20 Islington Street, Trentham, Upper Hutt
View on mapERO’s Akanuku | Assurance Review reports provide information about whether a service meets and maintains regulatory standards. Further information about Akanuku | Assurance Reviews is included at the end of this report.
Regulatory standards |
ERO’s judgement |
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Curriculum |
Meeting |
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Premises and facilities |
Meeting |
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Health and safety |
Meeting |
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Governance, management and administration |
Meeting |
At the time of the review, ERO found the service was taking reasonable steps to meet regulatory standards.
Kidlywinks Childcare Centre is a small family owned and operated early childhood education service in Trentham, Upper Hutt. The service provides a mixed-age (0-5 years old) group programme. The community is ethnically diverse. The service has made good progress with the areas identified for improvement in the February 2019 ERO report.
The philosophy expresses the service’s beliefs, values and attitudes about the provision of early childhood education and care. The design and layout of the premises includes quiet spaces, areas for physically active play, and for a range of individual and group learning experiences appropriate to the number, ages, and abilities of children. Parents are informed about how they can be involved in the service. The curriculum is informed by assessment, planning and evaluation that demonstrates an understanding of children’s learning, their interests, whānau, and life contexts. Adults provide meaningful and positive interactions to enhance children’s learning and nurture reciprocal relationships.
Next steps are to:
The next ERO review is likely to be an Akarangi | Quality Evaluation.
Dr Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini
15 December 2020
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Early Childhood Service Name |
Kidlywinks Childcare Centre |
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Profile Number |
60122 |
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Location |
Wellington |
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Service type |
Education and care service |
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Number licensed for |
31 children, including up to 10 aged under 2 |
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Percentage of qualified teachers |
80%+ |
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Service roll |
30 |
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Ethnic composition |
Māori 3 |
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Review team on site |
October 2020 |
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Date of this report |
15 December 2020 |
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Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review, March 2016 |
All services are licensed under the Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008. The legal requirements for early childhood services also include the Licensing Criteria for Education and Care Services 2008.
Services must meet the standards in the regulations and the requirements of the licensing criteria to gain and maintain a licence to operate.
All early childhood services are required to promote children’s health and safety and to regularly review their compliance with legal requirements. Before the review, the staff and management of a service 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:
As part of an Akanuku | Assurance Review ERO assesses whether the regulated standards are being met. In particular, ERO looks at a service’s systems for managing the following areas that have a potentially high impact on children's wellbeing:
As part of an Akanuku | Assurance Review ERO also gathers and records evidence through:
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Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
Kidlywinks Childcare Centre requires further development to promote positive learning outcomes for children.
Changes in key staff and leadership have occurred in 2018. Leaders and teachers should benefit from time and some support to establish shared understanding of expectations for, and a cohesive team approach to, teaching and provision of the learning programme.
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Kidlywinks Childcare Centre is a privately owned early learning service located in Trentham, Upper Hutt. It caters for 31 children, including up to 10 aged under two. Of the 39 children enrolled, eight are Māori. Children work together in a mixed-age setting.
The owner (and curriculum leader) and two senior staff make up the leadership team. Of the seven teachers (kaiako) employed, three are registered. There have been some recent staff and leadership changes. Four new kaiako have been permanently employed in the last six months. One permanent teaching position remains vacant.
The philosophy emphasises the importance of respectful and collaborative working relationships, and promoting children’s independence, needs and interests in line with the intent of Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, and the Treaty of Waitangi.
The March 2016 ERO review identified that teachers needed to develop a shared understanding of high quality teaching practice. In addition, there was need to review assessment and planning practices strengthen the bicultural curriculum. These continue to be areas for improvement.
The daily programme is largely child led. A range of learning materials is available to support children's interests and learning. They have choices about where, when and with whom they will play throughout the day. Meal times are flexible to enable them to complete their self-chosen activities.
Kaiako are kind and responsive. Some newer staff are still building relationships with children and familiarity with routines. Leaders should ensure all kaiako have the time and opportunities to deeply engage with individuals in meaningful and purposeful learning activities. Priority should also be given to improved play-based integration of literacy and mathematics, and support for children's creativity and perseverance in self-chosen play.
