Cromwell Early Learning Centre Inc

Education institution number:
80037
Service type:
Education and Care Service
Definition:
Not Applicable
Total roll:
56
Telephone:
Address:

53 Monaghan Street, Cromwell

View on map

Cromwell Early Learning Centre Inc

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 Cromwell Early Learning Centre Inc are as follows:

Outcome Indicators

(What the service knows about outcomes for learners)

Whakawhanake Sustaining

Ngā Akatoro Domains

 

Learning Conditions
Organisational Conditions

Whakawhanake Sustaining

Whakawhanake Sustaining

2 Context of the Service

Cromwell Early Learning Centre Inc is a community-based early childhood service. A manager is responsible for the day-to-day operations. A parent elected committee oversees governance and management. All kaiako are qualified. Almost a quarter of enrolled tamariki identify as Māori and a small number are from diverse ethnic backgrounds. The committee, kaiako and leaders have attended to the key next steps in the January 2019 ERO report.  

3 Summary of findings

Tamariki learn through a rich, inclusive, and culturally responsive curriculum that aligns with Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. They are active participants in their learning. Tamariki, including those with additional needs, are well supported to succeed in their learning.

The localised curriculum provides tamariki many opportunities for learning. This includes:

  • meaningful literacy, early mathematics, and science concepts

  • respect for their own language culture and identity and that of others

  • communication skills, oral literacy, and additional support for those for whom English is a second language

  • social competence.

Te reo Māori me tikanga Māori are highly valued and visible. Māori values and concepts underpin the service's philosophy, vision, goals, curriculum, and priorities for children’s learning. Tamariki Māori are well supported to stand strongly in their cultural identity. Opportunities to connect with mana whenua are a key aspect of the localised curriculum.

Kaiako have established and maintain authentic learning partnerships with parents and whānau. They implement useful assessment and planning processes to plan for individual and groups of tamariki and assess their learning. Kaiako make very good use of learning information to:

  • inform ongoing curriculum design

  • identify trends and patterns

  • monitor tamariki progress over time.

Leaders and kaiako systematically use robust internal evaluation processes to make ongoing improvements to teaching practice and outcomes for tamariki. There is, however, potential to deepen this process.

Governance is very well informed about all aspects of tamariki learning. Regular consultation with whānau and the local community informs and guides the services planning and decision making.

4 Improvement actions

Cromwell Early Learning Centre Inc will include the following action in its Quality Improvement Planning:

  • ensure that internal evaluation practices remain systematic and robust, showing rigorous data gathering and analysis, and continuing to show the impact on equitable and excellent outcomes for learners.

5 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Cromwell Early Learning Centre Inc 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.

Dr Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini

13 September 2022 

7 About the Early Childhood Service

Early Childhood Service Name

Cromwell Early Learning Centre Inc

Profile Number

80037

Location

Cromwell

Service type

Education and care service

Number licensed for

41 children, over two years of age

Percentage of qualified teachers

100%

Service roll

59

Review team on site

May 2022

Date of this report

13 September 2022

Most recent ERO report(s)

Education Review, January 2019; Education Review, February 2015

Cromwell Early Learning Centre Inc - 31/01/2019

1 Evaluation of Cromwell Early Learning Centre Inc

How well placed is Cromwell Early Learning Centre Inc to promote positive learning outcomes for children?

Not well placed

Requires further development

Well placed

Very well placed

Cromwell Early Learning Centre Inc is well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.

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

Background

Cromwell Early Learning Centre Inc is a community-run early learning service for children from two years to school age. It is licensed for up to 40 children and offers an all-day service. Children learn in a mixed-age environment.

Through its curriculum and teaching practices, teachers aim to support children to develop respectful relationships (with self, others and the environment), creative and critical thinking skills, resilience, independence and a sense of individual, family and cultural identity. They seek to achieve this through:

  • positive, reciprocal relationships with children
  • child-led and play-based learning
  • provision of a bicultural curriculum
  • culturally responsive practices.

The service is governed by a parent committee and led by a centre manager, supported by an assistant head teacher. The centre manager is new since the service's last ERO review (2015). The service has made very good progress in addressing the areas identified for improvement in its last ERO review.

The service is a member of the Kāhui Ako o Ngā Awanui |Community of Learning (CoL).

