Flora Road East, Makarewa
View on map|
Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Makarewa Playcentre provides three sessions each week for children up to school age. It is located in a small, rural settlement north of Invercargill and is the only early childhood service in the area.
The outdoor facilities, including a newly constructed playground, have recently been extended and modernised.
Two of the three sessions are led by an experienced, paid educator with the help of members. Playcentre parents are gaining Playcentre qualifications by being involved in the adult-education training programme provided by the Southland Playcentre Association (SPA).
The SPA is experiencing a time of change as all playcentre associations throughout New Zealand merge with the New Zealand Playcentre Federation (NZPF) to reduce duplication and make cost savings. This restructure will mean significant changes at the local association level. A committed, interim board has been established at SPA to support playcentres through this transitional period.
The September 2013 ERO report identified the key next steps as strengthening self review, developing an outcome focused strategic plan and enhancing profiles to better record children's learning overtime. Progress is ongoing in these areas.
This review was part of a cluster of 13 in the Southland Playcentre Association.
A wide range of learning experiences support a rich, varied and responsive curriculum. Parents work alongside and respond to children's interests. Extending children's oral language is a feature of
adult-child interactions. Children are encouraged to choose and engage in learning experiences.
The environment is a comfortable and inviting area for infants to explore. Thoughtful use of resources supports their learning.
Educators and members have identified that further development is required in their knowledge and implementation of an effective bicultural programme. There is a commitment by members to ongoing learning in this area. As this shared understanding develops members should be better placed to support and promote educational success for Māori children.
Pre and post session discussions focus on identifying children's interests. Consideration is given as to how these can be responded to and supported.
Planning for the term provides a shared direction to enhance the programme focus. This is further extended through exploration and experiences into and beyond the local community. Members agree the next steps should include establishing clear and specific learning objectives in order to effectively evaluate the programme.
Clear guidelines are evident to support members' understanding of the purpose and use of assessment and the expected processes. Continuing to support members to document how they add challenge to children's learning should better highlight progress and learning over time.
Self review is used to guide developments in the centre. It is timely to build members' understanding of effective review and evaluation. This should better support them in knowing the quality and impact of the curriculum on outcomes for children.
There are clear expectations of roles and responsibilities of office bearers. This supports leadership well. Annual goals are improvement focused to support the development of leaders, the environment and the programme in action.
The board has been proactive in developing processes to assist in the smooth transition for playcentres to work under the NZPF. Opportunities have been offered to playcentre members to engage with the SPA to consider how the board could best provide support to services through the impending restructure.
The board has identified a number of systems and processes have lapsed and need improvement. Immediate attention is required to review policies that guide the appointments procedure and health and safety practices. The appraisal process has also lapsed or not been robustly implemented. These improvements are a priority to meet licensing criteria, and for monitoring the quality of centre practices.
More consistent, timely and evaluative reporting should be provided to the board to assure them that accountabilities are met and to better inform their decision making.
The playcentre educator and members agree areas for strengthening include:
Key next steps for the association are to:
Before the review, the staff and management of Makarewa Playcentre 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 also identified areas of non-compliance for the Southland Playcentre Association in relation to governance and management. To meet requirements the association needs to:
To improve practice playcentre members should:
To improve practice the Southland Playcentre Association should:
The next ERO review of Makarewa Playcentre will be in three years.
Patricia Davey
Deputy Chief Review Officer Central (Acting)
17 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.
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Location |
Invercargill |
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Ministry of Education profile number |
90007 |
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Licence type |
Playcentre |
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Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
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Number licensed for |
30 children, including up to 10 aged under 2 |
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|
Service roll |
20 |
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Gender composition |
Boys 11, Girls 9 |
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Ethnic composition |
Māori |
4 |
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Reported ratios of adults to children |
Under 2 |
1:1 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
Over 2 |
1:5 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
|
Review team on site |
March 2017 |
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Date of this report |
17 May 2017 |
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|
Most recent ERO report(s)
|
Education Review |
September 2013 |
|
|
Education Review |
June 2010 |
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|
Education Review |
March 2006 |
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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:
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.
|
Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Children attending Makarewa Playcentre are provided with rich learning experiences. This report builds on the positive findings in the 2010 ERO report. Most of the suggested recommendations from that report have been successfully dealt with.
