10B Clegg Place, Warkworth
View on mapAkarangi | 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 Oak Tree The Early Childhood Learning Centre are as follows:
Outcome Indicators(What the service knows about outcomes for learners) |
Whakaū Embedding |
Ngā Akatoro Domains |
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Learning ConditionsOrganisational Conditions |
Whakaū Embedding Whāngai Establishing |
Oak Tree The Early Childhood Learning Centre is privately owned and was established in 1997. Staff include three registered teachers including the manager, and one additional unqualified teacher. They have taught together for over 10 years. A quarter of children enrolled are Māori. The service is a member of the Mahurangi Kāhui Ako |Community of Learning.
Children’s voice is highly valued and evident through the learning environment, and teachers consider this an integral part of teaching and learning. Respectful relationships underpin interactions between children and teachers, supporting children’s growing confidence, competence, and sense of belonging. Teachers’ planning and assessment could more explicitly show children’s increasing capabilities in relation to learning outcomes in Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum.
Teachers scaffold children’s learning and developing independence. They plan purposeful learning experiences relevant to children’s local and wider community contexts. Children have space to sustain their own play over extended periods of time to extend their learning.
Teachers support children’s transitions into the service and to school through a nurturing approach. Purposeful integration of literacy, mathematics and science concepts is woven into play. Parents’ aspirations for their children’s learning are carefully considered. More consistent engagement with parents in relation to the achievement of these aspirations would build and sustain learning-focused partnerships.
Equitable outcomes are evident through teachers’ inclusion of all children, and a focus on teaching for children’s individual needs. The service curriculum engages children in te reo Māori and aspects of tikanga Māori, including waiata. Teachers have not yet integrated aspects of local Māori history or engaged with local iwi to support their bicultural practice.
Useful organisational systems that have been developed include:
collaborative evaluation processes that consider children’s, whānau and teachers’ voices
teachers’ professional growth cycles that consider equitable outcomes for children, these could be strengthened through teachers’ ongoing, collective response to inequities.
Leaders and teachers do not yet effectively use evaluation with a focus on achieving learning goals for children. Strategic planning is not yet aligned to annual planning, internal evaluation, or professional learning. Such alignment could result in focused improvements for learners.
Oak Tree The Early Childhood Learning Centre will include the following action in its Quality Improvement Planning:
Strengthen planning and assessment processes and learning-focused partnerships with parents and local iwi to design a responsive curriculum.
Continue to develop teachers’ use of evaluation of the curriculum and strategic planning to identify what is going well, what could be improved and the results of planned actions.
Before the review, the staff and management of Oak Tree The Early Childhood Learning Centre 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.
Filivaifale Jason Swann
Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern)
Northern Region | Te Tai Raki
19 July 2022
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Early Childhood Service Name |
Oak Tree The Early Childhood Learning Centre |
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Profile Number |
10045 |
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Location |
Warkworth, Auckland |
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Service type |
Education and care service |
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Number licensed for |
25 children over 2 years |
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Percentage of qualified teachers |
80-99% |
|
Service roll |
27 |
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Ethnic composition |
Māori 7, NZ European/Pākehā 14, other ethnic groups 6. |
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Review team on site |
May 2022 |
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Date of this report |
19 July 2022 |
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Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review, August 2018; |
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Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Oak Tree The Early Childhood Learning Centre is a small, family-focused centre in a quiet residential area of Warkworth. It provides a full-day education and care service for children aged from two to five years. Many families from rural areas surrounding the town bring their children to the centre. The centre has good connections with local schools and businesses in the close-knit community.
The centre has had a recent change of ownership. A longstanding head teacher continues to oversee a well-established teaching team. Good adult-child ratios are maintained.
The 2016 ERO report identified next steps in assessment and evaluation, appraisal, professional inquiry and strategic planning. The head teacher has strengthened these areas. They continue to be key areas for development going forward.
Respectful and warm relationships characterise the centre at all levels. Teachers nurture and cherish children's individuality. They work closely with families to foster and celebrate children's strengths. Children demonstrate a strong sense of belonging and wellbeing in this caring environment.
Teachers demonstrate high levels of interest and involvement in children's learning through play. They ask good questions and are responsive to children as they explore the centre. Children participate in activities confidently and with enthusiasm. They are able to select resources in the attractive, well organised environment to extend their play choices and emerging interests.
Children interact happily and show high regard for others and for their environment. An appreciation of their community and of the natural world is embedded in the centre culture and experiences. Displays of annotated photos, artefacts and artworks allow children to revisit and reflect on their contributions and activities. Their ideas and questions are respectfully displayed and are treasured.
Through professional development, the teaching team is growing its awareness of, and confidence to promote, a more culturally responsive programme. The environment and teaching practices show this commitment, valuing the centre's various local communities. Adults intentionally honour te ao Māori and develop children's understanding of te reo and tikanga Māori.
Since the 2015 ERO review, the head teacher has continued to enhance the centre's systems and structures. She has adapted and improved strategic planning, appraisal, assessment, programme planning and evaluation. She is now looking to build systems and approaches that will help the teaching team and parents to collaborate in further developing these areas.
Centre leaders agree that areas for continuing development include:
reviewing the philosophy, using Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, to identify local curriculum priorities and better reflect the centre's strong bicultural commitment
further developing learning stories that identify teachers' planned responses to individual children's interests, dispositions and strengths
enhancing appraisal processes to incorporate collaborative team inquiries, and more formally evaluating the effectiveness of planning and teaching practices
defining more purposeful strategic goals, annual planning and resulting actions.
ERO recommends that the owner seeks professional development to support leadership in the centre and to lift strategic planning, evaluation and appraisal to the next level of professional inquiry.
Before the review, the staff and management of Oak Tree The Early Childhood Learning Centre 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:
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.
The next ERO review of Oak Tree The Early Childhood Learning Centre will be in three years.
Julie Foley
Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern (Acting)
Te Tai Raki - Northern Region
14 August 2018
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 |
Warkworth, Auckland |
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Ministry of Education profile number |
10045 |
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Licence type |
Education & Care Service |
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Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
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Number licensed for |
25 children over the age of 2 years |
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Service roll |
40 |
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Gender composition |
Girls 23 Boys 17 |
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Ethnic composition |
Māori |
9 |
|
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Percentage of qualified teachers |
80% + |
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Reported ratios of staff to children |
Over 2 |
1:6 |
Better than minimum requirements |
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Review team on site |
July 2018 |
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Date of this report |
14 August 2018 |
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Most recent ERO report(s)
|
Education Review |
March 2015 |
|
|
Education Review |
April 2012 |
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|
Education Review |
March 2009 |
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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.