4 Thompson Park Road, Mount Wellington, Auckland
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.
This is the first ERO review of Little Moas Early Learning Centre under new ownership. An owner/director and centre manager lead a team of six qualified teachers and 10 staff, including a cook. The centre’s philosophy is “nurturing, loving and respecting one another and the earth”.
Adults providing education and care engage in positive interactions to enhance children’s learning. The service curriculum is consistent with Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, and provides children with a range of experiences and opportunities to extend their learning.
Children have opportunities to develop an understanding of the cultural heritages of both parties to Te Tiriti o Waitangi. The service curriculum responds to children as confident and competent learners. Children’s preferences are respected, and they are involved in decisions about their learning experiences.
Consistent implementation of health and safety practices is required to maintain all aspects of regulatory standards.
During and since the onsite visit the service provided ERO with evidence that shows it addressed the following non-compliances:
Ensuring heavy furniture, fixtures, and equipment that could fall or topple and cause serious injury or damage are secured (HS6).
Documenting when adults providing education and care carry out relevant emergency drills, including earthquake drills, with children on at least a three-monthly basis (HS8).
Undertaking daily hazard checks of equipment and facilities and ensuring hazard management processes include consideration of hazards relating to laundry facilities, the placement of play equipment and bodies of water (HS12).
Having a record of serious injuries, illnesses and incidents that occur at the service that includes the actions taken and by whom, and evidence that parents have been notified/informed (HS27).
Having a record of all medicine given to children attending the service that includes the name and amount of medicine given (HS28).
Ensuring all children’s workers who have access to children are safety checked in accordance with the Children’s Act 2014. Safety checks must be undertaken, and the results obtained before the worker has access to children (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
9 August 2022
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Early Childhood Service Name |
Little Moas Early Learning Centre |
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Profile Number |
10371 |
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Location |
Mount Wellington, Auckland |
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Service type |
Education and care service |
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Number licensed for |
76 children, including up to 20 aged under 2 |
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Percentage of qualified teachers |
80-99% |
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Service roll |
73 |
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori 7, NZ European/Pākehā 33, Chinese 5, Filipino 4, Indian 4, other European 7, other ethnic groups 13 |
|
Review team on site |
June 2022 |
|
Date of this report |
9 August 2022 |
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review, October 2019; Education Review, June 2015 |
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 licence 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:
Regulatory standards |
ERO’s judgement |
|
Curriculum |
Meeting |
|
Premises and facilities |
Meeting |
|
Health and safety |
Meeting |
|
Governance, management and administration |
Meeting |
At the time of the review, ERO found the service was taking reasonable steps to meet regulatory standards.
Little Moa’s Educare is part of the nationwide Provincial Education Group. It gained a full licence from the Ministry of Education in May 2018. The centre manager leads a team of eight qualified teachers and six untrained staff, including a centre cook. Children from diverse cultural backgrounds attend the centre and staffing reflects this diversity.
Adults engage in meaningful, positive interactions that enhance children’s learning and nurture reciprocal relationships. The service’s curriculum is inclusive and responsive to children as capable learners. It respects and supports children to be confident in their own culture. Teachers provide a range of experiences and opportunities to enhance and extend children’s learning and development.
A philosophy statement and annual plan guide centre operations. An ongoing process of internal evaluation helps maintain and improve the quality of education and care. Parents are provided with opportunities to contribute to the development and review of operational documents and to be involved in decision-making about their child’s learning.
Next steps include:
strengthening assessment, planning and evaluation processes to make learning and teaching more visible.
The next ERO review is likely to be an Education Review.
Steve Tanner
Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern)
Northern Region | Te Tai Raki
25 October 2019
|
Early Childhood Service Name |
Little Moa’s Educare |
|
Profile Number |
10371 |
|
Location |
Mt Wellington, Auckland |
|
Service type |
Education and care service |
|
Number licensed for |
76 children, including up to 16 aged under 2 |
|
Percentage of qualified teachers |
80%+ |
|
Reported ratio of staff to children under 2 |
1:5 - Meets regulatory standards |
|
Reported ratio of staff to children over 2 |
1:10 - Meets regulatory standards |
|
Service roll |
71 |
|
Gender composition |
Girls 36 Boys 35 |
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori 7 |
|
Review team on site |
August 2019 |
|
Date of this report |
25 October 2019 |
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review June 2015 |
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 licence to operate.
