Happy Kiddy Huapai Early 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 Happy Kiddy Huapai Early Learning Centre are as follows:

2 Context of the Service

Happy Kiddy Huapai Early Learning Service is one of two services within the Happy Kiddy organisation. A qualified general manager oversees both services. A qualified centre manager is responsible for daily operations at this service. Several new staff have joined the existing team since the service opened. The roll is ethnically diverse including a small number of Māori children, and children with Pacific heritages.

3 Summary of findings

The curriculum provides children with an opportunity to develop a good sense of belonging. Teachers support children’s developing social competence, and encourage children to take responsibility for their own wellbeing and the wellbeing of others.

Planning and assessment documentation makes children’s learning visible based on Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. Teachers provide children with opportunities to engage in extended learning. Literacy and mathematical concepts are explored through children’s individual and group interests. Teachers have begun to develop individual learning plans, with an aim to strengthen their response to children’s learning, interests, whānau and life contexts. Leaders have identified a need to develop a shared understanding of Te Whāriki in practice, to further foster children’s agency and independence.

Leaders and teachers develop and maintain responsive and reciprocal relationships with children, and their parents/whānau. Teachers support children to transition into, within and beyond the service with a focus on responding to the needs of each child and their family. They seek input from parent/whānau knowledge to help implement a curriculum that reflects children’s diverse languages and cultures. Leaders and teachers need to develop a greater understanding of the cultural competencies required to inform provision for Māori and Pacific children at the service.

The new teaching team is beginning to develop the relational trust needed to support collaboration and shared understandings. Internal evaluation processes have been established. Increasing the collective capability of teachers to undertake service wide evaluation for improvement is required. The service is not yet using evaluation processes to identify the impact of changes made on outcomes for children. As a result, internal evaluation has not been beneficial in improving equitable outcomes for all learners.

4 Improvement actions

Happy Kiddy Huapai Early Learning Centre will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:

• To develop teachers’ shared understandings of Te Whāriki, and use this knowledge to guide clear expectations for teaching and learning.

• For leaders and teachers to build their understanding of cultural competencies by using resources such as Tātaiako and Tapasā to integrate culturally responsive practices through the curriculum.

5 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Happy Kiddy Huapai Early 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.

6 Action for Compliance

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

• Having a written child protection policy which contains provisions for the identification of abuse, and a procedure that sets out how the service will identify and respond to suspected child abuse and/or neglect (HS31).

Patricia Davey
Director of Early Childhood Education (ECE)

17 October 2023

7 About the Early Childhood Service