710 Main North Road, Belfast, Christchurch
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 |
|
Curriculum |
Meeting |
|
Premises and facilities |
Meeting |
|
Health and safety |
Meeting |
|
Governance, management and administration |
Meeting |
At the time of the review, ERO found the service was taking reasonable steps to meet regulatory standards.
Belfast Playcentre is a whānau-led early childhood education service administered by Te Whānau Tupu Ngātahi o Aotearoa – Playcentre Aotearoa. Since the November 2014 ERO report there has been significant restructuring and change at the national Playcentre level. The centre offers three morning sessions for children aged birth to school and one bespoke session for infants.
The curriculum is consistent with the playcentre philosophy and Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. Whānau and parents work alongside a session facilitator to provide a play-based curriculum. They engage in meaningful, positive interactions to enhance children’s learning and nurture reciprocal relationships.
The service is purposefully designed to provide a wide range of indoor and outdoor experiences. A sufficient quantity and variety of furniture, equipment, and materials is provided that is appropriate for the learning and abilities of the children attending.
Next steps include for kaiako and whānau to:
extend their knowledge and meaningful use of te reo Māori and te ao Māori
The next ERO review is likely to be an Akarangi | Quality Evaluation.
Dr Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini
14 November 2022
|
Early Childhood Service Name |
Belfast Playcentre |
|
Profile Number |
70026 |
|
Location |
Christchurch |
|
Service type |
Playcentre |
|
Number licensed for |
30 children, including up to 20 aged under 2 |
|
Percentage of qualified adults |
0-49% |
|
Service roll |
37 |
|
Review team on site |
September 2022 |
|
Date of this report |
14 November 2022 |
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review, March 2013; Education Review, August 2009 |
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.
Belfast Playcentre is developing its capacity to promote positive outcomes for children.
Belfast Playcentre is one of 46 centres administered by the Canterbury Playcentre Association. The association’s education and centre support teams guide parents to operate the centre. The parents’ cooperative is responsible for the day-to-day operation of the centre. The centre operates for three morning sessions each week for children aged from birth to school age.
The centre has made considerable progress since the 2009 ERO review. Since that time, the programme has improved, resources have increased, the roll has grown and parents have become more actively involved in the playcentre.
This review was conducted as part of a cluster approach to reviews in four early childhood education services within the Canterbury Playcentre Association umbrella organisation.
Children are happy, settled and confident in the programme. The coordinator and parents use a range of effective approaches to help children build positive relationships with other parents and each other.
Children are well supported to select from the wide range of activities and resources and to follow their interests and ideas. Adults actively encourage children to make choices and take the time children need to develop their ideas and explore the environment. The next step is for parents to extend the ways they work with children to extend their thinking and problem-solving skills.
The coordinator actively promotes te reo and tikanga Māori in the programme. She places a strong focus on Māori values to strengthen relationships in the centre. Parents are beginning to make links to te reo Māori in the child profile books and their interactions with children.
Parents have made good progress in making sure the child profile books have regular entries, are attractive and provide a good record of the child’s time at the centre. The centre’s self review has identified that parents need to record more about children’s learning and how they can support this learning.
This includes developing plans to increase parents’ knowledge and skills about how to record children’s learning and progress in their profile books.
The playcentre association support person provides effective leadership and guidance that is building capacity, knowledge and confidence among parents. The centre coordinator provides considerable support to parents to meet the needs of all families. Parents are developing a shared understanding of playcentre and working as a cooperative to benefit children’s learning.
The association provides a well-developed organisational framework for centre operations. An increasing number of parents at the centre are participating in the association’s parent education programme. This is helping to improve the quality of education for children and their families. To continue this, the association will need to continue to provide considerable additional support to ensure workloads are manageable and current improvements are sustained.
Before the review, the management of Belfast Playcentre 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:
All early childhood services are required to promote children's health and safety and to regularly review their compliance with legal requirements.
ERO is likely to carry out the next review in three years.
Graham Randell
National Manager Review Services
Southern Region
|
Location |
Belfast, Christchurch |
||
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
70026 |
||
|
Licence type |
Playcentre |
||
|
Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
||
|
Number licensed for |
25 children, including up to 6 aged under two |
||
|
Service roll |
17 |
||
|
Gender composition |
Boys 9; Girls 8 |
||
|
Ethnic composition |
New Zealand European/Pākehā Māori Other ethnicities |
15 1 1 |
|
|
Review team on site |
December 2012 |
||
|
Date of this report |
8 March 2013 |
||
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Supplementary Review Education Review Accountability Review |
August 2009 June 2008 1994 |
|
The Education Review Office (ERO) is the New Zealand government department that reviews schools and early childhood services throughout New Zealand.
ERO's education reviews in early childhood services focus on the factors that contribute to positive learning outcomes for children. ERO evaluates how well placed the service is to make and sustain improvements for the benefit of all children at the service. To reach these findings ERO considers:
Within these areas ERO considers the effectiveness of self review and partnerships with parents and whānau.
ERO reviews do not cover every aspect of service performance and each ERO report may cover different issues. The aim is to provide information on aspects that are central to positive outcomes for children and useful to the service.
Individual ERO school and early childhood service reports are public information and may be copied or sent electronically. However, the Education Review Office can guarantee only the authenticity of original documents which have been obtained in hard copy directly from either the local ERO office or ERO National Office in Wellington.