31 Schnapper Rock Road, Albany, North Shore City
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 Bear Park Albany are as follows:
Outcome Indicators(What the service knows about outcomes for learners) |
Whakawhanake Sustaining |
Ngā Akatoro Domains |
|
Learning ConditionsOrganisational Conditions |
Whakawhanake Sustaining Whakawhanake Sustaining |
Bear Park Albany is one of eleven centres that are part of the Bear Park group. A qualified service provider works closely alongside two head teachers, five qualified teachers, eight teachers and a centre cook. Children have diverse ethnic backgrounds, and the majority attending are from the local community.
The Bear Park group has services in Auckland and Dunedin. Pedagogical leaders provide professional advice, guidance, and support for Bear Park services.
Close, positive, and respectful relationships between children, teachers and parents are highly valued and evident. Teachers take time to get to know children and their families very well. Children are confident and articulate communicators who have formed close, caring friendships with their peers and teachers. Responsive, reciprocal relationships support children to try out their ideas and extend their learning. Children’s aspirations, ventures and achievements are valued.
Teachers skilfully plan a responsive and inclusive curriculum that is informed by children’s interests and parent aspirations. Thoughtfully designed learning environments are well resourced and provide a wide variety of possibilities for children to explore, be creative and to lead their own learning.
The philosophy and curriculum are based on Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, and inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach, which values children as capable learners working collaboratively with teachers in a stimulating environment. Children are curious, creative, and confident to ask questions, negotiate and problem-solve.
Teachers and children use te reo and tikanga Māori in meaningful and natural ways. Children are learning their own pepeha and reflect pride in sharing who they are and where they come from. Their mana is valued and upheld. Children and teachers have a deep respect for the environment. This is enriched by well-developed community networks and participation in the Enviroschools programme.
Relational trust at every level supports effective team collaboration. Teachers are provided with a range of professional development opportunities and mentoring. Leaders share their professional knowledge and expertise within the Bear Park group and the wider professional community. A long-term plan informed by Bear Park organisational goals, values and priorities guides ongoing improvement and results in positive outcomes for children.
Leaders and teachers implement policies, procedures and practices that contribute to equitable outcomes for children at this service. There is a well-established system in place for internal evaluation that supports meaningful improvements across the service. Strong professional leadership, communication and innovation contributes to sustained improvements and continuity in the provision of high-quality care and education for children.
Bear Park Albany will include the following action as a priority in its Quality Improvement Planning:
Engage further with the Enviroschools programme and continue to use internal evaluation to document how a focus on sustainability has contributed to enhanced and equitable learning outcomes for children.
Before the review, the staff and management of Bear Park Albany 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.
Filivaifale Jason Swann
Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern)
Northern Region | Te Tai Raki
14 February 2023
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Early Childhood Service Name |
Bear Park Albany |
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Profile Number |
20549 |
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Location |
North Shore City |
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Service type |
Education and care service |
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Number licensed for |
70 children, including up to 25 aged under 2 |
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Percentage of qualified teachers |
80-99% |
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Service roll |
69 |
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Review team on site |
December 2022 |
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Date of this report |
14 February 2023 |
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Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review, June 2018 |
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Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Bear Park Albany provides full-day education and care for up to 70 children including a maximum of 25 children under two years of age. The centre caters for multicultural families, including a high number with Asian heritage, who live or work in the surrounding area. Children are grouped according to age in three main learning groups. The infants and toddlers are in the upstairs space and the preschool aged children are in the downstairs area.
The centre is a privately owned service that operates under the frameworks of the Bear Park (Franchise) Group. It follows the Bear Park philosophy, which is based on the four principles of Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, and on Te Tiriti o Waitangi. The philosophy also includes reference to the inspiration and influences of Reggio Emilia principles and values, and of Resources for Infant Educarers (RIE).
The owner and teachers have maintained and built on the positive findings identified in ERO's 2014 report. Centre leadership has strengthened and curriculum management processes have improved. Teachers have made good progress in deepening the centre's internal evaluation processes.
Fostering children's wellbeing and sense of belonging underpins every aspect of the programme, which is child focused and child led. Teachers have a genuine belief that children are capable, confident learners and their respect for children is highly evident. They provide a calm, peaceful setting in which children's languages and cultural identities are valued and affirmed. These strong foundations support children to be enthusiastically and actively involved in collaborative inquires and play. In keeping with Reggio Emilia ideals, teachers ensure that the learning environments prompt children to engage, explore, discover and learn.
Programmes are high quality and provide very well for children's self-paced learning. Teachers acknowledge children's thoughts and ideas. The curriculum focuses on opportunities for children to contribute through verbal exploration and reasoning. Literacy, mathematics and science are seamlessly woven into the programme through children's interests and enthusiasms. A core group of staff members help maintain the skilled models of high quality teaching in this centre.
Infants and toddlers thrive in an atmosphere of respectful and loving care. They are surrounded by compelling invitations to explore and experience in an atmosphere of beauty and interest. This high quality environment and teachers' careful preparations enable children to transition seamlessly through the centre. The older group of children and their families are well supported to transition to school.
Teachers have a strong commitment to a bicultural curriculum. Their bicultural practices are values based and genuine. They help children to understand the bicultural heritage of Aotearoa New Zealand through the meaningful inclusion of te reo and tikanga Māori. Children have opportunities to share Māori stories and legends. Protocols that reflect Māori values are well understood by children and practised daily.
The centre is highly responsive to its community. Several staff members have the same cultural backgrounds as some of the families and are able to engage them in conversations in their home languages. Good levels of communication with all families are highly evident. As a result, parents are well informed and have opportunities to share information and their thinking about their children's time in the centre. Parents hold the centre in very high esteem.
The Bear Park (Franchise) Group sets high expectations for teachers. Teachers work together to link their thinking, and collaboratively share understandings and maintain high standards. The Group's effective and high quality professional learning for teachers contributes to positive outcomes for children. In this centre, it also prompts lively and deep teacher reflection that constantly supports ongoing development in all aspects of teachers' work with children.
Collaborative structures, such as streamlined strategic planning and internal evaluation, and policy development and review, include staff and parents' input whenever possible. Children are encouraged to share their views about the programme's current topics. This shared approach is designed to provide a sense of ownership among all stake-holders.
The centre is well supported by the owner and by management personnel and systems. Trusting relationships and reflective, responsive and structured support are creating sustainable leadership within the centre.
Useful challenges for the centre would be to:
share their very good practice with the wider education community with a focus on taking leadership to a higher level
continue building on their current high quality provision of education and care of children through ongoing deep reflection and internal evaluation.
Before the review, the staff and management of Bear Park Albany 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 Bear Park Albany will be in four years.
Julie Foley
Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern (Acting)
Te Tai Raki - Northern Region
12 June 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 |
Albany, Auckland |
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Ministry of Education profile number |
20549 |
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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 |
70 children, including up to 25 aged under 2 |
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Service roll |
59 |
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Gender composition |
Girls 30 Boys 29 |
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Ethnic composition |
Māori |
4 |
|
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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 |
1:7 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
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Review team on site |
May 2018 |
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Date of this report |
12 June 2018 |
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Most recent ERO report(s)
|
Education Review |
December 2014 |
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|
Education Review |
October 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.