Abbotsford Kindergarten

Education institution number:
5489
Service type:
Free Kindergarten
Definition:
Not Applicable
Total roll:
47
Telephone:
Address:

13 Neill Street, Abbotsford, Dunedin

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Abbotsford Kindergarten - 19/02/2020

1 Evaluation of Abbotsford Kindergarten

How well placed is Abbotsford Kindergarten to promote positive learning outcomes for children?

Not well placed

Requires further development

Well placed

Very well placed

Abbotsford Kindergarten is very well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.

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

Background

Abbotsford Kindergarten provides early childhood education for children aged two years old to school age. It is licensed for 43 children and currently has a roll of 50. Sessions operate from 8.30am to 2.30pm.

Teachers aim to support children to demonstrate the kindergarten's values of empathy, kindness, compassion and respect. In addition, they aim that children are supported to become active explorers, risk-takers, thinkers and problem solvers, with a positive attitude to learning.

Teachers plan to achieve these outcomes through building respectful, reciprocal relationships and learning partnerships with children and families, valuing the uniqueness of each child, having a positive and strengths-based view of children and through reciprocal teaching and learning.

The teaching team has made very good progress in addressing the areas for development identified in the kindergarten's December 2015 ERO review. These included strengthening systems and practices for individual and group planning, internal evaluation, delivery of a bicultural curriculum, partnerships with families and building a positive team culture.

Abbotsford Kindergarten is one of 24 kindergartens governed by Dunedin Kindergartens (DK). Day-to-day operations are led by a head teacher, who is new since the kindergarten's last review, with the support of five experienced, qualified teachers. A senior teacher from DK provides support for professional and operational practice.

This review was part of a cluster of 11 DK kindergartens reviewed at the end of 2019.

The Review Findings

Children and their families show a strong sense of belonging to the kindergarten. Supportive, warm and affirming relationships contribute to positive outcomes for children.

Teachers have a positive view of all children, and strongly focus on fostering social competence. Their interactions effectively support children’s communication skills, oral language and early literacy. Skilled questioning provokes children’s deeper thinking and experimentation.

Children benefit from a broad and rich curriculum which is responsive to their interests and identified needs, parent aspirations and valued learning within the kindergarten. Key features include:

  • well-balanced opportunities for vigorous and active movement, including risk taking, exploration and challenge, and quiet, calm times

  • respect for people, places and things, including te ao Māori

  • early literacy and creativity

  • a strong focus on social and emotional competence, health and wellbeing and learning about the natural world.

The language and culture of Māori children are well recognised in the programme and in individual planning. Children with additional learning needs are very well supported in their health, wellbeing and learning. Teachers are proactive in seeking and working with external experts and agencies and parents to enhance these children's learning and development. There is a strong focus on equity for children and their families.

Children's continuity of learning is effectively planned for. Assessment and planning are underpinned by sound principles and reflect the whole child as a learner, in relation to the kindergarten’s learning priorities. Teachers have improved systems to ensure all children have meaningful goals, which are known and evaluated by all teachers and children's parents. Teachers could refine group planning by aligning the intended learning and planned teaching strategies to Te Whāriki - the Early Childhood Curriculum.

Teachers and children are benefiting from the strong focus the head teacher has on building and supporting professional practice. She has high and clear expectations for teaching and learning. Systems for the smooth operation of the centre, including assessment, planning and evaluation, appraisal and kindergarten management, have been strengthened. The head teacher and team have developed and implemented long-term planning for the future direction of the kindergarten that is well aligned to DK's strategic goals. This planning recognises that it is timely to review the kindergarten's philosophy. This process should include clarifying agreed priorities for children's learning at the kindergarten.

There is a strong focus on continuous improvement throughout the centre. Internal evaluation is well informed by research, professional learning and the support of the senior teacher. Emergent reviews are purposeful. Teachers collaborate as part of internal evaluation processes. These lead to actions and improvement. The key outcomes of internal evaluations are appropriately shared with those involved in the kindergarten. As part of planned or regular reviews, teachers should continue to strengthen the use of evaluative thinking linked to relevant indicators.

