Potiki Early Childhood Centre

Education institution number:
25095
Service type:
Education and Care Service
Definition:
Not Applicable
Total roll:
17
Telephone:
Address:

28 Palmers Road, Clendon, Auckland

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Potiki Early Childhood 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 ​Potiki Early Childhood Centre​ are as follows: 

Outcome Indicators 

(What the service knows about outcomes for learners) 

Whāngai Establishing​ 

Ngā Akatoro Domains 

 
Learning Conditions 
Organisational Conditions 

​​Whakaū Embedding​

Whāngai Establishing​

2 Context of the Service 

Potiki Early Childhood Centre is one of seven not-for-profit services operated by Taonga Education Centre Charitable Trust. The service is attached to the Taonga Teen Parent Unit and borders Waimahia Intermediate School. An operations manager supports a qualified centre supervisor to lead a team of two registered teachers and five unqualified staff. Most children enrolled are Māori.  

3 Summary of findings 

Children experience caring and nurturing relationships with their teachers. A calm environment allows younger children time and space to support secure attachments with others. Children take responsibility for their learning. They choose meaningful learning experiences that promote their independence and investigation. 

Children’s interests, strengths and abilities inform the curriculum provided. Children use language to express their feelings, and their ongoing learning is celebrated by teachers. Leaders and teachers have yet to use assessment to evaluate the impact of the curriculum on learning outcomes for individual children. 

Teachers have established trusting, close, and positive work partnerships with parents, to support children’s learning. Teachers confidently weave te reo Māori and aspects of tikanga Māori into their daily practices. Children’s home languages are valued and well supported. Their cultures, languages and identity are valued. This could be made more visible in group and individual assessment documentation.  

The organisation is guided by a strategic vision and key values that focus on supporting children, their whānau and their local community. Policies and procedures are in place. Once consistently implemented, these are likely to support the service to consistently meet regulatory standards. Leaders have yet to evaluate their strategic progress. They need to consider the impact of improvements made for children and to inform decision making. A focus on improving internal evaluation processes at a service and organisational level is a priority next step. 

4 Improvement actions 

​​Potiki Early Childhood Centre​ will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning: 

  • Document assessment, planning and evaluation that makes visible the learning outcomes of Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, for individual children. 
  • Continuing to build leaders’ and teachers’ knowledge and capability to do and use internal evaluation processes to support the service’s valued learning outcomes for all children. 

Organisational improvement actions are: 

  • To monitor and regularly evaluate progress towards long-term goals with a focus on how well improvements made have impacted on children’s learning. 
  • To implement a process of internal evaluation at an organisation level that contributes to ongoing improvement. 

5 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements 

Before the review, the staff and management of ​Potiki Early Childhood 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. 

Actions for Compliance 

ERO found an area of non-compliance in the service relating to: 

  • having a current fire evacuation scheme approved by Fire and Emergency New Zealand. 

Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care Centres 2008, HS4.  

​During the review, the service provided​ ERO with evidence that shows the following non-compliance has been addressed:  

  • Ensuring hazards to the safety of children are eliminated, isolated or minimised (HS12). 

Recommendation to Ministry of Education  

​ERO recommends the Ministry follows up with the service provider to ensure that the non-compliance identified in this report is addressed promptly.​


Patricia Davey 
Director of Early Childhood Education (ECE)  

​13 December 2023​    

6 About the Early Childhood Service  

Early Childhood Service NamePotiki Early Childhood Centre 
Profile Number25095
LocationClendon, Auckland
Service type  ​Education and care service​
Number licensed for  39 children, including up to 20 aged under 2 
Percentage of qualified teachers  ​50-79%​
Service roll 22 
Review team on site October 2023  
Date of this report ​13 December 2023​
Most recent ERO report(s) ​Education Review​, ​June 2019​; ​Education Review​, ​October 2015​ 

Potiki Early Childhood Centre - 14/06/2019

1 Evaluation of Potiki Early Childhood Centre

How well placed is Potiki Early Childhood Centre to promote positive learning outcomes for children?

Not well placed

Requires further development

Well placed

Very well placed

Potiki Early Childhood Centre is well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.

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

Background

Potiki Early Childhood Centre is situated in Clendon Park, Manurewa. It is in the same complex as the Taonga Teen Parent Unit and borders Waimahia Intermediate School. The centre serves many of the parents who are continuing their education at the teen parent unit. This complex has an extensive social services team that supports young parents, their children, and whānau.

