BestStart Wairakei Road

Education institution number:
70093
Service type:
Education and Care Service
Definition:
Not Applicable
Total roll:
53
Telephone:
Address:

431 Wairakei Road, Papanui, Christchurch

View on map

Edukids Wairakei - 09/06/2016

1 Evaluation of Edukids Wairakei

How well placed is Edukids Wairakei 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

Edukids Wairakei operates under the BestStart Educare Ltd management structure. BestStart (previously known as Kidicorp Ltd) is a large national organisation that owns early childhood centres across New Zealand.

The centre provides education and care for children up to school age and is licensed for 64 children, including 16 children aged up-to-two years old. The centre is set up in two rooms; a nursery/toddler room, and a preschool room for the older children. It is well resourced and attractively presented.

Staff, children and families come from diverse cultures and backgrounds. There are two fully registered and four provisionally registered teachers, two in their second year of training. The centre has a strong focus on growing teachers and leaders.

Since the March 2013 ERO review, there have been several staff changes. A new centre manager was appointed in 2013. This appointment and other staff selections have strategically supported the centre's philosophy and the specific needs of groups of children. The managers have provided consistent support over many years.

The centre has made significant progress since the 2013 review. This includes major improvements to the indoor and outdoor areas, curriculum development and changes to a number of procedures and practices. The managers are continuing to develop bicultural programmes.

The Review Findings

A shared philosophy guides how teachers work with children and their families. Teachers have given careful consideration to what the philosophy and values look like in practice, in both rooms. Teachers highly value the diverse cultural backgrounds of children by ensuring their individual needs, languages, and cultures are recognised and responded to in respectful ways. Some teachers speak often to children and parents in their first languages.

The welcoming, inclusive environment is underpinned by a strong focus on children's learning. There are opportunities for older children to support younger children in their learning.

Teachers make good use of the building spaces to extend children’s learning opportunities. Renovations, suitable resources and equipment support children's independence and learning. The well-presented natural resources and home-like surroundings support children's sense of belonging and wellbeing.

The needs of infants and toddlers are well met by teachers' use of calm respectful interactions. Children are sensitively cared for and guided by teachers who know them well. Teachers make sure children experience consistency between the routines in their homes and centre.

Children benefit from responsive interactions with their teachers that promote their learning. They attend regular professional learning and development to improve their teaching practices. Managers have high expectations of a centre culture where teachers regularly discuss and think more deeply about their teaching, what is working well and ways they can improve learning outcomes for children.

Children have a rich range of curriculum experiences. The programmes are strongly based on children’s interests, ideas and what they want to learn about. Teachers are making increasing use of parents' aspirations for their children’s learning, to inform their programme planning and assessment.

Children’s physical, health and social skills, are effectively fostered. The teachers promote physical activities with suitable equipment in both the indoor/outdoor areas. Children have challenging obstacle courses and go on regular outings that encourage team and physical skills. The centre provides healthy food for children and supports parents with information about healthy eating.

Teachers have strong partnerships with families. Useful information is regularly shared with parents and whānau about what children learn during their time at the centre. This information helps teachers to plan according to children's interests and to assess their learning.

The managers and teachers have established effective links with local schools. These links support children and their families to experience successful transitions as they move from the centre to school.

Teachers' strengths are well used. Their leadership potential is recognised and fostered through regular coaching and mentoring.

The centre is well led and managed. The centre manager, professional service manager and the business manager work collaboratively to successfully implement BestStart management systems and promote better outcomes for children and their families.

BestStart has many systems to help centres improve learning outcomes for children. These include:

  • a review process to identify what is going well, and next steps for centre improvement
  • support for centre managers for the day-to-day operation of their centres through regular visits of education and business managers
  • effective systems and processes for ensuring that children have safe and healthy learning environments.

Key Next Steps

The centre managers and teachers have reliably identified, and ERO agrees, that key next steps include:

  • continuing to strengthen Māori perspectives in the curriculum by integrating the values, programmes and practices
  • formalising the teachers' appraisal system by documenting observations of teaching practices to support teachers' evaluation of their practices
  • strengthening the evaluative practises of the self-review process.

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Edukids Wairakei 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 Edukids Wairakei will be in four years.

