Owlets Forest Early Learning Centre

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 Owlets Forest Early Learning Centre are as follows:

2 Context of the Service

Owlets Forest Early Learning Centre is a privately owned service providing education and care for children from infants to school age. The director and two head teachers lead a team of fully qualified, in-training, and unqualified staff. The roll includes a small number of Māori and Pacific children and other ethnicities.

3 Summary of findings

Children’s holistic learning is well supported through an increasingly responsive curriculum. Children lead their own learning through play in a well-resourced environment. Those requiring additional learning support benefit from the service’s collaboration with external agencies. Infants and toddlers experience space and time to develop independence and decision making. Children’s developing social and emotional competence is valued and intentionally promoted.

Teachers facilitate productive learning-focused partnerships with others. Children’s interests and cultural knowledge is extended through contributions to the curriculum by parents, whānau and the local community. Assessment documentation reflects some contexts and interests from children’s home life but is yet to fully reflect each child’s culture and language. Children’s sense of belonging and community connectedness is enhanced by the curriculum.

Bicultural aspects of the curriculum are strengthening. Leaders and teachers are working toward integrating te reo Māori into the programme. The knowledge and expertise of local iwi and whānau Māori are utilised. Teachers share local pūrākau and histories of Ngāti Raukawa with children. Māori children experience teaching and learning which is increasingly culturally responsive.

Children’s learning and wellbeing are the primary considerations for the service’s management. Teachers work as a professional learning community to develop the knowledge and expertise to implement a responsive curriculum. A positive work environment is conducive to the building and sustaining of quality adult-child relationships. Systems of internal evaluation lead to improvements. This evaluation is yet to be monitored in a way that promotes understanding of how well intended outcomes are being achieved for different groups of children.  

4 Improvement actions

Owlets Forest Early Learning Centre will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:

• Continue to grow and develop the use and correct pronunciation of te reo Māori.

• Strengthen the extent to which information documented about children’s learning reflects the cultural contexts in which they live.

• Continue to strengthen internal evaluation by monitoring how improvement actions provide equitable opportunities for individual and groups of children.

5 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Owlets Forest Early Learning Centre 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.

6 Action for Compliance

Since the onsite visit, the service has provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed the following non-compliances:

• ensuring records of all medicines given to children attending the service include evidence of parental acknowledgement of medication given.

[Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care Centres 2008, HS28.]

Phil Cowie
Director Review and Improvement Services (Central)
Central Region | Te Tai Pūtahi Nui

22 February 2023

7 About the Early Childhood Service