Tutira Kindergarten

1 Evaluation of Tutira Early Childhood Centre

How well placed is Tutira Early Childhood Centre to promote positive learning outcomes for children?

Tutira Early Childhood Centre requires further development to promote positive learning outcomes for children.

To promote improved outcomes for children, the service needs to have sustainable systems to support and monitor developments in curriculum and teaching and health and safety practices.

ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.

Background

Tutira Early Childhood Centre is a community-based service, located in rural Hawkes Bay. It operates from 8:30am to 3:15pm on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays in the local hall, with three fully qualified teachers.

The service is licensed for up to 30 children, including five up to the age of two. The current roll of 21, includes seven children who identify as Māori.

The centre is governed by a board of trustees. Day-to-day management, including oversight of curriculum and the teaching team, is delegated to the head teacher.

The centre philosophy developed in consultation with families, emphasises the importance of rangatiratanga, manaakitanga, kaitiakitanga and whanaungatanga.

Since the November 2016 ERO report, there have been significant changes to governance and management, including a new board and head teacher. The implementation of new systems and processes are in the early stages of development.

The Review Findings

Some key practices related to children's physical safety need attention to meet the Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008. The board and staff should establish clear expectations for practice and ensure that procedures are followed.

Respectful, engaging relationships between teachers and children are evident. Teachers provide opportunities for children to be self managing and promote their independence. Children are viewed as competent and capable learners. Friendships are promoted and social competencies and self-management skills are fostered.

As a new team, teachers have appropriately identified that it is timely to review the philosophy. To enhance the responsiveness of the curriculum, the community's valued outcomes for children should be clear to all.

The approach to assessment, planning and evaluation is variable. Teachers regularly notice children's interests and participation in the programme and identify the learning taking place. However deliberate planning for, and evaluation of, children's individual learning is limited. Teachers agree that it is timely, as part of curriculum review, to establish clear expectations for assessment of children's learning. Practice should include:

• consistent identification of the learning that is happening for individual children and deliberate teaching strategies to respond to children's needs, interests and skills

• responsiveness to children's culture, language and identity.

A curriculum that maintains individual children's connection to their culture, language and identity requires further development. Kaupapa Māori principles, to determine what educational success looks like for teachers and children in this context, have been considered. Aspects of te ao Māori are evident in the curriculum through waiata, some te reo Māori, resources and karakia. Strengthening staff understanding of educational success for Māori and embedding te reo me ngā tikanga Māori in practice are key next steps.

Teachers have made significant improvements to policies and procedures that guide centre operation. Regular monitoring of the implementation of these centre procedures is required, so governors can be assured that their legal accountabilities are met.

Internal evaluation for improvement is developing, with a focus on sustainability. A next step is to evaluate what is working well and who for, to support ongoing decision making for improvement. This should assist teachers to lift the quality of teaching and learning and measure the impact of practices on outcomes for children.

The appraisal process requires strengthening to reflect the Teaching Council guidelines. This should include more specific, measurable goals to better evaluate teaching strategies in relation to effectiveness for children.

Key Next Steps

Teachers should continue to strengthen:

• assessment, planning and evaluation to align the priorities for children to the philosophy and deliberate planning for individual children

• te ao Māori to better support educational success for Māori children

• internal evaluation to inform teacher practice and learning outcomes for children

• teacher appraisal

• governance and management to promote high quality education and care for children.

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Tutira Early Childhood Centre completed an ERO Centre 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; police vetting; teacher registration; ratios)

• evacuation procedures and practices for fire and earthquake.

All early childhood services are required to promote children’s health and safety and to regularly review their compliance with legal requirements.

Actions for compliance

ERO identified areas of non-compliance relating to Tutira Early Childhood Centre. To meet requirements the service needs to improve its performance in the following areas:

• ensure all windows or other areas of glass accessible to children are either made of safety glass, covered by adhesive film or guarded by barriers

• have sufficient and suitable heating and ascertain the temperature in the main room, bathroom and sleep room

• visibility for supervision when children use the bathroom

• ensure adequate supervision at all times

• gain the permission of parents for regular excursions

• have written authority from parents for medication

• be given parental permission for medical help in an emergency

• have ratios stated on all excursion forms.

[Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care Centres 2008, PF7, PF12, PF25, HS 17, HS28]
[Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008, 45 (1a (ii)]

Since the onsite phase of the review, leaders have provided evidence of steps they are taking to address several of these areas.

Development Plan Recommendation

ERO recommends that the service, in consultation with the Ministry of Education, develops a plan to address the key next steps and actions outlined in this report.

Darcy Te Hau

Acting Director Review and Improvement Services (Central)

Central Region - Te Tai Pūtahi Nui

5 March 2020

The Purpose of ERO Reports

The Education Review Office (ERO) is the government department that, as part of its work, reviews early childhood services throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. ERO’s reports provide information for parents and communities about each service’s strengths and next steps for development. ERO’s bicultural evaluation framework Ngā Pou Here is described in SECTION 3 of this report. Early childhood services are partners in the review process and are expected to make use of the review findings to enhance children's wellbeing and learning.

2 Information about the Early Childhood Service

3 General Information about Early Childhood Reviews

ERO’s Evaluation Framework

ERO’s overarching question for an early childhood education review is ‘How well placed is this service to promote positive learning outcomes for children?’ ERO focuses on the following factors as described in the bicultural framework Ngā Pou Here:

Pou Whakahaere – how the service determines its vision, philosophy and direction to ensure positive outcomes for children

Pou Ārahi – how leadership is enacted to enhance positive outcomes for children

Mātauranga – whose knowledge is valued and how the curriculum is designed to achieve positive outcomes for children

Tikanga whakaako – how approaches to teaching and learning respond to diversity and support positive outcomes for children.

Within these areas ERO considers the effectiveness of arotake – self review and of whanaungatanga – partnerships with parents and whānau.

ERO evaluates how well placed a service is to sustain good practice and make ongoing improvements for the benefit of all children at the service.

A focus for the government is that all children, especially priority learners, have an opportunity to benefit from quality early childhood education. ERO will report on how well each service promotes positive outcomes for all children, with a focus on children who are Māori, Pacific, have diverse needs, and are up to the age of two.

For more information about the framework and Ngā Pou Here refer to ERO’s Approach to Review in Early Childhood Services.

ERO’s Overall Judgement

The overall judgement that ERO makes will depend on how well the service promotes positive learning outcomes for children. The categories are:

• Very well placed

• Well placed

• Requires further development

• Not well placed

ERO has developed criteria for each category. These are available on ERO’s website.

Review Coverage

ERO reviews are tailored to each service’s context and performance, within the overarching review framework. The aim is to provide information on aspects that are central to positive outcomes for children and useful to the service.