150 Main Road, Wainuiomata, Lower Hutt
View on mapERO’s Akanuku | Assurance Review reports provide information about whether a service meets and maintains regulatory standards. Further information about Akanuku | Assurance Reviews is included at the end of this report.
Regulatory standards |
ERO’s judgement |
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Curriculum |
Meeting |
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Premises and facilities |
Meeting |
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Health and safety |
Meeting |
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Governance, management and administration |
Meeting |
At the time of the review, ERO found the service was taking reasonable steps to meet regulatory standards.
Riverside Kindergarten and Childcare is a small, privately-owned early learning centre. The long-established teaching team provide education and care for children aged between two and five years. The service has addressed the areas identified for improvement in the March 2016 ERO report.
Adults providing education and care engage in meaningful and positive interactions to enhance children’s learning and promote reciprocal relationships. The curriculum is designed to be inclusive and responsive to children as confident and competent learners. The premises, furniture, furnishings, fittings, equipment and materials are kept safe and hygienic and maintained in suitable condition. There is sufficient quality and variety of indoor and outdoor furniture. Equipment and materials provided are appropriate for the learning and abilities of the children attending.
The key next steps are to:
The next ERO review is likely to be an Akarangi | Quality Evaluation.
Dr Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini
7 April 2021
| Early Childhood Service Name | Riverside Kindergarten and Childcare |
| Profile Number | 60239 |
| Location | Wellington |
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Service type |
Education and care service |
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Number licensed for |
30 children, over the age of two years |
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Percentage of qualified teachers |
80%+ |
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Service roll |
24 |
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Ethnic composition |
Māori 8, NZ European/Pākehā 11, Pacific ethnic groups 3, Other ethnicities 2 |
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Review team on site |
October 2020 |
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Date of this report |
7 April 2021 |
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Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review March 2016; Education Review March 2013 |
All services are licensed under the Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008. The legal requirements for early childhood services also include the Licensing Criteria for Education and Care Services 2008.
Services must meet the standards in the regulations and the requirements of the licensing criteria to gain and maintain a licence to operate.
All early childhood services are required to promote children’s health and safety and to regularly review their compliance with legal requirements. Before the review, the staff and management of a service completed an ERO Centre Assurance Statement and Self-Audit Checklist (PDF 1MB). In these documents they attested that they have taken all reasonable steps to meet their legal obligations related to:
As part of an Akanuku | Assurance Review ERO assesses whether the regulated standards are being met. In particular, ERO looks at a service’s systems for managing the following areas that have a potentially high impact on children's wellbeing:
As part of an Akanuku | Assurance Review ERO also gathers and records evidence through:
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Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Riverside Kindergarten and Childcare is a privately owned early learning service situated in Wainuiomata. It is licenced for up to 30 children from two to five years of age. Both sessional and all-day care and education are offered.
The current roll of 40 includes 10 Māori and five Samoan children.
The centre manager and assistant supervisor share responsibility for curriculum implementation and guiding teacher practice. The team of three qualified and registered teachers and one untrained teacher have worked together for a number of years.
Several issues identified in the March 2013 and 2016 ERO reports have yet to be sufficiently addressed. These include appraisal, self review and assessment of children’s learning to inform curriculum planning and delivery.
The centre has recently engaged in professional development focusing on curriculum through a SELO (strengthening early learning opportunities) contract, administered by the Ministry of Education.
Children confidently engage in a child-led programme. They play independently or in groups of their own choosing. Respectful relationships with each other and teachers are evident. Literacy, numeracy and science are woven into the programme.
Teachers work alongside children following their interests and supporting their learning. The programme provides opportunities for children to make choices linked to their interests and promotes their increasing independence. Children with additional learning needs are identified and supported. External agencies are accessed, where appropriate, to assist individual children.
The philosophy has been recently reviewed. Leaders have identified they need to evaluate how well they are enacting the values and learning outcomes they have identified as important for children. ERO's evaluation supports this decision.
A newly developed planning process helps teachers to identify group interests. Teachers plan activities to support these. However, limited progress has been made in developing assessment, planning and evaluation. To become more responsive to children's learning, leaders and teachers should:
strengthen planning for individuals through identifying strategies that extend children's learning
assess and record children's progress over time
evaluate the effectiveness of the programme provided to identify next planning and teaching steps.
Recent professional development is increasing teachers' understanding of current early learning best practice. Teachers' collaborative reflection on, and implementation of, new learning should strengthen leadership of the service.
A recently developed transition to school booklet is a useful resource for parents and whānau. It includes information on local schools and prompts for them to support their children on their education journey.
Māori and Pacific resources are highly evident in the environment. Te reo me ngā tikanga Māori are part of teachers' practice. Teachers have indicated that reviewing how effectively teaching and learning respond to children's cultures, languages and identities is a next step. The outcome could be used as a foundation to better understand educational success for Māori and Pacific children.
Teachers' understanding and use of internal evaluation are at an early stage. A useful framework is in place to guide this process. Support for teachers to systematically inquire into and evaluate the effectiveness of their practice is a key next step.
Appraisal continues to require significant strengthening to include:
identification of goals to support teachers' practice that are aligned to the centre's strategic priorities and individual teachers' development needs
critical feedback from the appraiser linked to teachers' goals
targeted observations of teacher practice
documentation of formal meetings between the appraiser and appraisee
formal recording of professional development attended.
support for teachers' understanding and gathering of evidence of their professional practice
development of a written guideline to support implementation.
Leadership for curriculum and personnel management requires improvement and is an urgent priority in order to sustain improvements to practice.
Before the review, the staff and management of Riverside Kindergarten and Childcare 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:
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
ERO found areas of non-compliance. To meet agreed accountabilities the service must ensure that:
an ongoing process of self-review helps the service maintain and improve the quality of its education and care
suitable human resource management practices are implemented Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care Centres 2008 GMA6, GMA7
ERO recommends that the Ministry reassess the licence of Riverside Kindergarten and Childcare. ERO will not undertake a further education review of this service until the Ministry of Education is satisfied that the service meets licensing requirements.
The next ERO review of Riverside Kindergarten and Childcare will be in consultation with the Ministry of Education.
Alan Wynyard
Deputy Chief Review Officer Central (Acting)
18 July 2017
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.
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Location |
Wainuiomata |
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Ministry of Education profile number |
60239 |
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Licence type |
Education & Care Service |
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Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
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Number licensed for |
30 |
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Service roll |
40 |
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Gender composition |
Girls 26, Boys 14 |
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Ethnic composition |
Māori |
10 |
|
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Percentage of qualified teachers 0-49% 50-79% 80%+ Based on funding rates |
80% + |
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Reported ratios of staff to children |
Over 2 |
1:8 |
Better than minimum requirements |
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Review team on site |
June 2017 |
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Date of this report |
18 July 2017 |
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Most recent ERO report(s)
|
Education Review |
March 2016 |
|
|
Education Review |
March 2013 |
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|
Education Review |
October 2009 |
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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.