172 Eye St, Invercargill Central, Invercargill
View on map|
Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
ABC Invercargill is licensed for 75 children, with up to 25 under two year olds. It offers full-day education and care, and is one of two centres in Invercargill that are owned and operated under the BestStart Educare Ltd management structure.
The centre has purpose-built rooms that cater for four age groups, known as Pēpē, Fern, Tiki and Koru. Infants and toddlers (Pēpē and Fern) share an outdoor area, which is next to a playground for older toddlers and young children (Tiki and Koru).
The centre philosophy has been recently reviewed and includes a clearer identification of the key priorities for the centre. These are collaboration, community, confidence, diversity, life-long learners and whānau involvement.
A centre manager and three head teachers form the leadership team. A BestStart Business Manager (BM) and a Professional Services Manager (PSM) visit regularly to support the service.
The centre serves a community with diverse cultures and backgrounds.
Since the 2014 ERO review, leaders and teachers have considerably improved their understanding and use of internal evaluation, including evaluation of the impact of the teaching strategies on children's learning.
Children experience respectful, responsive relationships with their teachers in a calm and settled environment. They learn and play collaboratively with their peers and with children of other ages. Children and their whānau enjoy a strong sense of wellbeing and belonging.
Teachers take an intentional approach to promote continuity in children's learning. This can be seen through improved planning and assessment practices. Children are supported to transition seamlessly between classrooms and out to school.
Leaders and teachers have strengthened the focus on the key outcomes to be achieved for children's learning over their time at the centre. This includes developing key competencies and building on children's interests and dispositions for learning. Children are well supported to develop confidence in themselves and to explore the world around them.
Children are provided with opportunities and experiences that enrich and extend their learning. Teachers use a range of information to inform their planning for individual children. They provide many resources and well planned experiences that include interactions with the centre's wider community. Teachers are seeking to further strengthen parent voice in their children's learning.
The language, culture and identity of Māori children is an integral and valued part of life at the centre. All children experience aspects of Māori language and culture. Leaders and teachers seek to integrate te reo and tikanga Māori in the daily programme in meaningful ways.
Children under two years of age are well cared for in a safe and responsive environment. Teachers work closely with parents to inform routines and provision of care for each child.
Children with additional learning needs are well supported and included in the programme. Teachers share strategies to ensure consistent and continuous support for these children.
The centre leaders and teachers are focussed on continually improving how they provide positive outcomes for children. They have improved their understanding and application of internal evaluation to show how well they are working to achieve the centre's key priorities for children.
Leaders have built a culture of collaboration that supports improvement across the centre. They are well supported by BestStart. This includes regular visits from managers who provide high quality expertise and guidance. There are appropriate systems for empowering teachers, and building leaders' capability and professional growth.
Centre leaders have identified, and ERO agrees, the key next steps to improve outcomes for children are to continue to:
improve the links between teacher inquiry and learning outcomes for children
strengthen aspects of assessment planning and evaluation for groups and individuals, and
build a meaningful integration of bicultural practices across the centre.
Before the review, the staff and management of ABC Invercargill 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 ABC Invercargill will be in three years.
Dr Lesley Patterson
Deputy Chief Review Officer Southern
Te Waipounamu - Southern Region
13 August 2018
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 |
Invercargill |
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Ministry of Education profile number |
65186 |
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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 |
75 children, including up to 25 aged under 2 |
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Service roll |
100 |
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Gender composition |
Boys: 57 Girls: 43 |
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Ethnic composition |
Māori |
20 |
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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 |
1:3 |
Better than minimum requirements |
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Over 2 |
1:5 |
Better than minimum requirements |
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Review team on site |
May 2018 |
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Date of this report |
13 August 2018 |
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Most recent ERO reports |
Education Review |
October 2014 |
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Education Review |
June 2011 |
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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:
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 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.
|
Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
ABC Invercargill (Kidicorp) provides care and education for up to 75 children. Children are able to attend all day or for morning and afternoon sessions. The centre is purpose built and the design caters effectively for four different age groups (from infants to five years old). Children play and learn in a well-resourced and attractive environment and show a strong sense of belonging. They know the routines well.
Since the 2011 ERO review, the centre has had several changes in the management role. The current manager has been in her role for three months. In 2012 the centre combined two licences into one.
Children come from a diverse range of cultures and backgrounds. The teachers respect this and ensure that aspects of the children’s lives can be seen in the environment.
The centre philosophy is currently being reviewed to reflect the beliefs and practices of current staff.
The recommendations from the previous ERO report are still being worked on. This is likely due to the changes in centre managers since then.
Relationships. Children benefit from warm, reassuring and caring interactions with their teachers. Teachers and parents relate well to each other and take time to share how the child is feeling and about the child’s day and learning. Children have established friendships and play well together.
Parents’ sense of belonging. Teachers have carefully created an environment where parents feel welcome and comfortable to stay. Parents help settle their children on arrival and sometimes are involved in their learning. Parents contribute to the programme in a range of ways, such as teaching dancing, hairdressing and learning about police work. Teachers gather the expectations parents have for their child’s learning and respond to this in the daily programme.
Child-centred learning. Children enjoy and take part in a wide variety of learning experiences. The curriculum is relevant and based on children learning to cope with everyday life. Some experiences help them to understand the world beyond the centre. Teachers link children’s prior experiences to new learning. Literacy and numeracy are at times deliberately focused on as well as being naturally integrated into the daily programme. The centre is well equipped and children have easy access to resources of their choice.
Teachers plan and take particular care to move children at all levels through the centre to ensure that children are confident and comfortable with change.
Māori perspectives are an important part of children’s learning. The use of te reo Māori and aspects of tikanga Māori are regularly included in the programme.
Self review. The new centre manager is establishing a culture of improvement amongst the team. Review is based on a supportive framework that should lead to robust evaluation and useful findings. The next step is for teachers to further develop their understanding of self review, in particular the difference between review and development.
Sustainability. The professional service manager and business manager provide strong support to the centre manager for curriculum development and administration. Kidicorp supports teachers to develop their leadership skills through well planned and targeted professional learning and development. Currently, two head teachers are involved in a ‘Future Leaders’ course designed to equip them to step up into leadership roles.
Planning and assessment. The quality of planning and assessment is variable. There are some good examples of how teachers have recognised the learning and planned to extend it. There are other examples where planning is often too general and needs to be more specific to show what teachers will do to support children’s learning. The teachers need to more consistently evaluate in depth the impact of their teaching on children’s learning.
Before the review, the staff and management of ABC Invercargill 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.
The next ERO review of ABC Invercargill will be in three years.
Graham Randell
National Manager Review Services Southern Region
28 October 2014
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.
|
Location |
Invercargill |
|||
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
65186 |
|||
|
Licence type |
Education & Care Service |
|||
|
Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
|||
|
Number licensed for |
75 children, including up to 25 aged under 2 |
|||
|
Service roll |
88 |
|||
|
Gender composition |
Girls: 44 Boys: 44 |
|||
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori NZ European/Pākehā Pacific Island Other |
31 48 3 6 |
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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 |
1:4 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
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Over 2 |
1:8 |
Better than minimum requirements |
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Review team on site |
September 201 |
|||
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Date of this report |
28 October 2014 |
|||
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review |
June 2011 |
||
|
Education Review |
March 2008 |
|||
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:
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 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.