Cherry's on Maryhill

Education institution number:
45151
Service type:
Education and Care Service
Definition:
Not Applicable
Total roll:
72
Telephone:
Address:

5 Maryhill Avenue, Hoon Hay, Christchurch

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Cherry's on Maryhill

1 ERO’s Judgements

Akarangi | 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 Cherry’s on Maryhill are as follows:

Outcome Indicators

(What the service knows about outcomes for learners)

Whāngai Establishing

Ngā Akatoro Domains

 

Learning Conditions

Organisational Conditions

Whakaū Embedding

Whakaū Embedding

2 Context of the Service

Cherry’s on Maryhill is one of two privately-owned early learning centres. This centre is in a converted house. The owner, centre manager, team leaders and curriculum leaders work together to support a team of qualified and registered early childhood teachers. A small number of Māori children attend the centre. Leaders have made good progress in addressing the recommendations identified in the 2019 ERO report.  

3 Summary of findings

Teachers are responsive to children’s interests, strengths, and capabilities. They engage children in meaningful experiences that extend their thinking and learning. Children with additional needs are well supported to succeed. Transitions between the infant and toddler area and the older children’s area are individualised. Attentive teachers nurture a sense of wellbeing for infant and toddlers.

Teachers build positive relationships with children and whānau. They emphasise sustainable practices within a well-resourced, natural learning environment. The service’s learning priorities of respect for nature that inspires curiosity, exploration, and creativity are evident.

Children have many opportunities to learn about Aotearoa New Zealand’s and other cultural heritages. Karakia, waiata, te reo and te ao Māori and cultural celebrations are interwoven into the daily routines. A next step is to explore with whanau what Māori educational success means to them.

Assessment records clearly show children’s participation and involvement in learning experiences. Children’s learning progress overtime in relation to the learning outcomes from Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum and the service priorities for learning is not consistently evident. At the time of the review, older children did not have independent access to their own learning records to revisit their learning.

Leaders provide professional learning opportunities to build teachers’ capability and professional practice. They are using external expertise to review the philosophy and recognise Māori values and concepts and develop a bi-cultural curriculum that is grounded in treaty-based practice. This work is yet to be completed.

Distributed leadership promotes trusting collegial relationships that support teachers in their work. Leaders are at the early stages of introducing a new internal evaluation process. This is yet to be fully understood and widely used across the teaching team.  

Those involved in governance of the service support initiatives that contribute to positive, social and community participation. They provide a sound policy framework and annual planning processes to guide the centres priorities. 

4 Improvement actions

Cherry’s on Maryhill will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:

  • complete the review of the service philosophy

  • explore with whanau Māori, hapu, and iwi, what Māori educational success means to them.

  • build the teaching teams' capability to use internal evaluation to inform decision making about change and improvement and evaluate the impacts of changes made on outcomes for individual and groups of children. 

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Cherry’s on Maryhill 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.

Patricia Davey
Director of Early Childhood Education (ECE)

19 May 2023 

6 About the Early Childhood Service

Early Childhood Service Name

Cherry’s on Maryhill

Profile Number

45151

Location

Christchurch

Service type

Education and care service

Number licensed for

45 children, including up to 14 aged under 2

Percentage of qualified teachers

100%

Service roll

68

Review team on site

December 2022  

Date of this report

19 May 2023

Most recent ERO report(s)

Education Review, January 2019; Education Review, November 2014

Cherry's on Maryhill - 30/01/2019

1 Evaluation of Cherry's on Maryhill

How well placed is Cherry's on Maryhill to promote positive learning outcomes for children?

Not well placed

Requires further development

Well placed

Very well placed

Cherry's on Maryhill is very well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.

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

Background

Cherry's on Maryhill is a privately-owned centre that provides full-day education and care. It is licensed for 45 children, including 14 children under the age of two. It is located in a converted house with two separate play spaces for over two and under two year old groups.

The owner operates two centres in Christchurch. The collaborative leadership team consists of a general manager, centre manager, team leaders and curriculum leaders. The teaching staff are qualified and certified early childhood teachers, or are in training.

