110 Moore Street, Howick, 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.
Kids Crafty Clubs Learning Centre is privately owned and operated. A qualified centre manager and assistant manager lead a team of 10 registered teachers and six support staff. The centre has three learning areas for infants, toddlers, and older children.
The curriculum is consistent with Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. Adults providing education and care engage in meaningful, positive interactions to enhance children’s learning and nurture reciprocal relationships. A language-rich environment supports children’s learning.
Assessment, planning, and evaluation documents demonstrate an understanding of children’s learning. Children’s preferences are respected, and they are involved in decisions about their learning. The service curriculum provides children with a range of opportunities to enhance and extend their learning and development individually and in groups.
Ongoing monitoring of health and safety practices is required to ensure all aspects of regulatory standards are maintained.
Since the onsite visit, the service has provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed the following non-compliances:
Ensuring heavy furniture, fixtures, and equipment that could fall or topple and cause serious injury is appropriately secured (HS6).
Ensuring emergency drills are carried out regularly and documenting how evaluation of the emergency drills has informed the annual review of the service’s emergency plan (HS8).
Documenting a procedure for monitoring children’s sleep that includes children being checked for warmth, breathing, and general wellbeing, and ensuring adults check each sleeping child every 5 to 10 minutes (HS9).
Checking equipment, premises and facilities daily for hazards that include all considerations of hazards as part of the HS12 requirement (HS12).
Implementing safe and hygienic handling practices with regard to any animals at the service (HS16).
Ensuring when children leave the premises on a regular or special excursion, it is approved by the person responsible (HS17).
Documenting a procedure that ensures that when children travel in a motor vehicle while in the care of the service, each child is restrained as required by Land Transport legislation and has written permission of a parent of the child obtained before the travel begins (HS18).
Having evidence that the sleep room used by children is kept at a comfortable temperature no lower than 16°C (at 500mm above the floor) while children are attending (HS24).
Having consistent records of all medicine given to children attending the service that includes evidence of parental acknowledgement that medication has been administered to a child (HS28).
The next ERO review is likely to be an Akarangi | Quality Evaluation.
Filivaifale Jason Swann
Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern)
Northern Region | Te Tai Raki
9 August 2022
|
Early Childhood Service Name |
Kids Crafty Clubs Learning Centre |
|
Profile Number |
10363 |
|
Location |
Howick, Auckland |
|
Service type |
Education and care service |
|
Number licensed for |
100 children, including up to 22 aged under 2 |
|
Percentage of qualified teachers |
80-99% |
|
Service roll |
67 |
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori 4, NZ European/Pākehā 46, Indian 4, other Asian 7, other ethnic groups 6 |
|
Review team on site |
May 2022 |
|
Date of this report |
9 August 2022 |
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review, September 2018, Education Review, February 2015 |
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.
having its first ERO review – including if it is part of a governing organisation
previously identified as ‘not well placed’ or ‘requiring further development’
that has moved from a provisional to a full licence
that have been re-licenced due to a change of ownership
where an Akanuku | Assurance Review process is determined to be appropriate.
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:
curriculum
premises and facilities
health and safety practices
governance, management and administration.
As part of an Akanuku | Assurance Review ERO assesses whether the regulated 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:
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 certification; ratios)
evacuation procedures and practices for fire and earthquake.
As part of an Akanuku | Assurance Review ERO also gathers and records evidence through:
discussions with those involved in the service
consideration of relevant documentation, including the implementation of health and safety systems
observations of the environment/premises, curriculum implementation and teaching practice.
|
Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Kids Crafty Clubs Learning Centre is a well-established centre in Howick. It is licensed for 100 children, including up to 16 children aged under 2 years, and provides full-day and sessional programmes for children up to school age.
Three separate learning areas cater for children of different age groups. The learning area for babies and the area for toddlers have both been recently refurbished. The third learning area for older children, and the shared outdoor learning area for toddlers and preschool children, are soon to be renovated.
The centre philosophy focuses on providing environments where children can thrive and reach their full potential. It also focuses on offering opportunities for children to explore, investigate, and learn alongside each other.
