37-41 Mason Avenue, Otahuhu, Auckland
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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.
Happy Feet Childcare Otahuhu is part of the nationwide Provincial Education Group. It gained a full licence from the Ministry of Education in August 2017. The centre manager leads a team of eight qualified teachers and three untrained staff, and a centre cook. The children enrolled are from diverse cultural backgrounds and staffing reflects this diversity.
This is the first ERO review of the centre since the change of ownership.
Teachers engage in meaningful, positive interactions with children. Their practices demonstrate an understanding of children’s learning and development. Indoor and outdoor learning environments provide a range of experiences that are appropriate for the ages and abilities of children attending.
Parents are informed about centre operations and are involved in decision making. The centre’s curriculum acknowledges and reflects the unique place of Māori as tangata whenua. It supports children’s right to be confident in their own cultures and respect other cultures.
The centre’s philosophy, annual plan, policies and procedures guide centre operations.
Next steps include:
The next ERO review is likely to be an Education Review.
Steve Tanner
Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern)
Northern Region | Te Tai Raki
15 January 2020
| Early Childhood Service Name | Happy Feet Childcare Otahuhu |
| Profile Number | 10051 |
|
Location |
Otahuhu, Auckland |
|
Service type |
Education and care service |
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Number licensed for |
100 children, including up to 16 aged under 2 years |
|
Percentage of qualified teachers |
80%+ |
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Reported ratio of staff to children under 2 |
1:5 – Meets regulatory standards |
|
Reported ratio of staff |
1:10 – Meets regulatory standards |
|
Service roll |
81 |
|
Gender composition |
Boys 49 Girls 32 |
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori 13 |
|
Review team on site |
October 2019 |
|
Date of this report |
15 January 2020 |
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review September 2016 Education Review June 2013 Education Review February 2010 |
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 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 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.
Tinytown Otahuhu operates from two neighbouring renovated bungalows. The nursery caters for infants and toddlers as well as for children up to three years of age. The other house accommodates children from three years until they attend school. This part of the facility also has an extended and renovated garage, the Rainbow Class that is available for children's play and accessible from the outdoors. Both houses have their own separate outdoor areas, with the one for older children being particularly spacious.
A third house on the same site has recently been renovated and is due to open when Ministry of Education licencing requirements are complete. This new part of the centre will cater for children aged from four and a half years until they go to school and will share the facilities for children in the over three part of the centre.
The Tinytown group of centres, including Otahuhu, Mt Wellington and Pakuranga have for many years been owned and governed by the same family. A good number of teachers at the Otahuhu centre have worked at various Tinytown centres for many years. Since the 2013 ERO report, a new manager of Tinytown Otahuhu has been appointed. The programme is influenced by Te Whariki, the early childhood curriculum and framed by Christian beliefs and practices.
The 2013 ERO report identified positive aspects of the centre that included the good quality centre environment and caring relationships. It recommended that managers work strategically to improve the quality of teaching and learning practices and the learning programmes for children.
Children in this centre are friendly and kind to each other and settle well into the routines of their day. They experience positive relationships with their teachers. Teachers are gentle and caring, and interact respectfully with children and their families. They are affectionate and nurturing with infants and toddlers.
Many teachers communicate with children and families in their home languages, including Samoan and Hindi. These teachers understand the importance of promoting children's home languages in supporting the learning of English. During their play, children with the same cultural backgrounds chat comfortably together in their home languages.
Teachers use te reo Māori informally with children, and support the learning of te reo through waiata. Aspects of Māori culture, such as Mātariki are included in the programme at different times of the year along with other celebrations such as Queen's Birthday and Diwali.
Teachers plan programmes that are based on monthly topics, identified generally from their observation of children's interests. They plan activities around these topics and work alongside children, engaging them in simple conversation about their play. Teachers provide some good opportunities for older children to play uninterrupted for extended periods of time.
The owners/managing directors continue to provide the overarching policy framework for the centre. The centre manager has a new and developing role that includes responsibilities for strategic and annual planning, curriculum overview, appraisal and other self-review.
The centre manager recognises that teachers should design a curriculum that is based on children's emerging interests. ERO recommends that the directors and manager plan strategically to improve the quality of teaching, and learning programmes for children. This strategic improvement approach includes management:
resourcing and accessing whole-centre professional learning led by an external specialist to strengthen teachers' skills in responding to children at a deeper level
recognising teachers' strengths and planning for them to be curriculum leaders
aligning the centre's strategic planning to teachers' professional learning needs and appraisal goals, and to financial resourcing requirements
improving how well managers and teachers evaluate centre goals and measure the impact of professional learning.
The directors have made some changes to align teachers' appraisal to the New Zealand Education Council requirements, especially in relation to the Practising Teacher Criteria. However they should review and revise centre's performance management policy so that it clearly and succinctly identifies what teachers are required to do by legislation in order to become fully certificated. ERO recommends that centre managers seek external support to improve how the teacher appraisal process is documented and implemented.
Before the review, the staff and management of Tinytown Otahuhu 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.
The next ERO review of Tinytown Otahuhu will be in three years.
Graham Randell
Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern
1 September 2016
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 |
Otahuhu, Auckland |
||
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Ministry of Education profile number |
10051 |
||
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Licence type |
Education & Care Service |
||
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Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
||
|
Number licensed for |
80 children, including up to 16 aged under 2 |
||
|
Service roll |
76 |
||
|
Gender composition |
Boys 44 Girls 32 |
||
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori Pākehā Samoan Indian Fijian Indian Tongan Middle Eastern Cook Island Māori Chinese |
15 5 13 12 10 9 5 4 3 |
|
|
Percentage of qualified teachers 0-49% 50-79% 80%+ Based on funding rates |
80% + |
||
|
Reported ratios of staff to children |
Under 2 |
1:5 |
Meets minimum requirements |
|
Over 2 |
1:10 |
Meets minimum requirements |
|
|
Review team on site |
July 2016 |
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Date of this report |
1 September 2016 |
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Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review |
June 2013 |
|
|
Education Review |
February 2010 |
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|
Education Review |
February 2007 |
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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 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.