Makarewa Playcentre is one of 19 playcentres governed by the Southland Playcentre Association (SPA). It is located near the local school on the outskirts of Invercargill. Children aged from birth to six years can attend three morning sessions a week. The playcentre also hosts a weekly session for first-time parents and their babies.
Children from the surrounding rural area and nearby town enjoy the rural setting offered by the playcentre. Since the start of 2013, the parents have taken responsibility for the running of the sessions. They are very dedicated to their ongoing training and are supportive of each other. The beliefs about how playcentre supports children to learn and grow are strongly evident in what the adults do with and for the children.
The small group size fosters a family atmosphere. The centre is currently exploring ways to grow the roll to ensure its ongoing viability.
This review was part of a cluster of 17 reviews in the Southland Playcentre Association.
Children enjoy warm, trusting relationships with all the adults in the centre and with each other. The mixed-age setting is an inclusive environment for all children. Babies are sensitively included in the programme and older children are actively encouraged to be aware of babies’ needs. Children are confident to work alongside adults other than their own parents. They have a strong sense of belonging in the centre and are familiar with the routines.
Children benefit from a rich and varied programme that responds to their individual and group interests. They play and learn in very well-resourced indoor and outdoor areas. Children take part in group projects that develop over time, for example investigating and creating birdhouses, gardening and recycling and learning about the living world. They have regular excursions into the local community. These excursions are designed to create meaningful links to the wider world.
Children’s play is often sustained over several sessions and becomes increasingly complex. The parents value this play as learning and add additional resources to extend and deepen this.
Other positive features of the programme include many opportunities for children to experience:
A strength of this centre is the focus adults have on extending children’s thinking and learning. For example, adults encourage children to problem solve, persevere, build on their knowledge, notice detail and use appropriate language.
Planning for individuals is regular, detailed and ongoing. Each term the parents together set meaningful goals for all the children. These goals are well supported by specific and useful strategies. Parents are becoming more skilled at recognising and documenting children’s progress towards their identified goals. Pre and post-session discussions have a focus on learning.
Parents are highly reflective and responsive to the changing needs of the children and the playcentre.
The SPA provides strong support to the playcentre through:
The SPA provides strong leadership to guide the future direction and ongoing improvement of all its centres. This includes the way association team members foster emergent leadership. Currently there are high numbers of people participating in playcentre training. The association has identified, and ERO agrees, that its next step is to improve its knowledge and understanding of self review. It then needs to support playcentres to implement effective self review.
There is a useful framework to guide self review. Parents regularly review areas of play within the centre to improve children’s play and learning opportunities. The next step is for the SPA and parents to strengthen and extend self-review practices to monitor the effectiveness of all aspects of the centre’s operations in an ongoing way. This includes developing a schedule and recording the outcomes of reviews.
All centre families had an opportunity to contribute to the strategic plan to determine its current priorities. The resulting strategic plan could be a more useful document if it had a greater focus on improving outcomes for children.
Parents could refine the information contained in profile books to more purposefully reflect the learning goals and better record the progress made over time.
Before the review, the staff and management of Makarewa Playcentre 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 Makarewa Playcentre will be in three years.
Graham Randell
National Manager Review Services
Southern Region
13 September 2013
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 |
Makarewa, Invercargill |
||
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
90007 |
||
|
Licence type |
Playcentre |
||
|
Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
||
|
Number licensed for |
30 children, including up to 10 aged under 2 |
||
|
Service roll |
11 |
||
|
Gender composition |
Boys 7 Girls 4 |
||
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori NZ European/Pākehā |
2 9 |
|
|
Percentage of qualified teachers 0-49% 50-79% 80% Based on funding rates |
50-79% with playcentre qualifications |
||
|
Reported ratios of staff to children |
Under 2 |
1:1 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
Over 2 |
1:5 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
|
Review team on site |
July 2013 |
||
|
Date of this report |
13 September 2013 |
||
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review |
June 2010 |
|
|
Education Review |
March 2006 |
||
|
Accountability Review |
April 2001 |
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 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.