304 Cranford Street, St Albans, Christchurch
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 Small World Preschool and Nursery are as follows:
Outcome Indicators(What the service knows about outcomes for learners) |
Whakaū Embedding |
Ngā Akatoro Domains |
|
Learning ConditionsOrganisational Conditions |
Whakaū Embedding Whakaū Embedding |
Small World Preschool and Nursery is privately owned and governed. The diverse learning community includes a number of Māori children and Indian children. The owner is the professional leader and takes responsibility for the service’s operation. Good progress has been made towards addressing the key next steps from the 2020 ERO report by consolidating the local curriculum and strengthening learning documentation.
The service’s philosophy and curriculum are strongly based on Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. Children experience respectful interactions with their teachers. They engage in purposeful learning-based play with teachers who intentionally plan strategies that support these approaches. Leaders and teachers support Māori, children from other cultures, and those with additional learning needs to build a positive sense of belonging and wellbeing while increasing their social and emotional competence skills.
Infants and toddlers are nurtured by attentive, responsive teachers who provide calm, unhurried routines. Teachers encourage them to make meaningful choices and to explore the well-resourced learning environments.
Learning partnerships with parents and whānau are well established. They frequently inform the assessment, planning and evaluation processes and practices. Teachers:
knowledgably document individual children’s learning
collaboratively choose intended learning outcomes from Te Whāriki, and
plan relevant teaching strategies and appropriate open-ended activities to promote children’s learning and development over time.
The cycle of assessment, planning and evaluation needs to be revisited more often to capture and report on children’s learning outcomes and development.
Governance and leadership view the learning and wellbeing of children as the primary focus of decision making. They implement policies and procedures that guide practices successfully. More work is required to build all teachers capability to undertake effective internal evaluation and share the leadership of internal evaluation across the teaching team.
Small World Preschool and Nursery will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:
revisit documentation of each child’s intended learning outcomes and planned strategies more often to keep pace with their ongoing learning and development
build all teachers’ capability to undertake effective internal evaluation, including using evaluative questions, a deeper emphasis on curriculum areas, and a stronger evaluative focus to know more about outcomes for children from the changes made.
Before the review, the staff and management of Small World Preschool and Nursery 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.
During the review, the service provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed the following non-compliance:
when undertaking safety checking, ensure that the owner’s risk assessment statement is also completed.
Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care Centres 2008, GMA7A.
Kathy Lye
Director Review and Improvement Services (Acting, Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini
18 April 2023
|
Early Childhood Service Name |
Small World Preschool and Nursery |
|
Profile Number |
65064 |
|
Location |
Christchurch |
|
Service type |
Education and care service |
|
Number licensed for |
37 children, including up to 12 aged under 2 |
|
Percentage of qualified teachers |
100% |
|
Service roll |
25 |
|
Review team on site |
January 2023 |
|
Date of this report |
18 April 2023 |
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Akanuku | Assurance Review, October 2020; Education Review, April 2019; Education Review, July 2015 |
ERO’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 |
|
Curriculum |
Meeting |
|
Premises and facilities |
Meeting |
|
Health and safety |
Meeting |
|
Governance, management and administration |
Meeting |
At the time of the review, ERO found the service was taking reasonable steps to meet regulatory standards.
Small World Preschool and Nursery is a privately owned service. The centre owner is a registered teacher. Most other staff are qualified teachers. The community is ethnically diverse. This is the second ERO review for this service within a 12-month period. The service has had recent professional development support from the Ministry of Education and other providers.
Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, underpins the centre programme. Infants, toddlers and older children experience positive, respectful interactions with adults.Positive steps are taken to communicate with families and support them to be involved in the decision-making concerning their child’s learning. The premise and facilities are resourced to provide for the learning and abilities of the children attending. Health and safety procedures are monitored, and changes made when required. A policy framework and annual planning guide centre operation. The service is establishing processes and procedures for internal evaluation, and assessment, planning and evaluation of key learning priorities.
