10 Beresford Street, Kaikorai, Dunedin
View on mapAkarangi | 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 Montessori House Casita dei Bambini are as follows:
Outcome Indicators(What the service knows about outcomes for learners) |
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Ngā Akatoro Domains |
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Learning ConditionsOrganisational Conditions |
Whāngai Establishing |
Montessori House Casita dei Bambini provides education and care for two-year-olds. It is one of three privately owned services. Most children move from Casita to a sister service. The owner is the director, and with the head teacher, manages day-to-day operations and oversees teaching and learning. Good progress has been made against most recommendations in ERO’s 2016 report.
Children benefit from a responsive and well-resourced curriculum, that is consistent with Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum and the Montessori approach. Teachers are affirming and respectful. Children are supported to take responsibility, be independent, and make choices about their learning. Teachers deliberately extend children’s emerging language, social and gross motor skills and carefully support their transition onto other services in this group. Children have some, but not sufficient, opportunities to hear and use te reo, and experience and learn about Māori culture.
Leaders and teachers are embedding recent changes to how they assess and plan individual children’s learning. The service is becoming increasingly intentional in using the learning outcomes in Te Whāriki, when planning for and evaluating children’s progress with their learning. Recent learning records respond to parents’ aspirations for their child’s learning and make their progress more visible. Individual plans often have multiple goals, learning outcomes and strategies and due to their complexity do not give clear guidance to teachers and parents. Throughout 2021 there was minimal change in group learning plans. These and other learning records do not sufficiently recognise the diverse cultures of the children.
Leaders and teachers work collaboratively and support each other’s ongoing professional learning. Evaluation of aspects of teaching has resulted in improved practices. However, there is variable understanding of internal evaluation as a tool to guide improvement. There was insufficient gathering of information to inform past evaluations, and valued outcomes need to be more child centred.
Overall, the service is well governed and managed. Easy to follow policies and procedures, mostly contribute to sound implementation of health and safety practices. Leaders have developed a three-year plan that outlines planned improvements but have yet to collaborate with teachers to develop and implement this and more detailed annual plans, to increase the likelihood of achieving these goals.
Montessori House Casita dei Bambini will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning. These are to:
Before the review, the staff and management of Montessori House Casita dei Bambini 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 the following area of non-compliance.
[Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care Centres 2008, HS17].
Dr Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini
18 May 2022
Service type |
Education and care service |
| Early Childhood Service Name | Montessori House Casita dei Bambini |
| Profile Number | 83078 |
| Location | Dunedin |
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Number licensed for |
20 children, including up to 5 aged under 2 |
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Percentage of qualified teachers |
50-79% |
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Service roll |
24 |
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Ethnic composition |
Māori 3, NZ European/Pākehā 15, other ethnic groups 6 |
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Review team on site |
February 2022 |
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Date of this report |
18 May 2022 |
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Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review, November 2016; |
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Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Montessori House Casita dei Bambini offers education and care for children aged two to three years old. It is one of three houses that make up the privately owned Montessori House Ltd. It is licensed for up to 20 children.
The house is located near the other two houses which provide education and care for infants and toddlers (zero to two years) and pre-school aged children (three to six years). Most children progress through the houses based on age and the centre's assessment of the readiness of the children.
The service's vision for all children is that they will be supported to become capable, confident, life-long learners. Teachers facilitate teaching and learning based on the principles of Dr Marie Montessori.
The service is led by a director and a manager who have oversight of practice in all three houses. A kaitiaki (head teacher) is responsible for day-to-day supervision and leadership in the house.
Since the ERO report in 2013, the owner/director has led significant change and improvement within the service. She has a management structure that supports a collaborative approach. This has enabled the skills of her teaching team to be used for the benefit of children and the centre community. The leaders and teachers have developed a comprehensive philosophy. This guides practice across the organisation towards achieving the service's goals for the future. The key aim of the service is that children become capable, confident, life-long learners. Teachers follow the children's lead and nurture their learning and development through respectful relationships.
Children enjoy highly respectful and caring relationships with teachers. Teachers are very responsive to children's wellbeing and learning needs, and value and follow children's ideas and initiative. Teachers place high importance on developing trusting relationships with all families.
Children are confident, settled and engaged. They benefit from learning in a calm and peaceful environment with well-established routines and consistent teaching practices.
Children's learning and development are promoted through a range of intentional learning activities. These encourage independence and discovery through practical life skills, early literacy and mathematics learning, and care and responsibility for the environment and for each other.
All children experience aspects of New Zealand's bicultural heritage including Māori language and culture. Teachers learn about and value the language and culture of all children and incorporate these in their care and teaching. Teachers work collaboratively with parents of children whose first language is not English to effectively support English language learning. Teachers support the wellbeing of these children by building links between their parents' culture and the culture of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Parents and whānau have many opportunities to learn about and contribute to teaching and learning plans for their children. Teachers share high quality stories about children's experiences and development, and actively invite parents and whānau to have input into identifying next learning steps. Special events and occasions provide opportunities for families of children to meet together and develop a sense of community.
Teachers use information from parents and whānau and from close observations of children to develop individualised learning plans. They use good quality assessment and planning processes to effectively monitor and track children's progress. Teachers regularly reflect on how effective their teaching is for promoting learning and development for individual children.
Teachers are well supported by the service's leaders and each other to continue to develop their professional skills and knowledge. There are well-established processes for self review that contribute to ongoing improvement.
Leaders effectively model the service's vision and approach to learning and are highly focused on positive outcomes for children. They take a considered and consultative approach to implementing change which has led to high levels of staff engagement and a sense of ownership of key developments. These have included the:
development and implementation of an effective strategic plan
restructuring of leadership roles and responsibilities
strengthening of appraisal processes
establishing of clear expectations and guidelines for planning and assessment.
The leaders and teachers know that the priority for the service now is to consolidate the significant progress made since the last ERO review. They need to ensure the good practices now embedded in the service are maintained and built on. ERO and the service leaders agree that useful next steps include continuing to:
develop and integrate Māori perspectives in programmes and the centre environment
develop the quality of planning and assessment practices by ensuring that teachers' evaluations focus on the impact of teaching strategies on achieving stated learning intentions
build teachers' practice in implementing the Montessori curriculum.
Before the review, the staff and management of Montessori House Casita dei Bambini 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:
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.
The next ERO review of Montessori House Casita dei Bambini will be in four years.
Dr Lesley Patterson
Deputy Chief Review Officer Te Waipounamu Southern
8 November 2016
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 |
Dunedin |
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Ministry of Education profile number |
83078 |
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Institution type |
Education & Care Service |
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Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
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Number licensed for |
20 children over two years of age |
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Service roll |
28 |
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Gender composition |
Boys: 18 Girls: 10 |
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Ethnic composition |
Māori Pākehā Asian Pacific Other |
1 19 6 1 1 |
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Percentage of qualified teachers 0-49% 50-79% 80%+ Based on funding rates |
80% + |
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Reported ratios of staff to children |
Over 2 |
1:7 |
Better than minimum requirements |
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Review team on site |
August 2016 |
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Date of this report |
8 November 2016 |
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Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review |
May 2013 |
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Education Review |
October 2009 |
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Education Review |
June 2006 |
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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:
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 the draft methodology for ERO reviews in Home-based Education and Care Services: July 2014
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.