18 Percy Street, Warkworth
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-compliance and is now taking reasonable steps to meet regulatory standards.
Muddy Toes ELC Warkworth is one of the three services under the same ownership. A head teacher leads a team of five qualified teachers and four staff. They are supported by the owner and an administration officer. The centre implements a Forest philosophy where children develop real life skills through hands-on experiences in a natural environment. A small number of children attending are Māori.
Adults providing education and care engage in meaningful, positive interactions to enhance children’s learning and nurture reciprocal relationships. They respect and support the right of each child to be confident in their own culture and encourage children to understand and respect each other. Children are provided with a range of experiences and opportunities to enhance and extend their learning and development.
Information and guidance is sought, when necessary, from agencies/services to enable adults providing education and care to work effectively with children and their parents.
Consistent implementation of health and safety practices is required to maintain regulatory standards.
A next step is to:
Improve the extent to which assessment information shows children’s progress and learning over time.
Since the onsite visit, the service has provided ERO with evidence to show it has addressed the following non-compliance:
Ensuring a record of all medicine (prescription and non-prescription) given to children attending the service includes the name of the child, name and amount of medicine given, date and time medicine was administered and by whom; and evidence of parental acknowledgement (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
28 March 2023
|
Early Childhood Service Name |
Muddy Toes ELC Warkworth |
|
Profile Number |
20509 |
|
Location: |
Warkworth, Auckland |
|
Service type |
Education and care service |
|
Number licensed for |
35 children over two years of age |
|
Percentage of qualified teachers |
80-99% |
|
Service roll |
49 |
|
Review team on site |
February 2023 |
|
Date of this report |
28 March 2023 |
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Previously reviewed as Warkworth Kindergarten: First ERO review of service under new ownership. |
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 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:
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 certification; ratios)
relevant evacuation procedures and practices.
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.
Warkworth Kindergarten is a small, well established service located centrally in the Warkworth township. The centre is purpose-built. Children aged over two years make up the roll and they attend free of charge between 9am and 3pm each day. There is growing diversity in the service's roll.
The service's mission is to realise and nurture children's potential. Its philosophy of learning is based on Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, and inspired by Reggio Emilia approaches. It highlights the importance of relationships within a community of learning and an emergent, child-led curriculum. The philosophy expresses a strong commitment to bicultural practices and the influence of te reo me ngā tikanga Māori.
The owner/manager and the head-teacher have longstanding experience with the service. They recently recruited a new teaching team. A Kiribati teaching assistant also supports the service's Kiribati children and families.
ERO's 2014 report identified many areas of good practice, including curriculum implementation, management systems and self-review processes. It noted that next steps included continued development of assessment processes, bicultural practices, partnerships with whānau and alignment of teaching practices with the service's vision.
Leaders' deep commitment to promoting the philosophy of the service means that it guides teaching and learning and fosters strong community relationships. This shared philosophy helps teachers to create a calm and welcoming place for all. The environment is carefully organised to provide a wide range of interesting and thought provoking resources and experiences for children to explore. Children show confidence and keenness as they investigate the inviting spaces and resources. Teachers encourage children to have a sense of ownership and to take care of their environment.
Warm relationships with children and families are clearly evident. Parents' aspirations are respected and purposefully sought, to enhance children's learning and care. Children's wellbeing and sense of belonging are fostered through well considered enrolment and transition processes. Leaders have built strong, reciprocal professional relationships with the wider Warkworth community and these add further value to the programme.
Leaders are committed to growing children's knowledge of te reo Māori. Intrinsic practices, routines and celebrations incorporate waiata and karakia. Tikanga Māori is demonstrated in relationships of care and manaakitanga. Te ao Māori strongly influences teachers' selection of resources, displays and activities. This works well with the service's embedded focus on valuing and caring for the natural world and the local environment.
Leaders and teachers embrace the growing diversity of the community. Leaders have developed a plan for supporting the growing number of children who are new speakers of English. Formalising and further developing this plan will help them to build on the service's existing practices that respect and celebrate the culture, language and identity of children and their whānau. The teaching team is keen to work in partnership with families, including with whānau Māori, to implement a more deliberate and strategic approach to meeting children's diverse needs.
Leaders and teachers use on-line portfolios for children and their families to support greater two-way communication about children's learning and wellbeing. Leaders should continue to support teachers to enhance individual records of learning. This ongoing refinement would help to teachers to more clearly identify how they intend to promote each child's interests and strengths, and support their needs, over time.
The manager and head teacher use internal evaluation to guide improvements in centre operations and the curriculum. They document review well and embed it in their leadership approach. The current focus for evaluation is well aligned with Te Whāriki, and is aimed at further enriching the programme and practices. The teaching team and parents collaborate in the deliberate and reflective process of review and change.
The service has well embedded management systems, policies and procedures. Leaders are aware of the need to now revisit and strengthen overarching strategic planning. Planning should reflect the outcomes of internal evaluation and support the team to set, clarify and prioritise their longer-term goals. It should also enable them to define and articulate key actions required to meet these goals. This development will support leaders and teachers to work more purposefully to enact their service's mission and philosophy, and to gauge and evaluate their progress towards strategic goals.