Children benefit from a responsive, inclusive, child-centred curriculum that effectively promotes the service's intended learning outcomes. Clear curriculum priorities have been developed collaboratively with children, families, whānau, community and staff. These are beginning to meaningfully guide planning, programme delivery and evaluation. Children's and their families' interests, ideas and cultural identities are the basis of curriculum planning. Children are encouraged and supported to make decisions about what and how they learn. Teachers have built their capability to support oral language development for all children in response to community needs. Younger children are well supported by teachers and older children to fully participate in the centre's learning programme.

The spacious, well-resourced indoor and outdoor learning environments are very well used to promote children's engagement and learning. Children are actively involved in decisions about the development and setting up of these areas. Their ideas are quickly responded to and teachers work closely with children and families to put their ideas into action. As a result, children willingly take responsibility for the care and upkeep of their environment and the animals, gardens and natural resources within it. Teachers thoughtfully arrange the environment to promote children's curiosity, and provide opportunities for them to explore and develop their understandings about the world.

Teachers know children very well as individuals and learners. They have strengthened their practices for getting to know children and their families. This has improved their ability to make links between children's lives beyond the centre and their learning in the centre. They use this deeper understanding of children to help plan meaningful experiences to enhance and extend children's learning, and to recognise and affirm all children's identities and dispositions.

The new centre manager is providing strong and effective leadership for learning. Together with committee members and teachers she is building the systems, processes and practices that support positive outcomes for children. These have included development of:

  • a new strategic framework to guide the centre's direction and development

  • a unique curriculum that identifies the learning priorities of children, families, community and teachers

  • a collaborative team culture at all levels of centre operation

  • leadership for teachers and effective teacher appraisal processes

  • a culture of critical inquiry and internal evaluation capability

  • partnerships for learning with parents, community organisations and the local education sector.

The governing committee is committed to ensuring the sustainability of the centre and the provision of high quality early learning experiences. To enable this the committee has reviewed and updated its governance manual to better support new committee members, and worked constructively with the centre manager and staff to develop the centre's strategic documents.

Key Next Steps

The centre manager and teachers have developed guidelines and shared understandings of effective assessment and planning for individuals and groups of children. They are developing processes to evaluate the quality, consistency and effectiveness of these practices. The next step is to complete and embed these new processes and practices, and use them to refine reporting to the governance committee.

The governance committee has recently reviewed and updated its policy and procedure framework. It is now timely to develop a schedule that shows how policies and procedures will be reviewed over time. They should also ensure that policies and procedures are reviewed to ensure they are compliant with any changes in legal requirements.

The governance committee needs to ensure that the centre manager has a current performance agreement and is participating in meaningful professional appraisal.

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Cromwell Early Learning Centre Inc 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 Cromwell Early Learning Centre Inc will be in three years.

Alan Wynyard

Director Review and Improvement Services Southern

Southern Region

31 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

Cromwell

Ministry of Education profile number

80037

Licence type

Education & Care Service

Licensed under

Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008

Number licensed for

40 children aged over 2 years

Service roll

56

Gender composition

Girls: 31

Boys: 25

Ethnic composition

Māori
Pākehā
Other ethnicities

12
37
7

Percentage of qualified teachers

80% +

Reported ratios of staff to children

Over 2

1:10

Meets minimum requirements

Review team on site

December 2018

Date of this report

31 January 2019

Most recent ERO reports

 

Education Review

February 2015

Education Review

January 2012

Education Review

August 2008

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.

Cromwell Early Learning Centre Inc - 10/02/2015

1 Evaluation of Cromwell Early Learning Centre Inc

How well placed is Cromwell Early Learning Centre Inc to promote positive learning outcomes for children?

Not well placed

Requires further development

Well placed

Very well placed

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

Background

Cromwell Early Learning Centre Inc is a community-based centre for children aged from two to five years. 

All teachers are fully qualified and most have worked at the centre for many years. As a result, they know their children, their families and the local community very well. 

Families are very involved in the centre. They raise significant funds for resources, help at the centre and on excursions. Parents often choose to stay and play alongside the children. 

The centre’s philosophy emphasises children learning in a mixed-age, free-play setting. Teachers recently extended the centre philosophy to include Māori concepts, such as whanaungatanga (respect for family) and manaakitanga (caring). The centre has a very close relationship with the local schools. 

