Level 5 127 Hobson Street, Auckland CBD, Auckland
View on map|
Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
Honey Bees is very well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Honey Bees is a privately owned centre that delivers care and education for children over two years of age. It is located on the fifth floor of an inner-city building, which has been designed to provide a bright and spacious setting for children. Most parents work and/or live nearby and many are recent immigrants.
The owners are involved in the centre's operation. The teaching team is led by a head teacher and an assistant head teacher. The centre employs six qualified teachers, a teacher assistant, office manager, part-time administrator and a chef/housekeeper. The staff reflects the cultural diversity and bilingual skills of the children who attend.
The philosophy honours the bicultural heritage of Aotearoa New Zealand and children's cultural diversity. It promotes a commitment to Reggio Emilia approaches and environmentally friendly practices. The philosophy views children as confident and competent learners and values children's creativity, fun and learning through play.
Leaders and staff have sustained the positive aspects and progressed the areas for development that were identified in the 2015 ERO report.
Children are well respected as individuals, and supported to develop a strong sense of wellbeing and belonging. They are confident decision makers and collaborators, and experience authentic opportunities to communicate and investigate their ideas. Children spend much of their day in group or individual play. They develop their own learning goals and explore and extend their interests. Children visit the local community parks and facilities and teachers are continuing to enrich these excursions with other outdoor experiences and school visits.
High quality leadership is enabling teachers to provide a rich bicultural programme. It is strongly underpinned by Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, the centre philosophy and the principles of Reggio Emilia. Leaders continue to support teachers to deepen their understanding of the 2017 revision of Te Whāriki.
Leaders and teachers have embedded internal evaluation for continual improvement. Leadership inquiries have improved the team's responsiveness to children's cultures, languages and diverse needs. Leaders agree that they should continue to progress this work to support children's diverse needs, and further promote Māori and Pacific children's success.
Children with additional learning needs benefit from a well-embedded, inclusive and individualised approach that supports their progress and development. Leaders and teachers work collaboratively with parents/whānau and external professional agencies to regularly review children's learning goals. Targeted professional development assist teachers to support children and whānau to achieve these learning goals.
Planning, assessment and evaluation processes are well embedded. The visually attractive records of learning and online portfolios are effective ways to share children's learning with parents. Teachers use photographic and documented records to highlight the value of play, and invite parent contributions to programme planning. The teaching team works collaboratively to provide a highly responsive programme that supports children's individual and emerging interests.
Leaders are open to learning, and foster a culture of improvement based on relational trust. They model high quality leadership through good mentoring approaches, and support staff to build their individual professional practice. Appraisals for teachers are robust and meet Teaching Council requirements. Leaders are continuing to support teachers to implement their own inquiries and promote distributed leadership.
Leaders have implemented effective systems and processes to support the centre's vision for providing high quality education and care for children. A sound policy base that reflects recent changes and legislated requirements is in place. The 2019 strategic plan is responsive to staff and parent input and includes curriculum and professional development goals. Leaders could enhance strategic planning by identifying specific outcomes for children, and through systematic internal evaluation to monitor progress towards those outcomes. This could include documenting a cyclical three year process that specifies responsibilities, budget, timeframes and review.
Centre leaders agree that the priorities for continual improvement include:
refining internal evaluation systems and processes
continuing to build staff evaluation capability
increasing opportunities for emerging leaders.
Before the review, the staff and management of Honey Bees 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.
Steve Tanner
Director Review and Improvement Services Northern
Northern Region
8 March 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 |
Auckland CBD |
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Ministry of Education profile number |
46310 |
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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 |
50 children aged over 2 years |
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Service roll |
52 |
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Gender composition |
Girls 26 Boys 26 |
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Ethnic composition |
Māori |
1 |
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Percentage of qualified teachers |
80% + |
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Reported ratios of staff to children |
Over 2 |
1:8 |
Better than minimum requirements |
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Review team on site |
January 2019 |
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Date of this report |
8 March 2019 |
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Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review |
September 2015 |
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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:
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:
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.
Honey Bees is a privately run inner-city centre that provides care and education for children over the age of two. The centre opened eighteen months ago. It has been thoughtfully designed to maximise the advantages of its fifth floor, bright and spacious setting. It caters for parents who work in the city, as well as locally-based families.
The centre is led by its owners and head teacher. The owners have a high profile in the centre and are fully involved in its operation. The head teacher has responsibility for daily operations in terms of programme planning and delivery. She is supported by a recently appointed assistant. All teachers are qualified and registered.
Centre leaders and teachers have collaborated well to meet their vision of promoting creativity, fun and learning, and their philosophy based on building each child’s strengths, interests and abilities. They have made impressive progress in establishing high quality provisions for children and their families within a short timeframe.
Children receive a warm welcome into the centre. They play and learn in a supportive and peaceful environment, receiving high levels of care from respectful and thoughtful adults. Children are very settled. They respond positively to centre routines and to the sensitive support they receive from teachers. Children approach adults with confidence, play happily with and alongside each other, and quickly develop the independence needed to initiate their own play and learning.
Teachers clearly view children as confident and capable learners. They implement programmes that privilege all forms of play and that encourage children’s in-depth exploration of the world around them. Teachers engage children in high levels of conversation, enriching their language and understanding, and supporting them to create, problem solve and investigate. Teachers’ high expectations and skilled practices successfully promote children’s acquisition of early literacy, numeracy and scientific skills and understandings.
The programme is highly responsive to children’s emergent interests. It includes activities and resources that celebrate both bicultural New Zealand and the different cultures of children who attend. Parents have many meaningful opportunities to have a voice in the programme provided for their children. They are provided with very well presented assessment portfolios that contain rich evidence of children’s participation, new learning, growth and development.
Centre leaders are energetic, enthusiastic and future-focussed. Their high quality practices support and promote the professional development of teachers. Thoughtful and realistic self review guides centre operations and helps ensure responsiveness to the needs of children and their families. High quality leadership and increasingly effective long-term planning position the centre very well to retain its strengths and promote ongoing improvement.
The centre leaders and ERO agree that key next steps in the centre’s very good provisions could now include:
Before the review, the staff and management of Honey Bees 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 Honey Bees will be in three years.
Graham Randell
Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern (Acting)
7 September 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 |
Auckland CBD |
||
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
46310 |
||
|
Licence type |
Education & Care Service |
||
|
Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
||
|
Number licensed for |
38 children, including up to 0 aged under 2 |
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|
Service roll |
40 |
||
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Gender composition |
Girls 22 Boys 18 |
||
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Ethnic composition |
Māori Pākehā Chinese Indian Samoan other |
1 23 8 3 1 4 |
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Percentage of qualified teachers 0-49% 50-79% 80%+ Based on funding rates |
80% + |
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Reported ratios of staff to children |
Over 2 |
1:8 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
Review team on site |
July 2015 |
||
|
Date of this report |
7 September 2015 |
||
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
No previous ERO reports |
||
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.