Canterbury Westland Kindergarten Association Incorporated

ERO Early Childhood Governing Organisation Initiating Evaluation Report

1 ERO’s Judgements

A Governing Organisation Evaluation evaluates the extent to which organisational conditions support equitable and excellent outcomes for all learners in the organisation’s services. Te Ara Poutama- indicators of quality for early childhood education: what matters most is the basis for making judgements about its effectiveness. The Governing Organisation Quality Evaluation Judgement Rubric derived from the indicators, is used to inform the ERO’s judgements about this organisation’s performance.

ERO’s judgement for Canterbury Westland Kindergarten Association is as follows:

ERO’s judgement Organisational Conditions

The organisation conditions encompass Ngā Akatoro | Domains of:

• Ngā Aronga Whai Hua | Evaluation for improvement
• Kaihautū | Leadership fosters collaboration and improvement
• Te Whakaruruhau | Stewardship through effective governance and management.

2 Context of the Governing Organisation

Canterbury Westland Kindergarten Association Incorporated comprises of 67 kindergarten services based in Canterbury, Central Otago and Westland areas. At the time of this evaluation 66 kindergartens were on a full license, and one newly built kindergarten on a probationary license. The organisation’s governing board has delegated management responsibility to the Chief Executive who in turn uses the skills and expertise of her Strategic Leadership Group. Members of this team provide operational and curriculum leadership to services. Strategic initiatives are aligned to the organisational vision and values.

Findings from ERO’s evaluation at the governance and organisational level included evaluating the extent to which Canterbury Westland Kindergarten Association’s strategic intentions, quality improvement systems, processes and practices support the provision of a quality curriculum delivery at individual service level.

3 Summary of findings

The board, managers and leaders work effectively to develop and enact the organisations vision, values, and priorities that:  

• recognises Te Tiriti o Waitangi as foundational to the operation of the service. This includes clear expectations and objectives in their strategic planning. These are currently being successfully implemented to progress te ao Māori cultural competencies across the organisation 
• advocate for and alongside kaiako, children, parents and whānau so that all children have equity of access to and inclusion in high quality education and care. 

Leaders focus on children’s learning and wellbeing as the primary consideration in decision making. 

Other conditions supporting the organisation to build an effective culture include: 

• high levels of relational trust and respect that enable collaboration, and openness to change within and across the organisation 
• coherent systems and processes that are well understood and implemented to inform critical decision making and lead to ongoing improvement  
• making good use of the internal expertise of kaiako who provide sensitive and knowledgeable approaches to working in partnership with children their families and the community 
• leaders and kaiako having access to targeted internal and external professional learning and development to increase collective capability. 

Improvement strategies that the organisation is implementing well include: 

• a well-established and skilled board that collaboratively set the strategic direction of the organisation with managers and leaders  
• an experienced self-managing professional leadership team that collectively foster collaboration, continuity, and sustainability 
• effective use of resourcing expertise for learning support to build kaiako capability to promote success for all children and families including those who require additional support 
• prominence given to te ao Māori within and across the organisation including the appointment of a Pouhere Ako to guide culturally responsive understanding and practice 
• extensive leadership opportunities and initiatives to support sustainability and succession planning in kindergartens including involvement in external projects which support improvement of the wider early childhood education sector.  

To work more effectively with Pacific learners, professional leaders have identified that a specific strategy at organisational level would be beneficial in building the cultural capability of the whole organisation.  

Quality systems, processes and practices for accountability and improvement include: 

• making effective use of coherent systems to develop, implement and monitor strategic and annual improvement plans  
• monitoring and reporting of critical functions including human resources, finance, quality assurance, property management and operations to maintain oversight of the organisation’s overall effectiveness 
• evaluation, inquiry, and knowledge building are embedded in policies, systems, processes, and practices. 

Evaluation for improvement is yet to be used well at all levels of the organisation to determine the effectiveness of initiatives and practices with a focus on equitable learning outcomes for children.

4 Summary of findings from visits to services

ERO visited a sample of 11 kindergartens to verify what Canterbury Westland Kindergarten Association about the quality of each of the services’ learning conditions and to what extent the organisational conditions support service improvement. ERO selected the service sample in consultation with the governing organisation.

Teaching teams are very well supported by the wider education team including the professional leaders who provide coaching, mentoring and pedagogical guidance.

Organisational conditions that promote positive outcomes for children include:

• learning environments that are affirming and encourage critical thought, creativity and a sense of security
• intentional teaching practices that include effective partnerships between children, parents and whānau
• leadership opportunities for teams to connect and share good practices across the organisation to empower and inspire kaiako
• a comprehensive induction, mentoring and support programme for kaiako.

Specific strategies that are supporting learners include:

• positive behaviour support programmes to encourage the development of social and emotional wellbeing of all children specifically under 3-year-olds, those with additional learning needs and English language learners
• use of Language programmes including ‘Learning Language and Loving it’, ‘Teacher Talk’, and the ‘Words can POP’ to promote the development of oral language and communication for all children
• New Zealand Sign Language is integrated into the curriculum which provides an additional method of communication particularly for children with additional learning needs and those up to 3 years of age.

Refinement of the Areas of Practice and Quality Evaluation 2021 Framework is an ongoing priority. In its current form this has become overwhelming for teams. Work is underway to make this framework manageable. Once refined it should provide a basis for shared understanding and agreement of quality practices and support greater consistency of curriculum judgements across the organisation.

5 Improvement actions

Prior to the next ERO evaluation Canterbury Westland Kindergarten Association will progress the following actions through its Quality Improvement Planning. This includes:

• building on evaluation practices at all levels of the organisation to determine the impact and outcome of the strategic objectives, initiatives, the quality of curriculum implementation and teacher practice
• making better use of data gathered at kindergarten level to determine what is and is not working and for whom to inform change for ongoing improvement.

6 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

As part of this review, a representative of Canterbury Westland Kindergarten Association completed an ERO Governing Organisation Assurance Statement and Self-Audit Checklist. In these documents they stated that the organisation has the systems, processes, and practices to be assured that service providers for licensed services within the organisation are meeting legal requirements related to:

• curriculum
• premises and facilities
• health and safety practices
• governance, management, and administration.

The licensed service provider/s of the sampled services listed at the end of this report also completed an ERO Assurance Statement and Self-Audit Checklist for their service. In these documents they attested that they have taken all reasonable steps to meet legal requirements, including those detailed in Ministry of Education Circulars and other documents, related to these areas.

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

During its visits to sample services ERO identified the following non-compliances:

 Non-compliances

7 Next ERO Review

The next ERO review is likely to be in 14-18 months.

ERO will visit a different sample of services at that time.

Patricia Davey
Director of Early Childhood Education (ECE)

9 October 2023 

8 About the Governing Organisation

9 List of sampled services

All sampled services are on a full licence.

Services sampled in this evaluation: