302 West Coast Road, Glen Eden, 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 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 Lifewise ECE Glen Eden are as follows:
Outcome Indicators(What the service knows about outcomes for learners) |
Whāngai Establishing |
Ngā Akatoro Domains |
|
Learning ConditionsOrganisational Conditions |
Whakatō Emerging Whāngai Establishing |
Lifewise ECE Glen Eden is owned by the Lifewise Trust, an Auckland-based social development organisation. The trust is part of the Methodist Mission and offers a variety of community services, including governance support for four licensed early learning centres.
A Trust manager supports the centre's governance, leadership, and teaching. Staff include a qualified centre manager, two qualified teachers, and one unqualified teacher. Nearly half of enrolled children are Māori, and a small number have Pacific heritage.
Children experience caring and nurturing relationships with teachers. As a result, they show confidence in daily routines and initiating conversations with their peers and adults, reflecting their sense of belonging. Teachers communicate with each other to ensure that children’s preferences, interests, and needs are respected and responded to appropriately.
A calm environment allows for time and space for teachers and children to form secure attachments. Children demonstrate confidence and trust in their interactions with adults and peers, and tuakana/teina relationships between older and younger children are evident.
Leaders and teachers ensure that children have regular access to outdoor experiences by providing raincoats and gumboots for all children. The outdoor space is set up to encourage children to explore nature and challenge their physical abilities.
Leaders and teachers work to remove barriers to children’s participation in the centre, by providing support for whānau through the centre’s connection with community services. Leaders support initiatives that contribute to positive social and community outcomes.
Teachers recognise and respond to children’s individual interests. They now need to recognise and extend children’s learning in relation to the learning outcomes of Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. Children’s languages, cultures, and identity should be more visible in assessment records.
Teachers engage in a process of internal evaluation, and there is some evidence of positive impact for children. Leaders should support the team to build a shared understanding about using internal evaluation to guide improved practices. Evaluation should include documentation of teachers’ and leaders’ evaluative thinking and focus on evaluating the impact on children’s learning over time.
Lifewise ECE Glen Eden will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:
Improve the extent to which information documented about children’s learning reflects their languages and cultures.
Leaders to support teachers to seek and respond to whānau aspirations for their child’s learning and reflect these in assessment, planning and evaluation documentation.
Consolidate internal evaluation by ensuring that indicators for success are clear, and the impact on children’s learning is evaluated and monitored over time.
Before the review, the staff and management of Lifewise ECE Glen Eden 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.
Compliance
Since the onsite visit, the service has provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed the following non-compliances:
Identifying, eliminating, minimising, or isolating hazards, including hazards present in kitchen or laundry facilities (HS12).
Completing documentation required for excursions including a record of assessment and management of risks for regular excursions (HS17).
Next ERO Review
The next ERO review is likely to be an Akarangi | Quality Evaluation.
Filivaifale Jason Swann
Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern)
Northern Region | Te Tai Raki
25 January 2023
|
Early Childhood Service Name |
Lifewise ECE Glen Eden |
| Profile Number | 47069 |
| Location | Glen Eden, Auckland |
|
Service type |
Education and care service |
|
Number licensed for |
30 children over 2 years |
|
Percentage of qualified teachers |
100% |
|
Service roll |
23 |
|
Review team on site |
August 2022 |
|
Date of this report |
25 January 2023 |
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review, September 2019 |
|
Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
Vital 5 Glen Eden is well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Vital 5 Glen Eden, in West Auckland, is a small purpose-built centre. The centre is licensed for up to 30 children and is a community based, not-for-profit early learning service. It caters for a diverse ethnic group of children, from two years to school age.
The centre is owned by the Lifewise Trust, an Auckland-based social development organisation. The Trust is an arm of the Methodist Mission, and offers a variety of community services, including a small number of licensed early learning centres. The centre's philosophy reflects the Lifewise Trust's ethos, which focuses on each child's wellbeing and respectful and reciprocal relationships with whānau. The Trust provides wraparound care and support for vulnerable whānau and their children.
The centre manager leads a team of three teachers. A Lifewise service manager supports the centre's governance, leadership and teaching.
Children benefit from a calm environment that is welcoming and inclusive. Teachers spend quality time nurturing and settling children into their day. Building and sustaining relationships with whānau is a feature of the centre. Staff are sensitive and respectful in responding to the needs of individual children and whānau.
The programme is flexible and responsive to children's interests. Carefully considered learning environments invite children into a variety of attractively presented play spaces. Children make decisions about their play and have opportunities to lead and participate in uninterrupted learning. Teachers foster children's independence and promote self-management skills.
Teachers notice children's interests and plan activities accordingly. They are well placed to now deepen their teaching practices and programme documentation to extend children's learning. Children's learning stories provide a record of their participation in the programme. Some learning stories clearly document individual children's next learning and highlight their progress over time. The centre manager agrees it is timely to ensure this practice is consistent across the centre.
Teachers use te reo Māori in greetings, waiata and karakia. They could consider ways to increase the visibility of other languages, cultures and identities in individual learning portfolios.
Teachers support children well in their transition to school. A considered and individualised approach ensures all children, including those with additional learning needs, are valued and well supported to start school.
The experienced centre manager shares daily responsibilities with the teaching team. The Lifewise Trust encourages shared leadership and coaching, and provides generous funding for staff professional development. External professional development has supported a review of teacher appraisals, which now align to the Teaching Council regulations.
A variety of useful processes contribute to internal evaluation. Outcomes inform decision-making to improve learning for children. Involving whānau in these reviews could provide opportunities to grow learning partnerships.
Lifewise Trust provides strong governance and management support for the centre. The centre’s strategic plan is linked to the Lifewise Trust strategic plan. A sound policy framework ensures the health and safety of children and adults. A system is in place to regularly review policies and procedures.
The centre manager agrees key next steps are to:
deepen teaching practices and programme documentation to extend learning outcomes for children
ensure high quality learning stories are consistent across the centre
continue to ensure whānau are involved in decision making processes to promote learning partnerships
strengthen internal evaluation practices to include multiple perspectives.
Before the review, the staff and management of Vital 5 Glen Eden 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.
Steve Tanner
Director Review and Improvement Services Northern
Northern Region
12 September 2019
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 |
Glen Eden, Auckland |
||
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
47069 |
||
|
Licence type |
Education & Care Service |
||
|
Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
||
|
Number licensed for |
30 children aged over 2 years |
||
|
Service roll |
23 |
||
|
Gender composition |
Girls 12 Boys 11 |
||
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori |
7 |
|
|
Percentage of qualified teachers |
80% + |
||
|
Reported ratios of staff to children |
Over 2 |
1:6 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
Review team on site |
July 2019 |
||
|
Date of this report |
12 September 2019 |
||
|
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 will depend on how well the service promotes positive learning outcomes for children. The categories are:
Very well placed
Well placed
Requires further development
Not well placed
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.