Leaders continue to strive to build purposeful partnerships with parents and whānau. Families' aspirations for their children's learning are sought. Parent/kaiako interviews are held to share children's learning progress and seek parents' views. Use of on-line platforms that showcase children's participation in programme activities is improving communication between the centre and homes.
Children's transitions are facilitated with care. New enrolments are supported by ongoing consultation with their parents and a focus on their wellbeing. A range of initiatives assist with children's move to primary school. As a next step, leaders should seek to develop purposeful relationships with new entrant teachers to share details of individual children's learning and support the continuity of their learning.
The curriculum leader shows strong commitment to the implementation of a culturally responsive curriculum. A bicultural perspective is becoming evident in parts of the programme. Professional development has been sought to support the team's understanding and consider a way forward. Kaiako should continue to seek study options and links with local Māori to support their approach.
Further development of provision for infants and toddlers is required to better support their inclusion, engagement and persistence in play and learning.
The team leader has recently introduced a new approach to planning for learning that incorporates kaiako and parent input into children's learning goals. In order to strengthen the process kaiako should: place greater emphasis on children's significant learning and needs; better define the strategies they plan to use to progress the learning; and measure their effectiveness in order to clearly determine next teaching and learning steps. The team leader should define indicators of success for this new process to support improved implementation and decisions about how well the approach is working.
Individual learning portfolios record aspects of some children's participation and learning. The quality of these learning records is variable. The team leader plans to redefine which children should have portfolios and improve their ongoing access to them. ERO's evaluation supports these decisions. Strengthening consistency and quality, and better integrating cultural perspectives are also next steps.
With changes in leadership and teaching staff, leaders are working to re-establish shared understanding of expectations and cohesive teamwork to more effectively implement the learning programme.
Good support for staff development is in place. An induction process for new staff and professional learning opportunities are offered. Useful appraisal assists teachers to grow their practice. Further work is necessary to define what The Standards for the Teaching Profession mean in relation to this centre's practice, and improve the quality of appraiser feedback/feedforward.
A suitable framework for internal evaluation has been adopted. Next steps are for the curriculum leader to further clarify her understanding of the process and work with teachers to support their mastery and participation.
Some aspects of management of the service are well developed. A vision, philosophy and appropriate range of policy guidelines are in place to provide direction for teaching, learning and operation. However, long-term development planning needs improvement. There should be an increased focus on measurable outcomes for children and ongoing monitoring and review of progress in relation to goals.
Priorities for this service are to strengthen:
Before the review, the staff and management of Kidlywinks Childcare 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:
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:
All early childhood services are required to promote children’s health and safety and to regularly review their compliance with legal requirements
ERO identified areas of non-compliance relating to curriculum, and governance and management. To meet requirements the service needs to improve its performance in the following areas:
To improve current practice the service provider should:
Since the onsite phase of the review the centre manager has taken steps to address these.
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.
The next ERO review of Kidlywinks Childcare Centre will be within two years.
Alan Wynyard
Director Review and Improvement Services Southern
Southern Region
18 February 2019
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.
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Location |
Upper Hutt |
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Ministry of Education profile number |
60122 |
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Licence type |
Education & Care Service |
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Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
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Number licensed for |
31 children, including up to 10 aged under 2 |
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Service roll |
39 |
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Gender composition |
Boys 28, Girls 11 |
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Ethnic composition |
Māori |
8 |
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Percentage of qualified teachers 0-49% 50-79% 80%+ |
50-79% |
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Reported ratios of staff to children |
Under 2 |
1:2 |
Better than minimum requirements |
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Over 2 |
1:7 |
Better than minimum requirements |
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Review team on site |
December 2018 |
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Date of this report |
18 February 2019 |
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Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review |
March 2016 |
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Supplementary Review |
April 2013 |
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Supplementary Review |
October 2011 |
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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:
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.
The overall judgement that ERO makes and the timing of the next review will depend on how well placed a service is to promote positive learning outcomes for children. The categories are:
ERO has developed criteria for each category. These are available on ERO’s website.
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.