The centre's philosophy emphasises children's sense of wellbeing and belonging in a homelike setting and play garden. The centre is an Enviroschool, which forms the foundation of beliefs and sustainable practices. Children are viewed as capable, confident learners.

The centre has a positive reporting history with ERO. Leaders and teachers have made good progress in addressing the recommendations in the 2014 report. Teachers ensure children have many planned and incidental opportunities for mathematical learning. There are effective systems in place which enable teachers to build their knowledge about how they can support children's on-going learning.

The Review Findings

Children's sense of belonging is carefully nurtured through caring and respectful relationships, a positive centre culture, settled learning environments and well-established routines. Children are encouraged to have positive and sensitive relationships with each other and their environment. As an Enviroschool, the curriculum is strongly aligned to the centre's philosophy, vision and values, and to future sustainability. The learning that matters at this centre is clearly evident in its philosophy. The natural outside play area encourages exploration, creativity and imaginative play and is designed to challenge and develop children's physical skills. It is highly reflective of the centre's core values and the Enviroschool's philosophy.

Teachers actively take the time to know children and their whānau. All children have a teacher who is their primary caregiver. Learning stories clearly show children's learning and progress and value families' contributions. This assessment process builds children's identity as successful learners. Te Whāriki (2017) the NZ Early Childhood Curriculum is used to inform assessment and planning for children's learning.

Teachers are involved in children's learning and play and are highly responsive to children's needs and interests. They effectively seek children's ideas and opinions so they can contribute to the programme. Curriculum development is promoted through these interactions with a deliberate focus on oral language, mathematics and literacy. Children are involved in meaningful learning experiences inside and outside the centre, including purposeful trips into the local community. Leaders and teachers have developed close relationships with local schools to further enhance opportunities for learning.

Children and their families benefit from effective, well planned transitions into, across and out of the centre.

Infants and toddlers are very well supported. Teachers are highly aware of the specific needs of very young children. They provide responsive care-giving that supports infants' and toddlers' needs for strong and secure attachments to adults. Infants and toddlers are encouraged to make choices and take risks in a nurturing and safe environment.

Teachers regularly include te reo Māori in their conversations with children. They are increasingly including aspects of te reo and tikanga Māori across the curriculum. This is helping Māori children to recognise and take pride in their cultural heritage. As a result of targeted professional development, Pacific children's culture and heritage is now highly valued.

There is a strong sense of collaboration and reflective practice amongst leaders and teachers. Teachers are inquiring deeply into the impact of their practice on children's learning. Teachers are encouraged to take on leadership roles and responsibilities. Their talents and expertise are effectively used and they are well supported by the owner and centre manager.

A well-developed policy and procedures framework is in place as a result of effective professional collaboration between the two centres. This ensures high expectations for teaching and learning and consistency of practice and operations.

Key Next Steps

Leaders have identified that to consistently meet Education Council registration requirements, they need to include in the online appraisal process:

  • an annual attestation summary report

  • formal observations and written feedback to teachers.

It would be timely for leaders to regularly evaluate the goals in the strategic plan to determine the effectiveness of the strategic directions, as outlined in the plan.

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Cherry's on Maryhill 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 Cherry's on Maryhill will be in four years.

Alan Wynyard

Director Review & Improvement Services Southern

Te Waipounamu - Southern Region

30 January 2019

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

Christchurch

Ministry of Education profile number

45151

Licence type

Education & Care Service

Licensed under

Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008

Number licensed for

45 children, including up to 14 aged under 2

Service roll

80

Gender composition

Girls: 29

Boys: 51

Ethnic composition

Māori
Pākehā
Other Ethnicities

4
73
3

Percentage of qualified teachers

80% +

Reported ratios of staff to children

Under 2

1:4

Better than minimum requirements

Over 2

1:7

Better than minimum requirements

Review team on site

November 2018

Date of this report

30 January 2019

Most recent ERO report(s)

 

Education Review

November 2014

Education Review

November 2011

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.