Selwyn House Preschool

1 Evaluation of Selwyn House Preschool

How well placed is Selwyn House Preschool to promote positive learning outcomes for children?

Selwyn House Preschool is well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.

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

Background

Selwyn House Preschool is a full-day, co-educational and care service for children from two and a half years to school age. The service operates under the umbrella of Selwyn House School and shares the same site. Children come from a diverse range of cultural backgrounds.

Selwyn House Preschool follows a Reggio Emilia approach and the International Baccalaureate (Primary Years) Programme. All the teachers are fully qualified early childhood educators and additional staffing includes support teachers and specialist teachers for swimming, digital technology and Spanish. Since the last ERO review a new head of the preschool has been appointed.

The Review Findings

Respectful and collaborative relationships at all levels contribute to children's wellbeing and learning. The teachers know the children very well. They are responsive to the children's physical and emotional wellbeing and to those with identified learning needs. Children are engaged, purposeful learners, involved in spontaneous and planned experiences.

Teachers show a strong commitment to the centre's philosophy and vision. They offer a broad, very well resourced curriculum, with strengths in early literacy and maths, environmental learning, creative play and social competence. Teachers value parents as the child's first teacher.

Teachers ensure the children are prepared for an ever changing world and report regularly to parents using a range of digital platforms. Individual learning stories describe significant learning over time, and explain how teachers have identified this. Assessment and group planning results in thoughtful resourcing and experiences to support children's learning.

Daily routines and programmes reflect aspects of the bicultural and multicultural nature of Aotearoa/New Zealand. Continuing to build cultural awareness and responsiveness and ongoing integration of tikanga Māori in teaching and learning is a key next step for teachers.

Teachers are very well supported professionally. This has helped build a reflective and improvement focused teaching team. Leaders and teachers are strengthening their self-review/internal evaluation processes. This process is impacting positively on outcomes for children.

Sound governance and management practices have resulted in a clear alignment of systems and practices. This coherence enables smooth centre operations and allows the teachers to focus on supporting children's learning.

Key Next Steps

Next steps for this centre build on existing good practices. These are to:

• continue to strengthen culturally responsive practice, with a particular focus on recognising success for Māori children as Māori

• continue to develop effective documentation of parent aspirations in relation to children's learning and home cultures

• deepen teacher understanding and practice in internal evaluation and teaching as inquiry.

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Selwyn House Preschool 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.

Alan Wynyard

Director Review and Improvement Services

Southern Region

22 May 2019

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.