The Tree Hut Preschool Limited

Education institution number:
70540
Service type:
Education and Care Service
Definition:
Not Applicable
Total roll:
24
Telephone:
Address:

26 Rolleston Street, Cheviot

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The Tree Hut Preschool Limited

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 The Tree Hut Preschool Limited are as follows:

Outcome Indicators

(What the service knows about outcomes for learners)

Whakaū Embedding

Ngā Akatoro Domains

 

Learning Conditions
 
Organisational Conditions

Whakaū Embedding

Whakaū Embedding

2 Context of the Service

The Tree Hut Preschool is a small family-owned centre. Both owners/managers are early childhood teachers. They lead and teach as part of the qualified teaching team.  Since the 2019 ERO review, leaders and teachers have strengthened group planning and internal evaluation processes. A small number of Māori children attend.

3 Summary of findings

Leaders and teachers enact a well-considered philosophy that is focused on knowing the child in the context of their whānau. They foster positive relationships and a sense of belonging to support children’s social and emotional wellbeing, oral language, and learning. Children, parents and whānau are warmly welcomed by teachers who take the time to make meaningful connections that support wellbeing. Regular local excursions enhance learning and connections to the wider community.

Teachers provide many opportunities to learn within a responsive curriculum that is consistent with
Te Whāriki,  the early childhood curriculum and offers flexible learning support to promote their individual capabilities. The spacious, natural environment is presented in ways that inspire curiosity and exploration. Infants, toddlers, and young children's sense of security is affirmed by teachers who are caring, respectful and responsive to their verbal and non-verbal communication. Teachers maintain a slow, calm pace that gives children time to lead their own learning.

Parents and whānau are well informed about their child's participation in a wide range of learning opportunities. Assessment documentation for individual children identifies multiple learning outcomes, however this makes it challenging to track progress over time. Teachers use some te reo Māori during daily interactions. The evident focus on te ao Māori is yet to be well documented.

Leaders have developed a systematic approach to oversee the operation of the service. Leaders and teachers work together to focus on what matters most, and effectively use evaluation to improve outcomes for learners. The wellbeing and learning of children are at the heart of decision making.

4 Improvement actions

The Tree Hut Preschool Limited will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:

  • refine assessment, planning and evaluation for individuals to specifically identify the learning outcomes that matter most and document progress over time in relation to these outcomes

  • broaden teachers’ depth of understanding of te reo Māori and tikanga Māori and use this to enhance curriculum design and teacher practice.

5 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of The Tree Hut Preschool Limited 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.

6 Actions for Compliance

During the review, the service provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed the following non-compliances:

  • finalising safety checking for one person by documenting the written risk assessment in accordance with the requirements of the Children’s Act 2014

  • daily hazard checklist has been updated to ensure all elements specified in the Licensing Criteria have been considered.

Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care Centres 2008, HS12, GMA7A.

Kathy Lye
Acting Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini

10 March 2023 

7 About the Early Childhood Service

Early Childhood Service Name

The Tree Hut Preschool Limited

Profile Number

70540

Location 

Cheviot 

Service type

Education and care service

Number licensed for

30 children, including up to 10 aged under 2

Percentage of qualified teachers

100%

Service roll

27

Review team on site

November 2022  

Date of this report

10 March 2023

Most recent ERO report(s)

Education Review, September 2019; Education Review, July 2015

 

 

The Tree Hut Preschool Limited - 23/09/2019

1 Evaluation of The Tree Hut Preschool Limited

How well placed is The Tree Hut Preschool Limited to promote positive learning outcomes for children?

Not well placed

Requires further development

Well placed

Very well placed

The Tree Hut Preschool Limited is well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.

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

Background

The Tree Hut Preschool Limited is a small family-owned and operated early childhood service in Cheviot, North Canterbury. It is a well-established service that provides full-day care and education for up to 30 children, including 10 aged under two. There are separate play and learning areas for older children, infants and toddlers.

The owners are the centre leaders and managers. They are supported by a team of teachers. Most of the teachers are qualified early childhood teachers. Some of the staff have additional qualifications which brings a broad range of skills and perspectives to the team.

