Central Kids Trust

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 Central Kids Trust 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

Central Kids Trust comprises of 46 kindergartens and six early learning services across the Central North Island. At the time of this evaluation all the services were on a full licence. A recruited board is responsible for governance of the organisation. A chief executive officer oversees operations, in partnership with a senior leadership team. 

Since ERO’s previous evaluations there have been a number of personnel and governance changes, including the appointment of the current chief executive officer in 2021, and changes to the roles and responsibilities of regional managers and head teachers. In 2023, the Trust became a member of New Zealand Kindergartens (NZK). 

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

3 Summary of findings

Governance and management work well together to enact the organisation’s vision, values, and priorities. High levels of relational trust in the senior leadership team enables collaboration and critique of practice. Conditions supporting the organisation to build an effective culture include: 

• strategic appointments of key personnel to better support bicultural practice, curriculum, and compliance
• useful initiatives that support the health and wellbeing of children and whānau
• opportunities for kaiako to liaise and network with their colleagues 
• a focus on the financial sustainability of the organisation.

Suitable systems, processes, and practices have been established to gather data about all areas of the organisation to enable better monitoring and reporting of aspects of compliance and progress in relation to their priorities. Initiatives developed to support them to meet their priorities include:

• Mātauranga Ake, a social support initiative to support teaching teams, children and whānau to engage with external agencies and improve social and educational outcomes for children and their whānau 
• Te Tiriti o Waitangi subcommittee that focuses on ensuring that policies and procedures align with the organisation’s commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi
• the establishment of a Māori lead role for each of the five rohe to support bicultural practice across the organisation.

The governing group has undertaken a comprehensive review of finances and compliance to build a strong foundation for the organisation. Moving forward, building a shared understanding of the purpose and use of internal evaluation is required at management level to better know what is working or not for identified individuals and groups of children in relation to identified priorities.

A recently established Education Team has oversight of internal evaluation and is responsible for building Kaiwhakaako (Head teachers) capability and understanding of how to do and use evaluation for improvement. An internal evaluation procedure has been developed to guide practice at service level. Planned implementation is required to build collective capability and a shared understanding of how to do and use evaluation for improvement. Teaching teams are yet to engage in evaluations that support them to know what is working or not and for whom, however, they undertake regular centre wide reviews and inquiries focused on improvement.

The Trust has limited information about children’s developing capabilities in relation to the learning outcomes in Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. Most kindergartens are not yet using the outcomes to inform curriculum planning, evaluation, and assessment of children’s progress. A consistent approach to assessment, planning, and evaluation across the organisation as well as a means of reporting on outcomes for learners is required. 

4 Summary of findings from visits to services

ERO visited a sample of seven kindergartens to verify what Central Kids Trust knows about the quality of each of the kindergartens’ learning conditions and to what extent the organisational conditions support service improvement. ERO selected the service sample in consultation with the governing organisation. 

Five regional managers and two education leads understand the capabilities of their teaching teams well. They have worked with the chief executive officer to assess the risks, needs, and strengths of each service. There is limited evidence of feedback about curriculum, teaching, and learning to services. 

Practices that promote inclusion include:

• working closely with whānau and external agencies to support the learning and development of children with diverse needs 
• additional resourcing for teacher aides, food, clothing, and transportation
• consistent, responsive, and respectful teaching strategies to promote children’s developing social and emotional competence.

Bicultural practice is yet to be embedded across all kindergartens. Most teachers are taking steps to integrate te reo Māori into daily routines and are well supported to build their cultural capability through targeted professional learning and development. Teaching teams have established relationships with whānau Māori and seek their aspirations for their children, however these aspirations are yet to be used intentionally to inform planning. 

Many services are in the early stages of:

• establishing a place-based curriculum that includes the narratives and histories of mana whenua
• exploring the learning outcomes in Te Whāriki
• making children’s language, culture and identity visible in planning and assessment.

Most services are yet to reflect Pacific values and knowledge within their curriculum, environment, and teaching practices. The Trust has recently held a Pacific Fono for teachers of Pacific heritages and, as an organisation, are yet to implement the use of Tapasā, Cultural competencies framework for teachers of Pacific learners. 

5 Improvement actions

Prior to the next ERO evaluation Central Kids Trust will progress the following actions through its Quality Improvement Planning. This includes to: 

• develop clear expectations for quality assessment, planning and evaluation practices that align with the expectations of Te Whāriki to guide curriculum implementation
• build management capability and collective understanding of the purpose and use of internal evaluation. 

6 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

As part of this review, a representative of Central Kids Trust 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.

7 Actions for Compliance 

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

 Non-compliances 

8 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)

28 February 2024 

9 About the Governing Organisation 

9 List of sampled services

All sampled services are on a full licence.

Services sampled in this evaluation: