16 Wiltshire Street, Arrowtown
View on mapERO’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.
Regulatory standards |
ERO’s judgement |
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Curriculum |
Meeting |
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Premises and facilities |
Meeting |
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Health and safety |
Meeting |
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Governance, management and administration |
Meeting |
At the time of the review, ERO found the service was taking reasonable steps to meet regulatory standards.
BestStart Montessori Arrowtown provides education and care for children from birth to school age in two buildings. An area manager works collaboratively with the centre manager to support the day-to-day operations. The June 2020 ERO report identified that the service was not meeting the regulatory standards in aspects of health and safety, premises and facilities, and governance management and administration. Satisfactory progress has been made.
The service provides a Montessori programme aligned to Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. Infants, toddlers and older children experience positive, respectful interactions with adults within a language-focused environment. The premises and facilities are resourced to provide for the learning and abilities of the children attending.
Management implements suitable human resource practices and provides opportunities for parents and whānau to collaborate about the service operations. Teacher’s appraisal and internal evaluation processes are established. There is consistent implementation of health and safety practices to meet all aspects of regulatory compliance.
The next step is to:
The next ERO review is likely to be an Akarangi | Quality Evaluation.
Dr Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini
25 February 2022
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Early Childhood Service Name |
BestStart Montessori Arrowtown |
| Profile Number | 90115 |
| Location | Arrowtown |
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Service type |
Education and care service |
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Number licensed for |
50 children, including up to 20 aged under 2. |
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Percentage of qualified teachers |
80-99% |
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Service roll |
65 |
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Ethnic composition |
Māori 2, NZ European/Pākehā 47, Australian 6, Other ethnicities 10 |
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Review team on site |
January 2022 |
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Date of this report |
25 February 2022 |
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Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review, June 2020; Education Review, April 2017. |
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.
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:
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:
As part of an Akanuku | Assurance Review ERO also gathers and records evidence through:
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Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
BestStart Arrowtown is not well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
BestStart Arrowtown, previously known as Montessori @ Arrowtown provides all day education and care for children aged from infants to five years. The service is licensed for 50 children, including up to 20 under the age of two. Children and their families come from diverse cultural backgrounds. Infants and toddlers and preschool aged children learn and play in two adjoining facilities. BestStart Educare Ltd owns and operates early childhood services nationally.
Day-to-day operations are led by a centre manager with support from a head teacher in the preschool. An area manager provides business management and professional practice support to leaders and the teaching team. The area manager, centre manager and teaching staff are all new since this service's April 2017 ERO review.
Teachers aim to foster children's developing capabilities for: building positive relationships; showing respect towards self, others and the environment; independence and resilience; communication and inquiry/curiosity about the world around them. They plan to achieve this through building positive, responsive relationships with children and families, enactment of the Montessori philosophy and curriculum, promotion of children's independence and provision of an environment that provides choice and holistic experiences.
The previous ERO review identified key next steps for improvement. These included: strengthening assessment, planning and evaluation practice; developing intentional teaching strategies; teaching as inquiry and internal evaluation. As a result of staff changes there has been limited progress in addressing the areas identified for development.
Leadership has worked collaboratively with teachers, parents and children to develop a clear and useful guiding philosophy for the service. A priority is to ensure this is effectively embedded in all aspects of centre operations including ongoing leadership support for the new centre manager. In addition, ensuring the service's philosophy and curriculum priorities are effectively guiding all aspects of operation.
Children benefit from warm, responsive purposeful interactions with their teachers. These effectively foster intended learning outcomes for children. Infants and toddlers experience caring, respectful interactions and unhurried routines that nurture their sense of security and belonging. All children are viewed as confident and capable and are encouraged to take responsibility for their self-care, confidently explore the learning environment and leading their own learning.
The learning environment reflects and supports the service's stated curriculum priorities including its Montessori curriculum. It is intentionally resourced and set up to promote children's learning across the curriculum including early literacy, numeracy, science, geography, art and practical living. Children participate in regular excursions in the local community to build their sense of connection and belonging.
Te reo Māori and some aspects of tikanga Māori are well integrated in learning programmes. Teachers have identified the need to strengthen the way Māori history and perspectives are woven through the programme.
The quality of assessment and planning for learning is variable. Leaders and teachers are in the early stages of developing shared understandings of effective practice and this is the focus of a current centre-wide evaluation. Best examples of assessment and planning for individuals showed:
These practices now need to be developed across the centre. Planning for groups would be strengthened by being more focused on the curriculum priorities and the learning outcomes in the Early Childhood Curriculum Te Whāriki. Leaders and teachers need to ensure both learning outcomes and the effectiveness of planned teaching strategies are more explicitly evaluated. Completing the planned internal evaluation on assessment and planning and implementing the resulting shared understandings of effective practice are next steps.
Routine internal evaluation for improvement practices have not been well sustained over time and this has limited progress and development. In particular, BestStart professional support and quality assurance systems have not been well implemented to support leadership and teacher development, curriculum planning and delivery and the provision of a safe learning environment. Ensuring these are robustly implemented needs to be the focus of urgent and ongoing attention. Some of these were in the early stages of being re-established at the time of this review, following a significant period of leadership and staffing change.
Before the review, the staff and management of BestStart Arrowtown 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.
ERO identified a number of areas of non-compliance relating to health and safety and premises and facilities.
To meet requirements the service needs to improve its performance in the following areas:
improve the rigour of hazard identification procedures - in particular ensure all appliances are secured and that together with cupboards and drawers, these have appropriate latches
get a current fire evacuation plan in place that is approved by the NZ Fire Service
ensure the arrangement of sleep furniture allows for sufficient air movement and the minimisation of the spread of germs and allows for adults to access sleeping children for routine checks
implement fully its policy and procedures in relation to three-yearly workforce safety checking .
Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care Centres 2008, PF17, HS4, HS8, HS10 and GMA7a.
Since the review the service has provided evidence that it has secured appliances, cupboards and drawers and ensured that the arrangement of sleep furniture complies with regulations. In addition it has redeveloped and sought approval from the NZ Fire Service of its fire evacuation plan.
ERO recommends that the Ministry reassess the licence of BestStart Arrowtown. ERO will not undertake a further education review of this service until the Ministry of Education is satisfied that the service meets licensing requirements.
Dr Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region - Te Tai Tini
5 June 2020
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 |
Arrowtown |
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Ministry of Education profile number |
90115 |
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Licence type |
Education & Care Service |
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Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
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Number licensed for |
50 children, including up to 20 aged under 2 |
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Service roll |
54 |
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Gender composition |
Male 29, Female 25 |
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Ethnic composition |
Māori |
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 |
Under 2 |
1:5 |
Meets minimum requirements |
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Over 2 |
1:10 |
Meets minimum requirements |
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Review team on site |
February 2020 |
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Date of this report |
5 June 2020 |
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Most recent ERO reports |
Education Review |
April 2017 |
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Education Review |
August 2013 |
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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 ERO’s Approach to Review in Early Childhood Services.
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.
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.