21 Melba Street, Kaitaia
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 Blessings for Life Kaitaia are as follows:
Outcome Indicators(What the service knows about outcomes for learners) |
Whakaū Embedding |
Ngā Akatoro Domains |
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Learning ConditionsOrganisational Conditions |
Whakaū Embedding Whāngai Establishing |
Blessings for Life Kaitaia is one of two privately owned centres under the same ownership, and is located in Kaitaia. The centre owner and manager are supported by a team of seven qualified teachers and two unqualified teachers. Nearly half the children attending are of Māori descent.
Children benefit from a calm and settled environment. They are respected as competent and capable learners who may move freely through the environment and sustain their play for extended periods of time. Teachers intentionally provide an environment that is inclusive and accepting for children and their families.
Children experience an environment where tikanga practices and te reo Māori are woven naturally throughout their routines and programme. Teachers’ extensive and meaningful use of te reo and tikanga Māori promotes a strong sense of cultural identity for children. Learning is often connected to the history of the area and the local whenua.
The philosophy is based on Christian values and promotes a whānau-focused approach. Teachers increasingly work in partnership with parents, responding to whānau aspirations for their tamariki. This impacts positively on whānau feeling valued and contributes to growing the learning partnerships. These practices promote children’s strong sense of ownership and belonging in the centre.
Children’s learning is supported by the daily programme and local curriculum that:
provides opportunities for creative and imaginative play
encourages physical challenge in the outdoor environment
promotes literacy, numeracy, and science experiences.
Good assessment for learning practices are embedding, and children’s learning is celebrated. This practice and the curriculum would benefit from ongoing and regular evaluation.
A process that supports teachers to review and make improvements to practice is in place and is well used to identify changes they want to make. Teachers are in the early stages of building their capability to undertake internal evaluation. More rigorous evaluation would enable them to effectively identify how well, or which curriculum and teaching practices, support improved learning outcomes for children.
Implementation of the professional growth cycle for building teachers’ capability through ongoing professional development is at an early stage.
Blessings for Life Kaitaia will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:
Improve, extend, and embed curriculum evaluation, planning and assessment for learning processes. These practices should make clear teachers’ responses and roles in adding complexity to children’s learning and recording children’s progress over time.
Continue to build teachers’ capability to do, use and embed evaluation for improvement to promote valued learning outcomes for all children.
Embed the professional growth cycle with a focus on strengthening the capability of teachers.
Before the review, the staff and management of Blessings for Life Kaitaia 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.
Filivaifale Jason Swann
Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern)
Northern Region | Te Tai Raki
18 November 2022
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Early Childhood Service Name |
Blessings for Life Kaitaia |
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Profile Number |
46932 |
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Location |
Kaitaia |
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Service type |
Education and care service |
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Number licensed for |
40 children, including up to 10 aged under 2 |
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Percentage of qualified teachers |
80-99% |
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Service roll |
43 |
|
Review team on site |
June 2022 |
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Date of this report |
18 November 2022 |
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Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review, July 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.
Blessings for Life Kaitaia opened in 2016 and operates in a former church building in central Kaitaia. It is licensed to provide full-day education and care for up to 40 children, including a maximum of 10 children aged under two years. The service reflects the mainly Māori and Pākehā local community.
A strongly values-based Christian philosophy is at the heart of the service's culture. Children are nurtured and affirmed as confident and capable individuals, and are well placed to thrive in this high quality, family-style service.
The owner/manager and a head teacher oversee the day-to-day programme and operations. The majority of staff, including the owner/manager, are qualified teachers. As a collaborative team, staff provide a peaceful, and interesting environment for young children to explore through play. A full-time cook provides nutritious and healthy meals.
The owner has another Blessings for Life service in Houhora.
The centre's philosophy is highly evident in programmes and practices. A child-centred, play-based approach promotes wellbeing and learning, with a good balance of child-led and adult-initiated activities. Children are busy, engaged, and show a deep sense of wonder and enjoyment in discovery. Teachers value and praise children's strengths, knowledge and individuality.
Respectful, trusting and supportive relationships are a feature, reflecting the centre's philosophy, vision and values. Blessings for Life provides a safe, comfortable place for whānau, supporting wellbeing and positive outcomes for children. Meaningful connections are reflected in the warm and welcome extended to whānau.
A consistent, nurturing approach to promoting wellbeing results in high quality care. Staff support children's self-esteem and independence. They help children to be mindful of the needs and rights of others. They support children to question, negotiate, suggest, and express their ideas and needs. As a result, children demonstrate care with positive social skills, and tuakana/teina support for peers.
The spacious centre environment is thoughtfully organised with a range of attractive areas. Children use these creatively and learn through play. Quiet, comfortable spaces are thoughtfully furnished to provide warmth and security. There are also extensive interesting and lively spaces that encourage exploration and provide fun physical challenges. Well chosen resources prompt early literacy and numeracy development, along with science-related knowledge and skills.
Teachers seamlessly weave te reo Māori through the programme in action. Tikanga Māori is practised naturally. The environment and resources highlight purposeful connections to Māori themes and perspectives. Staff nurture each child's pride in their own culture, language and identity. An inclusive, harmonious atmosphere is fostered and a deep bicultural commitment is enacted.
Staff give appropriate space and time for children to explore and expand on their ideas. They are responsive, affirming and encouraging, recognising each child's potential. Creative and imaginative activities feature strongly. High quality conversations and questioning skills extend children's language and experiences, as they explore their world. Children confidently make choices about their play, showing a sense of ownership of their environment.
A significant number of children attending the service are under three years of age. There has been a significant and successful focus on reviewing and enhancing programmes for infants and toddlers. Good and growing professional relationships are also being created with local primary schools, easing transitions for older children.
Children's portfolios provide a very good record of how the service works alongside whānau to support children's holistic needs. Leaders are refining learning stories so that possible ways to extend children's learning are clearly stated in teachers' planning.
The owner's nurturing and supportive approach means that teaching and learning expectations are continuously modelled and affirmed in an appreciative way. Collaborative decision making promotes shared ownership and understanding of practices and processes within the team, and with whānau. Leaders skilfully plan, resource and review learning. Teachers are given good feedback about their practices, and supported to improve.
Centre leaders now plan to strengthen their internal evaluation of programmes and systems. This useful next step would support leaders as they prepare to align the centre's strategic planning with teachers' appraisal goals and professional learning.
Before the review, the staff and management of Blessings for Life Kaitaia 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.
The next ERO review of Blessings for Life Kaitaia will be in four years.
Violet Tu’uga Stevenson
Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern (Acting)
26 July 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 |
Kaitaia |
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Ministry of Education profile number |
46932 |
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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 |
40 children, including up to 10 aged under 2 |
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Service roll |
38 |
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Gender composition |
Boys 25, Girls 13 |
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Ethnic composition |
Māori |
26 |
|
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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 |
1:2.5 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
Over 2 |
2:3.5 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
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Review team on site |
June 2017 |
||
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Date of this report |
26 July 2017 |
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Most recent ERO report(s) |
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:
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.