60 Curletts Road, Upper Riccarton, Christchurch
View on mapAkarangi | 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 Sancta Maria Montessori Preschool are as follows:
Outcome Indicators(What the service knows about outcomes for learners) |
Whāngai Establishing |
Ngā Akatoro Domains |
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Learning Conditions
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Whāngai Establishing |
Sancta Maria Montessori Preschool is one of two services under the same ownership. The roll is culturally diverse. The head teacher is new to the role and is leading a newly established qualified teaching team. Some teachers have Montessori qualifications. The service has made some progress in reviewing the philosophy as recommended in ERO’s 2019 review report. Strengthening assessment and internal evaluation practices still require further attention.
Children benefit from a broad curriculum that is responsive to their cultures, interests and abilities. The curriculum integrates aspects of the Catholic faith, and is based on the Montessori philosophy, which emphasises hands on activities and developing real world life skills. Teachers are attuned to children’s requests for support, and they guide children through different learning stages within the curriculum. The daily programme provides children with a sense of structure and predictability. Children display a strong sense of belonging, independence and agency in their learning.
Children’s learning and development within the Montessori framework is clearly documented. It shows how children contribute to their learning. However, teachers are yet to consistently show in assessment documentation how they:
use the learning outcomes in Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, to intentionally plan for children’s learning
show children’s learning and progress over time in relation to Te Whāriki learning outcomes
gather and respond to parents’ aspirations for their child‘s learning
build children’s cultural and learner identities.
Leaders are at the early stages of implementing a professional growth cycle to support teachers’ continual growth to support children’s learning and development. There is an appropriate internal evaluation framework in place. Building all teachers’ capability to undertake effective evaluation is now required, and should include:
using evaluative questions to guide the evaluation
developing clear indicators of high-quality practice or success
undertaking rigorous data analysis to better inform decision making and to identify the impact of actions on outcomes for identified individuals and groups of children.
Sancta Maria Montessori Preschool will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:
Build collective capability to effectively do and use internal evaluation for improvement to better inform decision making and improve outcomes for all learners.
When planning, assessing and evaluating children’s learning, consistently use Te Whāriki learning outcomes to intentionally plan for children’s learning, and show children’s learning and progress over time.
Build children’s cultural and learner identities within assessment documentation.
Before the review, the staff and management of Sancta Maria Montessori Preschool 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.
ERO identified the following area of non-compliance:
ensuring that furniture that can topple and cause serious injury or damage is secured.
Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care Centres 2008, HS6.
ERO recommends the Ministry follows up with the service provider to ensure non-compliances identified in this report are addressed.
Patricia Davey
Director of Early Childhood Education (ECE)
17 August 2023
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Early Childhood Service Name |
Sancta Maria Montessori Preschool |
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Profile Number |
46127 |
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Location |
Christchurch |
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Service type |
Education and care service |
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Number licensed for |
38 children over 2 years |
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Percentage of qualified teachers |
100% |
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Service roll |
19 |
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Review team on site |
May 2023 |
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Date of this report |
17 August 2023 |
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Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review, July 2019; Education Review, February 2016 |
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Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
Sancta Maria Montessori Preschool is well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Sancta Maria Montessori is one of three privately-owned preschool centres in Christchurch. It opens five days a week from 8am until 3.30pm. Twenty three children from two years old to school age learn in this mixed-aged setting. The centre has stable staffing. A manager runs the day-to-day operations. The owners manage the administration of all three centres.
A strength of the centre is that most children and teachers at this centre are from diverse cultures. Teachers are highly proficient and qualified in English medium but are also multilingual. This is a significant feature of this centre that contributes to positive outcomes for the children.
The centre is purpose-built with an emphasis on natural materials. The centre's philosophy and practices, underpinned by Te Whāriki (2017) The Early Childhood Curriculum, Catholic teachings and Montessori methods, support the child's learning and spiritual growth.
The leaders and teachers have worked to address the recommendations from the 2016 ERO report. These continue to be work in progress.
The centre belongs to the Upper Riccarton Kāhui Ako|Community of Learning.
Children benefit from warm, caring relationships. Children know the teachers and trust them to support their learning and needs. The family-like atmosphere, which extends to events beyond the centre environment, helps children and their families to develop socially and spiritually.
The leaders and teachers have created an inclusive culture which celebrates diversity. Children's home languages and cultures are valued and promoted. Parents are actively encouraged to bring their expertise and country's traditions to enhance the curriculum and children's learning. Leaders and teachers are working to further develop learning partnerships with parents. A range of communication tools are used to ensure parents are kept well informed about their child's day and learning.
The centre is very well resourced with specialised Montessori equipment. This, along with skilful teaching, provides children of all ages with intellectual challenge. The centre owner models authentic Montessori practices and a child-centred approach. Children are supported to make purposeful choices about their learning. This helps them to develop independence and self-management skills.
Teachers deliver the Montessori curriculum with knowledge and passion. Recent professional development is supporting teachers to reflect on the effectiveness of their practice. It is also helping them to establish and implement a new appraisal process. Teachers are collegial and plan for children's learning collaboratively.
The design of this purpose-built centre takes account of acoustics, children and adult needs in an open-plan space, and gives teachers full view of all children at all times. The spacious room has designated areas such as an atrium, which is set apart for the daily inclusion of Catholic religious traditions.
Assessment and reporting practices could be strengthened by teachers reflecting more explicitly and consistently in learning stories how they plan to extend children's learning.
It would be timely to review the centre's philosophy to more clearly express desired outcomes such as children developing a 'love for learning', and to include a reference to the Treaty of Waitangi.
Leaders and teachers now need to strengthen strategic planning and the internal evaluation processes to know better the impact of their teaching and programmes on outcomes for children.
Before the review, the staff and management of Sancta Maria Montessori Preschool 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.
Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services Southern
Southern Region
10 July 2019
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.
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Location |
Christchurch |
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Ministry of Education profile number |
46127 |
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Licence type |
Education & Care Service |
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Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
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Number licensed for |
38 children aged over 2 |
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Service roll |
23 |
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Gender composition |
Boys 14, Girls 9 |
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Ethnic composition |
Indian |
9 |
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Percentage of qualified teachers |
80% + |
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Reported ratios of staff to children |
1:10 |
Meets minimum requirements |
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Review team on site |
May 2019 |
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Date of this report |
10 July 2019 |
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Most recent ERO report
|
Education Review |
February 2016 |
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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.
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.
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.