Lake Tekapo Kindergarten

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 ​Lake Tekapo Kindergarten​ are as follows:  

2 Context of the Service 

Lake Tekapo Kindergarten is one of 13 kindergartens governed by the South Canterbury Kindergarten Association. Children who attend are from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds, including a very small number of Māori children and a small number of Japanese children. The kindergarten has a new teaching team, including a new head teacher. 

3 Summary of findings 

Children experience a culturally responsive curriculum. Teacher practice and the curriculum are reflective of Aotearoa New Zealand and provide children with opportunities to learn and use some te reo Māori and New Zealand Sign Language. Teachers gather information from families and whānau about ways to use their home languages within the curriculum. The diverse cultures are reflected in daily experiences and through resourcing. Teachers are beginning to document assessment in children’s home languages with family and whānau support and guidance. The enacted curriculum supports children to develop a positive learner identity.  

Assessment documentation shows children learning through a play-based curriculum. The kindergarten’s curriculum priorities of communication, relationships, kindness, creativity and sustainability are evident in documented and undocumented assessment. It is timely these curriculum priorities are reviewed in consultation with whānau. Assessment information is learning focused. However, this is yet to clearly show the learning outcomes from Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, or show children’s developing capabilities and learning progress overtime in relation to these learning outcomes.  

Leaders and those with governance roles have established and implement sound systems, processes and practices to drive improvement within the association. This includes relevant opportunities for professional learning and engagement in professional growth and reflection. Senior teachers support improved practice by regularly visiting and mentoring kindergarten staff.  

Improved guidelines for internal evaluation are in place. However, governance, leadership and within individual kindergartens internal evaluation for improvement requires further embedding to be fully effective. This includes developing the collective capability to effectively monitor and evaluate the improvement actions to better determine whether they are having the desired impact.  

The board, managers and teaching teams effectively implement the association’s strategic vision, values and goals. Collaboration with mana whenua is enabling them to develop practices that show deepening commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Decision making and allocation of resources are focused on enabling children and whānau full participation within the kindergarten.  

4 Improvement actions 

​​Lake Tekapo Kindergarten​ will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning: 

• The new teaching team to work collaboratively with whānau and their learning community to review the kindergarten’s curriculum priorities and use these to inform curriculum design and implementation. 
• In assessment documentation, consistently show children’s developing capabilities and learning progress overtime in relation to the learning outcomes of Te Whāriki. 
• Those with roles in governance and management to continue to build their own and teachers’ capability in the use of evaluation to scrutinise all aspects of operation and more clearly show the impact of planned actions on outcomes for identified individuals and groups of learners.   

5 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements 

Before the review, the staff and management of ​Lake Tekapo Kindergarten​ 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 it has addressed the following non-compliance:   

• Having a detailed record of safety checking, including risk assessment required to be complete after all relevant information is obtained (GMA7A).   
   

Patricia Davey 
Director of Early Childhood Education (ECE) 

​​11 December 2023​   

6 About the Early Childhood Service