Maori Hill Montessori Preschool

1 ERO’s Judgements

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. The Akarangi Quality Evaluation Judgement Rubric derived from the indicators, is used to inform the ERO’s judgements about this service’s performance in promoting equity and excellence. 

ERO’s judgements for Maori Hill Montessori Preschool are as follows:

2 Context of the Service

Maori Hill Montessori Preschool is a small, privately-owned education and care service. The owner manages the centre and teaches in the classroom alongside three qualified kaiako. It is licensed for 30 children over the age of two and up to school age. The service has made good progress in addressing the key next steps from the August 2017 ERO Report.

3 Summary of findings

Leaders and kaiako have established learning-focused partnerships with parents that include opportunities for sharing information and insights about children’s interests, progress and learning in relation to the Montessori philosophy and principles. Children are well supported to develop early numeracy and literacy skills and learn about courtesy and grace. The service has yet to explore the learning outcomes in Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum.

Leaders and kaiako acknowledge, respect and respond to the identities, languages and cultures of children and their parents and whānau and integrate these into the curriculum. Te reo me ngā tikanga Māori are valued and integrated into day-to-day teaching practice enabling children to learn about the dual heritage of Aotearoa. This supports children’s mana and sense of belonging at the service. Leaders and kaiako quickly identify children who need extra support with their learning and implement well-considered strategies to promote individual children’s learning and development.

The service regularly undertakes evaluation focusing on improvement to teaching and learning. It has a system in place to ensure ongoing monitoring of improvement actions. Leaders are working to embed and increase the collective capacity of kaiako to do and use evaluation. This should help them better understand how individual and groups of children are progressing in terms of the valued outcomes in Te Whāriki and how improvement actions have impacted on outcomes for children.

4 Improvement actions

Maori Hill Montessori Preschool will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning. These are to:

• deepen kaiako knowledge and understanding of Te Whariki and what it means for the enacted curriculum, teaching and learning,
• explore the valued learning outcomes and gather evidence to show how individuals and groups of children are progressing
• with parents, whānau and children, develop and enact the service philosophy, vision, goals and priorities aligning these with Te Whāriki
• continue to build the conditions to develop kaiako capability and collective capacity to evaluate for sustained improvement.

5 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Maori Hill Montessori Preschool 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.

6 Actions for Compliance

ERO found areas of non-compliance in the service relating to:

• ensuring suitable human resource management practices are consistently implemented, including a full record of information pertaining to personnel employment and induction is maintained

Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care Services 2008, GMA7.

7 Recommendation to Ministry of Education

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

14 April 2021 

8 About the Early Childhood Service

1 Evaluation of Maori Hill Montessori Preschool

How well placed is Maori Hill Montessori Preschool to promote positive learning outcomes for children?

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

Background

Maori Hill Montessori Preschool is a small, privately-owned education and care service. It is licensed for 30 children over the age of two and up to school age.

The team of teachers have a shared understanding of the centre philosophy and how it works in practice. They effectively incorporate the principles, strands and goals of the Te Whāriki early childhood curriculum with the Montessori approach and experiences.

The service has made good progress with the recommendations in the June 2014 ERO report.

The Review Findings

Children learn in a calm, well-organised environment designed to support their learning. They enjoy positive relationships with teachers and each other. Children are encouraged to take increased responsibility for themselves and their learning. They are capable and confident, and work alone and together in a respectful manner. Their views are sought and valued. They approach adults knowing they can rely on their support and that teachers will be consistent in their expectations.

Teachers work effectively together to support the strengths, abilities and interests of each individual child. This includes valuing and celebrating children's cultural similarities and differences. Children’s progress across the curriculum and with Montessori learning objectives is closely monitored. The programme and teaching are highly focused on children’s literacy and mathematics learning. Teachers use questioning and other useful strategies to encourage children’s language development. They use a variety of approaches and resources to successfully support children with English as a second language.

Children's learning benefits from the many opportunities to learn about New Zealand’s bicultural heritage. The teachers have added a Māori perspective to documents and this prompts teachers into growing and extending bicultural practice within the centre. Waiata, karakia, te reo and tikanga Māori practices are used regularly. The tuakana-teina concept of learning is promoted and used well. Teachers acknowledge that the integration of Māori perspectives is ongoing learning for themselves as well as for the children, and this is planned for.

Useful systems ensure and maintain a high focus on children’s learning. Records of learning show that the teachers know the children very well. Planning for children's learning is specific. Evaluations show how teachers have facilitated learning and how teachers will support the next steps of learning.

The relationship between parents and teachers has a strong educational focus and links home and centre life. Teachers consult with parents to hear their aspirations for their children’s learning and how they can work together to achieve goals. Teachers are proactive in finding the right resources and best approach to meeting the needs of individual children, including those with diverse needs.

The service is well managed. The leaders encourage a collaborative team approach. They have established good systems to support teachers to reflect and critique their practice and use their individual strengths and talents. Teachers support one another to keep up to date with current theories.

The centre leaders and teachers are improvement focused. They use self-review processes to support the ongoing development of the service and its priorities. These reviews have been useful and have had positive outcomes. The centre's next step is to strengthen the evaluative aspect of reviews to continually build quality.

Key Next Steps

The next steps for the leaders and teachers are to continue the development of:

• strategic and annual planning

• internal evaluation/self-review practice

• bicultural practice.

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Maori Hill Montessori Preschool 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.

Next ERO Review

When is ERO likely to review the service again?

The next ERO review of Maori Hill Montessori Preschool will be in three years.

Dr Lesley Patterson

Deputy Chief Review Officer Southern (Te Waipounamu)

23 August 2017

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.