27 Thompson Street, Tokoroa
View on mapRa-itu Koanga Reo
Ra-itu Koanga Reo
ERO’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.
ERO’s Judgement
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.
Background
Ra-itu Koanga Reo is a bilingual Cook Island Māori early years’ service linked to a Seventh Day Adventist Church. Most of the children enrolled are either Kuki Āirani or Māori. Early in 2020, the service merged with another service. Three staff members from this service transitioned to Ra-itu Koanga Reo.
Summary of Review Findings
Children’s preferences are respected, and they are involved in decisions about their learning experiences. The curriculum is inclusive and respects the right of each child to be confident in their own culture. Adults providing education and care engage in meaningful, positive interactions to nurture reciprocal relationships.
The design and layout of the premises support the provision of different types of indoor and outdoor experiences. This includes quiet spaces, areas for physical play and space for individual and group learning appropriate for the number, ages and abilities of children attending.
Actions for Compliance
Since the onsite visit, the service has provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed the following non-compliance:
- ensuring windows or areas of glass accessible to children are either made of safety glass or covered by an adhesive film designed to hold the glass in place in the event of it being broken.
Licencing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care Centres 2008, PF7.
Next ERO Review
The next ERO review is likely to be an Akarangi | Quality Evaluation.
Steve Tanner
Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern)
Northern Region | Te Tai Raki
10 March 2021
Information About the Service
Early Childhood Service Name | Ra-itu Koanga Reo |
Profile Number | 30118 |
Location | Tokoroa |
Service type |
Education and care service |
Number licensed for |
27 children, including up to 10 aged under 2 years |
Percentage of qualified teachers |
80%+ |
Service roll |
29 |
Ethnic composition |
Māori 12 |
Review team on site |
November 2020 |
Date of this report |
10 March 2021 |
Most recent ERO report(s) | Education Review, April 2019 Education Review, March 2015 |
General Information about Assurance Reviews
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.
ERO undertakes an Akanuku | Assurance Review process in any centre-based service:
- 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.
Management Assurance on Legal Requirements
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 (PDF 1MB). 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.
Ra-itu Koanga Reo - 18/04/2019
1 Evaluation of Ra-itu Koanga Reo
How well placed is Ra-itu Koanga Reo to promote positive learning outcomes for children?
Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
Ra-itu Koanga Reo is not well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.
Significant staffing issues at Ra-Itu Koanga Reo have contributed to poor quality provision for children. Substantial improvements are required in a number of areas, including staffing, the curriculum, management systems, and health and safety.
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Background
Ra-itu Koanga Reo is an early childhood centre connected to the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Tokoroa, South Waikato. It is governed by a management committee, which includes church and parent representatives as well as centre staff.
The koanga is licensed for 27 children, including up to ten infants and toddlers, who share the learning space with older children. Most of the children enrolled are Cook Islands Māori. The koanga's philosophy is based on Cook Islands Māori culture and language, and Christian values.
The service provides meals several times a week, with a strong focus on healthy eating. Children also bring lunches from home.
There has been a significant number of staff changes since the 2015 ERO review. The centre manager is a qualified teacher who was appointed in 2016. She divides her time between operational duties and working with children. A long-serving teacher is the only other permanent member of staff. The service currently employs four untrained relievers as it seeks to appoint permanent, qualified teachers and an administrator.
ERO’s 2015 report identified areas for improvement, including teacher practice, strategic planning, management systems and communication processes. Insufficient progress has been made in these areas.
The Review Findings
Recruitment of staff is an ongoing issue for management. Lack of staff poses challenges to ensuring that there is adequate supervision of children. It also has a negative impact on the quality of care and education provided. Leaders agree that addressing this is a matter of urgency. The appointment of motivated, committed staff will support consistency in meeting the requirements of the Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care Services 2008.
Children at the service benefit from affectionate, familiar relationships with staff who know them well. Teachers' brief interactions with children are positive. They should consider how to balance their time between routine tasks and sustained, high-quality teaching interactions. Professional learning is needed, to build a range of intentional teaching strategies that encourage children's focus and challenge their thinking.
