17 Gladstone Road, Richmond, Nelson
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 |
| Curriculum | Meeting |
| Premises and facilities | Meeting |
| Health and safety | Meeting |
| 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.
Little People Preschool Richmond is a mixed-aged service. A well-established owner is supported by a head teacher and long serving and more recently appointed teachers. The increasingly culturally diverse centre community includes almost a third of children who are Māori, and a small number of Tongan children.
The service curriculum is consistent with Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. Adults providing education and care engage in meaningful, positive interactions to enhance children’s learning and nurture reciprocal relationships. Teachers are responsive to children as confident and competent learners.
Children’s preferences are respected, and they are involved in decisions about their learning experiences. The curriculum supports children’s developing social competence. The premises support the provision of different kinds of indoor and outdoor play, and a range of learning experiences.
An annual plan guides the service’s operation. Better monitoring of aspects of health and safety is required.
Key Next Steps include:
Since the onsite visit the service has provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed the following non-compliance:
The next ERO review is likely to be an Akarangi | Quality Evaluation.
Patricia Davey
Director of Early Childhood Education (ECE)
10 January 2024
| Service type | Education and care service |
| Early Childhood Service Name: | Little People Preschool Richmond |
| Profile Number: | 65150 |
| Location: | Richmond, Nelson |
| Number licensed for | 35 children, including up to 10 aged under 2 |
| Percentage of qualified teachers | 100% |
| Service roll | 36 |
| Review team on site | November 2023 |
| Date of this report | 10 January 2024 |
| Most recent ERO report(s) | Akarangi | Quality Review May 2022; Education Review, March 2019 |
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 Akanuku | Assurance Review ERO assesses whether the regulatory 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 Akanuku | Assurance Review ERO also gathers and records evidence through:
Akarangi | 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 Akarangi Quality 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 Little People Preschool Richmond are as follows:
Outcome Indicators(What the service knows about learners) | Whāngai Establishing |
Ngā Akatoro Domains | |
Learning ConditionsOrganisational Conditions | Whakaū Embedding Whāngai Establishing |
Little People Preschool Richmond is one of two family-owned care and education services. The other centre is in Wakefield, Nelson. Most staff are qualified teachers including the owner. The owner works closely with the new head teachers from both centres. They take shared responsibility for the operation of the mixed-age centres.
Teachers foster respectful, reciprocal relationships with family and whānau that support the learning and wellbeing of children. Children experience a responsive curriculum where their interests, capabilities and views are carefully considered and included. Teachers deliberately build children’s independence, social and communication skills, and work with them to develop a shared understanding about ways of being together through their centre treaty.
Older children and those up to two years, play well together within a mixed-age, inclusive environment. Teachers use sensitive approaches to support individual children, including those with additional needs, to succeed in their learning.
When assessing and planning for individual children’s learning, teachers have a clear understanding about intentional teaching strategies and the learning outcomes from Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. Evaluation of the learning programme for groups of children does not yet include evaluating how well-planned teaching strategies have supported learning. The language, culture and identity of children is yet to be made consistently evident in documentation. Teachers’ knowledge and meaningful integration of te ao Māori and te reo Māori needs to be further developed and made more visible in the daily curriculum and in assessment and planning documentation.
Leaders are further developing systems and processes that support them to carry out daily operations more effectively. They review aspects of their practice to make changes and improvements. Effective internal evaluation processes are not well understood by the teaching team.
Little People Preschool Richmond will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:
Before the review, the staff and management of Little People Preschool Richmond 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.
ERO identified the following area of non-compliance:
[Licensing criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care Services 2008, HS17].
The service provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed the following non-compliance:
ERO recommends the Ministry follows up with the service provider to ensure non-compliances identified in this report are addressed.
