Rutherford Street 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 Rutherford Street Kindergarten are as follows:

2 Context of the Service

Rutherford Street Kindergarten is a long-established, community based early childhood service. It is governed by a board, of which the majority of members are new. Three permanent staff, including a manager, are employed. One teacher is a recent appointment. A quarter of the children enrolled come from diverse ethnic backgrounds.

3 Summary of findings

Children’s learning is promoted by the play-based curriculum, attentive teachers, and an interesting, well-resourced environment. Play is often sustained. There is a culture of care and respect to foster wellbeing and a sense of belonging. Relationships among staff and families are well established and supportive. Te ao Māori is valued and integrated into the learning programme in meaningful ways. The new team has yet to collaborate with families to identify a curriculum that reflects the local context and what is important in this service’s community.

The team’s approach to planning for learning is at an early stage. Teachers seek the aspirations of parents about their children’s learning. However, these have yet to be used purposefully as part of the planning process. While links to the strands and goals of the early childhood curriculum, Te Whariki, are evident in learning records, teachers have yet to successfully integrate the learning outcomes in Te Whāriki into their approach or show how they are progressing children’s learning over time. Priority learners are identified but targeted planning for these children is not yet well developed.

Progress in strengthening operation and practice has been limited. Systems for leadership appraisal, and to support internal evaluation and long-term planning, have been adopted but are not well implemented. Stronger leadership and governance are required. It is imperative that measures are put in place to support ongoing development and sustain positive outcomes for children.

4 Improvement actions

Rutherford Street Kindergarten will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:

• in collaboration with parents and whānau, establish priorities for children’s learning inclusive of the learning outcomes in Te Whāriki

• build teachers’ shared understanding of assessment, particularly in relation to identifying and recording children’s learning and progress over time

• develop systems to promote and sustain improvement, including an ongoing and collective approach to internal evaluation, collaboratively developed long-term planning, with progress measured and monitored

• targeted support for teaching and leadership is required.

5 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Rutherford Street 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.

6 Actions for Compliance

ERO identified the following area of non-compliance:

• evidence of review of the emergency management plan, on at least an annual basis

[Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care Services, HS7].

Since the onsite visit, the service has provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed the following non-compliances:

• all children’s workers who have access to children are safety checked in accordance with the Children’s Act 2014 [GMA7A]

• a complete record is kept of the time each child attending the service sleeps, and checks made by adults during that time [HS9].

​​​​​7 Recommendation to Ministry of Education

ERO recommends the Ministry follows up with the service provider to ensure non-compliances identified in this report are addressed.

Kathy Lye
Director Review and Improvement Services (Acting, Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini

22 February 2023 

8 About the Early Childhood Service