7577 State Highway 1, RD 2, Ohaeawai, Kaikohe
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 (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 Ohaeawai Community Preschool and Early Learning Centre are as follows:
Outcome Indicators |
ERO’s judgement |
|
What the service knows about outcomes for learners |
Kia rangatira ai te tipu Excelling |
Ngā Akatoro Domains |
ERO’s judgement |
|
He Whāriki Motuhake The learner and their learning |
Kia rangatira ai te tipu Excelling |
|
Whakangungu Ngaio Collaborative professional learning builds knowledge and capability |
Whakawhanake Sustaining |
|
Ngā Aronga Whai Hua Evaluation for improvement |
Whakawhanake Sustaining |
|
Kaihautū Leaders foster collaboration and improvement |
Kia rangatira ai te tipu Excelling |
|
Te Whakaruruhau Stewardship through effective governance and management |
Whakaū Embedding |
Ohaeawai Community Preschool and Early Learning Centre was established by the Ohaeawai Community Education Trust. There are four qualified teachers (including the centre manager) and two unqualified staff. The centre has separate areas for infants, toddlers and older children. More than half of the children enrolled are Māori.
Children are very well supported by kaiako to make choices and engage in a wide variety of learning experiences. They demonstrate a strong sense of belonging and have an active role in determining the curriculum.
Kaiako develop secure, trusting relationships with infants and toddlers. They provide an unhurried and predictable routine that responds to the changing needs and preferences of these younger children. Teachers know the children individually and identify their strengths, interests and learning opportunities. They work in partnership with children, parents and whānau to support children’s developing social competence, emotional wellbeing, and cultural connectedness in play-based contexts.
Leaders and kaiako actively respect and respond to the cultural identities and languages of the children attending. Principles of tikanga Māori are integrated into their daily interactions and curriculum programme.
Leaders and kaiako demonstrate a deep understanding that assessment should promote holistic learning and development, and that care is an integral part of the curriculum, particularly for infants and toddlers. These understandings are based on the principles of Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. Kaiako engage in ongoing reflective practice. They now need to deepen their documented inquiry to better show the impact of their improved practices on outcomes for children.
Leaders and kaiako recognise the importance of child, parent, whānau and community voice, and they draw on it to inform priorities for improvement. Internal evaluation follows an established framework supported by teachers’ individual research inquiries. Teachers gather data from a range of sources and use this information to challenge their thinking and practice.
A distributed leadership model has led to kaiako professional accountability and collective responsibility. The long serving leadership team ensures a positive working environment that facilitates low turnover of staff and sustains a high-quality curriculum.
Ohaeawai Community Preschool and Early Learning Centre will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:
Before the review, the staff and management of Ohaeawai Community Preschool and 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:
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.
Steve Tanner
Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern)
Northern Region | Te Tai Raki
26 May 2021
| Early Childhood Service Name | Ohaeawai Community Preschool and Early Learning Centre |
| Profile Number | 46331 |
| Location | Ohaeawai, Northland |
|
Service type |
Education and care service |
|
Number licensed for |
42 children, including up to 12 aged under 2 |
|
Percentage of qualified teachers |
50-79% |
|
Service roll |
35 |
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori 19 |
|
Review team on site |
March 2021 |
|
Date of this report |
26 May 2021 |
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review, November 2016 |
|
Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Ohaeawai Preschool and Early Learning Centre was opened in January 2014 and is next door to a primary school. The centre is governed by the trustees of the Ohaeawai Community Education Trust. This is the centre's first ERO report.
The centre provides full time education and care for up to 42 children, including 12 under two years of age. Tamariki are cared for in two groups from birth to about two years of age, and from two to five years of age. The centre is designed to promote warm collaborative relationships between tamariki, whānau, kaiako and the local community. Many whānau travel a long way to attend regularly.
