16 South Terrace, Darfield
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 Annabel’s Educare are as follows:
Outcome Indicators(What the service knows about outcomes for learners) |
Whakaū Embedding |
Ngā Akatoro Domains |
|
Learning ConditionsOrganisational Conditions |
Whakaū Embedding Whakaū Embedding |
Annabel’s Educare is one of eight early learning services located across Canterbury. The owner supports a centre manager to lead a well-established teaching team. A small number of Māori children attend and those of diverse cultural heritages. Good progress has been made in relation to the key next steps recommended in the 2019 ERO report.
Children up to the age of three years experience a broad, rich curriculum aligned with Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. It is intentionally designed to meet their specific developmental needs which include:
well-established learning priorities of communication, independence, social competency and creating a sense of belonging
a strong focus on early literacy experiences and storytelling
intentional teaching approaches to support children’s oral language development.
The spacious, thoughtfully resourced outdoors enables infants and toddlers to make choices, explore and challenge themselves physically. Teachers work in partnership with parents to support children’s developing social competence. Well-planned transitions into, within and from the service support the wellbeing and belonging of children and their families.
Assessment practices have continued to develop since the 2019 ERO review. Children’s learning and progress over time is evident in assessment documentation, which shows their developing capabilities, interests and strengths, reflective of curriculum priorities. Aspects of children’s cultures, languages and identity are evident in assessment documentation and the learning environment.
The service continues to build leaders’ and teachers' capability to implement a culturally responsive and bicultural curriculum. Some te reo Māori and tikanga Māori are integrated into the daily curriculum.
Ongoing, systematic self-review and the service’s annual strategic plan inform decisions for relevant professional learning and curriculum development. Effectiveness of internal evaluation processes can be increased by building teacher capability to:
develop clear, measurable success indicators and strengthen data analysis
identify, evaluate and monitor the impact of improvements on outcomes for identified individuals and groups of learners.
Improvement-focused governance and management systems, processes, and well-considered resource allocation clearly align to the service’s philosophy and vision for valued learning.
Annabel’s Educare will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:
Increase the visibility of individual children's cultures, languages and identity in assessment documentation and the enacted curriculum.
Engage with whānau Māori and explore authentic opportunities for them to contribute to the design and development of a curriculum that reflects Māori ways of knowing, being and doing, and supports Māori learners to succeed as Māori.
Continue to develop a localised bicultural curriculum responsive to the histories, pūrākau and places of significance of mana whenua.
Continue to build collective understanding and use of effective internal evaluation.
Before the review, the staff and management of Annabel’s Educare 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.
During the review, the service provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed the following non-compliance:
Ensuring items intended for sleep are arranged and spaced so that adults have clear access to at least one side (HS 10).
Since the review, the service provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed the following non-compliance:
Ensuring the regular monitoring of children’s sleep is documented accurately (HS9).
Patricia Davey
Director of Early Childhood Education (ECE)
11 October 2023
|
Early Childhood Service Name |
Annabel's Educare |
|
Profile Number |
65060 |
|
Location |
Darfield |
|
Service type |
Education and care service |
|
Number licensed for |
50 children, including up to 12 aged under 2 |
|
Percentage of qualified teachers |
80-99% |
|
Service roll |
78 |
|
Review team on site |
August 2023 |
|
Date of this report |
11 October 2023 |
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review, October 2019 |
|
Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
Annabel's Educare is very well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Annabel's Educare is one of eight early learning services within Annabel's Educare Ltd. An area manager oversees the eight centres and is supported in her work by the owner/director. Both the area manager and owner are qualified early childhood teachers.
Annabel's Educare is licensed for 50 children and caters for children from birth-to-three years of age. It has a separate indoor and outdoor area for infants and young toddlers. All of the teachers are qualified early childhood teachers.
The centre is one of three adjacent Annabel services in Darfield. Most children begin in this centre, then move to Annabel's Kindergarten. Some children from the adjacent Annabel centres begin and/or finish their day in Annabel's Educare.
