106 Edmonton Road, Henderson, Auckland
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 Creative Minds Childcare Centre are as follows:
Outcome Indicators(What the service knows about outcomes for learners) |
Whāngai Establishing |
Ngā Akatoro Domains |
|
Learning ConditionsOrganisational Conditions |
Whāngai Establishing Whāngai Establishing |
Creative Minds Childcare Centre is a privately owned service, whose owners provide governance, management, and administration support. The teaching team comprises a qualified team leader, four qualified teachers, and eight other staff. The philosophy values excitement, fun, laughter, and enjoyment of learning within a caring setting. The service caters for children from a range of ethnicities, including children of Māori and Pacific heritages.
Children experience a calm environment, which provides time and space for the development of caring and nurturing relationships. Teachers are aware of children’s preferences and interests. They communicate with each other about these to ensure that children’s needs are respected and responded to appropriately. As a result, children demonstrate confidence and trust with both adults and their peers.
Leaders and teachers have established positive relationships with whānau and provide them opportunities to develop community connections. Parents and whānau are able to talk with teachers about their child’s learning and share the aspirations they have for their children. Teachers intentionally collaborate with children and parents to support children’s developing social competence.
Teachers integrate te reo and tikanga Māori into daily teaching practice. This integration gives children the opportunity to develop a knowledge and understanding of te ao Māori aspects.
Planning and assessment of children’s learning reflects Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. This documentation makes visible and celebrates individual children’s cultures and identity. Current assessment practices do not yet show how individual children’s learning is progressing over time.
Leaders and teachers have established systems and process to undertake internal evaluation. They are now working to implement these in practice. Evaluation capacity is still being built within the team to ensure that evaluation is effective in supporting change and improvement.
Relational trust among leaders and teachers enables collaboration. Leaders provide access to professional learning opportunities as well as coaching and mentoring. This supports the building of teachers’ individual capability and team capacity to improve the quality of teaching and children’s learning at the centre.
Creative Minds Childcare Centre will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:
Leaders to embed quality assessment practices and monitor the extent to which teachers’ assessment information shows individual children’s progress and learning over time.
Leaders to grow the team’s capability to evaluate the effectiveness of the service’s curriculum, processes, and teaching practices in promoting children’s learning and in supporting the service to achieve equitable outcomes.
Before the review, the staff and management of Creative Minds Childcare 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.
The service provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed the following non-compliances:
All children’s workers who have access to children are safety checked in accordance with the Children’s Act 2014 (GMA7A).
A record of the time each child attending the service sleeps, and checks made by adults during that time (HS9).
Filivaifale Jason Swann
Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern)
Northern Region | Te Tai Raki
15 September 2022
|
Early Childhood Service Name |
Creative Minds Childcare Centre |
|
Profile Number |
20586 |
|
Location |
Henderson, Auckland |
|
Service type |
Education and care service |
|
Number licensed for |
38 children, including up to 14 aged under 2 |
|
Percentage of qualified teachers |
80-99% |
|
Service roll |
43 |
|
Review team on site |
May 2022 |
|
Date of this report |
15 September 2022 |
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Akanuku | Assurance Review, February 2020 |
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.
Creative Minds Childcare Centre is a privately owned service that changed ownership in 2018. It is licensed for 38 children, including up to 14 aged under two years.
There are two owners who are responsible for governance, management and administration aspects of the service. They are supported by two head teachers who oversee the curriculum and mentor teachers, including three fully registered teachers, one provisionally registered teacher and one unqualified teacher.
The service has recently upgraded aspects of their outdoor learning environment for the over two-year olds. Remodelling all learning environments continues to be an area of focus.
The curriculum respects and supports the right of each child to be confident in their own culture and encourages children to understand and respect each other. Regular opportunities, both formal and informal, are provided for whānau and parents to be involved in decision making concerning their child’s learning.
Information and guidance is sought when necessary from agencies/services to enable adults providing education and care to work with children and their parents.
An annual plan guides the service’s operations. Whānau and parents of children attending are provided with opportunities to contribute to the development and review of the service’s operational documents.
Since ERO was onsite, the service has addressed the following areas of non-compliance relating to:
Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education & Care Service 2008, HS1,6,11,14,17 PF3 (1e),5.
The next ERO review is likely to be an Education Review.
Steve Tanner
Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern)
Northern Region | Te Tai Raki
26 February 2020
| Early Childhood Service Name | Creative Minds Childcare Centre |
| Profile Number | 20586 |
|
Location |
Henderson, Auckland |
|
Service type |
Education and care service |
|
Number licensed for |
38 children, including up to 14 aged under 2 years |
|
Percentage of qualified teachers |
80%+ |
|
Reported ratio of staff to children under 2 |
1:4 - Better than regulatory standards |
|
Reported ratio of staff to children over 2 |
1:8 - Better than regulatory standards |
|
Service roll |
41 |
|
Gender composition |
Boys 23 Girls 18 |
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori 5 NZ European/Pākehā 12 Samoan 4 other ethnic groups 20 |
|
Review team on site |
February 2020 |
|
Date of this report |
26 February 2020 |
|
Most recent ERO report(s) These are available at www.ero.govt.nz |
Education Review June 2016 Education Review May 2013 Education Review March 2010 |
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.