The philosophy states that the owners and teachers aim to keep children, whānau and community at the core of what they do. By building nurturing and trusting relationships they aim to give children a sense of belonging and security. They wish for the Tree Hut to be a 'home away from home'. Priorities for learning include developing children's emotional intelligence, relationships, ability to take risks in their learning, resilience and self-esteem.

The owners and teachers have made good progress in addressing the recommendations of the 2015 ERO Review report. This includes seeking parent's and child's views and considering these when making decisions, strengthening the strategic plan, and implementing a more robust appraisal process. The service has a positive reporting history with ERO.

The Review Findings

The owners have established a clear vision and philosophy for the service. These have been influenced by the views and wishes of the families who attend. The philosophy is evident in practice. It guides the long and short-term direction and decision-making in the centre. Parents are well informed about the valued learning outcomes within the centre.

Children play and learn in calm, settled, well-presented learning environments. They show a strong sense of belonging. This is evident in the way they confidently use the equipment and play materials and join in the routines and rhythms of the day. Children are purposeful, engaged in their learning and relate well to one another. They benefit from attentive and nurturing relationships with their teachers. Infants and toddlers are well supported through close, responsive interactions with their teachers and the separate thoughtfully prepared learning area for their age group.

The team are committed to providing a high-quality service for children and their families. This includes providing parent education evenings, and working with external agencies and services to seek help when needed. Children with additional needs benefit from the way the owners work with specialists to develop individual programmes and then put the programmes into practice.

The team plan and implement learning programmes that are based on Te Whariki - the early childhood curriculum. They are becoming familiar with the revised Te Whariki (2017). However, there is potential for the whole team to deeply explore this document and consider implications for current practice and for change.

Teachers provide many opportunities for children to make connections within the local community, and to explore and learn about the natural world. Teachers, with practical support from whānau, are continuing to strengthen the bicultural programme. This is helping all children to know about New Zealand's dual heritage, and Māori children to know their language and culture are valued.

There are well established systems for assessing and planning for individual and groups of children. Teachers use their knowledge to provide a range of experiences within the programme that follow and extend children's interests. They regularly seek parents' wishes for children's learning. The next step is to extend the records of planning and assessment to show more clearly the intended learning and the intentional teaching strategies that have been planned to enable the learning. They should then ensure that evaluations show the progress children have made and the effectiveness of the teaching strategies.

The owners have established a positive team culture and are improvement focussed. They and the team reflect on centre practices and make improvements. Internal evaluation processes focus on areas that are likely to make a difference to outcomes for children. For example, the way children transition to school has been strengthened as a result of a recent internal evaluation. Internal evaluation practices can be strengthened by making better use of indicators of best practice to guide the evaluation process and to know if the improvements have made the expected difference to outcomes for children.

Key Next Steps

To further improve outcomes for children the key next steps for the owners and teachers are to continue to strengthen planning, assessment and evaluation practices for groups and individual children. Documentation needs to make the intended learning clear. When evaluating they need to show effectiveness of intentional teaching strategies and show the learning that has occurred.

A next step for the team is to continue to strengthen internal evaluation practices.

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of The Tree Hut 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:

  • 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.

Dr Lesley Patterson

Director Review and Improvement Services Southern

Southern Region

23 September 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

Location

Cheviot

Ministry of Education profile number

70540

Licence type

Education & Care Service

Licensed under

Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008

Number licensed for

30 children, including up to 10 aged under 2

Service roll

37

Gender composition

Girls 23, Boys 14

Ethnic composition

Māori
NZ European/Pākehā
Other ethnicities

12
20
5

Percentage of qualified teachers

80% +

Reported ratios of staff to children

Under 2

1:3

Better than minimum requirements

Over 2

1:8

Better than minimum requirements

Review team on site

June 2019

Date of this report

23 September 2019

Most recent ERO reports

 

Education Review

July 2015

Education Review

February 2012

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.

The Tree Hut Preschool Limited - 02/07/2015

1 Evaluation of The Tree Hut Preschool Limited

How well placed is The Tree Hut Preschool Limited to promote positive learning outcomes for children?

