Curious Kids Early Learning Centre

Curious Kids - 28 Aug 2023

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 Curious Kids are as follows:

2 Context of the Service

Curious Kids is a privately operated service situated within the LynnMall shopping complex. A centre director supports a qualified centre manager with daily operations. Children attending this service are ethnically diverse, including Indian and Filipino. Almost 20 percent of children enrolled have either Māori or Pacific heritages. The teaching team is reflective of the multicultural community.

3 Summary of findings

The service’s curriculum provides children with a range of play-based learning opportunities which encourage both group and individual exploration. Teachers use appropriate strategies to support children to express themselves, and to problem solve and experiment. These relationships and centre routines allow children time and space to learn. As a result, children are confident to manage themselves and engage in the curriculum experiences provided.

Teachers have developed responsive and reciprocal relationships with children and their parents/whānau. Opportunities, both formal and informal, are provided for parents to contribute to the curriculum. Recent changes to assessment and planning practices show an increased focus on children’s learning, with intentional teacher responses to parental aspirations becoming evident.

Leaders and teachers seek ways to maintain children’s cultural connectedness. This is supported by a teaching team that reflects the diverse cultures of the children and families attending. Basic te reo Māori and aspects of tikanga Māori are evident as part of teachers’ everyday practice. Exploring concepts of te ao Māori (the Māori world) through the development of a local curriculum could support the service to strengthen the curriculum. Using the cultural competency frameworks of Tātaiako and Tapasā is likely to support service leaders and teachers to further develop cultural competencies that help to teach Māori and Pacific children.

Teachers’ practices demonstrate that care is understood to be an integral part of the curriculum, particularly for infants and toddlers. Children are active participants in their care moments, such as nappy changing routines. Teachers respond at the child's pace, interact respectfully with each child and foster their independence.

Evaluation for improvement is in the early stages of development at this service. Leaders have begun to develop relational trust with teachers, which helps to support professional debate, negotiation, problem solving and critical reflection about teaching practice. Implementing deliberate and systematic internal evaluation processes would support the team to make changes that can lead to improved learning outcomes for children.

4 Improvement actions

Curious Kids will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:

• Strengthen teachers’ understanding of te ao Māori, though the development of a local curriculum which could include the history, protocols and legends of their local area.

• Unpack the relevant cultural frameworks to ensure that leaders and teachers develop and use cultural competencies that intentionally respond to the learning and development of Māori and Pacific children.

• Implement deliberate and systematic evaluation processes, that guide consideration of how changes made to the curriculum or teaching practices have contributed to improved outcomes for children.

5 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Curious Kids 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

During the review, the service provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed the following
non-compliances:  

• Completing medication records that include the full documentation requirements of this criterion (HS28).

• Ensuring that all children’s workers have a police vet completed under the correct ‘core worker’ category (GMA7A).

Patricia Davey
Director of Early Childhood Education (ECE)

28 August 2023 

7 About the Early Childhood Service  

Past Reports