Dr Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini
19 May 2022
| Early Childhood Service Name | Little People Preschool Richmond |
| Profile Number | 65150 |
| Location | Nelson |
| Service type | Education and care service |
| Number licensed for | 35 children, including up to 10 aged under 2 |
| Percentage of qualified teachers | 80-99% |
| Service roll | 35 |
| Ethnic composition | Māori 6, NZ European/Pākehā 20, Other ethnic groups 9 |
| Review team on site | February 2022 |
| Date of this report | 19 May 2022 |
| Most recent ERO report(s) | Education Review, March 2021; Education Review, June 2016 |
| Not well placed | Requires further development | Well placed | Very well placed |
Little People Preschool Richmond is well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Little People Preschool, Richmond, is a privately owned, full day education and care centre and is licensed for 35 children, with a maximum of 10 children aged under two. Responsibility for the governance of the preschool is held by the owner, with a head teacher leading teaching and learning and overseeing day to day operations of the centre. Over the past two years there has been a number of staff changes. The majority of teachers are qualified and registered early childhood teachers, while others are in training to become teachers.
The recently updated philosophy emphasises strong reciprocal relationships between the home and centre. It reflects the Te Whāriki NZ Early Childhood Curriculum and affirms the importance of bicultural practices. Children’s learning and wellbeing are central within the philosophy and programme which promotes children's independence and self help skills.
ERO's 2016 report identified considerable areas for improvement. These mainly highlighted processes and systems for governance, leadership and the usefulness of assessment and planning for children's learning. Leaders and teachers have been well supported by an external professional development provider, and have addressed a number of the areas identified, particularly assessment and planning for individual children. Improvements have been made to policy review and internal evaluation. Progress in other areas, such as strategic planning and appraisal practice, is in the early stages of development.
The centre has recently joined the Waimea Kāhui Ako/ Community of Learning.
This review was part of a cluster of two early learning service reviews owned by Little People (Nelson) 2009 Limited.
Children are seen as capable and confident learners and display a strong sense of belonging. They have choices within the programme, and can access both the indoor and outdoor areas throughout the day. Teachers make purposeful links to the community to extend the learning experiences for children, with trips to places such as the library, gymnasium and school playground.
Teachers are actively involved in children's learning. They engage children in conversations that encourage their oral language development and self managing skills. Teachers effectively seek children's ideas and opinions to contribute to the programme.
The continuity of care contributes greatly to the sensitive, responsive and nurturing interactions the teachers have with infants and toddlers. These relationships effectively provide for the social and emotional wellbeing needs of these children. This is actively fostered in the programme by the teachers, and reinforced in the way children positively interact with each other.
Teachers are in the early stages of developing te reo and tikanga Māori understandings and practices. Some bicultural elements are incorporated into the environment and the programme. There is an increased use of te reo Māori by teachers and children. This is helping children to recognise and take pride in their cultural heritage.
Teachers have developed learning priorities and these are visible in the environment, assessment and planning. There is a strong focus on the ways teachers are noticing and documenting individual children's learning. Learning stories clearly show children's learning and their progress. Children and their parents are invited to contribute to the learning goals. This leads to meaningful planning.
The centre has developed a strong foundation for internal evaluation which is contributing to positive outcomes for children. Internal evaluation is appropriately linked to strategic goals and teachers’ professional learning and development. It is building teachers' knowledge and a team culture based on improving outcomes for children.
While there has been considerable progress, there are a number of initiatives that need to be further developed and fully implemented. These include:
Before the review, the staff and management of Little People Preschool Richmond 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.
(Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care Centres 2008, GMA7)
Alan Wynyard
Director Review and Improvement Services Southern
Southern Region
6 March 2019
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 | Nelson | ||
| Ministry of Education profile number | 65150 | ||
| Licence type | Education & Care Service | ||
| Licensed under | Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 | ||
| Number licensed for | 35 children, including up to 10 aged under 2 | ||
| Service roll | 35 | ||
| Gender composition | Boys 18 ; Girls 17 | ||
| Ethnic composition | Māori Pākehā Other ethnicities | 9 23 3 | |
| Percentage of qualified teachers | 80% + | ||
| 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 | December 2018 | ||
| Date of this report | 6 March 2019 | ||
Most recent ERO reports
| Education Review | August 2016 | |
| Education Review | July 2013 | ||
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:
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.