Lincoln Village Preschool & Nursery

1 Evaluation of Lincoln Village Preschool & Nursery

How well placed is Lincoln Village Preschool & Nursery to promote positive learning outcomes for children?

Lincoln Village Preschool & Nursery is well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.

ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.

Background

Lincoln Village Preschool and Nursery is a privately owned, full-day, early childhood education and care service licensed for up to 75 children. The children are grouped according to age and readiness for transition in one of four learning areas. They come from diverse cultural backgrounds. The roll has increased significantly since ERO's January 2016 report.

The owners are responsible for aspects of governance. A manager leads the day-to-day operations of the centre. The newly appointed curriculum leader works with staff to deliver the programmes. Each learning area is overseen by a room leader.

The philosophy emphasises the importance of equity for all learners, relationships, ako, children as competent life-long learners and a commitment to the Treaty of Waitangi.

The service has sustained the good practice identified in ERO's previous report and has made and continues to make progress in addressing the next steps for improvement. This includes implementing a Treaty-based curriculum.

The service is part of the Ngā Mātāpuna o Ngā Pakahi Kāhui Ako|Community of Learning.

The Review Findings

Teachers have strong relationships with children. They have positive and respectful interactions and know the children very well as learners. Children are settled and engaged in their learning. They play well with and alongside one another.

An interesting programme based on Te Whāriki, the Early Childhood Curriculum, allows children many opportunities to make choices about their learning. Teachers encourage and foster their interests. Children's transitions into the service, between rooms and to school are well considered and supported.

The learning and wellbeing of infants and toddlers are well supported in the calm and unhurried environments. Teachers are attuned to children's verbal and non-verbal cues and provide routines that are responsive to individual preferences and desires. The language rich environment promotes non-verbal and verbal communication. Children with additional requirements are well supported.

Assessment, planning and evaluation processes are under development. Systems for group planning have been recently improved to show the teachers learning priorities for children. Clear expectations are in place to guide teacher practice and to ensure all children are regularly planned for. Children's learning and progress over time is evident in their records. The leader and teachers have plans to better show how teachers respond to parents' aspirations for their learning. How they show they value the child's language, culture and identity is a next step.

A strength of the service is the collaborative teaching teams and distributive leadership approach taken by the leadership and the owners. The leader and teachers have initial planning to support a next step to build collaborative learning-focused partnerships with parents.

The management team and teachers regularly review aspects of policies and practice. A next step is to strengthen understanding of in-depth internal evaluation and use this to scrutinise areas of practice to identify what makes the most difference to children's learning outcomes. The owners should be informed of the outcomes of internal review and receive evidence-based reports of progress towards meeting strategic goals.

Key Next Steps

A next step for the leaders and teachers is to continue to strengthen and embed assessment, planning and evaluation practices for groups and individuals. This includes:

• acknowledging children's language, culture and identity to support their learning

• more consistently showing how they respond to parents' wishes for their children's learning and develop learning partnerships with parents

• deliberate planning for Treaty-based practice

• ensuring teachers more consistently include teaching strategies in planning records

• evaluate how well the teaching strategies and experiences have supported the intended learning.

Leaders and teachers need to deepen their understanding and ensure regular use of in-depth internal evaluation to improve outcomes for children.

Leaders need to strengthen some systems and processes. These include:

• formally monitoring and reporting progress towards the goals in the strategic plan

• improving aspects of appraisal.

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Lincoln Village Preschool & Nursery 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.

Alan Wynyard

Director Review and Improvement Services Southern

Southern Region

4 June 2019

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

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

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.

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.