The centre is licensed for 39 children, with most under two years of age. Children experience spacious and attractive indoor and outdoor areas in a mixed-age setting. The indoor space allows infants and toddlers to move, play and explore safely while still maintaining connections with older children.

The Potiki Early Childhood Centre is one of six early childhood services governed by the Taonga Education Trust. The chief executive and the operations manager of the trust provide governance and management support for the centre supervisor, and maintain a strong interest in promoting positive outcomes for children and whānau. In 2018 a new centre manager was appointed.

The centre philosophy highlights a vision for a whānau-centred service. A responsive curriculum is promoted. Parents' values and aspirations for their children are included in the programme. The centre aims to provide a learning environment that supports children to strive forward with belief and confidence.

The 2015 ERO report identified many areas of good practice including good levels of care, a strong sense of belonging, tuakana/teina relationships, and the promotion of children's language culture and identity. The report recommended that the centre include more opportunities for science and mathematics learning, strengthen the role of teachers in extending the complexity of children’s play, and review teacher appraisal. These continue to be areas for ongoing development.

The Review Findings

Teachers welcome children and their whānau with warmth and cheerful conversation. The tone in the centre is calm and inclusive. Children settle quickly to self-chosen activities, making connections with friends and engaging them in their play. They are confident and eager to share conversations with teachers and to explore the environment prepared for them.

Children benefit from the well-resourced environment, including the interesting and challenging outdoor playground. Many activities are suggested and chosen by children. This is a positive outcome from teachers' encouragement for children to be confident decision makers.

The morning hui with parents and their children increase teachers' focus on te reo Māori me ōna tikanga. Teachers are becoming more confident to build their knowledge in this area. They promote practices that enable children to reach their full potential, as defined in the Taonga acronym, ‘Totally Acknowledging Our Next Generation’s Abilities'.

Teachers recognise parents/whānau as first teachers and build respectful, reciprocal relationships. They weave parent aspirations through the learning programmes. A focus on developing children's oral literacy skills further promotes strong partnerships with their homes.

The centre manager supports teachers well to help children learn through play. She is developing planning, assessment and evaluation processes and includes teachers in planning and centre decision making. A new format for individual planning requires teachers to focus more on identifying teaching strategies that enhance children's learning.

The manager is supported by the trust to operate the centre efficiently. A policy framework, and effective health and safety systems are in place. Teacher appraisals are not yet working effectively. The policy and procedures are not fully understood and do not provide clear guidelines for staff.

An overarching board strategic plan identifies goals for improvement. Monitoring and documenting progress towards these goals would help the trust to gauge how well the centre is on track to achieve its strategic goals.

Key Next Steps

Trust representatives agree that the key next steps for the service and the trust include:

  • continuing to develop assessment and planning processes to include children's contributions and to identify children's individual interests and learning
  • strengthen the appraisal policy and procedures to help the centre manager to undertake robust staff appraisals
  • regularly review policies, procedures and practices to ensure they align with the centre's philosophy and legal requirements.

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Potiki Early Childhood 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.

Steve Tanner

Director Review and Improvement Services Northern

Northern Region

14 June 2019

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 Early Childhood Service

LocationClendon, Auckland
Ministry of Education profile number25095
Licence typeEducation & Care Service
Licensed underEducation (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008
Number licensed for39 children, including up to 20 aged under 2
Service roll23
Gender compositionBoys 15 Girls 8
Ethnic compositionMāori 
Cook Island Māori
other Pacific groups
16
6
1
Percentage of qualified teachers0-49%
Reported ratios of staff to childrenUnder 21:3Better than minimum requirements
Over 21:7Better than minimum requirements
Review team on siteMarch 2019
Date of this report14 June 2019

Most recent ERO report(s)

 

Education ReviewOctober 2015
Education ReviewJune 2012
Education ReviewMay 2008

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 ERO’s Approach to Review in Early Childhood Services.

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.

Potiki Early Childhood Centre - 30/10/2015

1 Evaluation of Potiki Early Childhood Centre

How well placed is Potiki Early Childhood Centre 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

Potiki Early Childhood Centre is situated in Clendon Park, Manurewa. It is in the same complex as the Taonga Teen Parent Unit and borders Waimahia Intermediate School. The centre serves many of the parents who are continuing their education at the teen parent unit, as well as children and other parents from the local community.