A team of 10 registered teachers means that children benefit from good staff to children ratios. The 2015 ERO report commented on how well the centre's programmes and routines worked to give children extended periods of uninterrupted play and opportunities to make choices. These good practices continue to be evident. The teaching team has responded well to the recommendations in the 2015 ERO report. Together they have improved the range of resources and equipment available for children, and strengthened management planning and internal evaluation.
Children and their parents are warmly welcomed into the well-resourced centre. They enjoy an environment where adults respect them, and as a result children display confidence and independence. Children freely access a wide range of appropriate and challenging play equipment, make choices and settle quickly into self-directed exploration.
Children confidently participate in a programme that provides good opportunities for them to develop independence, think, create and solve problems. They play for extended periods of time, uninterrupted, and this enables them to sustain their learning interests.
Programmes are aligned to the principles and strands of Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. Literacy, mathematics and science are well integrated into activities throughout the day. Outdoor areas provide very good space and resources to support children's physical development, as well as good opportunities for messy and creative play. Numerous visits outside the centre enable older children to make good connections with the local area.
Children under two years of age have their physical and exploration needs well met in the indoor and outdoor learning environments. They also have access to age appropriate play equipment that offers opportunities for them to make individual choices.
Teachers are responsive to children's immediate needs. They respond well to infants' and children's communication attempts. There are good systems to keep parents well informed about their child’s day at the centre.
Teachers are committed to supporting children to become resilient learners and they collaborate well to plan and extend group interests. Children's learning stories predominately focus on group activities. Leaders and teachers are now considering appropriate ways for programme planning and assessment to better respond to children's individual interests, strengths, skills and dispositions.
Teachers use some te reo Māori and waiata during the day. They continue to build their knowledge and use of te reo so children may benefit from a strong bicultural curriculum.
Children's transitions into and through the centre, and onto local schools are very well planned and managed. Teachers are aware of the need to better reflect the centre's philosophy and the principles of Te Whāriki in the transition to school programme.
The centre is led well by an experienced manager. A head teacher and several new teachers have recently been appointed. Leaders continue to focus on building a cohesive professional teaching team. Teachers have very good induction and support programmes provided by an external early childhood mentor.
Internal evaluation processes have been strengthened. A useful evaluation framework has been used to review learning areas and parts of the curriculum. The outcomes and developments resulting from these reviews are becoming increasingly evident in the centre. Management plans include a useful schedule for reviewing policies and procedures. It is now necessary to ensure that this schedule is followed.
Centre leaders identify that next steps include:
head teachers collaboratively reviewing planning and assessment processes to better respond to children's individual interests, strengths, skills and dispositions
continuing to review centre policies and procedures in line with the review schedule and annual plan.
Before the review, the staff and management of Kids Crafty Clubs Learning Centre 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.
To improve current practice management should:
ensure documentation for excursions include parents' consent for the proposed ratios of adults to children
review the child protection policy to ensure it meets current legislative requirements.
The next ERO review of Kids Crafty Clubs Learning Centre will be in three years.
Violet Tu’uga Stevenson
Director Review and Improvement Services
Te Tai Raki - Northern Region
7 September 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 |
Howick, Auckland |
||
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
10363 |
||
|
Licence type |
Education & Care Service |
||
|
Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
||
|
Number licensed for |
100 children, including up to 16 aged under 2 years |
||
|
Service roll |
93 |
||
|
Gender composition |
Girls 50 Boys 43 |
||
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori |
12 |
|
|
Percentage of qualified teachers |
80% + |
||
|
Reported ratios of staff to children |
Under 2 |
1:4 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
Over 2 |
1:10 |
Meets minimum requirements |
|
|
Review team on site |
July 2018 |
||
|
Date of this report |
7 September 2018 |
||
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review |
February 2015 |
|
|
Education Review |
February 2012 |
||
|
Education Review |
November 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.
Kids Crafty Clubs Early Learning Centre is a privately owned service in Howick, Auckland. All day education and care is offered for children from three months to school age. The centre is licensed for a maximum of 70 children, including up to 12 children under the age of two years. Children are accommodated in age-related groups in three rooms, contained in two separate buildings. They share some outdoor play spaces.
The centre manager and two head teachers provide professional leadership to a team of qualified teachers. A new building has recently been purchased and accommodates the office and staff meeting rooms. Plans are progressing to establish a purpose-built room for children aged between two and three and a half years. A recent renovation of the indoor play space for older children has resulted in a spacious room, with clearly defined curriculum areas.