A governance committee made up of centre parents oversees the running of the centre. Most are new to this role. Since the 2011 ERO review, the indoor and outdoor areas have been further upgraded, creating attractive and spacious indoor and outdoor areas. 

Staff have maintained the many good practices identified in the last ERO report. Progress has been made in addressing some of ERO’s recommendations. Other areas, such as strengthening how teachers review and evaluate their work to support children’s learning, need further work.

The Review Findings

Children learn in a spacious and very well-resourced centre. The large outdoor area has many places for children to play, explore and develop physical skills. They confidently approach their teachers and play well alongside and with each other. Friendships amongst children are evident.

Relationships between teachers and the children and with families are friendly and affirming. Teachers know the children and their families well and go out of their way to support families when the need arises.

The children are settled and focused in their play. They confidently make choices about what they want to do. Teachers follow children’s lead and join in their play without taking over. ERO observed some very good examples of teachers building on children’s ideas and extending their thinking. 

Children in this centre also benefit from:

  • a very well-planned transition-to-school programme
  • a rich and varied extension programme for older children, where they go on interesting trips into the local community and learn about the natural world
  • a strong focus on literacy, gardening and caring for the living and non-living world
  • authentic group learning activities, such as learning about hunting, sewing and baking
  • planned and incidental opportunities for mathematical learning.

Teachers have improved their planning for individual children by finding better ways to gather and act on parents’ ideas about their children’s learning. Teachers identify and discuss learning goals for each child. The next step is to be more explicit about the strategies they use to support group and individual learning. Assessment records need to better show children’s progress over time and the difference teachers have made. Teachers also need to better evaluate how well they have supported group learning.

The teachers work well as a team and value each others’ strengths and knowledge. For example, one teacher enriches children’s and adults’ learning through sharing her knowledge of Māori language and culture. Overall, good appraisal processes are in place. However, aspects could be strengthened. For example, teachers’ goals for improvement and planned actions should be more specific and challenging. Appraisal of leaders should include appraisal of their teaching role. The appraiser should provide a report to each staff member.

Centre leaders and teachers have identified that they need to strengthen how they use self review as a tool for ongoing improvement. This includes asking more evaluative questions and reviewing against ‘best practice’ indicators.

Centre leaders and ERO agree that the centre needs to review its philosophy and strategic plan to ensure that these capture the centre’s priorities for learning and centre development. When reviewing aspects of centre practice, leaders should refer back to these documents and ask how well practices align with their stated priorities.

There are very efficient systems in place for the smooth day-to-day running of the centre. Leaders have carefully planned for, and managed well, recent changes in key staff and committee members.

The head teacher and licensee have developed useful guidelines for the governance of the centre, including clear roles and responsibilities. This has greatly helped the new committee. ERO suggests that centre leaders provide more comprehensive reports to the committee and regularly report on progress towards implementing the strategic and annual plans. Committee minutes should record in more detail what was discussed, decisions made and actions taken.

Key Next Steps

Centre leaders agree that they need to continue to:

  • strengthen self review, including aspects of appraisal and reporting (to the committee)
  • review the centre philosophy and strategic and annual plans so that these capture their priorities.

Teachers need to:

  • be more explicit about the strategies they use to support children’s learning
  • improve aspects of assessment
  • regularly evaluate what difference they have made for children’s learning.

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Cromwell Early Learning Centre Inc 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 Cromwell Early Learning Centre Inc will be in three years.

Graham Randell

Deputy Chief Review Officer Southern

10 February 2015

2 Information about the Early Childhood Service

Location

Cromwell, Central Otago

Ministry of Education profile number

80037

Licence type

Education & Care Service

Licensed under

Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008

Number licensed for

35 children over the age of 2

Service roll

49

Gender composition

Boys: 26

Girls: 23

Ethnic composition

Māori

Pākehā

South African

Chilean

9

36

2

2

Percentage of qualified teachers

0-49% 50-79% 80%

Based on funding rates

80%

Reported ratios of staff to children

Under 2

Not applicable

 
 

Over 2

1:8

Better than minimum requirements

Review team on site

November 2014

Date of this report

10 February 2015

Most recent ERO report(s)

Education Review

January 2012

 

Education Review

August 2008

 

Education Review

December 2005

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.