38 Parore Street, Dargaville
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 Family Link Childcare are as follows:
Outcome Indicators(What the service knows about outcomes for learners) |
Whakaū Embedding |
Ngā Akatoro Domains |
|
Learning ConditionsOrganisational Conditions |
Whakaū Embedding |
Family Link Childcare is a community-based, not-for-profit service that is governed by an incorporated society. There are two rooms for different age groups of children. A manager and head teacher lead a team of eight teachers. More than half of the children are Māori and a small number have Pacific heritages.
Positive relationships between children and teachers promote children’s sense of belonging. Infants and toddlers have formed secure attachments with teachers in a calm and unhurried environment. Consistent caregiving ensures children’s individual needs are responded to with sensitivity and respect.
Te reo me ngā tikanga Māori practices are woven throughout the curriculum provided. The identities of Māori and Pacific children are acknowledged through the service’s cultural celebrations and events. Whānau are encouraged to be involved in, and contribute to, the curriculum provided. Children’s individual cultures, languages and identity could be made more visible within the learning environment and in children’s assessment records.
Children with additional needs are well supported in the inclusive environment. The service works in partnership with external agencies and parents.
Children benefit from a curriculum that is based on their interests and dispositions. They sustain their play for long periods of time. Tuakana|teina relationships are well supported within the learning environment, by older children helping to care for younger ones.
Teachers notice and recognise children’s individual interests in their planning. Service records show varying levels of teacher understandings of how to use Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum as a basis for assessment of children’s learning. Teachers now need to consider how they respond to and monitor children’s learning in relation to the learning outcomes of Te Whāriki.
There is a process for internal evaluation. Evaluation questions could focus more on “how well or how effectively” practices are guiding children’s learning. There is some evidence of the impact and benefits for children. The outcomes for children now need be unpacked and discussed to inform further improvements to teaching practices.
Family Link Childcare will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:
To improve the visibility of children’s languages, cultures and identity in assessment records and within the learning environment.
To inquire into and evaluate how well teachers respond to, and document, children’s learning outcomes.
To further develop internal evaluation processes by focusing on how well improvements are impacting on children’s learning.
Before the review, the staff and management of Family Link Childcare 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.
Filivaifale Jason Swann
Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern)
Northern Region | Te Tai Raki
8 December 2022
|
Early Childhood Service Name |
Family Link Childcare |
|
Profile Number |
11402 |
|
Location |
Dargaville |
|
Service type |
Education and care service |
|
Number licensed for |
50 children, including up to 20 aged under 2 |
|
Percentage of qualified teachers |
80-99% |
|
Service roll |
59 |
|
Review team on site |
November 2022 |
|
Date of this report |
8 December 2022 |
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review, December 2018 |
|
Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Family Link Childcare in Dargaville is a community-based, not-for-profit service governed and owned by an incorporated society. It is licensed for 50 children, including up to 20 under the age of two years. The roll fluctuates as a result of families' seasonal working conditions. The centre's philosophy embraces bicultural values and the teaching team is committed to building strong relationships and learning partnerships with whānau.
The centre is led by a supervisor who reports to the governance board. Two senior teachers lead their teams in the management and implementation of the curriculum. Four qualified teachers make up the established teaching team, with five additional unqualified helpers.
The purpose-built centre has two separate indoor and outdoor spaces. One for children aged under two years and another for those between two years and school age. About half of the children enrolled are Māori. The roll includes a group of children with Pacific heritage.
ERO's 2016 report recommended that changes be made to programme management and the environment along with improvements to governance and management practices. Centre leaders have responded to these recommendations. Management strategies have been refined and significant improvements have been made to the centre environment. Further work in these areas is continuing.
There is a warm, inclusive culture in the centre. Children are settled, confident and friendly. They seek out friendships on arrival. Long periods of uninterrupted play allow children to initiate their own learning opportunities. There is a calm, unhurried pace and children respond well to the easy flow of the day.
Infants and toddlers learn in a calm, inviting environment. They have easy access to an outdoor space where sensory play is a prominent part of the programme. Opportunities for developing self-management skills are woven through the routines of the day.
