16 Eason Street, Rotorua Central, Rotorua
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 |
Since the onsite visit the service has provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed non-compliances and is now taking reasonable steps to meet regulatory standards.
Tiny Tots Educare is a privately owned and operated mixed-age education and care service. Since the March 2019 ERO review, a new centre manager has been appointed and with the owner, leads a team of two teachers. Some progress is evident in addressing the findings in the previous ERO review.
Children experience positive and meaningful interactions between themselves and their teachers. The curriculum is inclusive and supports children to become socially competent. Their preferences are respected, and they are involved in decision making. The sufficiently resourced environment provides opportunities to enhance and extend children’s learning.
Understanding of children’s interests, learning and life contexts is demonstrated. Strategies are in place to involve parents in this child’s learning.
Monitoring of health and safety practices is required.
Since the onsite visit the service has provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed the following non-compliances:
The next ERO review is likely to be an Akarangi | Quality Evaluation.
Phil Cowie
Director Review and Improvement Services
Central Region | Te Tai Pūtahi Nui
15 March 2021
| Early Childhood Service Name | Tiny Tots Educare |
| Profile Number | 40214 |
| Location | Rotorua |
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Service type |
Education and care service |
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Number licensed for |
20 children, including up to 5 aged under 2. |
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Percentage of qualified teachers |
80%+ |
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Service roll |
19 |
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Ethnic composition |
Māori 3, NZ European/Pākehā 4, Indian 7 Other ethnic groups 5 |
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Review team on site |
December 2020 |
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Date of this report |
15 March 2021 |
| Most recent ERO report(s) | Education Review, March 2019; Education Review, February 2017. |
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 |
Tiny Tots Educare is not well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Tiny Tots Rotorua is an all-day, mixed-age centre located in central Rotorua. It is licensed for 20 children, including 15 up to the age of two years. The current roll of 19 children include seven who are Māori and a small number of other ethnicities.
There have been a number of recent staff changes at Tiny Tots. The centre owner is supported by a team leader who has been newly appointed to the role in January 2019. The remaining teaching team consist of provisionally registered, in-training and unqualified teachers. A Strengthening Early Learning Opportunities (SELO) professional learning and development programme, funded by the Ministry of Education provided targeted support to the centre in 2018.
Through their philosophy that was developed in 2017, the centre promotes trust and respect through inclusive and collaborative practices. Teachers aim to provide opportunities for whanaungatanga and tuakana-teina relationships to develop within their small, mixed-age centre.
Tiny Tots Rotorua has a variable reporting history with ERO. There has been insufficient progress to address many of the areas identified in the previous report including researching current best practice for teaching infants, internal evaluation, performance management, and mentoring of beginning teachers through a teacher certification process.
A significant number of compliances relating to governance, health and safety, and curriculum remain an urgent priority to support the centre to meet licensing criteria.
Developments and improvements commenced through the SELO support have not been sustained. The curriculum needs strengthening to further align to the revised New Zealand early childhood curriculum Te Whāriki. Some improvements have been made to resourcing, particularly for the younger children. Children appeared settled and engaged. Some outdoor developments have been enhanced. The centre owner should seek confirmation and assurance that the new playground meets full regulatory requirements.
The assessment, planning and evaluation of children's learning requires development. Attention needs to be given to:
more frequent documentation to show progression of learning over time
incorporating the revised learning outcomes of Te Whāriki
including parent aspirations and responding to these
capturing children's language, culture and identity.
While warm and respectful relationships with children and parents are evident, teachers require further support to strengthen teaching and learning practices for infants and toddlers. Some elements of a bicultural curriculum were observed including the use of te reo, and tikanga Māori practices. Teachers and leaders should could continue to build on these practices by exploring children's whakapapa, learning about the rich local Māori history and developing links with local iwi.
Leadership and management needs strengthening. There is a need for leaders to urgently strengthen systems and processes in order to build capability within the service. These should include embedding and documenting appraisal, induction, and the mentoring of provisionally certified and those in training.
The centre director agrees that she would benefit from further support relating to governance and management responsibilities. Key priorities for improvement are to:
develop clear policies and procedures to grow leaders' and teachers' understanding of meeting legislative requirements
strengthen understanding and use of internal evaluation to measure the impact of teaching practice on children's learning outcomes
further develop centre planning processes to support clear direction setting
strengthen record keeping relating to daily operations and health and safety.
ERO found many areas of non-compliance or systems and processes that require addressing. A key priority must be placed on documenting the safety checking of the workforce.
Before the review, the staff and management of Tiny Tots Educare 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 significant areas of non-compliance in the service related to:
human resource management including regular appraisal and induction procedures
records of safety checking of the workforce
records of emergency drills, including earthquake
records of excursions including children's names attending and risk analysis
identifying hazards within the daily checking procedure of equipment, premises and facilities (including electrical sockets, animal droppings, and monitoring of temperatures in sleep room )
registration with the local council, and systems and processes relating to cooking food on the premises for children. [Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care Centres 2008, GMA7, GMA7A, PF15, HSA8, HS17, HS12]
In order to improve practice leaders need to improve performance in the following areas:
strengthen the annual plan
review the child protection policy to meets the full requirements of the Vulnerable Children's Act
strengthen the assessment, planning and evaluation of children's learning
an ongoing process of self review to maintain and improve the quality of education and care
accurate attendance records with a focus on gaining parents signatures on timesheets
teachers knowledge of learning and development and the revised curriculum Te Whāriki. [Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care Centres 2008, GMA8, HS31, C2, GMA6, GMA11, C4, Food Act 2014 and Food Regulations 2015]
ERO recommends that the Ministry reassess the licence of Tiny Tots Educare. ERO will not undertake a further education review of this service until the Ministry of Education is satisfied that the service meets licensing requirements.
Phil Cowie
Director Review and Improvement Services
Central Region
29 March 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 |
Rotorua |
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Ministry of Education profile number |
40214 |
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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 |
20 children, including up to 15 aged under 2 |
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Service roll |
19 |
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Gender composition |
Boys 11 Girls 8 |
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Ethnic composition |
Māori |
7 |
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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 |
Under 2 |
1:5 |
Meets minimum requirements |
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Over 2 |
1:6 |
Better than minimum requirements |
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Review team on site |
February 2019 |
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Date of this report |
29 March 2019 |
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Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review |
February 2017 |
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Education Review |
December 2013 |
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Education Review |
March 2011 |
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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:
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.