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:
As part of an Assurance Review ERO assesses whether the regulated 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:
As part of an Assurance Review ERO also gathers and records evidence through:
|
Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
Creative Minds Childcare Centre is well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Creative Minds Childcare Centre in Henderson provides full day care and education for up to 48 children from birth to school age. Children under two years are cared for in a separate but accessible area of the centre.
The centre philosophy promotes respect in a caring and safe setting. As noted in ERO's 2010 report, children from diverse ethnicities enjoy a secure environment that supports their learning, growth and development in a family-like atmosphere.
Teachers, including the owner/manager, operate as a well-functioning team. All teachers are either certified teachers, or partway through their professional early childhood education training. Teachers reflect children's diverse cultural backgrounds and ethnicities.
Teachers have responded positively to ERO's 2013 recommendations. Ongoing and relevant professional learning and development is enabling them to improve teaching and learning.
Children are confident and creative learners. They demonstrate high levels of independence. Children have a clear sense of belonging at the centre and happily take responsibility for themselves, others, and the environment. They have fun and play well together for extended periods of time. Teachers are committed to respectful and caring relationships with children. They acknowledge children as capable individuals, and encourage children to discuss their ideas.
Infants and toddlers benefit from teachers' consistent caregiving. Teachers respond sensitively to each child's changing needs and preferences in a way that are appropriate to the children's stages of development. The learning environment for these younger children is quiet and peaceful, but promotes exploration and interaction with others. Flexible spaces encourage younger and older children to communicate and interact with each other.
Good work is being done to promote te ao Māori in the programme. Pacific children also know that their culture is valued and promoted. Their parents and grandparents contribute to the programme. Teachers are looking for effective ways to engage Māori parents and whānau. They are continuing to look for authentic ways to include a bicultural aspect to planning, assessment and evaluation.
The curriculum is child led and clearly based on children's interests. The planned and emergent curriculum is closely aligned with Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. Learning stories in children's portfolios show their progress and development. Teachers are now ready to enrich learning stories by more deliberately including aspects of each child's culture.
Physical activity and food nutrition are key components of teaching and learning programmes. Staff value play as a vehicle for children's learning.
Centre staff are strengthening partnerships with parents and families. They are deliberately increasing parents' knowledge of effective early childhood teaching and learning. Parents have shared with ERO their appreciation of the quality of care their children receive at this centre. The centre's current focus on collecting and analysing parents' aspirations for their children is likely to increase parent involvement.
Teachers, including the owner/manager, operate as a well-functioning team and work collaboratively across all areas in the centre. Teachers have identified the need to continue to work together in responding to children's interests, strengths and needs, in planning a rich and relevant programme.
The '3+ programme' provides dedicated time and space for older children to help prepare them to make the transition to school. The programme is run by different teachers in two week blocks. Teachers agree that this programme could be enhanced through:
including children in planning and evaluating the programme
deepening teachers' critical reflection to identify the impact of their teaching practice on children's learning and development
finding further ways to ensure that there is continuity in children's learning.
The centre leadership structure promotes a collective responsibility for children's learning and development. The centre owner/manager has built warm partnerships with parents and the community. She has also initiated closer relationships with primary schools to facilitate children's transition to school.
The centre's strategic and annual plans are focused on providing an environment of care, learning and development for children. Teachers recognise the value of effective internal evaluation and are increasingly able to reflect critically on their professional practice. The recently reviewed performance appraisal system encourages this reflection and is aligned with the requirements of the Education Council.
Teachers agree that it would now be beneficial to:
review the centre philosophy to more clearly document the centre's commitment to bicultural understanding and practice
evaluate the impact of professional learning and development and identify the extent to which it is resulting in sustainable good practices.
Before the review, the staff and management of Creative Minds Childcare 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:
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 Creative Minds Childcare Centre will be in three years.
Graham Randell
Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern
17 June 2016
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.
|
Location |
Henderson, Auckland |
||
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
20586 |
||
|
Licence type |
Education & Care Service |
||
|
Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
||
|
Number licensed for |
38 children, including up to 14 aged under 2 |
||
|
Service roll |
48 |
||
|
Gender composition |
Boys 32 Girls 16 |
||
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori Pākehā Chinese Indian Samoan Cambodian Canadian South African Sri Lankan other |
7 27 5 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 |
|
|
Percentage of qualified teachers 0-49% 50-79% 80%+ Based on funding rates |
80% + |
||
|
Reported ratios of staff to children |
Under 2 |
1:4 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
Over 2 |
1:8 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
|
Review team on site |
May 2016 |
||
|
Date of this report |
17 June 2016 |
||
|
Most recent ERO report(s)
|
Education Review |
May 2013 |
|
|
Education Review |
March 2010 |
||
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.
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.