Region
11 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 |
Pakuranga, Auckland |
||
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
10177 |
||
|
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 |
71 |
||
|
Gender composition |
Girls 38 Boys 33 |
||
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori |
4 |
|
|
Percentage of qualified teachers |
80% + |
||
|
Reported ratios of staff to children |
Over 2 |
1:7 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
Review team on site |
May 2018 |
||
|
Date of this report |
11 June 2018 |
||
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review |
May 2014 |
|
|
Education Review |
February 2011 |
||
|
Education Review |
January 2008 |
||
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.
Trinity Kindergarten is located in the grounds of the Trinity Methodist Church in Pakuranga, Auckland. The centre provides education and care for children between approximately two and a half to five years of age. Older children attend three days a week and a younger group attends twice a week. This review was informed by observations of a session that caters for children up to three and a half years of age.
The centre is governed by the Howick Pakuranga Methodist Early Childhood Trust which includes church representatives, parents, community members and the head teacher. The centre has recently undergone a period of change. In the past year, governance and management systems have been restructured. Trustees and teachers continue to implement new frameworks to guide centre operations.
Daily management of the centre is delegated to the head teacher. All of the teachers are qualified and registered.
ERO’s 2011 report identified that the good practices noted in previous reports had been sustained. ERO suggested that teachers further develop self-review systems and curriculum processes. The current teaching team recognises that these remain priority areas for continued improvement.
Children make choices for themselves and enthusiastically participate in a variety of experiences and learning opportunities. They are settled and focused, both in solitary play and in social activities alongside other children. Children communicate confidently with teachers and have a good understanding of routines.
Teachers interact with toddlers and older children in caring and affirming ways. They provide children with individualised care and attention in a nurturing environment that promotes wellbeing and belonging. The centre philosophy is highly evident in teaching practices, with respectful and responsive interactions being a feature of the programme.
The spacious indoor and outdoor environments are attractively and thoughtfully presented. Toddlers and older children choose from a wide range of resources that support their investigation and inquiry. The recently upgraded outdoor environment provides all children with physical challenge and opportunities for further exploration and discovery.
Teachers respond to children’s interests and encourage their involvement in the programme. Children’s individual learning records show their participation in learning experiences. Teachers have identified, and ERO agrees, that improving the quality of programme planning, assessment and evaluation is a priority area for development. Work in this area could support teachers to plan for learning and to record children’s progress over time.
Families express a high level of satisfaction with the centre. They appreciate the reciprocal and trusting relationships that they and their children have with teachers. Regular sharing of information about children and formal parent/teacher discussions contribute to shared understandings and positive outcomes for all children, including Māori and Pacific learners.
Leadership is effective. The head teacher is focused on improvement and works collaboratively with teachers. The reflective teaching team is continuing to build upon valued ways of working together. The centre’s newly developed teacher appraisal system is likely to support teachers to enhance their current good practices.
Governance and leadership responsibilities are clearly defined. The participation of trustees and teachers in professional development has guided an effective restructure and redevelopment of management systems and frameworks. Long-term and annual goals are being developed. It is now timely for trustees and teachers to strengthen self-review practices to guide ongoing improvement.
ERO and teachers agree that key next steps include:
ERO recommends that teachers participate in targeted and in-depth professional development to improve and update programme planning, assessment and evaluation practices.
Before the review, the staff and management of Trinity Kindergarten 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 Trinity Kindergarten will be in three years.
Dale Bailey National Manager Review Services Northern Region
9 May 2014
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 |
Pakuranga, Auckland |
||
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
10177 |
||
|
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 |
74 |
||
|
Gender composition |
Girls 41 Boys 33 |
||
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori NZ European/Pākehā Chinese British Indian Samoan other |
1 51 8 3 3 2 6 |
|
|
Percentage of qualified teachers 0-49% 50-79% 80% Based on funding rates |
80% |
||
|
Reported ratios of staff to children |
Over 2 |
1:8 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
Review team on site |
February 2014 |
||
|
Date of this report |
9 May 2014 |
||
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review |
February 2011 |
|
|
Education Review |
January 2008 |
||
|
Education Review |
October 2004 |
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.
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.