Apples Childcare and Learning Centre Onehunga

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 Apples Childcare and Learning Centre Onehunga are as follows:

2 Context of the Service

Apples Childcare and Learning Centre Onehunga is one of two privately owned centres governed by Apples Institute of Education Limited. Teachers and children reflect the diverse community the centre is located in. The service focuses on providing education and care for children under the age of three years.

3 Summary of findings

Children’s learning is play-based, valued, visible and effectively responded to by teachers. Children’s views and ideas are encouraged, accepted, and respected. They are given space and time to lead their play and form nurturing relationships with their peers. Developing children’s independence and oral language is valued and a learning priority.

Teachers who work with infants and toddlers maintain a calm, slow pace that gives these younger children space and time to lead their learning. Teachers are highly responsive to children’s verbal and non-verbal cues and signals. Their learning environment is well resourced to meet their ages and stages of development. Responsive caregiving supports infants’ and toddlers’ need for strong and secure attachments.

Children and families experience a holistic learning environment where they know they have a place and feel a sense of belonging. Well-developed learning conditions that help sustain this include:

• an inclusive environment where equitable opportunities for learning for every child are prioritised and collaboration between centre staff and parents is paramount

• acknowledging and responding to children’s cultural backgrounds, which are used, visible, and well-integrated through the daily curriculum

• leaders and teachers viewing and responding to children as confident and competent learners, and the collective support for children with additional learning needs

• valuing parents’ viewpoints on their child’s learning, and using their learning aspirations to contribute to assessment for learning and curriculum development to sustain learning-focused partnerships

• well-considered learning environments that are resourced with children’s ages, stages and quiet and more active spaces in mind.

Teachers’ understanding and implementation of Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, is strong. Their professional knowledge is used well to plan the curriculum and assess children’s learning. Assessment for learning practices give children agency and enhances their mana. Ongoing improvement to assessment practices is a focus for teachers to enable them to identify learner outcomes more reliably.

Leaders have a strong focus on continual improvement and show a strong commitment to the service’s philosophy, vision, and goals. Review and internal evaluation is intentional, and its purpose well understood. A future focus is to gain a deeper understanding of using evaluation for improvement to measure how effectively practices sustain, contribute to and reflect children’s rights for equitable learning opportunities.

4 Improvement action

Apples Childcare and Learning Centre Onehunga will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning to sustain and enhance quality:

• Deepen assessment for learning through ongoing development of effective assessment practices and tools for all children, in particular for responding effectively to children’s languages and cultures.

• Continue to grow teachers’ evaluative thinking and reasoning capability for doing and using internal evaluation to improve outcomes for children.

5 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Apples Childcare and Learning Centre Onehunga 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.

6 Actions for Compliance

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

• Parental acknowledgement for the administration of medication (HS28).

Filivaifale Jason Swann
Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern)
Northern Region | Te Tai Raki

11 August 2022 

7 About the Early Childhood Service