15 Pomona Street, Gore
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 |
Meeting |
|
Governance, management and administration |
Meeting |
Since the onsite visit, the service has provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed non-compliances and is now taking reasonable steps to meet regulatory standards.
Gore Preschool is one of three services under common private ownership. The centre manager is new to the role after being a long serving member of the teaching team. There have been significant staff changes in the last 18 months. There are many tamariki Māori attending the service. This is the service’s first ERO report under new ownership.
The curriculum is aligned to Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. It is responsive to the needs and interests of children. The curriculum provides children with a range of experiences and opportunities both indoors, outdoors, individually and in groups. Teachers support infants and toddlers to develop their oral language skills, and their play preferences are respected.
The premises and facilities support the provision of different types of experiences, including quiet areas, and physically active play, appropriate to the abilities of the children attending.
Service operations are guided by an annual plan and philosophy statement. The service is now meeting the requirements of the regulatory standards.
Next steps include:
strengthening the extent to which Information documented about children’s learning reflects their identity, languages and cultures
increasing the range of opportunities children and their families have to share aspects of their cultures with others in the service.
During the review, the service provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed the following non-compliances:
Ensuring heavy furniture that can topple or fall are secured.
Ensuring that hazard to the safety of children are minimised.
Since the onsite visit, the service has provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed the following non-compliances:
Maintaining accurate records of training and/or information provided to adults who administer medicine to children (other than their own) while at the service.
Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care Services 2008; HS6, HS12 HS29.
The next ERO review will likely be an Akarangi | Quality evaluation.
Patricia Davey
Director of Early Childhood Education (ECE)
11 July 2023
|
Early Childhood Service Name |
Gore Preschool |
|
Profile Number |
47155 |
|
Location |
Gore |
|
Service type |
Education and care service |
|
Number licensed for |
85 children, including up to 30 aged under 2 |
|
Percentage of qualified teachers |
80-99% |
|
Service roll |
85 |
|
Review team on site |
5 May 2023 |
|
Date of this report |
11 July 2023 |
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review, March 2019 |
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.
having its first ERO review – including if it is part of a governing organisation
previously identified as ‘not well placed’ or ‘requiring further development’
that has moved from a provisional to a full licence
that have been re-licenced due to a change of ownership
where an Akanuku | Assurance Review process is determined to be appropriate.
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:
curriculum
premises and facilities
health and safety practices
governance, management and administration.
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:
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 certification; ratios)
relevant evacuation procedures and practices.
As part of an Akanuku | Assurance Review ERO also gathers and records evidence through:
discussions with those involved in the service
consideration of relevant documentation, including the implementation of health and safety systems
observations of the environment/premises, curriculum implementation and teaching practice.
|
Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
Gore Preschool Early Learning Centre is well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Gore Preschool Early Learning Centre is a new, privately-owned service offering education and care for children aged 0 to 5 years. The preschool is licensed for 85 children, including up to 30 infants and toddlers. It runs all-day sessions. Children learn in one of four age-group classrooms in a purpose-built facility. Since opening in January 2017, the preschool has had rapid growth in its roll.
The centre philosophy states that teachers aim to support all children to develop courage, curiosity, responsibility, creativity, resilience, trusting relationships and a strong sense of cultural identity. They aim to support these outcomes through child-led and play-based learning, responsive relationships, provision of a rich environment and a bicultural curriculum.
The service is one of two early learning services owned by the directors. A director oversees day-to-day operations in the preschool. Teaching and learning is led by a professional practice leader and two team leaders.
This is the preschool's first ERO review.
Strategic and annual planning is well considered and has effectively supported the development, growth and daily operations of the preschool. The directors have thoughtfully drawn on their learning and experience with their first preschool to plan and implement effective systems, policies, procedures and practices in Gore Preschool. This has contributed to a well-organised learning environment, which is characterised by clear expectations and shared understandings for staff, families and children.
The collaboratively developed philosophy identifies desired learning outcomes for children and key beliefs about effective teaching and learning. It is effectively guiding curriculum delivery and teaching practice. Teachers encourage children to lead their learning at their own pace and support this through the purposeful design of the learning environment. The director has identified that the next step is to review the philosophy in consultation with children's families and to ensure it clearly identifies learning priorities valued by families and staff.
The curriculum responds well to children's interests, needs and abilities. Daily routines are predictable, but flexible to meet children's and families' needs. Children experience responsive, reciprocal and caring interactions with teachers. Infants and toddlers benefit from stable, nurturing relationships with key teachers and from learning in a calm and homely environment. Positive guidance strategies are well used to support all children to develop and demonstrate the service's values of respect for self, others and the environment.
Teachers carefully observe children's emergent interests and abilities and use these as the basis for curriculum planning. They are developing their understandings and capability to integrate Māori perspectives meaningfully throughout their programmes.
Internal evaluation is used effectively to know about the quality of teaching and learning and to improve positive outcomes for children. It is well planned and aligned with the preschool's strategic goals and philosophy. It involves teachers building their professional knowledge of effective practice, analysing their own teaching practice and drawing on the perspectives of families.
ERO and preschool leadership discussed and agreed on the following next steps to continue to improve outcomes for children and support the development of teacher capability.
1. Further refine planning and assessment processes and practices in order to:
ensure these focus on the breadth of the preschool's curriculum and desired outcomes for children
reflect Te Whāriki (2017) the NZ Early Childhood Curriculum's focus on teacher intentionality and progression in children's learning
incorporate and respond to children's individual cultural identities.
2. Continue to develop the rigour of teacher appraisal processes.
Before the review, the staff and management of Gore Preschool 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.
Alan Wynyard
Director Review and Improvement Services Southern
Southern Region
7 March 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 |
Gore |
||
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
47155 |
||
|
Licence type |
Education & Care Service |
||
|
Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
||
|
Number licensed for |
85 children, including up to 30 aged under 2 |
||
|
Service roll |
111 |
||
|
Gender composition |
Girls: 38% Boys: 62% |
||
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori |
5% |
|
|
Percentage of qualified teachers |
80% + |
||
|
Reported ratios of staff to children |
Under 2 |
1:4 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
Over 2 |
1:8 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
|
Review team on site |
November 2018 |
||
|
Date of this report |
7 March 2019 |
||
|
Most recent ERO reports |
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:
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.