14 Carew Street, Kaiapoi
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 Bella Montessori Preschool Limited are as follows:
Outcome Indicators(What the service knows about outcomes for learners) |
Whakawhanake Sustaining |
Ngā Akatoro Domains |
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Learning ConditionsOrganisational Conditions |
Whakawhanake Sustaining Whakawhanake Sustaining |
Bella Montessori is a privately-owned, full-day service for tamariki aged between six months and six years. Tamariki come from a wide range of cultural backgrounds, including almost a quarter who identify as Māori. The nursery was closed at time of review. The service is managed by the centre owner and a manager. Progress has been made in addressing the key next steps identified in the 2017 ERO report.
The mana of tamariki is acknowledged and fostered within a culturally responsive Montessori curriculum reflective of Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. They are encouraged to wonder, and problem solve in a language-rich environment. Opportunities to work independently and collaborate with others, supports tamariki to build their identity toward becoming confident learners.
Tamariki have opportunities to take responsibility for their own and others wellbeing through regular and predictable routines. Kaiako role model respectful, caring interactions that support tamariki to develop social and emotional competence.
The service-learning priorities of partnership, growth, excellence, wellbeing, integrity, respect and relationships are established and embedded in practice. These have been developed with kaiako. Reviewing these priorities to determine the alignment with the learning outcomes from Te Whāriki is still to occur.
Kaiako are becoming more capable integrating te reo me ngā tikanga Māori and provide a wide range of opportunities for tamariki to develop an understanding of New Zealand’s bi-cultural heritage. Leaders and kaiako continue to work toward integrating local iwi and hapū perspectives into the curriculum.
Since ERO’s 2017 review, kaiako have developed meaningful learning focused partnerships with parents and whānau which promote positive outcomes for their tamariki. Kaiako intentionally integrate into assessment and planning:
parents’ aspirations for their child’s learning and wellbeing, and
connections between the home and service.
Providing continuity and clearly showing individual learning and progress over time.
Leaders and kaiako are strongly improvement focused, undertaking targeted professional learning to build capability. Internal evaluation is collaborative and supports kaiako to realise the service’s strategic goals and curriculum priorities. Partnerships with external agencies provide support that enable them to be highly responsive to tamariki identified needs.
Bella Montessori Preschool Limited will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning. These are to explore:
the learning outcomes in Te Whāriki in collaboration with children, whānau, and kaiako to inform its learning priorities
local iwi and hapū aspirations and perspectives and use the learning gained to develop a treaty-based curriculum that promotes positive outcomes for tamariki Māori.
Before the review, the staff and management of Bella Montessori Preschool Limited completed an ERO 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; safety checking; teacher registration; ratios)
relevant evacuation procedures and practices.
All early childhood services are required to promote children's health and safety and to regularly review their compliance with legal requirements.
Dr Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini
28 October 2022
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Early Childhood Service Name |
Bella Montessori Preschool Limited |
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Profile Number |
47007 |
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Location |
Kaiapoi |
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Service type |
Education and care service |
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Number licensed for |
39 children, including up to 7 aged under 2 |
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Percentage of qualified teachers |
100% |
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Service roll |
49 |
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Review team on site |
August 2022 |
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Date of this report |
28 October 2022 |
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Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review, November 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.
Bella Montessori is a new full-day education and care centre located in Kaiapoi. It is licensed for 39 children aged from birth-to-school age. Nearly 20% of the children identify as Māori and a quarter of the children are from diverse cultures and ethnicities other than Māori and Pākeha.
The centre is owned and managed by an experienced early childhood professional. She leads the teaching team and teaches in the programme. As the centre roll has grown, a number of additional trained and untrained teachers have been appointed.
The programme is guided by the Montessori philosophy and underpinned by Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum.
The centre is part of Katote Kāhui Ako|Community of Learning (Col), with other early learning services and local schools.
This is the first ERO review for the centre.
The centre manager's vision for high quality education and care results in practices that promote positive outcomes for children. Core values of manaakitanga, respect and love, with a strong focus on children's learning, underpin the centre's vision and centre practices. The centre philosophy and long and short-term planning are well developed and cohesive, with a strong focus on positive outcomes for children. There are clear and high expectations for supporting children's learning and useful systems to share knowledge and build leadership in the teaching team.
Children benefit from programmes that are strongly grounded in the principles and strands of Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum and learning through the Montessori method. Teachers view children as capable and confident learners. They provide authentic learning opportunities and are responsive to the strengths, interests and capabilities of the children. Teachers deliberately focus on building children's:
sense of belonging
developing social skills
self-regulation and independence
dispositions to learn, such as thinking and reasoning, and making choices
growing knowledge of mathematics and literacy.
The carefully designed outdoor environment provides children with opportunities to challenge themselves and explore.
Children have opportunities to hear and use te reo Māori, waiata and karakia.
A special feature of the centre is the way the manager and teachers ensure a calm and unhurried pace, where children have time to explore, investigate, and practice real-life and self-help skills.
Infants benefit from the nurturing, respectful and responsive relationships they have with their teachers. They play and learn in a small-group setting where their individual needs are met and home routines are closely followed.
Children with diverse learning and behaviour needs are very well supported. The teachers have made good use of professional learning to develop detailed planning and implement specific strategies leading to improved outcomes for these children.
Children are well supported as they transition into the centre, within the centre and as they leave for school.
Teachers are developing useful assessment, planning and evaluation systems for individual and groups of children. This includes a system to monitor that Māori children are actively engaged in their learning and are progressing well and succeeding as Māori. Records of learning show that teachers seek and respond well to parents' wishes for their children's learning.
Internal evaluation is used to guide ongoing improvements and inform decision making. A next step is to continue to build teachers' shared understanding and capacity in internal evaluation.
The key next steps for the manager and teachers are to continue to:
build educationally powerful partnerships with parents
develop and refine assessment, planning and evaluation and ensure that children's language, culture and identity are reflected in records of learning
extend internal evaluation practices across the teaching team.
Before the review, the staff and management of Bella Montessori Preschool Limited 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 Bella Montessori Preschool Limited will be in three years.
Dr Lesley Patterson
Deputy Chief Review Officer Southern
Te Waipounamu - Southern Region
20 November 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 |
Christchurch |
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Ministry of Education profile number |
47007 |
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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 |
39 children, including up to 7 aged under 2 |
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Service roll |
53 |
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Gender composition |
Girls: 31 Boys: 22 |
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Ethnic composition |
Māori |
10 |
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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 |
October 2017 |
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Date of this report |
20 November 2017 |
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Most recent ERO report(s) |
This is the first review of this service |
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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.