Aoga Amata (AAPICA) Centre Avondale

ERO’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.

ERO’s Judgement

Regulatory standards	ERO’s judgement
Curriculum	Meeting
Premises and facilities	Meeting
Health and safety	Meeting
Governance, management and administration	Meeting

Since the onsite visit the service has provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed non-compliances and is now taking reasonable steps to meet regulatory standards.

Background

Aoga Amata (AAPICA) Centre Avondale is a Samoan bilingual service. A head teacher leads a team of five qualified teachers and six educators. There are separate areas for infants and toddlers, and for older children.

Summary of Review Findings

The service curriculum is consistent with Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. Children have opportunities to develop knowledge and an understanding of the dual heritages of Aotearoa New Zealand. The curriculum supports children to understand and respect gagana Samoa and fa’a Samoa. Adults interact with children in positive ways to nurture relationships and provide an inclusive curriculum.

Compliance

Since the onsite visit the service has provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed the following non-compliances:

• ensuring a tempering valve or other means of limiting hot water temperature is installed (PF24)
• ensuring there is a first aid kit that complies with licensing requirements (PF28)
• ensuring the premises are in a building that has a current fire evacuation scheme approved by the New Zealand Fire Service (HS4)
• ensuring heavy furniture, fixtures and equipment that could fall or topple and cause serious injury or damage are secured (HS6)
• having a written emergency plan and supplies to ensure the care and safety of children and adults at the service, which includes a list of safety and emergency supplies and resources and evidence of review of the plan on at least an annual basis (HS7)
• ensuring adults providing education and care are familiar with relevant emergency drills and carry these out with children at least on a three-monthly basis, including maintaining a record of emergency drills carried out and evidence of how evaluation of the drills has informed the annual review of the service’s emergency plan (HS8)
• ensuring a procedure for monitoring children’s sleep is displayed and implemented, and a record of children’s sleep times is kept (HS9)
• implementing a system to ensure equipment, premises and facilities are checked every day of operation for hazards to the children (HS12)
• ensuring the temperature of warm water delivered from taps accessible to children are no higher than 40°C (HS13)
• ensuring water stored in any hot water cylinder is kept at a temperature of at least 60°C (HS14)
• ensuring when children leave the premises on an excursion, parents/caregivers have given prior written approval of the proposed ratio of adults:children (HS17)
• ensuring the Child Protection Policy contains provisions for the identification and reporting of child abuse and neglect abuse (HS31)
• ensuring all practicable steps are taken to protect children from exposure to inappropriate material (HS32)
• establishing an ongoing process of self review to help the service maintain and improve the quality of its education and care (GMA6)
• ensuring all children’s workers who have access to children are safety checked in accordance with the Children’s Act 2014. Safety checks must be undertaken, and the results obtained before the worker has access to children; the results of the safety checks must be recorded, and the record kept as long as the person is employed at the service (GMA7A).

Next ERO Review

The next ERO review is likely to be an Akarangi | Quality Evaluation.

Phil Cowie
Acting Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern)
Northern Region | Te Tai Raki

13 July 2021 

Information About the Service

Early Childhood Service Name	Aoga Amata (AAPICA) Centre Avondale
Profile Number	45488
Location	Avondale, Auckland
Service type	Education and care service
Number licensed for	50 children, including up to 12 aged under 2
Percentage of qualified teachers	80%+
Service roll	50
Ethnic composition	Māori 5 Samoan 36 other Pacific 7 other ethnic groups 2
Review team on site	May 2021
Date of this report	13 July 2021
Most recent ERO report(s)	Education Review, October 2017 Education Review, June 2015

General Information about Assurance Reviews

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.

ERO undertakes an Akanuku | Assurance Review process in any centre-based service:

• having its first ERO review – including if it is part of a governing organisation
• previously identified as ‘not well placed’ or ‘requiring further development’
• that has moved from a provisional to a full licence
• that have been re-licenced due to a change of ownership
• where an Akanuku | Assurance Review process is determined to be appropriate.

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

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:

• curriculum
• premises and facilities
• health and safety practices
• governance, management and administration.

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:

• 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 certification; ratios)
• evacuation procedures and practices for fire and earthquake.

As part of an Akanuku | Assurance Review ERO also gathers and records evidence through:

• discussions with those involved in the service
• consideration of relevant documentation, including the implementation of health and safety systems
• observations of the environment/premises, curriculum implementation and teaching practice.

1 Evaluation of Aoga Amata (AAPICA) Centre Avondale

How well placed is Aoga Amata (AAPICA) Centre Avondale to promote positive learning outcomes for children?

