Minerva House

Education institution number:
45565
Service type:
Education and Care Service
Definition:
Not Applicable
Total roll:
84
Telephone:
Address:

90 McFaddens Road, St Albans, Christchurch

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Minerva House

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. Judgements are made in relation to the Outcomes Indicators, Learning and Organisational Conditions. The 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 Minerva House are as follows:

Outcome Indicators

(What the service knows about outcomes for learners)


Whāngai Establishing

Ngā Akatoro Domains

 

Learning Conditions
Organisational Conditions

Whāngai Establishing
Whakaū Embedding

2 Context of the Service

Minerva House is a privately owned early childhood education service. It serves a culturally diverse community. Children learn and play in three separate age-based rooms. Most staff are qualified teachers. Some progress has been made on addressing the key next step from the 2021 ERO report in relation to celebrating children’s language, culture, and identity in assessment documentation.

3 Summary of findings

Children experience respectful, friendly relationships with their teachers and are highly engaged in their chosen learning. They play cooperatively in small groups and alongside others, in purposefully resourced learning environments. Infants and toddlers learn in an unhurried environment and are nurtured by attentive adults. Children with additional needs are well supported to achieve their goals.

Most teaching practice aligns with the centre’s philosophy which includes aspects of Montessori approaches and the service’s valued learning priorities for children. Teachers use positive language to guide and encourage children’s participation and task completion. They intentionally support children’s growing social competence by using thoughtfully planned teaching strategies. Children have some opportunities to hear and use te reo me ngā tikanga Māori. Further work is required in this area.

Leaders and teachers are continuing to explore ways to use the learning outcomes from Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, to assess and plan for children’s learning progress over time. There are some inconsistencies in the quality of individual children’s assessment and planning, and in group planning. The documentation does not yet consistently show the intended learning and each child’s language, culture, and learner identity. The service is continuing to explore and establish genuine opportunities to independently revisit their learning.

Service leaders deliberately promote individual and centre wide professional learning and development opportunities to build teachers’ capability and professional practice. They collaboratively use systematic internal evaluation to focus on changes for improvement. However, internal evaluation could focus more intentionally on how chosen changes impact on outcomes for learners. Those responsible for governance and management plan strategically to set, monitor and achieve the service's priorities. They allocate resources that align to the centre's philosophy, vision, and values.

4 Improvement actions

Minerva House will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning. These are to:

  • deliberately plan to build the capability of all teachers to use and integrate te reo me ngā tikanga Māori to enable a rich bicultural curriculum that fosters educational success for Māori, and all children

  • further examine the use of learning outcomes from Te Whāriki in association with whānau, to show children’s achievement and progress over time in relation to these outcomes in assessment records

  • establish clear expectations that include how teachers will acknowledge and respond to each child’s language, culture, and learner identity in their assessment and planning for learning documentation

  • continue to investigate, and then implement, ways children can independently access their learning records to revisit their learning over time.

5 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Minerva House 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.

Dr Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini

24 August 2022 

6 About the Early Childhood Service

Early Childhood Service Name

Minerva House

Profile Number

45565

Location

Christchurch

Service type

Education and care service

Number licensed for

57 children, including up to 14 aged under 2

Percentage of qualified teachers

80-99%

Service roll

85

Ethnic composition

Māori 7, NZ European/Pākehā 55, Other ethnic groups 23.

Review team on site

May 2022

Date of this report

24 August 2022

Most recent ERO report(s)

Akanuku | Assurance Review, June 2021; Education Review, August 2015.

Minerva House

ERO’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.

ERO’s Judgement

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.

Background

Minerva House is a privately owned early childhood education service. The centre is purpose built and has three separate learning spaces for infants, toddlers, and young children over the age of three years. Since the August 2015 ERO report the centre had a change of ownership and centre manager. 

Summary of Review Findings

The service curriculum is consistent with Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, and the Montessori philosophy. It is resourced to provide for the learning and abilities of the children attending. Kaiako promote the use of positive interactions to enhance relationships and support children to lead their own learning. There are regular opportunities for parents to communicate and be involved in decision making concerning their child’s learning and development. Each room has its own planning, assessment, and evaluation cycle for individual children and groups of children. The design and layout of the premises support the provision of different types of indoor and outdoor experiences. There is a system in place to monitor health and safety and changes are made when required. A policy framework, strategic and annual planning guide service operations.

Key Next Steps

Next steps include:

  • celebrating children’s culture, language and identity in their assessment documentation.

Since the onsite visit the service has provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed the non-compliance.

  • securing heavy furniture in two rooms that could fall or topple and cause serious injury or damage (HS6).

Next ERO Review

The next ERO review is likely to be an Akarangi | Quality Evaluation.

Dr Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini

14 June 2021 

Information About the Service

Early Childhood Service Name

Minerva House

Profile Number

45565

Location

Christchurch

Service type

Education and care service

Number licensed for

57 children, including up to 14 aged under 2.

Percentage of qualified teachers

80%+

Service roll

76

Ethnic composition

Māori 4, NZ European/Pākehā 59, Other ethnic groups 13.

Review team on site

May 2021

Date of this report

14 June 2021

Most recent ERO report(s)

  Education Review, August 2015; Education Review, February 2012.

General Information about Assurance Reviews

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.

ERO undertakes an Akanuku | Assurance Review process in any centre-based service:

  • 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.

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

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:

  • discussions with those involved in the service
  • consideration of relevant documentation, including the implementation of health and safety systems
  • observations of the environment/premises, curriculum implementation and teaching practice.