Busy Bees Featherston Street

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 Puddleducks' Featherston Street are as follows:

2 Context of the Service

The service is one of six within the Manawatū in the Aspiring Services Ltd group. The centre is supported by a senior leadership team and board, with day-to-day management overseen by a centre leader. The ethnically diverse roll includes almost a quarter who are identified as Māori and a small number of Pacific learners.

3 Summary of findings

Children’s developing social competence and emotional wellbeing is enriched by teachers working in partnership with parents. Collaborative relationships contribute to children’s effective transitions into and across the centre. Inclusive teaching practice promotes a responsive curriculum, removing barriers to participation for children requiring additional support. Partnerships with external agencies contribute to positive outcomes for these children. 

Children are empowered to revisit their learning and engage in periods of sustained independent play. Infants and toddlers experience a calm, unhurried environment where teachers clearly respond to their verbal and non-verbal cues. Older learners lead their own learning, opportunities to develop independence and problem-solving skills.

The use of the organisation-wide assessment, planning and evaluation system is variable and in the beginning stages of implementation. Children’s strengths and interests are well reflected in assessment and the use of te reo Māori, and children’s home languages is evident for some. Leaders have identified that, particularly for Māori and Pacific children, seeing and hearing more of their own language and culture is required to enhance learning.  

Children and their families benefit from intentional actions of senior leadership and governance to support inclusion and equity. Stewardship provided at this level supports ongoing development for the varied experience of teachers and leaders. Positive and consistent outcomes for all children are the basis of decision making at a strategic level. The teaching team is at the early stages of implementing collaborative, centre-wide, internal evaluation. Organisational leaders are yet to use evaluation findings to understand progress toward strategic priorities.

4 Improvement actions

Puddleducks' Featherston Street will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:

• To build team capability to use evaluation with:

• assessment of children’s learning progression over time
• centre internal evaluation to understand what has worked, why and for which individuals and groups.

• Senior leaders to use findings from centre level evaluation to monitor, understand progress toward, and evaluate strategic priorities. 

5 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Puddleducks' Featherston Street 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

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

• When children leave the premises on an excursion, sufficient assessment and management of risk is undertaken and ratios determined accordingly (HS17).

Patricia Davey
Director of Early Childhood Education (ECE)

23 June 2023 

7 About the Early Childhood Service