64 Avalon Drive, Nawton, Hamilton
View on mapAkarangi | 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 Pukeko Treehouse are as follows:
Outcome Indicators(What the service knows about outcomes for learners) | Whakatō Emerging |
Ngā Akatoro Domains | |
Learning ConditionsOrganisational Conditions | Whāngai Establishing Whakatō Emerging |
Pukeko Treehouse is one of six services in the Pukeko Preschool group. An operations manager and a curriculum manager provide governance and leadership support. A qualified centre manager leads a team of five teachers and three staff. Most of the children enrolled are Māori. A small number are of Pacific heritages or from other ethnically diverse backgrounds.
Children demonstrate a sense of belonging and express their ideas confidently. Some children play cooperatively with their peers and have formed relationships with them. Teachers set up environments that encourage children to explore. Older children access a range of materials that promote early literacy and numeracy skills.
Infants and toddlers benefit from teachers’ practice of care and respect. Teachers follow children’s individual routines and respond sensitively to each child’s needs and preferences.
Teachers have developed positive relationships with parents. They gather their aspirations to contribute to their child’s learning goals. Teachers prioritise children’s oral language development through conversations, waiata, and providing a print rich environment. Similarly younger children’s communication cues are responded to effectively.
Māori values are interwoven into the curriculum. A centre mihi and a display of Māori monarchs have been developed to promote the local history of the area. These opportunities support Māori children and others to connect to their whakapapa. Phrases in te reo Māori and in children’s home languages are evident in assessment documentation.
Pacific children and children of other ethnicities experience a curriculum that affirms their identities, cultures, and languages.
Assessment follows a framework of notice, recognise, and respond. Teachers are yet to be supported to identify and evaluate the effectiveness of their teaching strategies in relation to improving children’s learning outcomes.
Governance and leadership are establishing processes to build teacher capability. Teachers have opportunities to access relevant professional learning and development. Professional leaders have recently been appointed with an aim to further improve teaching practice.
A culture of relational trust is evident amongst leaders and teachers. A process of self-review is in place. Internal evaluation systems are in the early stage of development in individual services and at an organisational level. Better monitoring of health and safety is required.
Pukeko Treehouse will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:
Leaders and teachers to continue to:
Governance and management to:
Before the review, the staff and management of Pukeko Treehouse 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:
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:
All early childhood services are required to promote children's health and safety and to regularly review their compliance with legal requirements.
The service has provided ERO with evidence to show the following non-compliances have been addressed:
The next ERO review is likely to be an Akarangi | Quality Evaluation.
Patricia Davey
Director of Early Childhood Education (ECE)
22 November 2023
| Early Childhood Service Name | Pukeko Treehouse |
| Profile Number | 46978 |
| Location | Nawton, Hamilton |
| Service type | Education and care service |
| Number licensed for | 67 children, including up to 18 children aged under 2 |
| Percentage of qualified teachers | 80-99% |
| Service roll | 77 |
| Review team on site | August 2023 |
| Date of this report | 22 November 2023 |
| Most recent ERO report(s) | Education Review, June 2018 |
Not well placed | Requires further development | Well placed | Very well placed |
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Pukeko Treehouse is an all-day education and care service catering for children from birth to school age, in a mixed-age setting. The centre is licensed for 67 children including 18 up to two years of age. The majority of children attending are of Māori descent.
The centre is located in the Nawton suburb of Hamilton. It was established in April 2016 and has been operating for two years. The centre is privately owned, and the head teachers and most staff are qualified early childhood educators.
The centre whakataukī is He ahurei te katoa! (Where everybody is somebody). The centre’s vision is: All children, whānau and kaiako have a strong sense of self control, self respect and language. In addition, the philosophy values te reo and tikanga Māori, aims to work actively with whānau, serve the local community, and provide an inclusive, safe environment for growing healthy and happy children.
This is the first ERO review of the centre.
Children develop positive and trusting relationships with teachers. Partnerships with parents, whānau and teachers are based on mutual respect, and demonstrate the importance of valuing children in the context of their family. Community relationships with extended whānau, local kaumātua and the community centre further promote children's sense of belonging and wellbeing. Teachers are successfully creating a family-like centre culture.
Teachers have established a well-considered environment for learning. The curriculum is responsive and inclusive of all children and their families, including those with special education needs. They value and embrace diversity. Te ao Māori is naturally integrated in the daily programme. Māori children's language culture and identity is supported by whānau in collaboration with teachers. Other cultures are celebrated and affirmed. A strength of the service is the cultural diversity of adults and children who willingly share and embrace their language and identity. Literacy and mathematical concepts are interwoven into children's play and interactions, using a wide range of interesting resources. Children are well supported to become confident and capable learners.
A range of effective strategies are used to engage children in learning. Teachers notice, recognise and respond to children’s interests and strengths to support learning through play and social interactions. Friendships and tuakana-teina relationships are encouraged to empower further learning. Children's social competencies and communications skills are strongly fostered.
Toddlers and babies are effectively supported to grow and develop in a calm, unhurried environment. Teachers are attuned to each child's personality, temperament and non-verbal communication. They provide rich language and social learning opportunities to promote younger children's learning and development. Care routines are personalised to the needs of each individual child and are an integral part of learning.
Children's learning is well documented and celebrated in individual portfolios. These identify interests, strengths and ongoing learning pathways. Children and parents enjoy revisiting the learning in portfolios, and parents' voice is encouraged and valued. Teachers use the deep understanding and knowledge they have to respond purposefully to the interests and learning of children and their families.
The centre owners and leaders are strong advocates for children and families. This is reflected in the philosophy, vision, values and strategic goals that underpin all centre operations and practices. There are well-documented guidelines and expectations for learning and teaching. A useful internal evaluation framework is in place to guide ongoing centre improvement and development. The current strategic focus is implementing the revised Te Whāriki curriculum to further promote positive outcomes for children.
The key next step is to further strengthen and embed internal evaluation practices, using the centre's identified and explicit indicators of success, and defined outcomes for children, as the basis for measuring children's progress over time.
Through internal evaluation teachers need to further develop a shared understanding about intentional teaching, and te ao Māori practices to fully enact the centre's philosophy, and strategic goals for learning and teaching.
Before the review, the staff and management of Pukeko Treehouse 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:
All early childhood services are required to promote children's health and safety and to regularly review their compliance with legal requirements.
The next ERO review of Pukeko Treehouse will be in three years.
Lynda Pura-Watson
Deputy Chief Review Officer
Te Tai Miringa - Waikato / Bay of Plenty Region
15 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 | Hamilton | ||
| Ministry of Education profile number | 46978 | ||
| Licence type | Education & Care Service | ||
| Licensed under | Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 | ||
| Number licensed for | 67 children, including up to 18 aged under 2 | ||
| Service roll | 79 | ||
| Gender composition | Boys 41 Girls 38 | ||
| Ethnic composition | Māori Pākehā Filipino Indian Other | 52 7 10 4 6 | |
Percentage of qualified teachers 0-49% 50-79% 80%+ Based on funding rates | 80% + | ||
| Reported ratios of staff to children | Under 2 | 1:5 | Meets minimum requirements |
| Over 2 | 1:8 | Better than minimum requirements | |
| Review team on site | April 2018 | ||
| Date of this report | 15 June 2018 | ||
Most recent ERO report(s)
| No previous ERO reports | ||
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.