Teachers have trusting, respectful relationships with children. They engage with children, promoting conversation and encouraging them to share their ideas. Teachers should now make better use of the service's adult-to-child ratios to deepen children's learning. A stronger focus on more challenging investigations, meaningful inquiries and conversations would support the development of children's play.
Teachers build positive relationships with parents. Children's individual learning progress is documented in portfolios that allow children to revisit their learning experiences. Teachers incorporate literacy, numeracy and natural science into areas of play.
The team's commitment to bicultural practice is evident. Teachers are building their knowledge and understanding of te ao Māori and tikanga Māori practices. Modelling by leaders is helping to build confidence among team members.
The programme aligns with the principles of Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. Teachers continue to develop their programme planning and practices. Building the team's knowledge of the 2017 revision of Te Whāriki should help to strengthen teaching and learning.
The environment is attractive and well presented. Wall displays are used effectively to demonstrate children's participation in the programme. Play areas are well resourced and a recent review is promoting ongoing improvement.
Transitions between the two classrooms are tailored to suit the child. Teachers work in consultation with parents to ensure smooth transitions between home and centre. Children are well supported when they transition to school.
Opportunities for professional learning have helped build teachers' knowledge. A mentor teacher supports the supervisor. Her influence is evident in planning and other practices that have been introduced. The supervisor is aware of the need to review and improve teacher appraisal systems to incorporate the Education Council's new requirements.
Self review has resulted in improvements to the environment, resources and centre practice. Leaders recognise the need to make this process more evaluative and focus on how changes link to outcomes for children. Leaders and teachers should consider reviewing the centre's philosophy to help align teacher's thinking with practice. Developing explicit indicators of good practice could help leaders to evaluate the effectiveness of teaching practices and their impact on children.
Leaders recognise the need to strengthen their leadership and other practices to build the quality of teaching and learning. Establishing sound goals and action plans as part of strategic planning would support ongoing improvement.
Centre leaders agree that next key steps include:
strengthening planning, assessment and evaluation so they are clearly linked to individual children's learning and guide teaching practice
further developing teachers' capability to extend children's learning and support the development of more complex play
establishing a leadership vision to underpin centre practices and help set clear strategic goals that inform and guide annual planning
strengthening internal evaluation by linking strategies and initiatives to outcomes for children.
The service will provide ERO with an action plan that shows how the priorities for improvement, and health and safety concerns, will be addressed. ERO will evaluate whether sufficient progress is being made within six months.
ERO recommends that centre leaders:
continue to engage external advisory support to build on recent progress and to improve leadership capability and professional teaching practice
consult with the Ministry of Education and plan to address the key next steps and actions for compliance outlined in this report.
Before the review, the staff and management of Family Link Childcare 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.
ERO identified areas of non-compliance relating to governance and management and health and safety. To meet requirements the service needs to improve its performance in the following areas:
recording the time each child attending the service sleeps, and the checks made by adults during that time
child protection and safety checking that aligns with the Vulnerable Children Act, 2014
establishing appraisal processes that help to build teachers' capability and align with Education Council requirements.
Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care Centres 2008, HS9, GM11; Vulnerable Children Act 2014; Education Amendment Act, 2010.
The next ERO review of Family Link Childcare will be in three years.
Violet Tu’uga Stevenson
Director Review and Improvement Services
Te Tai Raki - Northern Region
6 December 2018
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 |
Dargaville |
||
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
11402 |
||
|
Licence type |
Education & Care Service |
||
|
Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
||
|
Number licensed for |
50 children, including up to 20 aged under 2 |
||
|
Service roll |
68 |
||
|
Gender composition |
Boys 39 Girls 29 |
||
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori |
31 |
|
|
Percentage of qualified teachers |
80% + |
||
|
Reported ratios of staff to children |
Under 2 |
1:4 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
Over 2 |
1:7 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
|
Review team on site |
October 2018 |
||
|
Date of this report |
6 December 2018 |
||
|
Most recent ERO report(s)
|
Supplementary Review |
June 2016 |
|
|
Education Review |
June 2013 |
||
|
Education Review |
November 2009 |
||
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:
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.
|
Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
Centre leaders and teachers need further external support to build leadership capacity and coherent management systems that support teachers to improve the curriculum and promote positive outcomes for children.
