St Albans Community Preschool

ERO’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.

ERO’s Judgement

At the time of the review, ERO identified areas of non-compliance with regulatory standards that are an unacceptable risk to children.

Background

St Albans Community Preschool is a not-for-profit, parent governed early childhood education and care service. The centre manager has oversite of day-to-day service operations and provides professional guidance and support to a team of mainly qualified teachers.

Summary of Review Findings

The play-based curriculum is inclusive, and responsive to children and supports their developing social competency. Children’s preferences are respected, and they are involved in decisions about their learning experiences. Kaiako use meaningful, positive interactions to enhance children’s learning and build reciprocal relationships. The premises and facilities are resourced to provide for the learning and abilities of the children attending. 

Some aspects of health and safety practices require increased monitoring and personnel policies and practices in governance and management require improved implementation.

Actions for Compliance

ERO found areas of non-compliance in the service relating to:

• the selection and appointment procedures of new staff needs to be fully implemented
• all children’s workers who have access to children are safety checked in accordance with the Vulnerable Children’s Act 2014
• how the written emergency plan is reviewed on an annual basis and implementation of improved practices is undertaken as required
• evidence of how the emergency drills has informed the annual review of the services emergency plan
• having in place a documented risk management system
• keeping a record of all excursions that take place. This should include the signature of the Person Responsible giving permission for excursions to occur.

Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care 2008, GMA7, GMA7A, HS7, HS8, HS12, HS17.

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

• the Early Childhood Services Regulations 2008 and a procedure for people to follow should they wish to complain about non-compliances with the Regulations are now prominently displayed
• ERO’s latest report is now displayed
• the annual plan now clearly identifies who is responsible for all tasks.

Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care 2008, GMA1, GMA2, GMA8.

Recommendation to Ministry of Education

ERO recommends the Ministry follows up with the service provider to ensure that non-compliances identified in this report are addressed promptly.

Next ERO Review

The next ERO review will be in consultation with the Ministry of Education.

Dr Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini

24 June 2021 

Information About the Service

General Information about Assurance Reviews

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.

ERO undertakes an Akanuku | Assurance Review process in any centre-based service:

• having its first ERO review – including if it is part of a governing organisation
• previously identified as ‘not well placed’ or ‘requiring further development’
• that has moved from a provisional to a full licence
• that have been re-licenced due to a change of ownership
• where an Akanuku | Assurance Review process is determined to be appropriate.

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

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:

• curriculum
• premises and facilities
• health and safety practices
• governance, management and administration.

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:

• 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 certification; ratios)
• evacuation procedures and practices for fire and earthquake.

As part of an Akanuku | Assurance Review ERO also gathers and records evidence through:

• discussions with those involved in the service
• consideration of relevant documentation, including the implementation of health and safety systems
• observations of the environment/premises, curriculum implementation and teaching practice.

1 Evaluation of St Albans Community Preschool

How well placed is St Albans Community Preschool to promote positive learning outcomes for children?

St Albans Community Preschool is well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.

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

Background

St Albans Community Preschool is a not-for-profit, parent-governed, early childhood education and care service. Many of the teaching team have been employed at the service for a number of years. Most staff are certified teachers. They provide education and care for children from birth to school age.

Leaders and teachers have made good progress in meeting the recommendations in the previous ERO 2014 report. This includes developing management processes, such as strategic planning and self review of curriculum areas.

Leaders and teachers have good links to the community, including the local school and other early learning services.

The Review Findings

The service philosophy is highly evident in practice. Leaders and teachers have a strong shared vision and values about ways of working with children and promoting teaching and learning. The specific needs of children under and over two-years-old are well considered in a mixed-age group setting. Older children (including siblings) have good opportunities to care for younger children in the home-like family environment.

Teachers work respectfully with children and families. Children are encouraged to make a successful transition into the service. A personalised approach supports their sense of belonging and well-being.

Leaders and teachers foster positive, reciprocal relationships with children, parents and whānau. They actively promote partnerships in children's learning with families. Parent contributions are highly valued. Parents are well informed of their child’s learning through well-written stories, informative wall displays, informal discussions, and joint goal setting.

Teachers provide a curriculum that is child-led and very responsive to the individual interests, strengths and capabilities of each child. Teachers carefully listen to children's views and help them develop and extend on their ideas, capturing their curiosity. Teachers are intentional in the ways they empower children to make progress with their learning.

Child-paced routines help to give the children a sense of responsibility and promote their independence and self-help skills.

Literacy, mathematics, science and creativity are well integrated into the play-based learning programme that is centred on Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. Children enjoy real-life learning activities that link closely to home experiences.

Leaders have established a reflective team culture that has an ongoing focus on improvement and positive outcomes for children. They make good use of an internal evaluation framework to inquire into practices and processes.

The governance board is supportive and makes good provision for professional development of staff to build teacher and leadership capacity. The individual strengths of staff are valued and well used to support others.

Key Next Steps

Service leaders and ERO agree that the key next steps are to:

• extend bicultural understandings and practices
• align and evaluate strategic and annual planning
• build on all teachers' capability to lead in-depth internal evaluation inquiries
• further develop appraisal processes to clearly reflect Education Council requirements.

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of St Albans Community 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.

Next ERO Review

When is ERO likely to review the service again?

The next ERO review of St Albans Community Preschool will be in three years.

Dr Lesley Patterson

Deputy Chief Review Officer Southern (Te Waipounamu)

17 July 2017 

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 and Next Review

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:

• Very well placed – The next ERO review in four years
• Well placed – The next ERO review in three years
• Requires further development – The next ERO review within two years
• Not well placed - The next ERO review in consultation with the Ministry of Education.

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.