The board of DK has made good progress in addressing the governance recommendations from ERO's 2015-2016 reviews. DK's mission and strategic priorities are well known and reflected in each kindergarten's strategic and annual plans. It has a sound policy and procedure framework that provides guidance for kindergartens and sound systems to monitor health and safety. Leaders and teachers benefit from relevant professional development and leadership support. DK actively supports equity of outcomes for all children by funding additional teaching resources to support children with additional needs.

Key Next Steps

2020 signals the beginning of another strategic planning cycle for the kindergarten. The kindergarten has indicated that this will involve significant consultation with its community to identify future goals.

Group planning and evaluation could show better use of Te Whāriki - the Early Childhood Curriculum, to identify and evaluate the intended learning and planned teaching strategies.

The DK board has clearly identified, and ERO agrees, that the key next steps for DK to further improve outcomes for children are to ensure that:

  • reporting and monitoring at all levels are evaluative, to clearly show how desired outcomes for children have been improved in relation to DK's and kindergartens' priorities for learning and other strategic priorities

  • a robust and systematic quality assurance framework is implemented to inform and monitor ongoing improvements in each kindergarten.

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Abbotsford Kindergarten 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.

Dr Lesley Patterson

Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)

Southern Region - Te Tai Tini

19 February 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

Location

Abbotsford, Dunedin

Ministry of Education profile number

5489

Licence type

Free Kindergarten

Licensed under

Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008

Number licensed for

43 children, including up to 0 aged under 2

Service roll

50

Gender composition

Male 26

Female 24

Ethnic composition

Māori
NZ European/Pākehā
Other ethnic groups

4
41
5

Percentage of qualified teachers

0-49% 50-79% 80%+

Based on funding rates

80% +

Reported ratios of staff to children

Under 2

N/A

N/A

Over 2

1:10

Meets minimum requirements

Review team on site

December 2019

Date of this report

19 February 2020

Most recent ERO reports

Education Review

December 2015

Education Review

September 2012

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.

Abbotsford Kindergarten - 21/12/2015

1 Evaluation of Abbotsford Kindergarten

How well placed is Abbotsford Kindergarten to promote positive learning outcomes for children?

Not well placed

Requires further development

Well placed

Very well placed

Abbotsford Kindergarten is well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.

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

Background

Abbotsford Kindergarten provides education and care for children from two years to school age. The kindergarten operates according to school-day hours. Forty children attend in the mornings and thirty in the afternoons. Children attend either morning or afternoon sessions or for the full day as families choose.

An enthusiastic parent committee and the parent community support the kindergarten with fundraising and improvements. They carried out a major upgrade to the playground in 2013.

A new and experienced head teacher was appointed in 2014 and all the teachers are qualified. They have made significant progress on all the recommendations of the 2012 ERO report.

The kindergarten operates under the Dunedin Kindergartens (DK) umbrella. DK provides management and professional support for the teachers.

This review was part of a cluster of 24 kindergarten reviews in the DK.

The Review Findings

The children play and learn in a very calm and settled environment. The teachers have worked deliberately to achieve this. They put an emphasis on children helping one another and being kind, and encourage the older children to guide the younger ones. Teachers and children have trusting relationships.

Children make friendships and play independently in small groups. The pattern of the day ensures there are no unnecessary interruptions to children’s play. Children are often intent in what they are doing and stay at activities for long periods. This allows the teachers to devote uninterrupted time to work with individual children and small groups.

The teachers follow children’s interests and talk purposefully with children to extend their learning. They support children’s oral language learning and early literacy through activities such as rhymes, songs, music, language games, story-telling, and reading.

The very large outdoor playground is imaginatively designed and offers children plenty of scope for physical challenge. The indoor areas are also thoughtfully set out and give children independent access to resources and equipment. Both indoor and outdoor areas provide children with choice of activities and play spaces.