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
29 October 2020
|
Early Childhood Service Name |
Small World Preschool and Nursery |
|
Profile Number |
65064 |
|
Location |
Christchurch |
|
Service type |
Education and care service |
|
Number licensed for |
28 children, including up to 8 aged under 2 |
|
Percentage of qualified teachers |
80%+ |
|
Service roll |
24 |
|
Gender composition |
Male 12, Female 12 |
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori 2 |
|
Review team on site |
September 2020 |
|
Date of this report |
29 October 2020 |
|
Most recent ERO report(s)
|
Education Review, April 2019 |
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. 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:
|
Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
Small World Preschool and Nursery requires further development to promote positive learning outcomes for children.
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Small World Preschool and Nursery is a privately-owned and operated service. It provides care and education in a mixed-age setting for up to 28 children, including eight children aged under two.
Since the 2015 ERO review there have been a number of staff changes, including the centre manager. The centre owner has now returned as the manager and oversees the governance, daily management and pedagogical leadership of the service. She works alongside teachers to plan and implement the programmes.
The manager and teachers aim to: 'cultivate and nurture each child's natural talents and abilities'. The philosophy is based on respect for children as capable and competent learners.
The 2015 ERO report identified key next steps for improvement. These were:
Some progress has been made in these areas. However, these remain next steps to develop.
Children participate and learn in a carefully designed play-based programme that gives them choices and responds to their interests. They experience a calm and unhurried learning environment and are well supported to develop a positive sense of wellbeing and belonging.
Teachers are nurturing and responsive to children's cues and positive in their interactions. They use current knowledge of appropriate strategies to guide and encourage children to be caring and respectful of others, and to develop appropriate social skills. The teachers intentionally plan and implement programmes to help children develop oral language, gain confidence in and control of their bodies, and discover ways to be creative and expressive.
While there has been some focus on building Treaty of Waitangi-based practices, this has not been sustained and remains a key next step for improvement.
Infants' and toddlers' learning and wellbeing benefit from teachers' close knowledge and recognition of the children's individual preferences and requirements.
The manager and teachers deliberately build whānau connections to support the health and wellbeing of all children and their families. Children with additional needs are identified and effectively supported. The manager provides additional resourcing to enable their equitable access to the curriculum.
Children's learning priorities are used to guide the implementation of programme planning. Robust systems and processes need to be developed to ensure ongoing assessment for learning for all children is regularly carried out. Teaching strategies need to be regularly evaluated for their effectiveness in supporting children’s learning.
The manager is building a team culture of reflection, focused on improvement. The manager has identified the need to build leadership capacity and capability for ongoing sustainability and improvement. ERO‘s evaluation confirms this need.
Aspects of the appraisal system need further development.
ERO and the centre manager agree the next steps to improve outcomes for children are to develop:
a strategic approach to implementing a Treaty of Waitangi-based curriculum and teaching practices
long-term planning to ensure that key priorities for the service are implemented, monitored and evaluated
embed and strengthen appraisal.
Before the review, the staff and management of Small World Preschool and Nursery 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 identified areas of non-compliance relating to governance, management and administration. To meet requirements the service needs to improve its performance in the following area:
ERO recommends that the service, in consultation with the Ministry of Education, develops a plan to address the key next steps and actions outlined in this report.
Alan Wynyard
Director Review and Improvement Services Southern
Southern Region
29 April 2019
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 |
Christchurch |
||
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Ministry of Education profile number |
65064 |
||
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Licence type |
Education & Care Service |
||
|
Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
||
|
Number licensed for |
28 children, including up to 28 aged under 2 |
||
|
Service roll |
25 |
||
|
Gender composition |
Boys 13 Girls 12 |
||
|
Ethnic composition |
NZ European/Pākehā |
16 |
|
|
Percentage of qualified teachers |
80% + |
||
|
Reported ratios of staff to children |
Under 2 |
1:3 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
Over 2 |
1:6 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
|
Review team on site |
February 2019 |
||
|
Date of this report |
29 April 2019 |
||
|
Most recent ERO reports
|
Education Review |
July 2015 |
|
|
Education Review |
June 2012 |
||
|
Education Review |
September 2008 |
||
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.
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.
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.