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Family Link Childcare in Dargaville, Northland is a community- based, not-for-profit service governed and owned by an incorporated society. It is licensed for 50 children, including up to 20 children under the age of two years. Families have a choice of their children attending for the full day or sessions. The roll fluctuates as a result of families' seasonal working conditions.
The long-serving centre supervisor oversees operational and management aspects and reports to the governance board. There are nine staff members including the supervisor and the administration support person. The two senior teachers lead their teams in the management and implementation of the curriculum.
The purpose-built centre is divided into two separate indoors and outdoors areas for infants and toddlers, and older children. Children can move freely between these spaces.
ERO's 2009 and 2013 reports recommended that management and governance practices be improved as well as some programme management systems and the centre environment. Although some progress has been made, further work is required to fully address the recommendations.
The programme provided for children is based on Te Whariki, the early childhood curriculum.
Children and whānau experience respectful relationships with kind and caring teachers. Children quickly settle into the programme and into the welcoming environment. Mixed-age play opportunities are valued and promoted. Children are confident and show a high level of enjoyment in their play. There is an unhurried pace to the programme. Strengthening the provision for children up to two years of age, including recognising their physical need for movement and focusing more on the individual child are necessary next steps.
Teachers skilfully settle and work alongside children, following their play experiences. Children would, however, benefit from more opportunities for creative and imaginative play, and access to a wider range of resources that offer more variety and challenges.
Teachers plan collaboratively to extend children's interests and evaluate the programme in meetings held termly. The programme is planned through a theme-based format to be implemented in the new term. Teachers and centre leaders should review how well meeting every three months enables them to deliver positive outcomes for children. They should focus on the impact that their teaching strategies are having on the quality of the learning as they develop planning and evaluation practices.
Staff have been involved in a self-review workshop and have developed an appropriate format that they can use to bring about improvement in children's learning. They should strengthen self-review practices across all aspects of the centre.
The supervisor and teachers should access external expertise to develop effective teaching and learning practices that extend children's thinking and support them to engage in deeper learning and more complex play. In particular they should:
strengthen teachers' planning, assessment and evaluation to identify and extend individual children's interests, learning and progress overtime
promote te reo and tikanga Māori in the daily programme and make children's cultural heritage more visible in their portfolios
provide a wide range of easily accessible resources for children up to two years, to encourage exploration
implement robust self review to clearly identify next steps for the centre to guide ongoing and sustainable improvement.
Centre leaders recognise external professional development, advice and support are also needed to improve areas of governance and leadership. Next steps should include:
renewing and developing the centre philosophy, vision and values
clarifying the roles and responsibilities of staff members, centre leaders and the governance board
regularly evaluating the progress towards long-term centre goals
reviewing the centre's long-term and annual plans
improving the teacher appraisal process, including setting goals that further extend teachers' professional practice and knowledge in meeting the Practising Teachers Criteria.
Before the review, the staff and management of Family Link Childcare 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
ERO identified areas of non-compliance relating to the quality of curriculum, governance and management. To meet requirements the service needs to improve its performance in the following areas:
provide a range of quality resources, experiences and opportunities to enhance and extend children's learning and development both indoors and outdoors in a group and individually
report to the preschool community about the expenditure of Equity Funding
develop and implement suitable human resource practices
develop an ongoing process of self review to help the service maintain and improve the quality of education and care.
Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care Centres 2008, GMA6,7 and C9; Early Childhood Funding Handbook, Ch10.
ERO recommends that the service consult with the Ministry of Education and plan to address the key next steps and actions outlined in this report.
The next ERO review of Family Link Childcare will be within two years.
Graham Randell
Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern
27 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 |
Dargaville, Northland |
||
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
11402 |
||
|
Licence type |
Education & Care Service |
||
|
Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
||
|
Number licensed for |
50 children, including up to 20 aged under 2 |
||
|
Service roll |
70 |
||
|
Gender composition |
Girls 39 Boys 31 |
||
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori Pākehā Cook Island Māori other |
32 35 1 2 |
|
|
Percentage of qualified teachers 0-49% 50-79% 80%+Based on funding rates |
50-79% |
||
|
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 |
27 June 2016 |
||
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review |
June 2013 |
|
|
Education Review |
November 2009 |
||
|
Education Review |
June 2004 |
||
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:
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.