Leaders have reviewed and refined their appraisal processes since the 2014 ERO review. Teachers now have more opportunities to research and discuss quality teaching and learning practices. Leaders are aware that new staff need to be inducted into the centre philosophy and curriculum approaches to help ensure consistent and shared understandings of quality expectations.
Next steps that will help to build on existing good quality provision for children include:
increasing the consistency of teachers' effective assessment and planning practices
formalising the service's plan for supporting diverse learners
strengthening strategic and annual planning to support sustainability and guide ongoing development
aligning internal evaluation more deliberately with strategic goal setting.
Before the review, the staff and management of Warkworth 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 Warkworth Kindergarten will be in three years.
Violet Tu’uga Stevenson
Director Review and Improvement Services
Te Tai Raki - Northern Region
14 December 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 |
Warkworth, Rodney District |
||
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
20509 |
||
|
Licence type |
Education & Care Service |
||
|
Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
||
|
Number licensed for |
35 children aged over 2 years |
||
|
Service roll |
27 |
||
|
Gender composition |
Boys 14 Girls 13 |
||
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori |
2 |
|
|
Percentage of qualified teachers |
80% + |
||
|
Reported ratios of staff to children |
Over 2 |
1:8 |
Meets minimum requirements |
|
Review team on site |
September 2018 |
||
|
Date of this report |
14 December 2018 |
||
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review |
March 2014 |
|
|
Education Review |
February 2011 |
||
|
Education Review |
August 2007 |
||
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.
Warkworth Kindergarten is located in the small rural community of Warkworth. The centre provides sessional and full day care for up to thirty five children from two and a half to five years of age. The centre operates in a purpose-built building that has continued to be modified to provide linked playing spaces for children.
The centre community includes children and whānau from a number of cultures. Māori whānau are particularly well supported to feel comfortable in the centre and to contribute to the programme. All families are encouraged to share information to enable teachers to work effectively with children.
Since ERO’s 2011 review, the service provider has employed new staff. She continues to provide teachers with professional development to further embed understanding of Reggio Emilia aspects in the centre programme. Teachers use Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum to underpin te reo Māori and tikanga Māori influences in teaching programmes.
ERO’s 2011 report noted the centre’s good practices and effective teaching. The report recommended that teachers continue to develop assessment and planning processes and further embed understanding about the centre’s philosophy. The centre continues to provide good quality education and care for children.
Children are settled and confident in the centre. They capably take ownership of and self-select their play. They are eager explorers of their environment. Children’s sense of well being and belonging is supported by the professional and warm relationships between teachers and families. As a result, children are calm and engaged in collaborative play.
Teachers provide positive opportunities for all children to understand the significance of Māori as tangata whenua. Children benefit from the richness of their play environment. Teachers have created beautiful and interesting spaces for different types of play with a strong focus on Māori art and design. Children treat the environment with respect and enjoy it.
Staff build meaningful partnerships with whānau and iwi within their community. The ideas of whānau, their aspirations for their children and their involvement in programmes helps teachers to confidently foster children’s understanding and learning about biculturalism.
Children respond positively to teachers’ support for their play. Teachers’ focus on aspects of the Reggio Emilia philosophy includes prompting children’s thinking and interest in their own discoveries and explorations. Literacy and numeracy are included meaningfully in the programme. The emphasis on children feeling confident in all areas of their learning is helping to build up children’s readiness for school over time.
Management systems, policies and procedures are well developed and effectively used to operate the centre efficiently. The philosophical approach is a regular topic for review and discussions are shared between teachers, management and families. Teachers regularly record their observations about their own practice and are supported to attend professional development to continue their own professional growth.
Thorough self review processes guide ongoing improvement and reflection within the centre. Teachers’ written documentation about the results of reviews helps them to revisit decision-making and further monitor change.
ERO and the centre managers agree that the next steps are for teachers to continue to:
Before the review, the staff and management of Warkworth 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 Warkworth Kindergarten will be in four years.
Dale Bailey
National Manager Review Services Northern Region
18 March 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 |
Warkworth, Rodney District |
||
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
20509 |
||
|
Licence type |
Education & Care Service |
||
|
Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
||
|
Number licensed for |
35 children, including up to 0 aged under 2 |
||
|
Service roll |
44 |
||
|
Gender composition |
Girls 25 Boys 19 |
||
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori NZ European/Pākehā Asian Samoan |
5 36 2 1 |
|
|
Percentage of qualified teachers 0-49% 50-79% 80% Based on funding rates |
80% |
||
|
Reported ratios of staff to children |
Over 2 |
1:5 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
Review team on site |
January 2014 |
||
|
Date of this report |
18 March 2014 |
||
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review |
February 2011 |
|
|
Education Review |
August 2007 |
||
|
Education Review |
April 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:
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.