Playschool 4

Education institution number:
46445
Service type:
Homebased Network
Definition:
Not Applicable
Total roll:
66
Telephone:
Address:

Level 1 72 Apollo Drive, Albany, Auckland

View on map

Playschool 4

1 Evaluation of Playschool 4

How well placed is Playschool 4 to promote positive learning outcomes for children?

Not well placed

Requires further development

Well placed

Very well placed

Playschool 4 is well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.

ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.

Background

Playschool 4 is a standard-funded homebased service that provides educators who are au pairs, nannies or family members. Educators are known as kaiako. The place of care is either the child's or kaiako homes. A small number of children are Māori. Most of the children enrolled are Chinese.

The service is one of 11 owned by Playschool Education Ltd. The owner and two managers provide operational and professional support for coordinators and educators nationally. The managers and coordinator, who are registered early childhood teachers, regularly visit all children and support educators to implement the curriculum. 

The philosophy is guided by the principles of whakaute (respect), manākitanga (trust), whanaungatanga (partnership), and taiao ako (environment).

The 2017 ERO report identified that coordinators provide good support to educators to improve their professional knowledge and practice. This area of practice has been maintained. Areas for improvement included increasing educators' responsibility for decision making related to the curriculum, and to strengthen bicultural practices. Progress is evident in these areas.

This review was one of four reviews of Playschool Education Ltd services.

The Review Findings

Service documents show that children participate in a variety of learning experiences within and outside of a homebased context. Programme planning is based on activities related to children's interests and significant events in the community. Coordinators support kaiako to identify and link children's interests and skills with Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum.

Leaders are committed to implementing a bicultural approach in the curriculum and to help kaiako grow their confidence in using te reo Māori. Leaders support kaiako to acknowledge diverse cultures through participating in cultural celebrations.

Programme coordinators capably support kaiako to develop an understanding of children as learners. They implement good strategies to help kaiako to improve learning outcomes for children. These include inhouse education modules and regular coaching and mentoring. Coordinators help kaiako to grow their knowledge about curriculum implementation.

Programme coordinators and leaders foster trust amongst kaiako, children and their whānau. They promote the respectful use of resources, and comment positively about the care and relationships between children, their whānau and kaiako.

Leaders have established very good systems and documents to guide kaiako to meet regulatory requirements. They use a well-established framework of self review that leads to improvement in service operations. Internal evaluation could be strengthened through a focus on evaluating improvements to kaiako practice and the impact of this on children's learning.

Key Next Steps

Key next steps for leaders are to:

  • strengthen the formal recording of progress towards Playschool's strategic goals in relation to improving outcomes for children
  • consider ways to support kaiako to evaluate the effectiveness of their in home curriculum in relation to improved learning outcomes for children.

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Playschool 4 completed an ERO Home-based Education and Care 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.

Steve Tanner
Director Review and Improvement Services Northern
Northern Region | Te Tai Raki

18 February 2021

The Purpose of ERO Reports

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.

2 Information about the Home-based Education and Care Service

Location

Albany, Auckland

Ministry of Education profile number

46445

Institution type

Homebased Network

Licensed under

Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008

Number licensed for

80 children, including up to 40 aged under 2

Service roll

35

Standard or Quality Funded

Standard

Ethnic composition

Māori
NZ European/Pākehā
Chinese
other ethnic groups

  2
  7
21
  5

Number of qualified coordinators in the network

1

Required ratios of staff educators to children

Under 2

1:2

Over 2

1:4

Review team on site

November 2020

Date of this report

18 February 2021

Most recent ERO report(s)

Education Review

February 2017

3 General Information about Early Childhood Reviews

ERO’s Evaluation Framework

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:

Pou Whakahaere – how the service determines its vision, philosophy and direction to ensure positive outcomes for children

Pou Ārahi – how leadership is enacted to enhance positive outcomes for children

Mātauranga – whose knowledge is valued and how the curriculum is designed to achieve positive outcomes for children

Tikanga whakaako – how approaches to teaching and learning respond to diversity and support positive outcomes for children.

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 the draft methodology for ERO reviews in Home-based Education and Care Services: July 2014

ERO’s Overall Judgement

The overall judgement that ERO makes will depend on how well the service promotes positive learning outcomes for children. The categories are:

  • Very well placed
  • Well placed
  • Requires further development
  • Not well placed

ERO has developed criteria for each category. These are available on ERO’s website.

Review Coverage

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.

Playschool 4 - 22/02/2017

1 Evaluation of Playschool 4

How well placed is Playschool 4 to promote positive learning outcomes for children?

Not well placed

Requires further development

Well placed

Very well placed

ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.

Background

Playschool 4 is one of eight networks offering home-based education and care that operate under the umbrella of Playschool Education. The main office is located in Auckland. The service, which is owned and managed by the director has been in operation for 10 years, and now includes home-based networks in a variety of places throughout the North Island.