Since the 2014 ERO review, a new centre manager has been appointed. Teachers from this and Annabel's Kindergarten have developed a large shared garden area. The kindergarten is part of the Malvern Kāhui Ako|Community of Learning.
Annabel's Educare continues to be a high performing service and has made sound progress against ERO's 2014 recommendations.
This review was part of a cluster of three reviews of Darfield services within Annabel's Educare Ltd.
Children benefit from very caring, responsive and respectful relationships with their teachers. They quickly settle, confidently approach their teachers and show a strong sense of belonging. They play and learn in spacious, thoughtfully presented and well-resourced indoor and outdoor areas. Parents and wider whānau feel welcome to stay, play alongside their children and contribute to the programme.
Teachers deliberately set up resources, activities and experiences that link to children’s individual and group learning goals. The curriculum has a strong focus on settling, belonging, wellbeing, kaitiakitanga, physical exploration and early language development.
Children under two are very well cared for and supported in their learning. Each child has a primary caregiver who establishes a close bond with the child and their family. Teachers intentionally create a calm environment, allowing infants/toddlers space and time to explore and lead their learning. Routines are flexible to each child's needs.
Since the introduction of Te Whariki 2017, teachers have placed greater emphasis on children's learning and the strategies they use to support this. They have developed very effective planning, assessment and evaluation processes for individual and group learning. Teachers seek and value parents' contributions to these processes and their involvement in supporting their child's learning.
Cultural diversity is valued, with te ao and te reo Māori given prominence. Core Māori values, such as manaakitanga (kindness), kaitiakitanga (care for the environment) and whanaungatanga (the importance of relationships) are evident in the programme and centre environment. Cultures of children and their families from beyond New Zealand are celebrated.
Centre and service leaders are very reflective and improved focused. Effective internal evaluation practices are well embedded, and include evaluating the effectiveness of teaching strategies and different curriculum areas in supporting children's learning. Children's and parents' voice are integral to evaluation practice. Internal evaluation contributes to well-informed change and ongoing development.
Strong governance and management practices contribute to high quality provision for children and their families. Centre processes, such as relevant professional learning and development (PLD) and robust appraisal practices, align closely with the service's well-considered strategic goals and planning. There is a sound policy and procedure framework and well-developed resources to support consistency of practice within and across the three centres.
Leaders have a deliberate focus on equity for all learners. This is evident in targeted budgeting for personnel and resources for identified children. Children with additional needs are very well supported in their learning.
Leaders have built positive relationships and partnerships in order to best support children's learning. Leaders and staff work very collaboratively to achieve strategic and centre priorities. Teachers' strengths are valued and leadership fostered and distributed. Involvement in the Malvern Kāhui Ako is benefitting teachers and children, through shared PLD and professional conversations.
The service leaders have identified, and ERO agrees, the need to review their curriculum in relation to Te Whāriki 2017. This review will include defining the learning that matters most/learning priorities at the service. Subsequent internal evaluation processes should evaluate how well the curriculum promotes these identified learning priorities.
Before the review, the staff and management of Annabel's Educare 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.
Dr Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services Southern
Southern Region
11 October 2019
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 |
Darfield |
||
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
65060 |
||
|
Licence type |
Education & Care Service |
||
|
Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
||
|
Number licensed for |
50 children, including up to 12 aged under 2 |
||
|
Service roll |
104 |
||
|
Gender composition |
Girls 52, Boys 52 |
||
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori |
12 |
|
|
Percentage of qualified teachers |
80% + |
||
|
Reported ratios of staff to children |
Under 2 |
1:4 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
Over 2 |
1:8 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
|
Review team on site |
July 2019 |
||
|
Date of this report |
11 October 2019 |
||
|
Most recent ERO reports |
Education Review |
February 2014 |
|
|
Education Review |
June 2008 |
||
|
Education Review |
June 2005 |
||
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.