Te Puna Early Learning Centre

1 ERO’s Judgements

Akarangi | 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 Te Puna Early Learning Centre are as follows:

2 Context of the Service

Te Puna Early Learning Centre’s philosophy values reciprocal relationships, authentic and purposeful experiences and partnerships with whānau. Co-owners share responsibility for governance and leadership of the service. Approximately a quarter of children enrolled are Māori and a small number are of Pacific heritage.

3 Summary of findings

Children experience a well-resourced curriculum that promotes learning through play. Older children have language-rich learning opportunities that progress literacy and numeracy. Teachers implement respectful practices that maintain a calm, slow pace. This gives younger children space and time to lead their own learning. Those with additional learning needs are empowered to learn. Specific learning and development strategies are shared with whānau, the service, and external agencies. Children participate alongside their peers.

Teachers are in the early stages of building their capability to implement a culturally responsive curriculum. Children experience some te reo Māori and tikanga Māori through daily interactions. Tuakana-teina (older-younger child) relationships promote child-led learning. Whānau Māori are yet to have opportunities to contribute cultural ways of knowing and being to the curriculum design. Some aspects of Pacific culture are evident in the learning environment. Teachers are yet to explore ways to maintain children’s connections to their home languages and cultural identity within the curriculum.

Internal evaluation is beginning to be used. Within the nursery, newly established assessment, planning and evaluation systems include learning outcomes from Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. This is not yet consistent across the service. Monitoring and evaluation is required of the impact of teaching on the learning outcomes of individual and groups of children.

Prioritising whakawhanaungatanga (establishing and maintaining relationships) enables responsiveness to whānau contexts. Leaders and governance enact equity initiatives to remove some barriers to children’s participation and inclusion.

4 Improvement actions

Te Puna Early Learning Centre will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:

• Continue to access professional learning to build teachers’ capability to meaningfully respond to children’s cultural identities in the daily curriculum.

• Identify and implement strategies to work alongside whānau Māori in developing the bicultural curriculum to integrate their culturally valued knowledge.

• Improve the extent to which planning, assessment and evaluation documentation reflects children’s learning in relation to learning outcomes in Te Whāriki.

• Strengthen internal evaluation to better understand how the learning outcomes of individuals and groups of children are impacted by shifts in teaching practice.

5 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Te Puna Early Learning Centre completed an ERO 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; safety checking; teacher registration; ratios)

• relevant evacuation procedures and practices.

All early childhood services are required to promote children's health and safety and to regularly review their compliance with legal requirements.

Patricia Davey
Director of Early Childhood Education (ECE)

15 June 2023

6 About the Early Childhood Service