69 Englefield Road, Belfast, Christchurch
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.
The Owls Nest Preschool Limited is a privately owned and operated education and care service in Christchurch. The owner/centre manager leads a team of three qualified teachers. The January 2019 ERO report identified that governance and management practices required improvement. Sufficient progress has been made in response.
The service plans and implements a curriculum that is based on Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. The design and layout of the service support the provision of different types of indoor and outdoor experiences appropriate to the number, ages and abilities of children. There are opportunities for children to be confident in their own culture.
The service is governed and managed in accordance with good management practices. Parents/whānau contribute to their child’s learning and the operations of the service. Internal evaluation and teacher appraisal support leaders and teachers to improve and sustain quality education and care practices.
Next steps include:
The next ERO review is likely to be an Akarangi | Quality Evaluation.
Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini
25 November 2020
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Early Childhood Service Name |
The Owls Nest Preschool Limited |
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Profile Number |
47188 |
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Location |
Christchurch |
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Service type |
Education and care service |
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Number licensed for |
28 children aged 2 |
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Percentage of qualified teachers |
80%+ |
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Service roll |
16 |
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Gender composition |
Male 8, Female 8 |
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Ethnic composition |
Māori 1, NZ European/Pākehā 14, Other ethnicities 1 |
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Review team on site |
September 2020 |
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Date of this report |
25 November 2020 |
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Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review, January 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:
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Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
The Owls Nest Preschool Limited requires further development to promote positive learning outcomes for children.
The Owls Nest Preschool Limited has experienced changes in key staff in its first year of operation that have impacted on its progress. As a result, the service needs further time and support to develop curriculum planning, assessment and internal evaluation practices, and the policy framework that guides centre practices.
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
The Owls Nest Preschool Limited is a new early learning service which opened in February 2017. It is licensed for 28 children over the age of two. At the time of this review there were 14 children on the roll.
The centre is privately owned and operates out of a converted house in a residential neighbourhood. The resources and outdoor environment reflect a commitment to incorporating natural resources. The owner and staff are qualified early childhood teachers. The centre aims to provide a rich bicultural environment where children feel safe to explore, initiate their own learning and express themselves.
In its first year of operation the centre experienced a change in curriculum leadership. This is the first ERO report for this centre.
The owner has a strong vision for the service. This vision and associated planning documents reflect a commitment to high quality early childhood education for all children, and sets clear expectations for the conditions that the service will promote to support all children's learning.
Children have regular opportunities to spend long periods of time in meaningful interactions with their teachers, and to be involved in small group play with other children. Centre leaders promote small group size and high ratios of staff-to-children.
Teachers are responsive to children's interests and regularly plan for their learning. Teachers become actively engaged in children's play. They recognise and value the importance of children learning through play and support children's choices and ideas. Teachers' planning demonstrates that they provide a wide range of curriculum experiences and resources to extend children's learning. Teachers make good use of the adjacent park to extend the curriculum and learning environment for children.
In 2018, the centre owner and new head teacher undertook a number of useful reviews that have strengthened centre systems and staff knowledge and awareness. This has been particularly evident in the introduction of foundation systems for planning and assessment practices and bicultural aspects of the curriculum.
The owner and new head teacher acknowledge they need to work more with the revised Te Whāriki 2017 NZ Early Childhood Curriculum to develop and successfully embed the design of their local curriculum, assessment and planning practices.
The centre owner and teachers value parent contribution and place considerable emphasis on involving parents in centre activities and events. They have developed a useful range of ways to share information with parents about children's participation in the daily programme.
The owner and head teacher work collaboratively and have a shared approach to centre improvement and building centre systems. The owner and teachers have been appropriately introducing new systems in the establishment of the centre. They are in the early stages of understanding how to use internal evaluation processes in ways that evaluate the effectiveness of practices in supporting outcomes for learners.
Since opening the service, the owner has been familiarising himself with operational matters and with developing systems and policies. The policy framework now needs to be updated and strengthened to better reflect actual practice, now that the services is in operation.
The service provider needs more tailored support from the Ministry of Education to build the service's capacity.
Key priorities are for the owner and teachers to:
Before the review, the staff and management of The Owls Nest Preschool Limited 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 an area of non-compliance relating to an aspect of safety checking according to the requirements of the Vulnerable Children Act.
In addition, ERO found that the service needs to strengthen aspects of its policy and procedure framework to ensure these reflect current centre practice.
To meet requirements the service needs to improve its performance in the following areas:
Regulation 47 1 (a) (c) GMA6, GMA7A Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care Centres 2008
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.
The next ERO review of The Owls Nest Preschool Limited will be within two years.
Alan Wynyard
Director Review & Improvement Services
Te Waipounamu - Southern Region
30 January 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.
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Location |
Christchurch |
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Ministry of Education profile number |
47188 |
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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 |
28 children aged over 2 |
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Service roll |
14 |
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Gender composition |
Boys 6 ; Girls 8 |
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Ethnic composition |
Māori |
1 |
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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 |
1:7 |
Better than minimum requirements |
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Review team on site |
October 2018 |
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Date of this report |
30 January 2019 |
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Most recent ERO report |
No previous ERO reports |
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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.