The centre's philosophical approach is expressed in the whakataukī: Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, engari he toa takitini (success is not the work of one but the work of many). Other philosophical approaches that guide the centre's programme and operation are based on an integration of beliefs and values from the Reggio Emilia and RIE pedagogies. The centre's values and beliefs align strongly with Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. The centre owner and teachers are committed to the rights of the child and to Tiriti o Waitangi based practices.
Children in the centre are confident and capable learners. They are settled, happy and have a strong sense of belonging. Relationships between children and adults are positive and trusting. Children trust that they will be listened to and that their needs will be met. The Virtues programme modelled by teachers helps children maintain respectful relationships as part of their everyday life. Collaboration between children, parents/whānau and teachers is a usual practice. Parents are well informed by teachers about their children's learning through a range of effective processes.
Older children's interests and knowledge are valued and used to direct a programme that is strongly linked to the local context and community. Tamariki are leading their own learning within an attractive, richly resourced, and engaging learning environment. Teachers provide a range of meaningful learning experiences. Attentive, responsive and respectful relationships and interactions are being used to grow and develop thinking and listening skills. All children are supported to understand and express their emotions and ideas.
Children are encouraged to use a range of open-ended resources to experiment with, generate curiosity and create opportunities to solve problems. Creativity and imagination are well promoted. Literacy, science and maths learning are part of the programme.
Learning for infants and toddlers is focused around their milestones and dispositions for learning. Infant and toddlers have space and time to explore their environment independently without interruption from adults. Teachers read the cues and gestures of the tamariki and engage them in rich language interactions, particularly during special one-to-one moments and during care routines.
Teacher knowledge is enriched through research and a broad range of high quality professional development workshops and training. Visits to other centres and staff discussions help teachers to identify and prioritise high quality teaching practices.
Māori contexts are a focus in the curriculum. Hapū and iwi stories and events are retold to children. Contact has been established with the local kaumātua who has taught staff whakataukī and pepeha. Collaborative interaction between tamariki, whānau, kaiako and community is raising the quality of tamariki learning. Te reo Māori hui have helped teachers to learn words and phrases and to use them with the children. Histories are being researched to give children and staff knowledge about tangata whenua and the early settlers, and to strengthen their understanding about the local whānau, hapū, and iwi. Self review has been used to explore whanaungatanga, manaakitanga, kotahitanga and ako. A deeper understanding of some of the principles of Māori culture and values, is emerging.
Managers are committed to building teachers' professional capacity and maintaining high quality practices through professional training. The trustees, manager and centre leaders have a strong commitment to providing relevant learning opportunities to grow tamariki, whānau and kaiako learning and development. They have also developed very good management guidelines such as the vision, philosophy, and strategic and annual plans to guide practices. The centre is embedding and continuing to develop strong practices through ongoing reflection and internal evaluation.
In order to consistently maintain and enrich the quality of teaching and learning, and centre practices the manager, leaders and teachers should continue to:
regularly evaluate the effectiveness of the curriculum in challenging and extending all children's learning
use indicators of best practice as a guide to promoting high quality in all areas of centre practice
The manager should establish more robust teacher appraisal processes that include the requirements of the Education Council of New Zealand.
Before the review, the staff and management of Ohaeawai Community Preschool and 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:
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 Ohaeawai Community Preschool and Early Learning Centre will be in three years.
Graham Randell
Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern
21 November 2016
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 |
Ohaeawai, Kaikohe |
||
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
46331 |
||
|
Licence type |
Education & Care Service |
||
|
Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
||
|
Number licensed for |
42 children, including up to 12 aged under 2 |
||
|
Service roll |
42 |
||
|
Gender composition |
Girls 23 Boys 19 |
||
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori Pākehā Samoan |
21 20 1 |
|
|
Percentage of qualified teachers 0-49% 50-79% 80%+ Based on funding rates |
80% + |
||
|
Reported ratios of staff to children |
Under 2 |
1:3 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
Over 2 |
1:8 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
|
Review team on site |
August 2016 |
||
|
Date of this report |
21 November 2016 |
||
|
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:
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 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.