The koanga's philosophy is not strongly evident in practice. Opportunities for children to be immersed in Cook Island language and culture are mostly restricted to group times. Engaging role plays and stories related to Christian values, are sometimes evident. Teachers should find ways to integrate the key elements of the koanga philosophy throughout the daily programme.
To enact the philosophy to a greater extent, teachers should engage with professional learning related to Te Whāriki, the revised early childhood curriculum. This would help them to identify the learning outcomes that are highly valued in the Ra-itu Koanga Reo community. Teachers should use current research to establish agreed, documented teaching practices that promote these outcomes. These must be consistently enacted in practice and shown throughout documentation. To improve teaching practice, particular attention should be given to:
-
the unique learning styles of infants and toddlers
-
promoting independence, social skills and challenge within a mixed-age setting
-
purposeful use of the learning environment and resources to engage children in learning
-
continuing to grow practices that recognise te Tiriti o Waitangi and the place of tangata whenua in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Teachers regularly document observations of children's play. These stories contain some useful information for families about early learning. However, a cycle of assessment, planning and evaluation is not in place. A purposeful process, focused on promoting children's learning through targeted teacher strategies, must be established.
Further work is needed in:
-
developing teachers' understanding and use of internal evaluation
-
establishing effective administrative, governance and management systems.
The management committee is committed to the koanga's special character. Many members are long-serving. They agree that it is time to significantly increase resourcing and active support for the service. As this develops, the progress of strategic goals should be documented. Priority should be placed on:
-
addressing health and safety concerns
-
adequately staffing the service
-
ongoing professional development for leaders and teachers
-
refreshing resources and the learning environment.
Management Assurance on Legal Requirements
Before the review, the staff and management of Ra-itu Koanga Reo 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.
Actions for compliance
ERO found significant areas of non-compliance in the service related to:
-
health and safety requirements
-
adequate, consistently maintained supervision by qualified staff
-
a curriculum that is informed by assessment, planning and evaluation and that demonstrates an understanding of children's learning
-
teacher appraisal that meets the requirements of the Education Council
-
the display of appropriate information for parents
-
aligning policies with current legal requirements, particularly the Vulnerable Children Act 2014.
Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care Centres 2008, C2, HS12,31, GMA1,7,7A; Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008, Schedule 2; Vulnerable Children Act 2014
Recommendation to Ministry of Education
ERO recommends that the Ministry reassess the licence of Ra-itu Koanga Reo. ERO will not undertake a further education review of this service until the Ministry of Education is satisfied that the service meets licensing requirements.
Next ERO Review
When is ERO likely to review the service again?
The next ERO review of Ra-itu Koanga Reo will be in consultation with the Ministry of Education.
Steve Tanner
Director Review and Improvement Services Te Tai Raki - Northern Region
18 April 2019
The Purpose of ERO Reports
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.
2 Information about the Early Childhood Service
Location |
Tokoroa |
||
Ministry of Education profile number |
30118 |
||
Licence type |
Education & Care Service |
||
Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
||
Number licensed for |
27 children, including up to 10 aged under 2 |
||
Service roll |
22 |
||
Gender composition |
Boys 13 Girls 9 |
||
Ethnic composition |
Māori |
8 |
|
Percentage of qualified teachers 0-49% 50-79% 80%+ Based on funding rates |
0-49% |
||
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 2018 |
||
Date of this report |
18 April 2019 |
||
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review |
March 2015 |
|
Supplementary Review |
June 2011 |
||
Education Review |
April 2010 |
3 General Information about Early Childhood Reviews
ERO’s Evaluation Framework
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:
Pou Whakahaere – how the service determines its vision, philosophy and direction to ensure positive outcomes for children
Pou Ārahi – how leadership is enacted to enhance positive outcomes for children
Mātauranga – whose knowledge is valued and how the curriculum is designed to achieve positive outcomes for children
Tikanga whakaako – how approaches to teaching and learning respond to diversity and support positive outcomes for children.
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.
ERO’s Overall Judgement and Next Review
The overall judgement that ERO makes will depend on how well the service promotes positive learning outcomes for children. The categories are:
-
Very well placed
-
Well placed
-
Requires further development
-
Not well placed
ERO has developed criteria for each category. These are available on ERO’s website.
Review Coverage
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.