Magical Years Childcare 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 Magical Years Childcare Centre are as follows:

2 Context of the Service

Magical Years Childcare Centre is a privately owned service providing education and care for different age groups of children in two indoor areas. A shared outdoor space is used by all children. A qualified owner is responsible for daily operations, supported by a curriculum leader. Most of the children attending this service are Indian.

3 Summary of findings

The service’s curriculum provides children with play-based learning opportunities, which encourage the development of social skills. Children engage in respectful relationships with their teachers and peers. Teachers who work with infants and toddlers maintain a calm pace that gives younger children space and time to explore. They are responsive to children’s verbal and non-verbal cues.

Leaders and teachers develop and maintain respectful relationships with children and their parents/whānau. They are beginning to provide regular opportunities for parents to communicate about their child’s learning. Processes to help children settle into the service are supportive and responsive to whānau needs. As a result, children and whānau have developed a sense of belonging and know this is their place.

The use of Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, is developing in teachers’ assessment of, and planning for, children’s learning. Teachers gather information about what children are doing with an aim of making children’s learning evident. Assessment information acknowledges children’s successes. It does not yet document children’s increasing capabilities over time.

There is a newly formed team at this service, and they are currently working to develop the relational trust needed for collaboration. A priority is to develop a shared understanding of the centre philosophy and relevant policies. This is likely to contribute to greater consistency in teaching practices.

Service leaders and teachers aim to engage in evaluation for improvement. A coherent system is now needed that should include:

• identifying indicators of effective teaching practice

• using these indicators to evaluate improvements to practice and how changes made have impacted on outcomes for children.

Operational and evaluation processes would be supported by strengthening leaders’ focus on guiding change and improvement.

4 Improvement actions

Magical Years Childcare Centre will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:

• Develop teachers’ shared understanding of how to consistently enact the service’s philosophy statement and positive guidance policy.

• Develop a system of internal evaluation that includes indicators of quality to help leaders and teachers evaluate how well changes made have impacted on improved learning outcomes for children.

• Develop leaders’ professional capability to guide change and improvement.

5 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Magical Years Childcare 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.

Patricia Davey
Director of Early Childhood Education (ECE)

5 July 2023

6 About the Early Childhood Service