Not well placed

Requires further development

Well placed

Very well placed

The Tree Hut Preschool Ltd is well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.

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

Background

The Tree Hut Preschool Limited provides for children from babies to school age in two separate groups. In 2013, a separate nursery was built to cater for babies and toddlers. It is spacious, fully self-contained and has its own indoor and outdoor play spaces.

Staffing is stable. Most of the teachers are qualified early childhood teachers or have nearly completed their training to become early childhood teachers.

The managers have successfully met the recommendations in the 2012 ERO report to improve programme planning and strategic planning. They have maintained the strengths identified in the report. This includes effective teaching practices, spacious, natural and well-resourced inviting indoor and outdoor learning spaces and strong links with families and community.

The Review Findings

Children are well supported in their learning by teachers who know each child’s strengths, abilities and personal characteristics well. Teachers use a range of effective approaches to help children become inquisitive, active explorers and enthusiastic problem solvers. Children are confident to take risks in their learning and to ask for help from teachers and other children to experience success in their learning.

Children have many opportunities to develop a good range of social and self-help skills and to learn to play cooperatively with others. Teachers skilfully help children to respect others and value their opinions and ideas. They actively encourage older children to support younger children and include them in their play.

Literacy, numeracy and science are well integrated into the programme. Children’s emerging interests are successfully built on by teachers who have good knowledge and understanding of the curriculum and make learning fun and meaningful.

Māori children and their whānau contributions are valued and respected. Te reo and tikanga Māori are included in natural and interesting ways. Teachers regularly use te reo Māori in their conversations with children. They acknowledge that they are learners and rely on the ongoing support of Māori whānau and regular professional development to continue to improve their skills, knowledge and confidence.

Children’s transitions into, across the centre and to school are well planned and organised to meet the needs of each child and their family. Children are included in the decisions, particularly when they move from the under two-year-old to the over two-year-old area. The centre and the school are working together to further strengthen transitions through a buddy system.

Managers and teachers share the same philosophy for children’s learning and the operation of the centre. Individual skills and interests are recognised and used to extend children’s learning and involvement in the programme. Professional development is appropriately linked to achieving the centre’s strategic plan, and vision for learning and teaching.

Child assessment and planning provide good guidance for a programme that successfully promotes children’s learning and wellbeing. Teachers skilfully identify children’s learning and next learning steps. Some learning stories include te reo Māori and make links to New Zealand’s bicultural heritage. Parent aspirations for their children’s learning are sought in systematic ways and are beginning to be used to set learning goals for children.

Managers and teachers have a good understanding of self review and use it effectively to make improvements to children’s learning and centre operations. It is systematic, well planned and has a strong focus on learning and teaching.

The strategic plan clearly states the centre’s vision, values and goals for the next three years. Steps to meet the goals provide appropriate direction for achieving the goals. Timelines allow for regular monitoring of achievement of the goals.

Key Next Steps

The managers and ERO agree that the next key steps for improving outcomes for children include:

  • use of more child and parent voice in child assessment, programme planning and self review
  • ensuring the strategic plan includes clear measureable outcomes towards the goals, and is reviewed regularly
  • fully implementing the new staff appraisal process with teachers and managers.

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of The Tree Hut 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:

  • 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 The Tree Hut Preschool Limited will be in three years.

Graham Randell

Deputy Chief Review Officer Southern

2 July 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

Cheviot

Ministry of Education profile number

70540

Licence type

Education & Care Service

Licensed under

Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008

Number licensed for

30 children, including up to 10 aged under two

Service roll

25

Gender composition

Girls 14; Boys 11

Ethnic composition

Māori

Pākehā

Cook Island

Other ethnicities

3

15

1

6

Percentage of qualified teachers 0-49% 50-79% 80% Based on funding rates

50-79%

Reported ratios of staff to children

Under 2

1:5

Meets minimum requirements

 

Over 2

1:10

Meets minimum requirements

Review team on site

April 2015

Date of this report

2 July 2015

Most recent ERO reports

 

Education Review

February 2012

 

Education Review

June 2008

 

Education Review

June 2005

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.