Richmond Early Learning Centre

Education institution number:
45645
Service type:
Education and Care Service
Definition:
Not Applicable
Total roll:
15
Telephone:
Address:

104 Islington Street, Invercargill North, Invercargill

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Richmond Early Learning Centre

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 (PDF 3.01MB) are the basis for making judgements about the effectiveness of the service in achieving equity and excellence for all learners. The Akarangi Quality Evaluation Judgement Rubric (PDF 91.30KB) derived from the indicators, is used to inform the ERO’s judgements about this service’s performance in promoting equity and excellence.

ERO’s judgements for Richmond Early Learning Centre are as follows:

Outcome Indicators

ERO’s judgement

What the service knows about outcomes for learners

Whakaū Embedding

Ngā Akatoro Domains

ERO’s judgement

He Whāriki Motuhake

The learner and their learning

Whāngai Establishing

Whakangungu Ngaio

Collaborative professional learning builds knowledge and capability

Whāngai Establishing

Ngā Aronga Whai Hua

Evaluation for improvement

Whāngai Establishing

Kaihautū

Leaders foster collaboration and improvement

Whakaū Embedding

Te Whakaruruhau

Stewardship through effective governance and management

Whakaū Embedding

2 Context of the Service

Richmond Early Learning Centre is a small, privately owned centre. It provides full-day education and care for children from birth to school age. The owner oversees the operation of the service. Two head teachers are responsible for the day-to-day curriculum, health and safety and professional support.

3 Summary of findings

Children experience a calm, unhurried, play-based curriculum where they lead their learning. They benefit from responsive, caring and respectful interactions with kaiako. Relationships embody manaakitanga (caring) and whanaungatanga (family-like connections). Curriculum strengths are rich opportunities for physical exploration in the large, natural outdoor area, development of self-management skills and social competence. Children regularly hear te reo Māori. The curriculum, including resourcing, could better reflect te ao Māori. Children are confident and engaged.

Learning records increasingly show children’s progress in relation to the learning outcomes in Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. Parents’ aspirations for their children, and perspectives, are regularly sought and responded to.

Children with additional learning needs are well supported to fully participate in the programme and make successful transitions to school. Staff work closely with parents, specialists and local schools to develop individual plans. Over time, these children make good progress towards their goals.

The head teachers have established a collaborative and reflective teaching team. They lead regular discussions about how to best support each child’s learning and involve teachers in evaluation that has resulted in improved practices. However, further work is needed to deepen all teachers’ understanding of evaluative processes in planned internal evaluations.  

Leaders and teachers foreground the service’s philosophy, values and learning priorities in the daily programme. The implementation of a professional growth cycle to support teacher inquiry and learning is at the beginning stage.

The manager and leaders have some well-considered priorities in their strategic plan. However, the plan has little detail about how priorities will be realised and progress towards goals evaluated. Useful policies and procedures provide teachers with suitable guidance about expected practices.

4 Improvement actions

Richmond Early Learning Centre will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning. These are to:

  • review the service philosophy in consultation with whānau

  • provide children with more opportunities to deepen their understanding of Māori culture, history, perspectives and places of local significance

  • continue to build all teachers’ capability to do and use internal evaluation to better know what is or is not working and for whom, and decide what changes are needed  

  • strengthen strategic planning by identifying how priorities will be actioned, timeframes, evaluation of progress towards goals, and the impact on children’s learning.

5 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Richmond Early 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.

Dr Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini

25 March 2022 

6 About the Early Childhood Service

Early Childhood Service Name Richmond Early Learning Centre
Profile Number

45645

Location Invercargill

Service type

Education and care service

Number licensed for

21, including up to 21 children aged under 2

Percentage of qualified teachers

80-99%

Service roll

21

Ethnic composition

Māori 7, NZ European/Pākehā 13, Other ethnic groups 1

Review team on site

November 2021

Date of this report

25 March 2022

Most recent ERO report(s)

Education Review, April 2016.

Richmond Infant and Toddler Centre - 20/04/2016

1 Evaluation of Richmond Infant and Toddler Centre

How well placed is Richmond Infant and Toddler Centre to promote positive learning outcomes for children?

Not well placed

Requires further development

Well placed

Very well placed

ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.

Background

Richmond Infant and Toddler Centre is a small privately owned centre. The centre provides full-day education and care in a home-like setting for up to 21 children. It was initially opened as an Infant and Toddler centre. Since then it has diversified to include children up to the age of five years. The owner manages the centre and there is a head teacher who is in charge of the day-to-day operation. This is one of two centres owned by the manager. This is the centre's first ERO review.

