Lollipops Britomart

1 Evaluation of Lollipops Britomart

How well placed is Lollipops Britomart to promote positive learning outcomes for children?

Lollipops Britomart needs to provide high quality sustainable leadership to improve teachers' professional practice. Support is required to establish effective strategic planning, internal evaluation and curriculum practices.

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

Background

Lollipops Britomart is licensed for 60 children, including up to 25 aged under two years. Infants and toddlers have separate indoor and outdoor play spaces and transition into the area for older children after they turn two. Toddlers and older children have separate indoor areas but share the same playground. Three percent of the children enrolled are Māori.

The centre manager and two head teachers lead a teaching team of seven qualified teachers, and two unqualified staff. The service's philosophy is underpinned by the values of love, care and trust. It refers to the environment as "the third teacher".

The 2015 ERO report noted that children’s wellbeing and sense of belonging were nurtured through positive interactions, respectful relationships and good care routines. These practices continue to be evident. Areas for development included developing a higher level of strategic objectives, teachers' confidence in incorporating tikanga and te reo Māori and fostering leadership across the centre. There is a need to continue improving these areas.

The Evolve Education Group owns the centre. This organisation provides an overarching governance and management framework and visiting personnel to support the operation of each centre. A recent re-branding of centres has occurred, with a view to building a greater sense of unity across the organisation. Initiatives that have recently been introduced are intended to improve staff stability in centres, promote effective internal evaluation and lift the quality of teaching practices.

This review was part of a cluster of eight reviews in the Evolve Education Group.

The Review Findings

Children are confident and settled during the day. They have formed trusting relationships with teachers in all rooms. Teachers know children and families well and acknowledge their individual cultures. They are welcoming and approachable and regularly speak with parents about their children's participation. Environments are attractive with accessible resources for children.

Teachers continue to gain confidence in using te reo Māori. They should continue to strengthen their bicultural practice and review practices to enhance and affirm children's cultural identity. Teachers should ensure that all children can access every aspect of the centre's programme.

To further support children's learning, teachers should:

• use the environment more effectively for identifying appropriate teaching strategies to extend children's learning and thinking

• continue to improve children's individual assessment by identifying whānau aspirations and children's interests and dispositions, and planning how they will they build on this information.

The distributed leadership model at the centre promotes teachers working in a collaborative and collegial way. Managers should ensure that individual teachers are supported to develop reflective teaching through appraisals, induction, mentoring and targeted professional learning and development

Teachers should make changes based on the findings from the annual centre audits established by Evolve. This would help to ensure requirements are being met regarding implementation of policies, procedures and curriculum. Centre leaders and teachers have begun to establish a strategic plan to guide the centre's development. Teachers are open to learning, and need to continue to question and modify their practice.

Key Next Steps

The centre manager agrees that key next steps include:

• reviewing the centre philosophy against established indicators of quality practice to ensure it is evident in teaching practices and reflects Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum

• developing a shared understanding of good quality assessment, planning and internal evaluation

• building on and supporting individual teachers' professional practice

• providing high quality sustainable leadership

• using internal evaluation to improve professional practice and outcomes for children.

Evolve Education Group managers agree that key next steps include:

• ensuring the company’s vision, values, philosophy, goals and systems reflect the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi

• developing clear strategic goals to inform improvement focused annual plans at regional, area and centre levels, that include Te Whāriki 2017 and a strategy for supporting Pacific children and families

• ongoing moderation and monitoring of the roles and responsibilities of personnel in positions of leadership, including the centre manager

• ongoing monitoring of appraisal practices to ensure effective implementation is lifting teaching practice

• reviewing how effectively levels of resourcing in centres support children’s learning.

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Lollipops Britomart 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.

Actions for compliance

ERO identified areas of non-compliance relating to teacher registration and appraisal, and internal evaluation practices. To address these, the managers must:

• implement effective human resource management practices

• establish robust, systematic and improvement focused internal evaluation practices
  Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education & Care Services 2008. GMA6,7.

Development Plan Recommendation

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.

Next ERO Review

When is ERO likely to review the service again?

The next ERO review of Lollipops Britomart will be within two years.

Violet Tu’uga Stevenson

Director Review and Improvement Services

Te Tai Raki - Northern Region

26 October 2018

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 and Next Review

• 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:
• Very well placed – The next ERO review in four years
• Well placed – The next ERO review in three years
• Requires further development – The next ERO review within two years
• Not well placed - The next ERO review in consultation with the Ministry of Education

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.