Educare Orewa - 12/09/2019

ERO’s Judgement

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.

Background

Educare Orewa provides education and care for up to 105 children and is part of the Educare Early Learning Centres group. This is the first ERO review of the service, which operates in a purpose-built facility. Children and staff are from diverse cultural backgrounds. Most teachers have early childhood education qualifications.

Summary of Review Findings

The programme is informed by Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, and acknowledges the bicultural heritage of Aotearoa New Zealand. It encourages children to be confident in their own culture and develop respect for other cultures.

The curriculum is informed by assessment and planning. It is responsive, promotes independence and supports children’s learning and development. Children experience positive, respectful interactions with adults. Teachers regularly communicate with parents to share information about children’s learning and encourage their involvement in decision making.

Systems are in place to monitor health and safety practices and promote the physical and emotional wellbeing of children and their whānau.

Key Next Steps

Next steps include:

making parents’ aspirations for their children more evident in learning stories
making children’s cultures and identities more visible in the centre and children’s portfolios
increasing the rigour and use of programme evaluation
building connections with the community to support learning outcomes for children.

Next ERO Review

The next ERO review is likely to be an Education Review.

Steve Tanner

Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern)

Northern Region | Te Tai Raki

12 September 2019

Information About the Service

Early Childhood Service Name	Educare Orewa
Profile Number	47229
Location	Orewa, Auckland
Service type	Education and care service
Number licensed for	105 children, including up to 15 aged under 2
Percentage of qualified teachers	80%
Reported ratio of adults to children under 2	1:4 - Better than regulatory standards
Reported ratio of adults children over 2	1:8 - Better than regulatory standards
Service roll	78
Gender composition	Girls 43 Boys 35
Ethnic composition	Māori 5 NZ European/Pākehā 39 Chinese 15 Indian 5 Filipino 4 other ethnic groups 10
Review team on site	August 2019
Date of this report	12 September 2019
Most recent ERO report(s)	First ERO review of the service

General Information about Assurance Reviews

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.

ERO undertakes an Assurance Review process in any centre-based service:

having its first ERO review – including if it is part of a governing organisation

previously identified as ‘not well placed’ or ‘requiring further development’
that has moved from a provisional to a full licence
that have been re-licenced due to a change of ownership
where an Assurance Review process is determined to be appropriate.

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

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:

curriculum
premises and facilities
health and safety practices
governance, management and administration.

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:

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 certification; ratios)
evacuation procedures and practices for fire and earthquake.

As part of an Assurance Review ERO also gathers and records evidence through:

discussions with those involved in the service
consideration of relevant documentation, including the implementation of health and safety systems
observations of the environment/premises, curriculum implementation and teaching practice.