City Heights Montessori

Education institution number:
80026
Service type:
Education and Care Service
Definition:
Not Applicable
Total roll:
55
Telephone:
Address:

254 York Place, Dunedin Central, Dunedin

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City Heights Montessori

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 City Heights Montessori are as follows:

Outcome Indicators

(What the service knows about outcomes for learners)

Whāngai Establishing

Ngā Akatoro Domains

 

Learning Conditions
Organisational Conditions

Whāngai Establishing

Whakatō Emerging

2 Context of the Service

City Heights Montessori is one of two privately-owned services. Infant and toddlers learn and play in separate age-based rooms. There have been several changes of staff in the last year. Minimal progress has been made in addressing the key next steps from the 2015 and 2019 ERO reports in relation to internal evaluation. A small number of Māori children attend.

3 Summary of findings

Toddlers learn in an unhurried setting, well-nurtured by highly responsive teachers. They play cooperatively in small groups, and alongside others in an environment that is thoughtfully designed. Language development and vocabulary is supported by teachers attuned to their learning needs. Children’s developing social and emotional competence, participation in Montessori work and child-led play is purposefully guided by intentional teaching practices.

Teachers do not yet capitalise on opportunities to support infant’s developing language skills, emerging interests, and capabilities. Increased use of open-ended resources in the indoor and outdoor environments is required. Tikanga Māori is observed in practices however, there is limited use of te reo Māori.

Leaders and teachers are yet to begin to explore ways to use the learning outcomes from Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, to assess and plan for children’s learning over time. The documentation does not consistently show the intended learning, each child’s language, culture, and learner identity and parent’s aspirations for their children.

Internal evaluation was a key next step for the 2016 and 2019 reports. Review and inquiry are well established. Leaders and teachers reflect on their practice and draw on relevant information to make ongoing improvements. This approach does not yet make evidence-based judgements about how well teachers’ practices contribute to positive learning outcomes for children.

Consistent implementation of systems, process, and practices to monitoring ongoing health and safety, and governance and management practices are required to meet all aspects of the regulatory standards.

4 Improvement actions

City Heights Montessori will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning. Leaders and teachers to:

  • build their knowledge and understanding of working with the unique characteristics of infants

  • explore the use of learning outcomes from Te Whāriki, in assessment and planning documentation, to clearly show children’s learning and their progress over time

  • establish an evaluative framework to guide evidence-based evaluations focused on improving outcomes for children

  • implement a system of on-going monitoring to ensure the service is meeting all aspects of the regulatory standards.

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of City Heights Montessori 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.

6 Actions for Compliance

ERO identified the following areas of non-compliance:

  • evidence of how the evaluation of emergency drill has informed the annual review of the emergency management plan

  • sleep records accurately show the times each child sleeps and checks made by adults

  • medication records show the name and amount of medication given, and evidence of parental acknowledgement.

Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care Centres 2008, HS8, HS9, HS28.

Since the onsite visit the service has provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed the following non-compliances: 

  • hazards from cupboard doors, microwaves and cots have been eliminated, isolated or minimised [HS12] 

  • the child protection policy shows clearly that direct reporting of suspected child abuse can occur [HS31]

  • a written procedure for safety checking all children’s workers, every three years is in place and meets the requirements of the Children’s Act 2014. [GMA7a]

7 Recommendation to Ministry of Education

ERO recommends the Ministry follows up with the service provider to ensure non-compliances identified in this report are addressed.

Patricia Davey
Director of Early Childhood Education (ECE)

16 May 2023 

8 About the Early Childhood Service  

Early Childhood Service Name City Heights Montessori
Profile Number 80026

Location

Dunedin

Service type

Education and care service

Number licensed for

60 children, including up to 29 aged under 2

Percentage of qualified teachers

80-99%

Service roll

56

Review team on site

February 2023

Date of this report

16 May 2023

Most recent ERO report(s)

Education Review, August 2019; Education Review, July 2016

City Heights Montessori - 20/08/2019

1 Evaluation of City Heights Montessori

How well placed is City Heights Montessori to promote positive learning outcomes for children?

Not well placed

Requires further development

Well placed

Very well placed

City Heights Montessori is well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.

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

Background

City Heights Montessori is one of two privately-owned early childhood services operating on the same site, close to Dunedin city centre. Since 2016 a third licence providing education and care for infants has been combined with the toddler programme under this licence. This service now provides education and care for up to 49 children up to the age of three. A head teacher works within the classroom and has responsibility for the daily programme.