The Review Findings

Teachers at Richmond place a high value on building respectful relationships with children and their families. A sense of whanaungatanga and manaakitanga is evident. A particular feature of this centre is the care and thought put into children's transition into the centre. Each child has a chosen kaitiaki who mirrors that child's hours and home routines, particularly when settling into the centre. Teachers know the children well, monitor their development closely and celebrate their achievements.

Children are familiar with the centre’s well-established daily routines and expectations for behaviour. Teachers have had a focus on children learning to play well together. The children are confident and cooperate in their play, interacting positively with one another. Children have many opportunities to explore and learn in the interesting and challenging outdoor area. Here they learn about nature and develop their physical skills.

The teachers working with the infants are knowledgeable and skilful. These kaitiaki thoughtfully provide the time and space for infants to develop physically at their own pace in a mixed-age setting. Teachers have respectful, caring and nurturing relationships with infants and sensitively respond to their subtle verbal and non-verbal cues. Teachers know the children well and work closely with parents, valuing their contribution and preferences.

Children experience some tikanga Māori, waiata, karakia and te reo Māori in the daily programme. Teachers are committed to furthering their knowledge and confidence with things Māori.

The children’s individual profile books are a record of their time at the centre and show that teachers make effective use of the teachable moment. The newly introduced assessment, planning and evaluation process is still at the early stages of development and implementation. Once the process is embedded, leaders will need to ensure there is consistent quality in the documentation and that stories clearly show the teachers' role in supporting children’s learning.

Other developments that are a work in progress include:

  • making the centre's desired outcomes for children’s learning more visible in the centre's philosophy

  • adjustments to the learning programme to better respond to the changing needs of individuals and groups of children

  • ensuring there is greater choice in resources to support the learning and interests of all children.

The manager and head teacher meet regularly and work collaboratively to manage the centre and to plan future developments. They have established some useful systems that support the centre's development. These include a strategic plan, job descriptions, an appraisal system and regular review of centre policies and procedures.

The leaders acknowledge that some of the newly implemented systems and processes, such as the planning, assessment and evaluation system and the appraisal process, need to be embedded. Self-review processes also need to be further developed.

Both leaders have been involved in professional development to support them in their roles. They have also participated in workshops to build their understanding of internal evaluation. Since then there have been a number of spontaneous reviews that have contributed to building teaching practice.

The next steps in developing the quality of internal evaluation are to:

  • complete planned reviews of key aspects of teaching and learning

  • evaluate the impact of any changes on outcomes for children

  • develop a schedule for review that ensures key aspects of the service are reviewed regularly

  • use policies, procedures, guidelines and best practice indicators when evaluating practice to ensure alignment.

Key Next Steps

The centre leaders and ERO agree that the key next steps include the further development and implementation of:

  • the centre philosophy

  • bicultural practices

  • assessment, programme planning and evaluation

  • internal evaluation/self-review processes and practices.

It will be important to ensure the head teacher has support from the manager to maintain the focus on improving the quality of education and care.

ERO recommends that an action plan is developed, outlining how the leaders will carry out these key next steps and that the action plan is sent to ERO.

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Richmond Infant and Toddler 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.

Next ERO Review

When is ERO likely to review the service again?

The next ERO review of Richmond Infant and Toddler Centre will be in three years.

Chris Rowe

Deputy Chief Review Officer Southern (Acting)

20 April 2016

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

Invercargill

Ministry of Education profile number

45645

Licence type

Education & Care Service

Licensed under

Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008

Number licensed for

21 children, including up to 21 aged under 2

Service roll

26

Gender composition

Girls: 15

Boys: 11

Ethnic composition

Māori

Pākehā

Other

8

16

2

Percentage of qualified teachers

0-49% 50-79% 80%+

Based on funding rates

80% +

Reported ratios of staff to children

Under 2

1:4

Better than minimum requirements

Over 2

1:8

Better than minimum requirements

Review team on site

March 2016

Date of this report

20 April 2016

Most recent ERO report(s)

No previous ERO reports

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 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:

  • Very well placed – The next ERO review in four years
  • Well placed – The next ERO review in three years
  • Requires further development – The next ERO review within two years
  • Not well placed - The next ERO review in consultation with the Ministry of Education

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.