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:
As part of an 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:
As part of an Assurance Review ERO also gathers and records evidence through:
|
Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Little Moa’s Educare in Mt Wellington, is licensed to provide education and care for 74 children including up to 24 children under two years of age. It offers either sessional or full day care. The owner has recently merged the preschool and the babies and toddlers rooms and both are now under one licence.
The centre has good ratios of staff to children. It has stable staffing and all but three of the teaching staff are fully registered. These teachers are being supported in their journey to full registration.
The centre serves a multicultural community. There are large numbers of children with Māori, Indian and Pacific heritages. Children enrolled have different levels of early childhood experiences.
The centre vision focuses on growing capable, confident learners. The two separate philosophies for each area place importance on empowering children to lead their own learning through hands on experiences. The philosophies emphasise building strong partnerships between parents, whānau and the centre educators. The centre values and respects the bicultural heritage of Aotearoa/New Zealand.
Governance of the centre is provided by four directors. The centre owner is one of these. The owner has overall responsibility for teaching and learning with support from the curriculum leader and the babies and toddlers lead educator.
The centre has made some progress towards addressing the areas for improvement identified in the 2012 and 2013 ERO reports.
Warm relationships between adults and babies and toddlers are evident. Teachers are welcoming and supportive and, as a result, children settle happily into the centre. Children enjoy positive relationships and freely choose activities from the variety of resources offered. Teachers use good strategies to transition babies and toddlers into the centre and on to the preschool room.
The programme allows many opportunities for children to participate in spontaneous play. The centre’s routines are respectfully carried out and encourage children's independence. The centre provides good resources to challenge and encourage exploration.
Parents and whānau provide good feedback through surveys, and parent/teacher nights are well attended. Further ways for strengthening these parent and centre relationships continues to be a focus for the centre.
Teachers successfully plan activities to challenge and meet the interests of groups of children. To further promote positive learning outcomes for individual children, teachers could also plan to build on children’s individual interests. They could also use more challenging questioning to extend each child’s thinking. As identified in ERO’s 2012 report, teachers could better record each child’s learning progress in assessment records.
Bicultural and multicultural provision continues to develop. Teachers are increasing using te reo Māori phrases. Children are positively supported in their language, culture and identity through a variety of teaching strategies. Some teachers talk to children in their home languages and children participate in many cultural celebrations.
The owner and teachers work very closely with parents to support them to meet children’s particular needs. They are proactive in seeking support from the Ministry of Education Specialist Education Services.
Teachers in the two areas of the centre are not yet working as a cohesive team. Their noticeably different philosophies and team cultures and relationships contribute to this disparity. Consistent practices and increased shared understanding of best practice in early childhood education would help teachers to provide continuity as children transition through the centre.
The owner has implemented some good systems that support the management of the centre. Policies are systematically reviewed but other areas of practice could benefit from more effective evaluation. It could also be advantageous if leaders were more specifically nurtured in their roles and if staff had better access to space for meeting and working.
The owner recognises that it will be beneficial for staff to:
ERO recommends that the directors ensure, through the centre owner, that:
Before the review, the staff and management of Little Moa's Educare 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:
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 Little Moa's Educare will be in three years.
Dale Bailey
Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern
17 June 2015
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 |
Mt Wellington, Auckland |
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Ministry of Education profile number |
10371 |
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Licence type |
Education & Care Service |
||
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Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
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Number licensed for |
74 children, including up to 24 aged under 2 |
||
|
Service roll |
79 |
||
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Gender composition |
Boys 44 Girls 35 |
||
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori Pākehā Indian Tongan Chinese other Pacific other Asian other |
16 28 11 6 5 4 3 6 |
|
|
Percentage of qualified teachers 0-49% 50-79% 80% Based on funding rates |
80% |
||
|
Reported ratios of staff to children |
Under 2 |
1:3 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
Over 2 |
1:8 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
|
Review team on site |
April 2015 |
||
|
Date of this report |
17 June 2015 |
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|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
First review under merged licence |
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.