200 Lakeside Drive, Orewa
View on mapERO’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.
Regulatory standards |
ERO’s judgement |
|
Curriculum |
Meeting |
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Premises and facilities |
Not meeting |
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Health and safety |
Meeting |
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Governance, management and administration |
Meeting |
At the time of the review, ERO identified non-compliance with regulatory standards that must be addressed.
Orewa Preschool is a privately-owned centre that offers sessional day care for up to 30 children from the age of two to five years. A service manager and head teacher lead a team of qualified teachers. The June 2018 report found that the service required further development to promote learning outcomes for children. Some progress is evident.
Teachers plan and implement a programme consistent with Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, by responding to children’s interests, strengths and capabilities. Children experience a range of learning experiences.
Their learning is supported by positive interactions with teachers in a language-rich environment. The programme acknowledges the bicultural heritage of Aotearoa New Zealand. Positive steps are taken by the service to build on parents’ and whānau aspirations for their children. Leaders and teachers regularly share information with parents and encourage their involvement in decision making about their children’s learning.
ERO found areas of non-compliance in the service relating to:
Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care Centres 2008, PF22.
Since the onsite visit, the service has provided ERO with evidence that shows that it has addressed the following non-compliances:
ERO recommends the Ministry follows up with the service provider to ensure that non-compliances identified in this report are addressed promptly.
The next ERO review will be in consultation with the Ministry of Education.
Steve Tanner
Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern)
Northern Region | Te Tai Raki
11 February 2021
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Early Childhood Service Name |
Orewa Preschool |
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Profile Number |
10000 |
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Location |
Orewa, Auckland |
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Service type |
Education and care service |
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Number licensed for |
30 children, including up to 0 aged under 2. |
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Percentage of qualified teachers |
80%+ |
|
Service roll |
18 |
|
Ethnic composition |
NZ European/Pākehā 14 |
|
Review team on site |
September 2020 |
|
Date of this report |
11 February 2021 |
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review June 2018 |
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.
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:
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:
As part of an Akanuku | Assurance Review ERO also gathers and records evidence through:
|
Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
The service needs support to develop the effectiveness of the centre's management and teaching practices.
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Orewa Preschool, previously known as Orewa Private Kindergarten, provides full-day or sessional early childhood education and care for up to 30 children from the age of two to five years. The centre is located in a well established residential area of Orewa.
The centre has undergone significant change since the 2014 ERO review. It changed ownership in November 2017 to The Wee Wisdom Group, a privately owned company that owns several early childhood services in the upper North Island. The general manager of this organisation provides administrative and professional support to the centre. A newly appointed centre manager, who is also a teacher at the centre, oversees daily operations and has responsibility for the programme provided for children. There has been a full turnover of teaching staff over the past three years.
The service's philosophy is currently under review. It promotes mixed-age play and encourages whānau to work in partnership with teachers.
Children receive good quality care. They enjoy friendly and unhurried interactions with adults and each other. The relaxed environment is inviting to parents. Children with additional needs are welcomed and teachers have a strong focus on meeting their needs.
The learning environment is attractive and children's work is celebrated. Displays are accessible, allowing children to revisit their learning experiences. Consideration should now be given to how resources and the learning environment can better provoke children's interest and invite them to extend their play.
Teachers work closely alongside children in play. They need more opportunities to observe children in their play and reflect on how they recognise and respond to children's learning.
Teachers plan a programme that provides children with opportunities to develop early literacy and mathematical skills in meaningful ways. They share te reo Māori with children through visual cues, music, vocabulary and in their learning stories.
The programme provides a variety of opportunities for children to play. The teaching team is introducing new planning approaches that respond to children's interests and identify individual learning goals. These planning systems could be strengthened by teachers documenting their planned actions to support learning goals. Programme evaluations would also be strengthened by identifying learning outcomes for children.
Governance practices have been strengthened. The new owners have placed an appropriate focus on updating centre policies to align with current legal requirements. Backing up some of these policies with useful documented procedures that underpin good practice is supporting the health and safety of adults and children in the centre.
As the new teaching team becomes established a stronger sense of common purpose is evident. The new centre manager has introduced an emergent and distributive leadership model in which all staff have a portfolio of responsibilities to lead centre developments.
The general manager has introduced staff appraisal systems and these are in the beginning stages of implementation. There is a need for more professional learning and development opportunities to support the centre manager and staff to increase their confidence in working with current theories of teaching and learning.
A strategic plan is in place to guide centre direction and improvements. The new owner needs to put in place an annual centre budget that is aligned with its goals and priorities. This budget should adequately fund the time required for teachers to implement improved systems and programme planning approaches. Greater transparency and collaboration between governance and centre management will support appropriate future resourcing decisions that promote positive outcomes for children.
Many of the centre's management and teaching practices are in the early stages of development. Centre managers should:
broaden programme planning, assessment and evaluation approaches to focus on children's learning outcomes and include teachers' evaluation of their practice
strengthen teaching practices that focus on extending children's learning in the context of play
review the learning environment to better promote children’s access to resources that provide challenge and complexity, and actively engage them as learners
grow the confidence and capability of new leaders to build a cohesive professional teaching team and to lead centre developments
provide effective financial management that ensures the sustainability of improved practices.
Before the review, the staff and management of Orewa 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:
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 Ministry of Education is yet to carry out its change of ownership inspection of the centre premises.
ERO identified areas of non-compliance relating to health and safety and management practices. To meet requirements the service needs to improve its performance in the following areas:
an appropriate, safe and stable nappy changing facility
an annual budget setting out the service's estimated revenue and expenses for the year, including staffing costs, professional development costs, and equipment and material costs for the ongoing purchase of new equipment and consumable resources.
Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care Centres 2008, PF25, GMA9
ERO recommends that the service, in consultation with the Ministry of Education, develops a plan to address the key next steps and actions outlined in this report.
The next ERO review of Orewa Preschool will be within two years.
Julie Foley
Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern (Acting)
Te Tai Raki - Northern Region
21 June 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.
|
Location |
Orewa, Auckland |
||
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
10000 |
||
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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 |
30 children, over 2 years of age |
||
|
Service roll |
29 |
||
|
Gender composition |
Boys 19 Girls 10 |
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Ethnic composition |
Māori |
2 |
|
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Percentage of qualified teachers 0-49% 50-79% 80%+ Based on funding rates |
80% + |
||
|
Reported ratios of staff to children |
Over 2 |
1:7 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
Review team on site |
May 2018 |
||
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Date of this report |
21 June 2018 |
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|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review |
May 2014 |
|
|
Education Review |
April 2011 |
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|
Education Review |
February 2008 |
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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.