415 Tirakau Drive, Huntington Park, Auckland
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 Piccolo Park Early Learning Centre are as follows:
Outcome Indicators |
ERO’s judgement |
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What the service knows about outcomes for learners |
Whakawhanake Sustaining |
Ngā Akatoro Domains |
ERO’s judgement |
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He Whāriki Motuhake The learner and their learning |
Whakaū Embedding |
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Whakangungu Ngaio Collaborative professional learning builds knowledge and capability |
Whakaū Embedding |
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Ngā Aronga Whai Hua Evaluation for improvement |
Whakawhanake Sustaining |
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Kaihautū Leaders foster collaboration and improvement |
Whakawhanake Sustaining |
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Te Whakaruruhau Stewardship through effective governance and management |
Whakawhanake Sustaining |
Piccolo Park Early Learning Centre is one of three services under the same ownership. A centre director and centre manager are responsible for governance and management of the service. The centre has separate areas for infants, toddlers and older children. The service roll reflects the ethnic diversity of the community.
Children explore the unique outdoor environment of the centre. This carefully considered play space invites them to take risks and offers challenges that support their physical development. Children are articulate and given good opportunities to use oral language to share their thoughts and ideas. They are invited by kaiako to make decisions about their learning.
Children under the age of two years have formed secure attachments with teachers that promote a positive sense of self. Consistent caregiving ensures individual needs are responded to with sensitivity and respect.
Leaders and kaiako support transitions into, within and from the service. The service responds to each child, their parents and whānau identifying and removing barriers to a child’s full acceptance, participation and learning. This ensures that early intervention and learning support needs are identified and responded to. This deliberate approach supports children’s learning and development.
Aspects of tikanga Māori are integrated into daily interactions and throughout centre documentation. Karakia is used at appropriate times during the day. To deepen tikanga Māori in daily practice, leaders and kaiako are considering ways they might increase their knowledge and use of te reo Māori.
Leaders and kaiako engage in professional learning opportunities that build their capability to enact and implement the centre philosophy. They engage in a deliberate and systematic internal evaluation process that promotes positive outcomes for children and adults. They use ongoing inquiry and evaluation well. These processes help to strengthen the alignment of the centre philosophy with the implementation of the learning programme.
Human resource policies, procedures and practices promote a careful and considered approach to selection and recruitment of well qualified personnel. There is a systematic approach to induction for new staff that supports the development of shared understandings of quality practice.
Piccolo Park Early Learning Centre will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:
Before the review, the staff and management of Piccolo Park 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.
During the onsite visit the service provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed areas of non-compliance.
Steve Tanner
Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern)
Northern Region | Te Tai Raki
30 June 2021
| Early Childhood Service Name | Piccolo Park Early Learning Centre |
| Profile Number | 46732 |
| Location | Huntington Park, Auckland |
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Service type |
Education and care service |
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Number licensed for |
120 children, including up to 20 aged under 2 |
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Percentage of qualified teachers |
80%+ |
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Service roll |
107 |
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Ethnic composition |
Māori 8% |
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Review team on site |
March 2021 |
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Date of this report |
30 June 2021 |
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Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review, March 2017 |
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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.
Piccolo Park Early Learning Centre opened in 2015 as the newest of two privately owned centres with the same name. The centre operates from an attractively renovated historic homestead and an adjoining new purpose built facility. The site's original farmland and its owners are acknowledged throughout the centre environment. The philosophy and vision embraces high quality education and care for children. This is the first ERO review of the centre.
The centre is licensed for up to 120 children including 20 up to two years of age. There are four separate age related groups known as Whenua, Wai 1, Wai 2 and Ngahere. Each room has a team leader to support the teaching team.
The youngest group, Whenua is based in the homestead and has its own indoor and outdoor play areas. The three older age groups have separate rooms and a spacious shared outdoor environment. Children have access to sensory gardens that include an orchard, vegetables and native plantings.
