Precious Years Learning Centre

1 ERO’s Judgements

Akarangi | 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 Precious Years Learning Centre are as follows:

2 Context of the Service

Precious Years Learning Centre is privately owned. A qualified service provider and centre manager are responsible for daily operations. Together they lead the teaching team and support curriculum delivery. At the time of the review a small number of children had Māori whakapapa. The service’s philosophy is based on providing a curriculum that nurtures children’s exploration, inquiry and investigation.

3 Summary of findings

Leaders and teachers provide a curriculum that positively and intentionally promotes children’s independence, decision-making and their sense of security. Learning environments are well-resourced to promote independence and exploration. Children have developed a strong connection to their community. They have good opportunities to imagine, explore and experiment, both indoors and outdoors. Warm, reciprocal relationships between teachers and children are evident.

Children, including infants and toddlers, experience a language-rich, child-led curriculum based on the service’s philosophy and Te Whariki, the early childhood curriculum. Teachers encourage children to express their ideas and to problem-solve. Over time, assessment records show children’s developing sense of belonging and their growth in confidence.

Teachers provide an inclusive curriculum. Aspects of tikanga Māori are integrated into the curriculum and environment. The cultural heritage of families is valued and recorded in assessment documentation.

Internal evaluation practices need to be re-established. Leaders agree that it is timely to focus on helping the team to use internal evaluation processes as a way to improve what is happening for children.

Service leaders allocate resources that align with the service’s philosophy, vision, and priorities for learning. Relationships are a key focus at this service. Relational trust between leaders and kaiako supports team collaboration. Leaders recognise the need to reinstate processes, and practices to support ongoing improvement.

4 Improvement actions

Precious Years Learning Centre will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:

• Build leaders’ and teachers’ collective understanding of how to undertake internal evaluation that results in improved teaching practices and better learning outcomes for children.

• Strengthen assessment and evaluation records to clearly show how children learn and make progress over time.

• Strengthen learning-focused partnerships by providing parents and children with opportunities to contribute to curriculum planning.

5 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Precious Years Learning Centre 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.

Action for Compliance

During the review, the service provided ERO with evidence that shows the following non-compliance had been addressed:

• Maintaining a record of all safety checks of staff and the results (GMA7A).

Patricia Davey
Director or Early Childhood Education (ECE)

28 August 2023 

6 About the Early Childhood Service