The centre is led by a professional leader working with a newly-formed leadership team. The team includes the head teachers and a manager.

Recommendations in the 2016 ERO report included clarifying the centre's priorities for children's learning, improving assessment, planning and evaluation, clarifying leadership roles and responsibilities and strengthening internal evaluation.

Since then, the professional leader has strengthened the alignment of the service's practices with the Montessori philosophy. New members of staff have settled into their roles and the leadership team-work together to share responsibility for the service's operation. Assessment practices and internal evaluation processes have also improved.

The Review Findings

Infants and toddlers show a sense of belonging. This is evident in the ways they lead the direction of their learning, settle quickly and engage with the daily programme. They are familiar with the daily routines and the teachers' expectations for their learning and behaviour. They are well cared for by teachers who are responsive to their interests, needs and preferences. Teachers develop trusting relationships with children and responsive to their verbal and non-verbal cues.

Infants and toddlers have easy access to a range of activities and good quality resources and equipment, all of which have a clear learning purpose. They play and learn in calm, settled environments. Teachers support infants and toddlers as they grow in independence and learn to self-regulate. They integrate literacy and numeracy learning well within the daily programme.

Children's progress overtime across the curriculum and Montessori learning objectives is closely monitored and evident in learning records. Assessments illustrate and support continuity in learning and show children's progress in a range of contexts and in relation to the service's valued learning outcomes.

The service values New Zealand's bicultural heritage. Teachers are working to improve their te reo Māori. A planned approach is needed to build the confidence and ability of all teachers to support children's learning in te reo Māori and to make Māori perspectives and the enactment of the Treaty of Waitangi principles more visible within programmes and practices. The next step for teachers is to show more clearly and consistently how they affirm, support and celebrate the language, culture and identity of children and their families in the programme and in documentation.

The centre's development is guided by useful strategic and annual plans. Leaders have high expectations for children’s learning and are making good progress embedding programmes and practices in line with these. The philosophy and vision have been revised to support the service's aspirations and priorities for children's learning. These priorities for children's learning could be further simplified. This may help teachers and leaders to more effectively evaluate how well the programmes and practices are supporting the desired outcomes for children.

Leaders and teachers have used internal evaluation processes well to make improvements in practice leading to positive outcomes for children. Leaders and teachers are beginning to make use of quality indicators to inform their judgements. They could further develop the review schedule to ensure that the key aspects of the service's operation that most impact on children, are reviewed regularly over time.

The leadership team work closely to manage the service's systems and to determine roles and responsibilities in line with newly developed job descriptions. It is time to review systems and processes to ensure regular checking of consistency of practice in relation to compliance requirements.

Key Next Steps

ERO, the professional leader and leadership team agree that the next steps for improving centre practice include:

  • a planned approach to building the ways teachers affirm, support and celebrate Maori culture and the language, culture and identity of all children and their families and make this more visible in programmes and practices

  • continuing to build internal evaluation processes and practice's including the development of a schedule to ensure the regular review of key aspects of the operation over time, including priorities for children's learning.

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of City Heights Montessori 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.

To improve current practice within the context of health and safety, leaders need to develop more effective processes and monitoring systems to ensure consistent compliance with regulatory requirements.

In particular, leaders need to implement a robust system for monitoring the consistency of practice when teachers record children's sleep and when teachers complete excursion forms.

Dr Lesley Patterson

Director Review and Improvement Services Southern

Southern Region

20 August 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

Dunedin

Ministry of Education profile number

80026

Licence type

Education & Care Service

Licensed under

Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008

Number licensed for

49 children, including up to 10 aged under 2

Service roll

50

Gender composition

Girls 33, Boys 27

Ethnic composition

Māori
NZ European Pākehā
Indian
Other ethnicities

7
30
4
9

Percentage of qualified teachers

80% +

Reported ratios of staff to children

Under 2

1:4

Better than minimum requirements

Over 2

1:4

Better than minimum requirements

Review team on site

July 2019

Date of this report

20 August 2019

Most recent ERO reports

Education Review

July 2016

Education Review

June 2013

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

The overall judgement that ERO makes will depend on how well the service promotes positive learning outcomes for children. The categories are:

  • Very well placed

  • Well placed

  • Requires further development

  • Not well placed

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.