The service employs support personnel and a team of programme coordinators who regularly visit all of the children in the service and support the educators in their practice. Programme coordinators are fully trained teachers and bring a variety of early childhood education experience to their role.

The service is developing new systems to be implemented during 2017. These systems are intended to support effective day to day operations and children's learning. The service caters for a diverse community. Parents are the employers of the educators.

This review was part of a cluster of five reviews of Playschool networks. Three of these networks were part of the 2013 ERO review.

The service offers a variety of education and care options. Families are able to choose between au pair, whānau members or nannies. Whānau members provide care in their own homes for their whānau and grandchildren, and nannies work with children in the children's homes. A sister company aligned with Playschool engages au pair from overseas to live with families and to work with their children. The majority of au pair live for up to a year with the families and management use effective systems to manage smooth transitions between au pairs.

Playschool 4 is licensed to cater for 80 children from local communities between birth and school age. The majority of children are Pākehā and Chinese. There are a small number of children who identify as Māori or Pacific. Most of the educators are au pair and grandparents. Au pair stay with the families for up to 12 months. This is the first review for this network.

The Review Findings

Management has a clear philosophy and focus on providing quality education and care for children and support for families. Documentation indicates that programme coordinators have good knowledge about families/whānau and their children. Their regular monthly visits are used to model good teaching and give encouragement to support educators' professional growth. Programme coordinators expect educators to include aspirations expressed by families/whānau in the programmes they provide for children. They support educators to increase resources, experiences and opportunities as ways of engaging children in learning through play. The service helps to fund extra community-based experiences to further support children's learning.

The manager and her team provide regular opportunities for productive professional development that has led to the present changes in the organisation. These include a stronger and positive focus on te Ao Māori, and internal evaluation. The building of emergent leadership has been a very positive aspect of recent service operations.

As a result of intensive internal evaluation over the last year, management and the team of programme coordinators have redeveloped many of the resources and guiding material used for managing the work of the service. The service gathered multiple voices to guide these changes. The new manual for educators includes a series of training modules for educators completed over a year. There is a greater focus on extending learning for children and strengthening the use of te reo and tikanga Māori in written and spoken forms.

During 2017 children will be provided with new portfolios for educators to record learning stories and comments about what they observe of children's learning. Programme coordinators and whānau are encouraged to contribute to the children's learning journey. New documentation shows the potential to continue to streamline care and safety procedures.

The newly developed appraisal system for educators has the potential to help identify areas for support and development. A renewed appraisal system for Programme Coordinators meets the requirements of the Education Council. This should be now be embedded in practices. Review dates for making judgements about the effectiveness of these new developments are in place. The work undertaken by the team is a positive step in the growing professionalism of the service. The appraisal process for the service curriculum manager needs to be strengthened to ensure a robust and meaningful process is in place.

Key Next Steps

ERO and management agree that the key next steps for the service are to:

  • introduce new documentation to educators, support the embedding of new recording systems and evaluate the effectiveness of these processes in due time
  • provide increased time for programme coordinators to undertake this work
  • continue to increase educators' responsibility for decision-making in the curriculum
  • consider ways to include Te Tiriti o Waitangi principles and practices in management documentation. 

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Playschool 4 completed an ERO Home-based Education and Care 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.

Next ERO Review

When is ERO likely to review the service again?

The next ERO review of Playschool 4 will be in three years.

Graham Randell

Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern

22 February 2017 

The Purpose of ERO Reports

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. 

2 Information about the Home-based Education and Care Service 

Location

Albany, Auckland

Ministry of Education profile number

46445

Institution type

Homebased Network

Licensed under

Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008

Number licensed for

80 children, including up to 40 aged under 2

Service roll

60

Standard or Quality Funded

Standard

Gender composition

Boys 31, Girls 29

Ethnic composition

Māori

Pākehā

Chinese

Samoan

other

5

28

22

3

2

Number of qualified coordinators in the network

2

Required ratios of staff educators to children

Under 2

1:2

Over 2

1:4

Review team on site

January 2017

Date of this report

22 February 2017

Most recent ERO report(s)

 

No previous reports

 

3 General Information about Early Childhood Reviews

ERO’s Evaluation Framework

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:

Pou Whakahaere – how the service determines its vision, philosophy and direction to ensure positive outcomes for children

Pou Ārahi – how leadership is enacted to enhance positive outcomes for children

Mātauranga – whose knowledge is valued and how the curriculum is designed to achieve positive outcomes for children

Tikanga whakaako – how approaches to teaching and learning respond to diversity and support positive outcomes for children.

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 the draft methodology for ERO reviews in Home-based Education and Care Services: July 2014

ERO’s Overall Judgement and Next Review

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:

  • Very well placed – The next ERO review in four years
  • Well placed – The next ERO review in three years
  • Requires further development – The next ERO review within two years
  • Not well placed - The next ERO review in consultation with the Ministry of Education

ERO has developed criteria for each category. These are available on ERO’s website.

Review Coverage

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.