Waka Huia Childcare

Waka Huia Childcare

- 15 Jul 2024

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 ​Waka Huia Childcare​ are as follows: 

2 Context of the Service 

Waka Huia Childcare is a small, privately-owned centre. The owner is a qualified early childhood teacher who works at the centre as part of the teaching team. They serve a small diverse community including some whānau Māori, and some families from countries other than New Zealand.  

3 Summary of findings 

Children’s learning and wellbeing are the heart of all decision making. Teachers foster respectful relationships that are focused on aroha. They empower children to see themselves as able learners and encourage them to make their own choices. Thoughtful presentation of the environment inspires children’s curiosity, thinking and creativity. 

The philosophy underpins the provision of a rich bicultural curriculum. The values of: Manaakitanga, Whanaungatanga, Kaitiakitanga, Kotahitanga provide meaningful connections to te ao Māori. Te reo Māori and tikanga Māori are naturally integrated into the curriculum in ways that are meaningful to children.  

Teachers are responsive to the learning and wellbeing of children within the context of their family, language, culture and identity. They work collaboratively with whānau and outside agencies to support children with additional needs to have successful learning outcomes. 

Pacific cultural understandings and of ways of working to promote success for children as Pacific is variable. There is yet to be specific strategies in place to grow this aspect of practice.  

Leaders and teachers make good use of well-developed systems and processes for knowing about and reporting on the priorities for children’s learning. Assessment records make children’s learning outcomes and progress visible. Parents have regular opportunities to contribute to children’s learning. 

Experienced leadership promotes a high level of relational trust and collaboration that makes good use of the strengths of teachers. Internal evaluation includes a systematic approach to evaluating the impact of improvement actions on teaching and outcomes for learners. Monitoring of internal evaluation outcomes overtime is yet to be well documented. 

4 Improvement actions 

​​Waka Huia Childcare​ will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning.  

• Continue to build capability to do and use internal evaluation across the team, with a focus on documenting the monitoring of the impact of internal evaluation on outcomes for learners overtime. 
• Widen connections to the community, to build cultural capability and teaching practices that will support children of Pacific heritages, languages and communities.  

5 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements 

Before the review, the staff and management of ​Waka Huia Childcare​ 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. 

Patricia Davey 
Director of Early Childhood Education (ECE) 

​​15 July 2024​   

6 About the Early Childhood Service  

Past Reports