Chris Rowe

Deputy Chief Review Officer Southern (Acting)

9 June 2016

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

70093

Licence type

Education & Care Service

Licensed under

Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008

Number licensed for

64 children, including up to 16 aged under two

Service roll

63

Gender composition

Girls 34; Boys 29

Ethnic composition

Māori

Pākehā

Asian

Indian

7

33

19

4

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

March 2016

Date of this report

9 June 2016

Most recent ERO reports 

Education Review

March 2013

Education Review

March 2010

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.

Edukids Wairakei - 06/03/2013

1 Evaluation of the Service

How well placed is the service to promote positive outcomes for children?

Edukids Wairakei is well placed to promote and improve positive learning outcomes for all children.

Context

Edukids Wairakei is owned and administered by Kidicorp Education and Care Centres. The centre provides education and care for children from birth to school age in separate nursery and preschool areas.

Most teachers have early childhood teacher qualifications. Other staff are training to become qualified early childhood teachers.

The centre has made good progress since the 2010 ERO review in developing strategic planning and self review. This is helping to ensure improvements to the service continue to occur.

The Review Findings

Children enjoy warm, nurturing and respectful relationships with their teachers and each other. ERO observed children who were confident, happy and settled in the centre.

Infants and toddlers in the nursery are well supported in their learning. Teachers work effectively as a team to support the wellbeing of all children. They use a range of creative teaching approaches to make routines and activities enjoyable and interesting. Teachers actively promote language development in the ways that they talk and interact with infants and toddlers.

Children in the preschool confidently choose their own activities and involve others in their play. Teachers listen carefully to children, provide additional resources and join in children’s play.

The next steps identified by the centre and confirmed by ERO are to:

  • review the effectiveness of group times and routines in the preschool
  • continue to review and refine how they identify children’s learning and plan programmes
  • use a wider range of teaching approaches to increase the depth and complexity of children’s learning.

The managers and teachers have prioritised and ERO agrees that aspects of the indoor and outdoor environments in the preschool need to be improved. This includes:

  • reducing noise levels
  • adapting the centre layout and design to meet learning and teaching needs
  • providing more interesting and natural play spaces, particularly in the outdoor area.

Children have many opportunities to hear and see te reo Māori displayed in the nursery and preschool.

The managers and teachers have identified and ERO agrees that the next step is to integrate bicultural practices and understandings into all aspects of centre operations.

Managers and teachers actively encourage parent involvement in the centre. They are developing more ways to make closer links between children’s homes and the programme.

Kidicorp has a well-developed management structure to sustain and improve the ongoing development of the centre. Area and centre managers make good use of nationally developed review and planning systems to identify what is going well and what needs to be improved for children’s learning. The centre philosophy was reviewed in 2012. It now provides clear indicators for the ongoing review of the curriculum.

The managers have identified that the next step is to make closer links between the findings of self review, future planning and what happens in practice.

The centre manager and teachers are well supported by the organisational managers to continue to develop and share their leadership skills to improve outcomes for children.

2 Legal Requirements

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Edukids Wairakei 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.

3 Next Review

When is ERO likely to review the early childhood service again?

ERO is likely to carry out the next review in three years.

Graham Randell

National Manager Review Services Southern Region

6 March 2013

Information about the Early Childhood Service

Location

Christchurch

Ministry of Education profile number

70093

Licence type

Education and Care Service

Licensed under

Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008

Number licensed for

64 children, including up to 16 aged under two

Service roll

79

Gender composition

Boys 42;

Girls 37

Ethnic composition

New Zealand European/Pākehā

Māori

Asian

Other ethnicities

59

8

9

4

Percentage of qualified teachers

80% +

Reported ratios of staff to children

Under 2

1:4

Exceeds minimum requirements

 

Over 2

1:8

Meets minimum requirements

Review team on site

January 2013

Date of this report

6 March 2013

Most recent ERO report(s)

Education Review

March 2010

General Information about Early Childhood Reviews

About ERO Reviews

The Education Review Office (ERO) is the New Zealand government department that reviews schools and early childhood services throughout New Zealand.

Review focus

ERO's education reviews in early childhood services focus on the factors that contribute to positive learning outcomes for children. ERO evaluates how well placed the service is to make and sustain improvements for the benefit of all children at the service. To reach these findings ERO considers:

  • 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 self review and partnerships with parents and whānau.

Review Coverage

ERO reviews do not cover every aspect of service performance and each ERO report may cover different issues. The aim is to provide information on aspects that are central to positive outcomes for children and useful to the service.