14 Maurice Street, Papakura
View on mapERO’s Akanuku | Assurance Review reports provide information about whether a service meets and maintains regulatory standards. Further information about Akanuku | Assurance Reviews is included at the end of this report.
Regulatory standards |
ERO’s judgement |
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Curriculum |
Meeting |
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Premises and facilities |
Meeting |
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Health and safety |
Meeting |
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Governance, management and administration |
Meeting |
Since the onsite visit, the service has provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed non-compliances and is now taking reasonable steps to meet regulatory standards.
Great Potentials Papakura Early Learning Centre is part of the Family Services Centre (FSC) providing social support services for families. A qualified team leader oversees the daily curriculum and administration and is supported by two qualified teachers and an unqualified staff member. Governance support is provided by the FSC manager and board of trustees. More than half of the children attending are of Māori heritage.
Children’s preferences are respected, and they are involved in decisions about their learning experiences. The curriculum is inclusive, and responsive to children as confident and competent learners. It provides children with a range of experiences and opportunities to enhance and extend their learning and development both indoors and outdoors, individually and in groups.
Adults providing education and care engage in meaningful, positive interactions to enhance children’s learning and nurture reciprocal relationships. A philosophy statement guides operations expressing the service’s beliefs, values, and attitudes.
Consistent implementation and monitoring of practice is required to meet all aspects of regulatory compliance.
Next steps include:
improving the extent to which assessment information shows children’s progress and learning over time
strengthening the interactions between kaiako and children to encourage and support children’s thinking and problem-solving capabilities.
During the review, the service provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed the following non-compliances:
evidence of review of the emergency plan on at least an annual basis and implementation of improved practices as required (HS7)
record of emergency drills carried out and evidence of how evaluation of the drills has informed the annual review of the service’s emergency plan (HS8)
record of excursions that includes evidence of parental permission and approval of adult:child ratios for special excursions (HS17)
evidence of written information letting parents know how they can be involved in the service; any fees charged by the service; the amount and details of the expenditure of any Ministry of Education funding received by the service; and about any planned reviews and consultation (GMA3)
a schedule showing timelines for planned review and recorded outcomes from the review process (GMA6)
children’s workers who have access to children to be safety checked in accordance with the Children’s Act 2014 (GMA7A).
The next ERO review is likely to be an Akarangi | Quality Evaluation.
Filivaifale Jason Swann
Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern)
Northern Region | Te Tai Raki
30 August 2022
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Early Childhood Service Name |
Great Potentials Papakura Early Learning Centre |
|
Profile Number
|
25171 |
| Location |
Papakura, Auckland |
|
Service type |
Education and care service |
|
Number licensed for |
35 children over two years of age |
|
Percentage of qualified teachers |
50-79% |
|
Service roll |
24 |
|
Review team on site |
July 2022 |
|
Date of this report |
30 August 2022 |
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review, June 2020 |
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 license to operate.
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 Akanuku | Assurance Review process is determined to be appropriate.
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 Akanuku | 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 Akanuku | 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.
|
Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
Great Potentials Papakura Early Learning Centre requires further development to promote positive learning outcomes for children.
Great Potentials Papakura Early Learning Centre requires further development to extend how well it promotes positive learning outcomes for children. The centre needs to lift the standard of teaching practice by developing a shared understanding of Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, and ensuring that all teachers are appraised annually against the professional standards.
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Great Potentials Papakura Early Learning Centre is located next to Kelvin Road School. The learning centre is part of a family services centre (FSC) that provides health, education, and support services for families. It is operated by the Great Potentials Foundation, which is a charitable trust governed by a board of trustees and the FSC manager.
The centre has had significant staff changes over the past year. The recently appointed FSC manager is currently recruiting a new team leader responsible for teaching and learning.
The centre's mission and philosophy places emphasis on making positive changes for children and families. The well-established centre has large indoor and outdoor areas for children.
The 2016 ERO report identified areas for improvement that included literacy development and the quality of teaching. These continue to be areas for the centre to address.
Children benefit from a calm environment that is welcoming and inclusive. They have free access between the spacious and well-resourced indoor and outdoor learning areas. There is good opportunity for children to be physically active in the outdoor playground. Children are settled, play well alongside each other, and communicate readily with their friends and teachers.
Positive and respectful relationships are evident between teachers and children and their whānau. Teachers are responsive and sensitive to children's immediate needs. They are aware of the continued need to promote and develop children's oral language and literacy development.
Wall displays and group learning stories provide parents with a record of children's participation in activities. The centre leader agrees that learning stories now need to document individual children's progress, and portfolios should reflect children's cultural identities and languages. Teachers and parents have good informal opportunities to talk about the children's day at the centre. Children transitioning to school make regular visits to the neighbouring school.
Targeted professional development to embed the expectations of Te Whāriki into daily practice is a next step. This would help teachers to focus more on children's individual strengths, needs and interests. Professional learning would also guide intentional strategies to improve teaching practice, and children's learning opportunities.
The governing trust has an annual plan to guide family services. A next step is to develop an annual educational plan, specifically for the learning centre, which focuses on improving learning outcomes for children. The trust and FSC manager plan to appoint a full-time qualified registered teacher to lead and manage the curriculum and learning programmes. Once this appointment is made, the teaching team would be better placed to collectively prioritise children's next learning steps and strengthen learning partnerships with parents.
The centre has relevant policies to guide centre operations. Leaders now need to ensure that staff have a shared understanding of the centre's policies and procedures to ensure consistency of practice.
Staffing challenges over the past year have impacted on appraisal and mentoring programmes for teachers. Centre leaders are aware of the need to review the appraisal policies and systems to ensure that all teachers are appraised annually against the standards for the teaching profession.
Next steps include:
appointing a head teacher with current knowledge of effective teaching practice
seeking assistance to embed the expectations of Te Whāriki into daily practice
developing a specific annual plan that focuses on learning improvement, a maintenance plan, and a policy review cycle
establishing an organisational culture that builds professional capability and teaching practice through self-reflection, regular appraisal and internal evaluation.
Before the review, the staff and management of Great Potentials Papakura Early Learning 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.
ERO identified areas of non-compliance relating to appraisal. To meet requirements the service needs to improve its performance in the following areas:
ensuring that teachers are appraised annually, and appraisal processes are aligned to Teaching Council requirements
ensuring that the centre's positive guidance policy and procedures are aligned.
Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care Centres 2008, (GMA 7) (C13).
ERO recommends that the service, in consultation with the Ministry of Education, develops a plan to address the key next steps and actions outlined in this report.
Steve Tanner
Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern)
Northern Region - Te Tai Raki
5 June 2020
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 |
Papakura, Auckland |
||
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
25171 |
||
|
Licence type |
Education & Care Service |
||
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Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
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|
Number licensed for |
35 children over 2 years |
||
|
Service roll |
14 |
||
|
Gender composition |
Boys 7 Girls 7 |
||
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori |
4 |
|
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Percentage of qualified teachers |
80% + |
||
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Reported ratios of staff to children |
Over 2 |
1:6 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
Review team on site |
February 2020 |
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Date of this report |
5 June 2020 |
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Most recent ERO report(s)
|
Education Review |
May 2016 |
|
|
Education Review |
February 2013 |
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|
Education Review |
December 2009 |
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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 will depend on how well the service promotes positive learning outcomes for children. The categories are:
Very well placed
Well placed
Requires further development
Not well placed
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.