Mini Miners

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 ​Mini Miners​ are as follows: 

2 Context of the Service 

This centre’s philosophy highlights respect, love, relationships, and courage. Led by the service owner, there has been progress against the key next steps in ERO’s 2020 report. A small number of enrolled children are identified as Māori, and a range of other ethnicities are represented in the centre.  

3 Summary of findings 

Children’s learning and development are enhanced by caring relationships within a strongly play-based curriculum. Their growing social competence and emotional wellbeing are prioritised. The curriculum for children under two promotes care as central to their experiences in the mixed age setting. Deliberate work through centre self-review ensures that children’s transitions into and through the centre are responsive and based on what is regarded as high-quality practice for children.  

The learning environment is well resourced to reflect the centre’s location and enables children to lead their own learning. Regular beach and bush excursions allow older children to experience their local and wider community. All children hear and experience some te reo Māori and tikanga Māori through the curriculum. Leaders have identified that an authentic bicultural curriculum continues to be an area for growth, and ERO affirms this.  

Teachers and leaders share their learning, take responsibility for, and actively contribute to each other’s professional growth. Processes of teacher inquiry, reflection and review contribute to children’s learning and the centre’s improvement journey. Leaders are beginning to build the use of learning outcomes from Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, in curriculum planning.  

Those responsible for leadership and governance clearly understand and enact the values of the centre. They have established a culture of relational trust, where professional accountability and collective responsibility for children’s wellbeing and learning are understood. Children are the main consideration throughout self-reviews, however the full cycle of evaluation is in the early stages of being understood by the teaching team. 

4 Improvement actions 

​​Mini Miners​ will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning: 

• Develop the use of intended outcome indicators in evaluation for improvement and assessment for learning practices. This would help leaders and teachers to better understand the effectiveness of teaching and changes in practice in improving outcomes for individuals and groups of children.   

• Strengthen the bicultural curriculum in partnership with whānau, children and teachers, with a focus on the things, places, and people of significance to the local area. 

5 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements 

Before the review, the staff and management of ​Mini Miners​ completed an ERO 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; safety checking; teacher registration; ratios) 

• relevant evacuation procedures and practices. 

All early childhood services are required to promote children's health and safety and to regularly review their compliance with legal requirements. 

​​Patricia Davey 
Director of Early Childhood Education (ECE) 

​​1 September 2023​ 

6 About the Early Childhood Service