The service’s philosophy emphasises the importance of establishing a sense of wellbeing for children and their families in order for each child to reach their full potential. The philosophy statement also notes a focus on the individuality of each child in a programme offering opportunities for child initiated play, and hands on experiences.
Centre managers continue to respond to the recommendations made in the 2012 ERO report. They and have made some progress with strengthening self-review processes and with the integration of the registered teacher criteria into the staff appraisal processes.
Children are well settled and confidently choose from the wide range of experiences offered to them by the teaching team. They are capable communicators and develop friendships with others. Centre routines allow for extended periods of uninterrupted play and support children’s choices. Teachers are responsive to children’s requests and positive relationships are evident throughout the centre. Opportunities for children’s learning could now be improved by providing them with access to a wider range of quality equipment and resources.
Infants and toddlers are well cared for in two neighbouring rooms in the one building. Children experience a good flow between the two rooms and their designated outdoor areas. Toddlers and older children share a well resourced outdoor play space. Infants spend some time in this area, while also having access to an outdoor space designed to meet their particular needs. The centre’s animals provide interest for children and this interest is well utilised in programme planning.
Teachers work with parents/whānau to maintain the individual routines of younger children as they settle into the centre. Procedures for transitioning children as they progress through the centre are focussed on the individual needs of each child and family. A print rich environment and meaningful opportunities for children to engage in experiences involving reading, writing, mathematics and science support successful transitions to school.
Children’s portfolios provide records of their learning and development. Portfolios are individual to each child and some contain contributions from families. Learning stories are used to document children’s interests and how the teaching team has responded to these, with some interests leading to longer-term projects. Planning, assessment and evaluation processes would be strengthened if teachers were able to spend more time in their planning meetings and used evaluative questions to consider how teaching practices influence children’s learning.
Children experience positive relationships with staff and each other. Centre leaders encourage parents/whānau to share their ideas. On enrolment information is collected on children’s cultural backgrounds. This information could be better used to make the cultural diversity of families more visible in the environment and centre practices.
Teachers use some te reo Māori with children and could now reflect their commitment to providing bicultural learning for all children by increasing their focus on this aspect of the programme. Learning more about the history of the local area, discussing Māori legends with children, and strengthening teachers’ understanding about tikanga should help children to learn more about te ao Māori.
Opportunities for all teachers to participate in professional development are responsive to individual interests, and also guided by management and mentor discussions. Managers have recently also introduced an induction and mentoring programme for provisionally registered teachers. Appraisal processes have been updated since the previous ERO review and include teacher self reflection. These processes could be strengthened through the development of clear action plans that target professional learning and development to areas that are most likely to bring about improvements in teaching practice.
A centre management plan documents annual events and responses arising from self review. It would be helpful to link these management plans to the centre’s wider strategic and annual plans. Self-review processes would also be improved by ensuring review findings are considered in conjunction with relevant research that provides indicators of quality practice. This would allow managers and teachers to identify areas with which practice could be further improved. Action plans could then be developed and used to guide teachers’ evaluations of the impact of any changes made on children’s learning.
Centre managers and the teaching team have identified appropriate priorities as next steps for development. These next steps include:
Before the review, the staff and management of Kids Crafty Clubs Learning Centre 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.
The next ERO review of Kids Crafty Clubs Learning Centre will be in three years.
Dale Bailey
Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern Select Region
20 February 2015
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 |
Howick, Auckland |
||
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
10363 |
||
|
Licence type |
Education & Care Service |
||
|
Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
||
|
Number licensed for |
70 children, including up to 12 aged under 2 |
||
|
Service roll |
60 |
||
|
Gender composition |
Boys 42 Girls 28 |
||
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori Pākehā Chinese Tongan Other |
5 46 2 2 5 |
|
|
Percentage of qualified teachers 0-49% 50-79% 80% Based on funding rates |
80% |
||
|
Reported ratios of staff to children |
Under 2 |
1:5 |
Meets minimum requirements |
|
Over 2 |
1:10 |
Meets minimum requirements |
|
|
Review team on site |
November 2014 |
||
|
Date of this report |
20 February 2015 |
||
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review |
February 2012 |
|
|
Education Review |
November 2008 |
||
|
Education Review |
September 2005 |
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.