The children and teachers use te reo Māori and waiata in the course of the day and celebrate events such as Matariki. The teachers are exploring ways to better engage with Māori families and to include more te reo and tikanga Māori in the programme.

The teachers build children’s connections to the local community and beyond through events such as a marae visit, visitors to the kindergarten, and evening events involving parents. They have a careful process for welcoming families starting kindergarten, and have made links with local schools to support children moving on to school.

The teachers use group plans to focus their attention on important learning for children, such as building children’s social skills. They have a useful system of individual planning that includes frequent opportunities for parents to contribute their ideas and information from home. The records of learning often show what teachers have done and will do in the future to extend and support children’s learning. Children’s learning would be strengthened by teachers finding better ways to bring together parents' wishes and teachers' professional knowledge to determine next steps.

The experienced head teacher has made it a priority to build a cohesive teaching team. Under her leadership the teachers have developed shared understandings about how to work together and a philosophy that guides their work. They have identified that it is important for them to continue to strengthen their team culture further.

The teachers have a good understanding of self review and use reviews to bring about positive changes at the kindergarten. Reviews would be more effective if a range of methods for gathering parent input were used. Their long-term plan has identified some priorities for the kindergarten’s future development. Further thought and consultation with parents about the priorities and detail in the plan would make it more useful.

The vision of the DK is to provide excellence in early childhood education for all children. The DK is governed by a board and managed by a long-serving general manager. The kindergarten teachers told ERO they appreciated the support they receive from the association and the advice and guidance of the senior teachers.

The board, general manager and senior teachers:

  • provide appropriate opportunities for parents and staff to contribute their ideas about matters in the association
  • are responsive to the identified needs of children and families within the association and provide funding and support to enable these to be met
  • have developed a useful framework to guide their work
  • take all reasonable steps to ensure safe environments for children, teachers and other staff
  • maintain their professional learning and provide ongoing professional learning for teachers in the association.

Key Next Steps

Teachers agree that their next steps, with the support of their senior teacher, are to:

  • continue to strengthen and build consistency in planning and assessment of children’s learning
  • strengthen the use of Māori perspectives in the programme and relationships with Māori whānau
  • continue to build on and strengthen their team culture
  • strengthen practices and parent input and involvement in planning and assessment, self review and long-term planning
  • develop the long-term plan so it becomes a useful guide for the kindergarten’s future.

ERO agrees these are appropriate next steps.

Next steps for the board, with the support of the general manager and senior teachers, are to:

  • continue to define what excellence in education looks like in the DK
  • further develop strategic planning to better show future goals and priorities and how these will be achieved in the association and in the kindergartens
  • ensure that the reports they receive show how well the association’s vision and goals are met, are evaluative and inform future planning
  • continue to strengthen the appraisal process and be assured that appraisals are rigorous and consistent throughout the kindergartens.

With the appointment of a new senior teacher, it is timely for the board and general manager to review the role of the senior teachers and strengthen systems to ensure consistent, high-quality practice across all kindergartens within the association.

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Abbotsford Kindergarten 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 Abbotsford Kindergarten will be in three years. 

Chris Rowe
Deputy Chief Review Officer Southern (Acting)

21 December 2015 

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 

Location

Dunedin

Ministry of Education profile number

5489

Licence type

Free Kindergarten

Licensed under

Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008

Number licensed for

43 children over two years of age

Service roll

64

Gender composition

Boys:     36
Girls:      28

Ethnic composition

Māori
Pākehā
Other

  6
55
  3

Percentage of qualified teachers

0-49%       50-79%       80%+

Based on funding rates

80% +

Reported ratios of staff to children

Under 2

Not applicable

 

Over 2

1:10

Meets minimum requirements

Review team on site

October 2015

Date of this report

21 December 2015

Most recent ERO report(s)

 

Education Review

September 2012

Education Review

April 2009

Education Review

May 2005

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.