3 Treviso Place, Clover Park, Auckland
View on mapERO’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.
Regulatory standards |
ERO’s judgement |
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Curriculum |
Meeting |
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Premises and facilities |
Meeting |
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Health and safety |
Meeting |
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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.
Aurora Homebased Childcare Services is one of two home-based education and care networks owned and operated by Aurora Homebased Childcare Services Limited. The majority of the children attending are of Tongan heritage. There are a small number of children who have Māori or other Pacific heritages.
Children are provided with a range of experiences and opportunities to enhance and extend their learning and development. Educators providing education and care engage in meaningful, positive interactions to enhance children’s learning and nurture reciprocal relationships.
The service curriculum acknowledges and reflects the unique place of Māori as tangata whenua. The service curriculum respects and supports the right of each child to be confident in their own culture and encourages children to understand and respect other cultures.
Ongoing monitoring of health and safety, and governance, management and administration practices is required to ensure all aspects of regulatory standards are maintained.
Since the onsite visit, the service has provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed the following non-compliances:
Ensuring the design and layout of the premises supports effective adult supervision so that children’s access to indoor and outdoor spaces is not unnecessarily limited and all areas that the child is able to access are visible (PF2).
Ensuring there is an outdoor activity space that is easily accessible and available to children and is enclosed by structures and/or fences and gates designed to ensure that children cannot leave the premises without the help or knowledge of the educator (PF11).
Having a first aid kit that complies with the requirements of Appendix 1, is easily recognisable and readily accessible to adults and is inaccessible to children (PF15).
Ensuring equipment, premises and facilities are checked every day of operation for hazards to children, including identifying, eliminating, minimising or isolating hazards; this includes securing heavy furniture or equipment that could topple and cause harm (HS11).
Having records of all food served to children while they are participating in the service (other than that provided by parents for their own children); records show the type of food provided and are available for inspection for three months after the food is served (HS16).
Having a written supervision plan that ensures that good health and safety of children enrolled in the service is maintained at all times; the plan must be specific to the premises and the number, age, abilities and enrolled hours of the children attending and must show how the educator will actively supervise children attending the service (HS34).
Ensuring all children’s workers who have access to children are being safety checked in accordance with the Children’s Act 2014, including three yearly rechecks for existing employees (GMA6A).
The next ERO review is likely to be an Akarangi | Quality Evaluation.
Filivaifale Jason Swan
Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern)
Northern Region | Te Tai Raki
27 January 2023
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Early Childhood Service Name |
Aurora Homebased Childcare Services |
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Profile Number |
47086 |
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Location |
Clover Park, Auckland |
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Service type |
Home-based service |
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Number licensed for |
50 children, including up to 50 aged under 2 |
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Service roll |
35 |
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Review team on site |
October 2022 |
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Date of this report |
27 January 2023 |
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Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review, December 2018. |
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.
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.
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 regulatory 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; safety checking; teacher certification; ratios)
relevant evacuation procedures and practices
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.
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Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
Aurora Homebased Childcare Services is well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Aurora Homebased Childcare Services is a home-based education and care network that opened in 2016 and is based in Otara, South Auckland. The network is licensed for 50 children, including 24 aged up to two years. Of the 46 children enrolled, most are Tongan. There are also children with Māori and other Pacific heritages. Most children are bilingual.
The philosophy of Aurora Homebased Childcare Services emphasises the importance of nurturing children's individual strengths through a journey of guided discovery. Values of excellence, kindness, action and trust are also promoted.
Two directors and a coordinator work together to support in-home educators to provide suitable care and learning programmes for children. At the time of this ERO review, directors were undertaking restructuring to better meet the demands of a growing organisation.
The Aurora Homebased Childcare Services organisation has two home-based education and care networks. This is the first review of this network. The second network will be reviewed a year after its opening.
The Aurora Homebased Childcare Service's philosophy and the principles of Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, are evident in the documentation of planning and practice.
Coordinators and educators work together to provide sensitive support for the wellbeing of many children with diverse and complex needs. Inclusive, trusting relationships and partnerships underpin the service's approach to children's learning.
Coordinators' monthly reports record information about the children's programmes and activities and health and safety matters. Children's learning stories focus on their interests and areas of development.
Appropriate planning and assessment practices guide programmes for children. Children, including those under two years of age, experience a culturally responsive programme that values and affirms their individual identities. There is also a strong focus on developing children's respect for themselves and others, and their social and emotional competence. Social media is used well to inform and support educators and parents and to celebrate children's learning.
Children have regular opportunities to meet and play with others from across the two networks. In addition to the playgroup, children also take part in excursions that extend their learning opportunities. Practices for monitoring children's wellbeing and their health and safety are maintained through regular visits to homes.
Coordinators and educators take part in professional development that is relevant to the service's context. Good systems and accessible, useful resources are in place to support educators' professional learning. The service's appraisal processes are currently being developed to help coordinators grow their capability to promote educators' teaching practice.
The service has an established policy framework that guides practice, and this is regularly reviewed. The strategic plan is clear and detailed and would now benefit from in-depth evaluation to promote ongoing development and progress.
Internal evaluation is developing, is relevant and reflects current research. This evaluation development is evident from the strategic level through to the level of individual children's learning. The use of focused evaluative questions and indicators of effective practice would add depth to the service's internal evaluation processes.
ERO and service management/coordinators have identified relevant key next steps, which include:
ensuring children's learning dispositions are more visible in planning, assessment and evaluation
promoting effective teaching practice that is focused on children's learning outcomes
continuing to develop children's literacy and numeracy in the context of play
fully implementing appraisal processes for coordinators that align with the Education Council's requirements.
Before the review, the staff and management of Aurora Homebased Childcare Services completed an ERO Home-based Education and Care 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 Aurora Homebased Childcare Services will be in three years.
Violet Tu’uga Stevenson
Director Review and Improvement Services
Te Tai Raki - Northern Region
20 December 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 |
Otara, Auckland |
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Ministry of Education profile number |
47086 |
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Institution type |
Homebased Network |
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Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
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Number licensed for |
50 children, including up to 24 aged under 2 |
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Service roll |
46 |
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Standard or Quality Funded |
Standard |
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Gender composition |
Boys 26 Girls 20 |
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Ethnic composition |
Māori |
1 |
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Number of qualified coordinators in the network |
1 |
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Required ratios of staff educators to children |
Under 2 |
1:2 |
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Over 2 |
1:4 |
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Review team on site |
October 2018 |
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Date of this report |
20 December 2018 |
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Most recent ERO report(s)
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No previous ERO reports |
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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:
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 the draft methodology for ERO reviews in Home-based Education and Care Services: July 2014
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.