Shop 6 110 King Edward Street, South Dunedin, Dunedin
View on mapPORSE (Play, Observe, Relate, Support and Extend) Hamilton West is a home-based care and education network that caters for children and families from the western suburbs of Hamilton. The network is managed by the franchisee within the policy and systems framework provided by the PORSE National Support Office.
The franchisee is providing strong leadership for all stakeholders in the PORSE community. She works closely with programme tutors and consultants to establish and maintain a team of dedicated, professional personnel. These leaders work as a highly effective team in building the profile of the organisation while maintaining a focus on providing quality education and care.
ERO visited a sample of home educators and nannies working with children either in their own home or in PORSE approved homes.
The programme of education and care promotes positive outcomes for children and families. The in-home learning and care environments observed by ERO were secure and appropriate to the learning interests of children. Children and educators take part in community events and attend scheduled play groups and trips to local areas of interest. These visits, along with the in-home programme, support the development of early literacy and mathematical concepts.
Interactions between children and educators are sensitive, appropriate and show high levels of confidence and trust. Relationships among programme educators, parents, educators and children are respectful, responsive, warm and caring. Programme tutors work alongside educators to provide support, guidance and model good practice in interacting with children.
ERO is confident that the service is being managed in the interest of the children. Therefore ERO will review the service again within three years.
Before the review, the management of PORSE Hamilton West was invited to consider its priorities for review using guidelines and resources provided by ERO. ERO also used documentation provided by PORSE Hamilton West to contribute to the scope of the review.
The detailed priorities for review were then determined following a discussion between the ERO review team and the management and staff. This discussion focused on existing information held by the service (including self-review information) and the extent to which potential issues for review contributed to positive outcomes for children atPORSE Hamilton West.
All ERO education reviews in early childhood focus on the quality of education. For ERO this includes the quality of:
ERO’s findings in these areas are set out below.
PORSE Hamilton West is a network of home-based care and education and caters for children and families from the western suburbs of Hamilton. The service currently has 48 educators who provide for up to four children at a time. The placing of every child is determined after discussions between each parent, home educator and PORSE personnel. This allows each child and family to have their education and care needs addressed in their own, or educator’s, home. The team of educators includes those who are both qualified and unqualified. ERO reviewers visited a sample of homes and nanny educators chosen by PORSE. The mission of PORSE Hamilton West is ‘to be the best we can be’ by:
The following comments about aspects of the quality of education are based on ERO’s observations in the three educators’ homes that were sampled and discussions with the franchisee, programme tutors and educators. In addition, information about the service was gathered from parents and educators through a written survey.
Management and leadership: The franchisee is providing strong leadership for all stakeholders in the PORSE community. She works closely with programme tutors and consultants to establish and maintain a team of dedicated and professional personnel. The PORSE organisation is highly supportive of the professional development and growth needs of staff members, educators and parents. PORSE management structures, documentation and practices provide clear expectations for all stakeholders. This enables close monitoring of educators and robust quality assurance systems. Highly effective management and leadership provide clarity of direction and purpose for the provision of quality education and care.
The environment: The in-home learning and care environments observed by ERO were secure and appropriate to the learning interests of children. Learning resources were accessible to children and a range of suitable indoor and outdoor activities was provided for play and exploration. Children were confident in their environment and demonstrated a strong sense of belonging. In addition, children cared for in their own home benefit from being in an environment that is familiar and provides continuity with family life.
The programme: The programme of education and care promotes positive outcomes for children and families. Under close monitoring and guidance from PORSE programme tutors, each educator receives ongoing support in programme planning, evaluation and assessment practices. In this way educators are able to respond effectively to children’s individual strengths, ideas and emerging interests. Children are supported to develop communication skills and explore early literacy and mathematical concepts. Frequent trips to local areas of interest and participation in community events are also features of the programme.
Interactions: The interactions observed by ERO were focused on responding to each child’s need for care and support. Strong support is evident for children’s oral language development through frequent one-to-one conversations. Programme tutors work alongside educators to provide support, guidance and model good practice. High quality interactions contribute to the development of children as independent learners.
ERO and service management agree that the next step for the service is to further immerse educators and families in the PORSE programme. This is likely to increase their understanding of their role in implementing the PORSE vision of shaping children’s minds and continually improve the quality of in-home care provided.
ERO provides information about the education system as a whole through its national reports. This information will be used as the basis for long term and systemic educational improvement.
As part of this review ERO evaluated the extent to which:
At the time of the review in November 2010 there were 118 families using the service, 31 of whom identify as Māori.
The franchisee and programme tutors have undertaken professional development to further their understanding of the values, identity, language and culture of Māori children and their whānau. A staff member has been identified to take a leadership role in further developing the way the service engages with, and works alongside, Māori children and their whānau.
The franchisee is building networks within the wider Hamilton community with a view to engaging more Māori whānau in the PORSE in-home care and education service. A focused plan is in place to achieve this.
Before the review, the management and staff of PORSE Hamilton West completed an ERO Home-Based CareManagement Assurance Statement and Self-Audit Checklist. In these documents they attested that they had taken all reasonable steps to meet their legal obligations related to:
During the review, ERO checked the following items because they have a potentially high impact on outcomes for children:
ERO is confident that the service is being managed in the interest of the children. Therefore ERO will review the service again within three years.
Richard Thornton
National Manager Review Services
Northern Region
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Licence type |
Home-based Care |
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Licensed under |
Education (Home-based Care) Order 1992 |
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Roll number |
118 children, including up to 50 aged under 2 |
|
Gender composition |
Girls 52 Boys 66 |
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Ethnic composition |
New Zealand European/Pākehā 75 New Zealand Māori 31 African 7 Pacific 2 Indian 2 Asian 1 |
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Review team onsite |
December 2010 |
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Date of this report |
28 February 2011 |
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Previous ERO reports |
This is the first review of the service |
ERO is confident that the service is being managed in the interest of the children. Therefore ERO will review the service again within three years.
When ERO has reviewed an early childhood service we encourage management to inform their community of any follow up action they plan to take. You should talk to the management if you have any questions about this evaluation, the full ERO report or their future intentions.
If you would like a copy of the full report, please contact the service or see the ERO website, www.ero.govt.nz.
Richard Thornton
National Manager Review Services
Northern Region
ERO is an independent, external evaluation agency that undertakes reviews of schools and early childhood services throughout New Zealand.
ERO follows a set of standard procedures to conduct reviews. The purpose of each review is to:
Reviews are intended to focus on outcomes for children and build on each service’s self review.
ERO’s framework for reviewing and reporting is based on four review strands.
Quality of Education – including the quality of the programme provided for children, the quality of the learning environment and the quality of the interactions between staff and children and how these impact on outcomes for children.
Additional Review Priorities – other aspects of the operation of a service, may be included in the review. ERO will not include this strand in all reviews.
National Evaluation Topics – This strand contribute to the development of education policies and their effective implementation. The information from this strand is aggregated by ERO for its national evaluation reports. Topics for investigation are changed regularly to provide up-to-date information.
Compliance with Legal Requirements – assurance that this service has taken all reasonable steps to meet legal requirements.
ERO reviews do not cover every aspect of service performance and each ERO report may cover different issues. The aim is to provide information on aspects that are central to positive outcomes for children and useful to this service.
Most ERO reports include recommendations for improvement. A recommendation on a particular issue does not necessarily mean that a service is performing poorly in relation to that issue. There is no direct link between the number of recommendations in this report and the overall performance of this service.