Not well placed

Requires further development

Well placed

Very well placed

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

Background

Aoga Amata (AAPICA) Centre Avondale is a community based, Samoan bilingual service offering care and education for children from three months to five years of age. It is licensed for 50 children, including up to 12 under two years old. Most children are Samoan and many also have Māori, Tongan and Cook Islands Māori heritage.

The aoga is governed by the Aoga Amata Pacific Island Church Avondale Trust and is located on the church grounds. The purpose-built facility provides separate spaces for the children under and over two years of age.

The manager oversees daily operations and management of the aoga, and provides guidance for the board. The licensee is chairman of the board and is also employed as the administrator. The aoga employs four qualified teachers and six teacher aides. Trustees are chosen by church members and include parents, church and community members. The board meets regularly to discuss governance and management matters.

The 2015 ERO review found that improvements were needed in governance and management, through a greater level of shared responsibility for strategic planning, financial management and internal evaluation. ERO identified non-compliance with requirements for health and safety, personnel and financial management, the quality of teaching and learning, and aspects of record keeping and hazard management.

The board and staff have made progress in some of the areas for development identified in the 2015 ERO report, primarily in the quality of teaching and learning. Ongoing external support will be necessary to embed these improvements and for the board to improve the quality of governance and strengthen centre sustainability.

The Review Findings

Children's identity is celebrated in the programme. Teachers continue to promote the centre's philosophy through Samoan language and culture, and Christian values. Te reo Māori and aspects of the bicultural heritage of Aotearoa are integrated into the programme. Children are confident, articulate and have some opportunities to negotiate and engage in complex play. Teachers should review the learning environment to ensure it stimulates, extends and challenges older children's thinking and physical development.

Infants and toddlers receive nurturing care and support in a calm environment. They know the routines of the day and settle quickly with staff. Children can access resources independently and enjoy exploring their environment.

Teachers have participated in Ministry of Education professional development, which has resulted in a more child-led curriculum and strengthened curriculum management. Progress is particularly evident in the assessment of children's learning and development, and the prominence of children's voice in learning stories. Teachers should continue to work with external support to further improve their professional practice, including their responsiveness to children and ways that they extend children's learning.

The manager understands the value of external and internal evaluation for ongoing improvement. Staff should continue to improve their use of internal evaluation to identify the impact of their teaching practice on outcomes for children. The board needs to ensure that the recently developed process for staff appraisal is implemented to support staff to raise the quality of teaching and learning and to strengthen distributed leadership.

The board has implemented a strategic plan to guide aoga development. The board should access external support to help trustees strengthen their shared understanding of their roles and responsibilities. This should include implementing and monitoring the strategic plan, improving financial management and policy review, and ensuring that they are meeting all legal requirements.

Key Next Steps

Priorities to improve outcomes for children and centre sustainability include the board urgently accessing external support to help them to improve:

• strategic and annual planning, monitoring and reporting of targeted equity funding
• ongoing policy review to ensure that they are kept up-to-date and that licensing and legal requirements are met
• teaching practices that further support an emergent, child-led curriculum
• annual staff appraisals that inform a programme of professional development and meet the requirements of the Education Council.

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Aoga Amata (AAPICA) Centre Avondale 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.

To improve current practice, the board should ensure that records of in-committee discussions are kept and securely stored.

ERO identified non-compliance in relation to the following areas.

• annual appraisals for all staff
• an ongoing process of internal evaluation that helps the service maintain and improve the quality of education and care
• risk assessment, analysis and management, including clear identification of adult-to-child ratios
• recording of in-committee minutes
• personnel, employment and child protection policies and procedures relating to the Vulnerable Children Act 2014.
  Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care Centres 2008, HS17; GMA6, 7, 7A.

Next ERO Review

When is ERO likely to review the service again?

The next ERO review of Aoga Amata (AAPICA) Centre Avondale will be in three years.

Graham Randell

Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern

Te Tai Raki - Northern Region

4 October 2017

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		Avondale, Auckland
Ministry of Education profile number		45488
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		35
Gender composition		Boys 25 Girls 10
Ethnic composition		Samoan/Māori Samoan Tongan other	6 23 2 4
Percentage of qualified teachers 0-49% 50-79% 80%+ Based on funding rates		50-79%
Reported ratios of staff to children	Under 2	1:3	Better than minimum requirements
	Over 2	1:8	Better than minimum requirements
Review team on site		August 2017
Date of this report		4 October 2017
Most recent ERO report(s)		Education Review	June 2015
		Education Review	March 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 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.