5 Jack Boyd Drive, Mangawhai
View on map|
Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
Zero2Hero is well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Zero2Hero is a home-based education and care service operating in the Whangarei region. Licensed for 50 children, including 25 children under two years of age, the service has been a quality funded network since September 2020. There are currently 24 children enrolled. Most children are Pākehā and a few are of Māori and Cook Island descent.
The service's philosophy is underpinned by Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. It promotes a holistic approach to children and their learning, and a strong focus on building trusting, reciprocal relationships with children and their families. Educators provide programmes in their own home for up to four children at a time. Families and educators are carefully matched to support children's wellbeing.
The service owner is an experienced, qualified and certificated teacher. She regularly visits educators in their homes and supports them to plan educational programmes for children, as well as monitoring health and safety provision. Educators are mostly qualified teachers or holding a minimum early childhood education qualification of Level 4.
The service had a change of ownership in 2017. The service's name was changed, and the philosophy has been reviewed. This is the first ERO review under the service's new management.
Children and educators benefit from the work of the visiting teacher who is passionate about home-based care and has a focus on quality. Respectful, responsive relationships with children, educators and families are maintained. Children's learning records show that they are well supported to develop their interests, strengths and preferences through everyday experiences. The visiting teacher provides appropriate strategies and research links to support the educator to provide for individual children's learning.
The service's focus on learning through play and the principles of Te Whāriki are evident in planning and documentation. The visiting teacher's monthly reports record detailed information about children's programmes and activities. Learning portfolios inform parents about their child's routines and learning experiences. The visiting teacher and educators regularly share children's learning with parents/whānau.
Children and educators attend regular outdoor excursions that reinforce connections with nature. Children are encouraged to experience different environments where they play with and learn alongside others. Feedback from parents indicates that these learning opportunities are much appreciated and valued.
Transition practices nurture children's sense of belonging and maintain partnerships between families, homes and schools. Documentation indicates that children under two years are responded to sensitively, catering for their changing needs and preferences.
Aspects of the philosophy are evident in the home visit reports, emails from educators and parents, and in children's learning stories. Parents take an active role in their child’s learning and their contribution is valued. There are learning-focused partnerships between the visiting teacher, educators and parents. The service affirms Māori as tangata whenua and acknowledges that deepening bicultural understandings and practices at all levels of the service remains a priority.
There are strong systems to support professional practice for the visiting teacher and educators. Collaborative ways of working are fostered with everyone involved in the service. A distributed leadership model uses individual strengths in the organisation to ensure ongoing support. Professional learning is underpinned by meaningful appraisal processes for educators. This helps to develop their knowledge, understanding and practice in New Zealand's bicultural context.
Policies and procedures are well established and regularly reviewed. These policies provide relevant guidance for educators to monitor children's wellbeing, health and safety.
Key steps include:
Before the review, the staff and management of Zero2Hero completed an ERO Home-based Education and Care 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:
All early childhood services are required to promote children's health and safety and to regularly review their compliance with legal requirements.
Steve Tanner
Director Review and Improvement Services Northern
Northern Region | Te Tai Raki
7 April 2021
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.
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Location |
Whangarei |
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Ministry of Education profile number |
10423 |
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Institution type |
Homebased Network |
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Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
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Number licensed for |
50 children, including up to 25 aged under 2 |
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Service roll |
24 |
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Standard or Quality Funded |
Quality |
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Ethnic composition |
Māori |
6 |
|
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Number of qualified coordinators in the network |
1 |
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Required ratios of staff educators to children |
Under 2 |
1:2 |
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|
Over 2 |
1:4 |
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Review team on site |
November 2020 |
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Date of this report |
7 April 2021 |
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Most recent ERO report(s) |
No previous ERO reports |
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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 the draft methodology for ERO reviews in Home-based Education and Care Services: July 2014
The overall judgement that ERO makes will depend on how well the service promotes 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 |
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Kids at Home Northland 3 is a home-based early childhood service based in Whangarei. It is one of two BestStart Educare networks acquired from BJ's Homebased Childcare Service Ltd. This is the service's first ERO review under the new owners.
Kids at Home Northland 3 is a standard funded network. There are currently 24 children enrolled.
The visiting teacher oversees programmes provided for children in the educators' homes. She is supported by the BestStart Northland area manager.
The new owners have made some good progress in the areas for development identified by ERO in its 2014 report.
This review was part of a cluster of two home-based network reviews in the BestStart Educare Limited organisation.
Children are involved in a range of activities in their educators' homes and on Kids at Home excursions. They have opportunities to play with other children and adults in a weekly playgroup that is at a local school hall. The visiting teacher (VT) and educators contribute to playgroup planning and activities.
The managers and VT foster strong relationships with families and educators through regular visits and various forms of open communication. The VT writes reports about monthly visits in educators' homes. Managers and the VT agree that these reports could be strengthened to record coaching discussions and next steps to guide future conversations with educators.
Educators know the children well. They record children's development and learning stories in their personal portfolios, which are available for whānau to read and respond to online. Educators’ learning stories express how children are learning through play. It is timely now for the VT to model ways of writing learning stories that reflect children’s progress and continuity of learning over time and more clearly include children's and parents' contributions.
The managers and VT work well together and are becoming more confident in using internal evaluation. They are developing internal evaluation systems to further support, monitor and inform their practices.
The managers and VT use their strategic plan to help educators provide quality programmes for children. They have also started to promote the organisation's vision and associated goals, including bicultural approaches. The managers provide ongoing support for Kids at Home staff and educators to promote professional learning and build capability.
Managers and the visiting teacher recognise that to improve practice they should continue to support educators to:
develop and implement effective assessment, planning and evaluation
promote children's cultural identity in their learning programmes
encourage the use of te reo Māori in a range of learning contexts.
Managers agree they should continue to provide ongoing mentoring for visiting teachers.
Before the review, the staff and management of Kids at Home Northland 3 completed an ERO Home-based Education and Care 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.
The next ERO review of Kids at Home Northland 3 will be in three years.
Steffan Brough
Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern (Acting)
24 May 2017
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 |
Whangarei |
||
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
10423 |
||
|
Institution type |
Homebased Network |
||
|
Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
||
|
Number licensed for |
55 children, including up to 25 aged under 2 |
||
|
Service roll |
24 |
||
|
Standard or Quality Funded |
Standard |
||
|
Gender composition |
Boys 14 Girls 10 |
||
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori |
11 |
|
|
Number of qualified coordinators in the network |
1 |
||
|
Required ratios of staff educators to children |
Under 2 |
1:2 |
|
|
Over 2 |
1:4 |
||
|
Review team on site |
March 2017 |
||
|
Date of this report |
24 May 2017 |
||
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review |
February 2014 |
|
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 the draft methodology for ERO reviews in Home-based Education and Care Services: July 2014
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.