1 Carlyle Street, Mataura
View on mapERO’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.
Regulatory standards | ERO’s judgement |
| Curriculum | Meeting |
| Premises and facilities | Meeting |
| Health and safety | Not meeting |
| Governance, management and administration | Meeting |
At the time of the review, ERO identified non-compliance with regulatory standards that must be addressed.
Hope Preschool is a Christian-based centre located in new purpose-built facilities within a rural setting. The centre manager is supported by a board of trustees. Two separate classrooms cater for the age and needs of children attending. There is a small number of tamariki Māori and increasing numbers of children of diverse ethnicities who attend.
The service curriculum is consistent with Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. It is underpinned by Christian values, and informed by assessment, planning, and evaluation that demonstrate an understanding of children’s learning and their interests.
Adults providing education and care engage in positive interactions to enhance children’s learning and nurture reciprocal relationships. Premises support the provision of different kinds of indoor and outdoor play, and a range of learning experiences. Positive steps are taken to respect and acknowledge the aspirations held by parents and whānau for their children.
Consistent implementation and monitoring of health and safety practices are required to meet and maintain aspects of regulatory compliance.
ERO found areas of non-compliance in the service relating to:
[Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care Services 2008, HS28]
Since the onsite visit, the service has provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed the following non-compliance:
Ensuring relevant emergency drills are carried out with the children (as appropriate) on at least a three-monthly basis [HS8].
ERO recommends the Ministry follows up with the service provider to ensure that non-compliances identified in this report are addressed promptly.
The next ERO review is likely to be an Akarangi | Quality Evaluation.
Patricia Davey
Director of Early Childhood Education (ECE)
31 January 2024
| Early Childhood Service Name | Hope Preschool |
| Profile Number | 46421 |
| Location | Mataura |
| Service type | Education and care service |
| Number licensed for | 45 children, including up to 15 aged under 2 |
| Percentage of qualified teachers | 80-99% |
| Service roll | 59 |
| Review team on site | November 2023 |
| Date of this report | 31 January 2024 |
| Most recent ERO report(s) | Akarangi | Quality Evaluation, March 2022; Education Review, June 2018 |
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.
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. In these documents they attested that they have taken all reasonable steps to meet their legal obligations related to:
As part of an Akanuku | Assurance Review ERO assesses whether the regulatory 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:
As part of an Akanuku | Assurance Review ERO also gathers and records evidence through:
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Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Hope Preschool provides full-day education and care for children aged between two and six years. It is licensed for up to 25 children. Families attend from Mataura and surrounding areas. A quarter of the children identify as Māori.
The centre is governed by a charitable trust. Trustees have delegated the centre manager to have responsibility and oversee the day-to-day aspects of centre operations. Since the 2016 ERO review, the manager has undertaken qualifications in early childhood education teacher training. Other teachers share distributed leadership roles. All teachers are qualified and registered. The centre provides daily meals to children free of charge.
The 2016 ERO report identified that many aspects of governance, management, leadership, teaching and learning required further development to be effective. Good progress has been made in addressing these key areas. Some of these areas require further refinement.
Leaders and teachers have developed and embedded useful systems for planning and assessment of individual children's learning. They clearly identify learning goals, strengths, interests and needs of children. They seek and include parents' and whānau aspirations for their children's learning. Teachers intentionally plan strategies and experiences to support children's learning. They gather assessment information to show continuity, progress and revisiting of learning over time. These processes are contributing to the way teachers are promoting positive outcomes for children.
Children benefit from positive relationships with their teachers. Teachers provide a wide range of interesting experiences to extend children's learning. Children are engaged and settled in the programme.
Teachers have developed close relationships with the local school and Kohanga Reo, to share children's learning. This is supporting children to experience a positive transition to school.
Teachers have clearly identified valued outcomes for children's learning including:
being independent
playing with and alongside others
caring for themselves and others
contributing and communicating their thoughts, feelings and ideas
problem solving through exploration and creativity
knowing they are loved/valued by God.
Teachers need to ensure that the identified valued outcomes for children's learning are guiding group planning. The next step to further develop group planning and assessment, is for teachers to make clearer the intended learning. Teachers can then evaluate how effectively these planned strategies and experiences have supported the intended outcomes for individuals and groups of children.
Teachers plan for children to experience aspects of a bicultural curriculum, through the use of te reo Māori and waiata. Teachers need to further develop their understanding of culturally responsive practices by:
ensuring children's language, culture and identity are visible in assessment information
continuing to develop and extend their use of te reo Māori
making visible te ao Māori in their philosophy, documentation and practice.
Since the 2016 ERO review, trustees, leaders and teachers have engaged with a sense of urgency to respond to areas for further development. They have effectively engaged with external professional learning and development to develop and embed systems, to make processes in the centre sustainable. These include developing:
a strategic plan, with clear annual priorities, identified in consultation with their community
a clear vision and values to guide their work
a useful system for appraisal of all teachers
systems to promote consistency of documentation in assessment and planning.
A next step is for leaders to more deeply evaluate progress towards strategic and annual priorities and report this regularly to trustees.
Leaders and teachers have developed shared understandings and processes to guide internal evaluation, which are leading to improvements in practices. A next step is to deepen their understanding of evaluative processes and practices.
Trustees, leaders and teachers need to:
continue to build culturally responsive practices
strengthen aspects of planning, assessment and evaluation for groups of children
strengthen aspects of internal evaluation
strengthen reporting, including reporting to trustees on progress against strategic priorities and trustees documenting discussions and decisions.
Before the review, the staff and management of Hope 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.
Trustees, leaders and teachers need to strengthen aspects of practices and policies to ensure:
all records of accidents are signed by parents
the complaints procedure is expanded to better show the processes for responding to a complaint.
The next ERO review of Hope Preschool will be in three years.
Dr Lesley Patterson
Deputy Chief Review Officer Southern
Te Waipounamu - Southern Region
15 June 2018
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 |
Mataura |
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Ministry of Education profile number |
46421 |
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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 |
25 children aged over 2 |
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Service roll |
47 |
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Gender composition |
Boys: 24 Girls: 23 |
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Ethnic composition |
Māori |
11 |
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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 |
1:7 |
Better than minimum requirements |
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Review team on site |
April 2018 |
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Date of this report |
15 June 2018 |
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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:
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.