Gloriavale Christian Preschool

1 Evaluation of Gloriavale Christian Preschool

How well placed is Gloriavale Christian Preschool to promote positive learning outcomes for children?

Gloriavale Christian Preschool is well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.

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

Background

Gloriavale Christian Preschool, previously known as Gloriavale Christian Community Garden of Children 1, is one of three early childhood services operating within the Gloriavale Christian community. The preschool provides for the specific needs of infants from birth to 15 months, and for older children from three years to school age. Only children from within Gloriavale attend this centre.

Since the June 2015 ERO review, there have been substantial changes to the configuration of the preschool. Its licence was increased to a maximum of 130 children, including 50 children up to two years. A new infant area was built as part of the preschool's licensed premises. It has four separate rooms to provide for small groups of infants. Most staff at the preschool are qualified early childhood teachers.

There have been significant changes to the leadership of the Gloriavale Christian early learning services. Each of the centres has a new manager. The preschool centre manager has a leadership role across all three centres. Whole centre and parent community professional learning has been delivered by external providers. These opportunities include a focus on the brain development of infants, toddlers and young children, and the Ministry of Education, Incredible Years Training programme.

The Gloriavale Christian centres share the same philosophy and core values. There is an emphasis on:

• New Testament Christian principles and beliefs
• involving parents in the teaching of, and provision of care for their children
• respectful, responsive relationships
• developing children's language, self-management skills, and establishing the foundations of literacy and mathematics learning
• exploring the creative and expressive arts, and the natural world
• enacting the core values of love, faith, unity and obedience.

This review was one of three within the Gloriavale Christian community.

The Review Findings

Children's sense of belonging and wellbeing is fostered through predictable routines, rituals and respectful relationships. Their social and oral language development is well supported. Older children confidently share their ideas and are involved in activities of interest for sustained periods of time. They have many opportunities to experience expressive and creative arts within learning programmes. Teachers provide children with a variety of resources and opportunities for physical play and challenge within spacious outdoor areas. Leaders and teachers acknowledge they need to develop deeper understanding of Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, to support the provision of a curriculum that emphasises child-led learning and relevant teaching practices.

The bicultural curriculum is in the early stages of development. Teachers’ use of te reo me ngā tikanga Māori is becoming integrated into learning programmes and supports children to build their understanding of te ao Māori (a Māori world view). Further developing teachers’, parents’ and children's knowledge and understanding of te ao Māori will help to enhance learning opportunities as part of being citizens of Aotearoa/New Zealand. This would also support teachers to more fully reflect the bicultural curriculum within the environment and resources.

Leaders have implemented good quality assessment, planning and evaluation processes that show children’s development and progress over time. However, they recognise that these practices need to be embedded across the centres. Teachers purposefully use the learning outcomes from Te Whāriki to set priorities for children's learning. They actively seek and respond to valued parent and community contributions as partners in children's learning. Teachers’ planning helps to build children’s knowledge and skills and supports their smooth transitions between the centres.

Infants and toddlers experience consistent, nurturing caregivers who promote calm and unhurried interactions. They play and learn in small groups within a peaceful, well-resourced environment with attentive teachers. Parents are actively involved in the care and emotional wellbeing of their own children.

The philosophy and core values are evident in many aspects of the preschool's practices. Leaders recognise that they need to incorporate a clearer emphasis on Māori concepts and values into the philosophy and other key centre operational documents to provide better guidance to staff and support the implementation of the bicultural curriculum. This approach may also enable leaders to evaluate how well they are meeting their philosophical values and beliefs.

The new leadership team has worked collaboratively to help build shared understandings and expectations for appropriate learning and teaching practices. Leaders have made good progress with implementing and aligning a number of new initiatives to improve service operations, systems and practices. As these changes are embedded, they are likely to contribute to ongoing and sustained improvement.

Internal evaluation is becoming established through recently implemented processes. Service self-review has resulted in some positive changes for children. A greater emphasis on evaluating how well teachers’ practices support children's learning is now needed. Appraisal has been refined and effectively supports teachers to reflect on and further develop their practice. Findings from regularly evaluating aspects of the services curriculum would contribute to priorities for improvement.

Key Next Steps

ERO and service leaders agree that the key steps are to:

• develop deeper understandings of Te Whāriki and its implications for learning and teaching
• further develop bicultural understandings and give prominence to Māori concepts and values in key documentation and practices
• embed assessment, planning and evaluation processes for individual children and consider ways to include learning dispositions in group planning
• strengthen shared understandings and use of internal evaluation for improvement to learning and teaching.

Recommendation

Leaders have recently been involved in external professional learning and development which has successfully resulted in improvements to policies, processes and practices. Continuing with this support would be beneficial for building shared understanding across the centres and embedding new initiatives.

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Gloriavale Christian 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.

During the on-site stage of the review, ERO identified two areas of non-compliance in relation to health and safety which were immediately addressed by service leaders. These were:

• heavy furniture, fixtures and equipment that could fall or topple and cause serious injury or damage in the event of an earthquake
• the Child Protection policy and procedures that needed to state clear provision for direct reporting of any suspected child abuse.

Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care Centres 2008, HS6 and HS31

Dr Lesley Patterson

Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)

Southern Region - Te Tai Tini

15 June 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.