The centre employs 11 qualified and registered teachers, several teacher aides and a cook. Three of the directors support both Piccolo Park centres as the business and financial manager, centre manager and assistant manager. The staff reflect the ethnic diversity of the community.
Children are happy and confident in their interactions with each other and adults. A high quality environment supports children's self-management and choice to access resources and equipment. Teachers provide a purposeful learning environment that provokes children's curiosity and thinking. Children engage in physical activity, early literacy, mathematics and science experiences. The team leaders model good practices to help to extend older children's learning and encourage problem solving. Children have rich opportunities for sustained, uninterrupted play that supports their social skills and language development.
Whenua is a comfortable, homely environment for the youngest children who settle quickly with staff. Teachers are nurturing and responsive to infants' care needs and support them well in their exploration. They communicate regularly with parents to keep them informed of children's routines, their day in general and ongoing learning. As a result of teachers' evaluations and consultation with parents, children transitioning in and out of Whenua has been strengthened. This work has led the teaching team to consider how they can now improve children's transitions to school.
Teachers shared understandings of the centre and room philosophies are clearly evident in their teaching practices. The team leaders support teachers to ensure that Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, strongly underpins programme planning, assessment and evaluation. Key teachers contribute to programme plans that respond to children's dispositions for learning and their individual and group interests. Good systems and processes have been established to gather parent feedback and share information about children's learning.
The curriculum values children's language, culture and identity. They have opportunities to learn about the unique place of Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand and to celebrate their own and each other's cultures. The teaching team continue to seek ways to build connections with the local Māori community and to support success for Māori children.
Internal evaluation is well developed and results in improved outcomes for children. Managers have worked with external professional support to build a shared understanding of internal evaluation. Teachers reflect on their practice and identify particular aspects of their programme that they could evaluate further. Managers are continuing to strengthen internal evaluation systems.
Parents are regularly consulted on a range of matters including the programme, care, policies and centre plans and goals. Managers are responsive to feedback. Many parents express very high levels of satisfaction with the quality of education and care that is provided and the support for their children's wellbeing. This includes the provision of an inclusive environment, nutritious meals and good levels of hygiene.
The managers are responsive, proactive leaders. They model the vision and expectations they have of staff. A sound policy framework has been established, as well as the development of effective health and safety practices and well implemented long term plans and goals to guide the centre's future direction. Goals are regularly monitored and evaluated. Managers make good use of external resources and professional development to continuously improve their management of the centre.
Managers adopt a positive approach to implementing the centre's personnel policies. They have made considered staff appointments to provide strong curriculum leadership, encourage collaborative team work and grow the teams' leadership capacity. Appraisals meet Education Council requirements and meaningfully support teachers to grow their individual practice and collective capability. Managers are keen to include Tātaiako: Cultural Competencies for Teachers of Māori Learners, to support teachers' provision for Māori children.
Centre leaders agree that next steps for centre development include:
sustaining and deepening internal evaluation
strengthening teachers' bicultural practice
growing teachers' leadership capacity.
Before the review, the staff and management of Piccolo Park 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 Piccolo Park Early Learning Centre will be in three years.
Graham Randell
Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern
23 March 2017
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 |
Botany, Auckland |
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Ministry of Education profile number |
46732 |
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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 |
120 children, including up to 20 aged under 2 |
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Service roll |
97 |
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Gender composition |
Boys 50 Girls 47 |
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Ethnic composition |
Māori Pākehā Chinese Indian South African Fiji Indian Arabian Cambodian European Indonesian other |
2 42 19 7 7 6 2 2 2 2 6 |
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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 |
Under 2 |
1:4 |
Better than minimum requirements |
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Over 2 |
1:8 |
Better than minimum requirements |
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Review team on site |
January 2017 |
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Date of this report |
23 March 2017 |
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Most recent ERO report(s)
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No previous ERO reports |
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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 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.