Potiki Early Childhood Centre and two other local early childhood services are governed by the Taonga Education Trust. The complex has an extensive social services team that supports young parents, their children and whānau.

The centre currently has a role of 33, with most under two years of age. Children experience a mixed-age environment and spacious, attractive and well resourced indoor and outdoor areas. A large space divided in the main indoor area allows infants and toddlers to move, play and explore safely while still maintaining connections with and access to older children.

The centre has a stable teaching team, including an experienced and long-serving centre supervisor. A new experienced head teacher joined the centre in 2014. The chief executive of the Taonga Education Trust continues to provide governance and management support for the centre supervisor, and maintains a strong interest in promoting positive outcomes for children and whānau.

The centre philosophy highlights a vision for a whānau-centred service. It also promotes children reaching their full potential with the Taonga acronym, ‘Totally Acknowledging Our Next Generation’s Abilities.’

The 2012 ERO report identified many areas of good practice including children’s strong sense of belonging, good levels of care, commitment to improvement, and the supervisor's effective leadership. The report recommended that the centre strengthen the learning programmes to extend the complexity of children’s play and improve the quality of self review.

The Review Findings

The centre continues to provide good quality early childhood education and care for children. Children are settled and content at the centre, and are comfortable with their teachers and other adults. They enjoy sharing the start of each day with parents and teachers from the teen parent unit and participate in karakia and waiata. Teachers interact positively with parents and encourage their participation in the centre. Many parents come and go during the day, especially to feed babies and celebrate their children’s learning. This strong connection provides good opportunities for teachers and parents to discuss children’s learning and care needs. It also promotes children’s wellbeing and sense of belonging in the centre.

Teachers are skilled at managing the centre’s commitment to a mixed-age group and the physical safety of children. They capably manage younger children’s play, care and sleep routines while supporting older children’s play. This mixed-age approach also provides very good opportunities for tuakana teina relationships between younger and older children to flourish.

Teachers have benefited from professional learning over the last 18 months to strengthen the way they interact with infants and toddlers. They treat the younger children with care and respect and are responsive to their care and play needs. Teachers promote children’s early language development through singing and social interactions. They also use children’s home languages where possible, and often in response to parents’ requests. The value that teachers place on promoting children’s language, culture and identity is a significant feature of the centre.

The teaching team works collaboratively to plan learning programmes that are based on children’s interests and are presented as broad ideas or themes. Older children are free to select activities that adults prepare for them and have independent access to different areas of play and the outdoors. Planning and assessment documents now include an improved focus on children’s dispositions for learning.

The supervisor provides capable leadership for staff. Her good understanding and use of self review helps staff to identify and strategically prioritise areas for improvement. She is well supported by the chief executive. Together they have a strong commitment to enacting the vision for the service. The strategic plan, policy framework and good self-review practices support this vision. The supervisor's monthly reports have recently been reviewed and improved to align with the centre’s strategic goals.

Key Next Steps

The supervisor and Taonga trust CEO recognise that key next steps for centre development include:

  • strengthening the role of the teacher in extending and challenging older children’s thinking and learning, and noticing, recognising and responding to children’s emerging interests
  • continuing to improve programme planning so that it includes more opportunities for science and mathematics learning, and children’s independent use of digital technologies
  • continuing to review teacher appraisal procedures so they are well understood by the staff, and developing greater rigour and consistency to better facilitate improvements to teaching
  • rationalising the supervisor's workload, including documentation expectations.

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Potiki Early Childhood 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.

Next ERO Review

When is ERO likely to review the service again?

The next ERO review of Potiki Early Childhood Centre will be in three years.

Graham Randell

Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern

30 October 2015

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 Early Childhood Service

Location

Clendon, Auckland

Ministry of Education profile number

25095

Licence type

Education & Care Service

Licensed under

Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008

Number licensed for

39 children, including up to 20 aged under 2

Service roll

31

Gender composition

Boys 17 Girls 14

Ethnic composition

Māori

Pākehā

Niue

Cook Island Māori

Tongan

Samoan

22

1

3

2

2

1

Percentage of qualified teachers

0-49% 50-79% 80%

Based on funding rates

80%

Reported ratios of staff to children

Under 2

1:4

Better than minimum requirements

 

Over 2

1:7

Better than minimum requirements

Review team on site

August 2015

Date of this report

30 October 2015

Most recent ERO report(s)

Education Review

June 2012

 

Education Review

May 2008

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 ERO’s Approach to Review in Early Childhood Services.

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.