Bright Beginnings Early Learning Centre - 31/05/2018

• On this page:

• 1 Evaluation of Bright Beginnings Early Learning Centre
• 2 Information about the Early Childhood Service
• 3 General Information about Early Childhood Reviews

1 Evaluation of Bright Beginnings Early Learning Centre

How well placed is Bright Beginnings Early Learning Centre to promote positive learning outcomes for children?

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

Background

Bright Beginnings Early Learning Centre is an early childhood education and care centre located in Glendowie, East Auckland. Children and families come from a diverse range of international backgrounds and most live locally.

The service is licensed for 25 children over the age of two years and offers a full-day programme. The children play together in a mixed-age environment under the care of a centre supervisor and three teachers.

The centre is owned, along with two other services, by a family-based company. The owners are the centre's directors and both are involved in the day-to-day organisation of the centre. One director, a qualified early childhood teacher, leads the development of teaching and learning. The other director manages administration and property, health and safety, and policy review.

The centre's vision merges New Zealand's Te Whāriki curriculum with the Reggio Emilia philosophy. The resulting programmes encourage children's creativity, imagination and sense of social responsibility. There is an ethos of caring for the planet that permeates the curriculum's focus and the centre's bicultural environment.

The 2015 ERO review affirmed that the centre was delivering positive educational outcomes for children. The ERO report suggested improvements included families being more involved in curriculum planning and the centre's strategic planning being more focused on teaching and learning. This review finds that the centre has substantially addressed these development points.

This review was part of a cluster of two reviews for the Bright Beginnings Early Learning Centres organisation.

The Review Findings

Children benefit from engaging and supportive relationships between child, teacher and family that support their wellbeing and sense of belonging. Centre staff have worked extensively to develop effective partnerships with families that promote and develop early childhood learning.

The centre's high quality curriculum and learning environment support children to learn collaboratively through exploration and investigation. The range of rich learning experiences available promotes children's cognitive development and proficiency with language. Early literacy and numeracy skills are skilfully integrated into the context of play by capable teachers.

Teachers have a high level of respect for children as competent learners. They listen carefully to children, value their ideas, and support them to decide on the direction of their play. They extend children's thinking through skilful questioning and enable them to access and select play resources. Children spend time each week with an art specialist employed to promote their learning and creativity in the arts.

Teachers use assessment and planning practice that responds effectively to what they notice about each child. Teachers document and extend children's individual and group interests by supporting their projects and inquiries. Teachers also plan for dispositions development within the programme to enable children to develop and grow positively. They share this information with families through learning stories, conversations and conferencing to encourage parents to participate in their children's learning progress.

The centre has developed a professional learning culture for staff. Frequent evaluation of teachers' practice informs professional development planning. All teachers have in-depth, externally facilitated professional learning. This process ensures that teachers are well supported to keep their practice current. Teacher appraisal and registration systems meet the current requirements of the Education Council. The supervisor supports staff in many ways, to continue developing their leadership skills.

The centre directors are committed to supporting the partnership in The Treaty of Waitangi and all staff inspire children to engage with te ao Māori.

The centre supervisor of Bright Beginnings Early Learning Centre - Glendowie has been identified to lead the inclusion of te reo me ōna tikanga Māori in the organisation's learning programme. She is involved in long-term professional learning to develop this dimension of the curriculum. Centre investigations and wall learning displays reflect bicultural New Zealand and the other cultures of the children who attend the service.

The centre philosophy is regularly reviewed to reflect changing teacher practice and ideas. Effective internal evaluation processes inform the strategic direction of the centre and include the views of parents and the community. The goals of the strategic plan are prioritised, clear and relevant.

Key Next Steps

ERO and centre managers agree that the centre should continue to:

• develop distributed leadership enabling shared ownership of strategic development

• formalise teaching as inquiry within the centre's appraisal system

• develop tikanga within the centre's rohe that consults with local hapū and Ngāti Whatua.

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Bright Beginnings Early Learning Centre 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.

Next ERO Review

When is ERO likely to review the service again?

The next ERO review of Bright Beginnings Early Learning Centre will be in four years.

Julie Foley

Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern (Acting)

Te Tai Raki - Northern Region

31 May 2018

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

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.