11 Cliff Wilson St, Wanaka
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 Wanaexcel Education Hub are as follows:
Outcome Indicators(What the service knows about outcomes for learners) |
Whāngai Establishing |
Ngā Akatoro Domains |
|
Learning ConditionsOrganisational Conditions |
Whakaū Embedding Whakaū Embedding |
Wanaexcel Education Hub is a privately owned early childhood centre that opened in 2016. Children learn in three rooms and are grouped according to their age. A leadership team is responsible for the day-to-day operation and for ensuring consistency of teacher practice. Since the 2018 ERO review, significant progress has been made in addressing the key next steps, in particular embedding and refining centre operational practices.
Teachers provide a varied localised curriculum that encourages and empowers children to challenge themselves physically and emotionally. They are provided with many opportunities to explore a wide range of learning experiences within the local community. These experiences support children to develop new skills, including social competence.
Children benefit from richly resourced environments that give expression to the strands and goals of Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. The learning environment is well planned for all ages and abilities. Specific learning areas are intentionally designed to add complexity to children’s learning. Infants’ and toddlers’ learning is nurtured through gentle respectful interactions with their teachers.
Leaders and teachers are strengthening the bicultural curriculum. They celebrate children’s diversity and home cultures through a variety of resources and special events. However, children’s languages, identities and cultures are not yet highly evident in assessment records.
Assessment information makes aspects of children’s learning visible. Planning is based on children’s interests and parent’s aspirations. Assessment information does not yet sufficiently show children’s learning, progress and developing capabilities across the breadth of Te Whāriki. Planning and assessment information is not consistently analysed to identify and address inequities.
Leaders and teachers are improvement focussed. Regular participation in professional development contributes to positive shifts in teaching practice. Leaders are building teachers capabilities through use of an improved teacher appraisal system. Teachers are well supported by leaders.
The service has established sound understandings of how to do and use internal evaluation for improvement. Some evaluations have shown positive learning outcomes for children over time. Improvements to strengthen aspects of internal evaluation are currently underway.
Comprehensive and effective systems, policies and procedures are regularly monitored and evaluated. Improvements to daily centre practices have been well embedded.
Wanaexcel Education Hub will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:
continue to build teacher capability to use te reo Māori and other languages in meaningful ways with children and integrate these into planning, assessment, and evaluation documentation
consistently use the learning outcomes in Te Whāriki, to inform curriculum priorities and associated planning.
show children’s learning and progress across the breadth of the learning outcomes in Te Whāriki and analyse assessment information to know what is working or not and for whom.
Before the review, the staff and management of Wanaexcel Education Hub 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 | Te Tai Tini
12 August 2022
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Early Childhood Service Name |
Wanaexcel Education Hub |
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Profile Number |
47061 |
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Location |
Wanaka |
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Service type |
Education and care service |
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Number licensed for |
70 children, including up to 16 aged under 2 |
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Percentage of qualified teachers |
80-99% |
|
Service roll |
87 |
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori 3, NZ European/Pākehā 62, Other ethnic groups 22 |
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Review team on site |
May 2022 |
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Date of this report |
12 August 2022 |
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Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review, August 2018 |
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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.
Wanaexcel Education Hub (WEEH) opened in 2016. It is a privately owned full-day care and education service. The owner is an experienced early childhood provider. It is licensed for 70 children including up to 16 children aged under two. Children learn in three rooms, and are grouped according to their age.
A head teacher is responsible for ensuring consistency of teaching practice across the service. Team co-ordinators are responsible for the daily programme in the rooms. Most of the staff are qualified early childhood teachers. The service provides all meals for the children.
The centre philosophy is part of an overarching belief system that guides all centre practice. WEEH aims to ‘provide a safe, secure and warm environment that creates opportunities for children to have freedom of choice, individuality, and independent learning through meaningful interactions and different experiences’. WEEH core values are ‘creativity, acceptance, respect, empowerment and success.'
WEEH is welcoming to all children, their parents and whānau. Relationships between teachers and children are respectful, caring and reciprocal. Children have a strong sense of belonging and have nurturing attachments with their peers and adults. They are empowered to have ownership of and to make choices about their learning.
Children’s learning benefits from an environment that promotes their exploration and independence. Well-planned and thought-out learning spaces and placement of resources provide for a positive learning environment. Leaders and teachers smoothly and calmly manage children's routines and transitions into and within the centre.
Children are well supported in their learning. Leaders and teachers know their children well as individuals and learners. Planning for children's learning provides for purposeful and intentional teaching. Records of learning show children being successful in their learning and that this learning is extended over time. Children with additional learning needs are well supported, including receiving support from external agencies where appropriate.
Teachers regularly communicate with families. Contributions from families are valued and used to inform planning and assessment. WEEH is building close links with its community and local schools.
Infants and toddlers are well provided for. Teachers have close relationships with their children and carefully align care routines with home and the wishes of parents.
Aspects of the curriculum are strong. This includes teachers deliberately supporting children to:
Leaders are improvement focused and have developed some useful systems and processes to guide practices and decision-making across the centre. Leaders actively seek and make good use of external expertise and provide ongoing professional development for teachers to make and sustain improvements to programmes and practices.
Leaders have high expectations for all aspects of the centre’s operations to promote positive outcomes for all children. They show a strong commitment to the centre’s philosophy, vision and goals. As a new service, the organisational culture is still being established. Many practices need embedding and refining. This includes further developing planning to support the long term goals of the service, and embedding the new appraisal system. Internal evaluation practices need to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of programmes and practices over time.
The leaders have identified, and ERO’s evaluation has confirmed, that the key next steps are to:
Before the review, the staff and management of Wanaexcel Education Hub 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 Wanaexcel Education Hub will be in three years.
Alan Wynyard
Director Review & Improvement Services Southern
Te Waipounamu - Southern Region
30 August 2018
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 |
Wanaka |
||
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Ministry of Education profile number |
47061 |
||
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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 |
70 children, including up to 16 aged under 2 |
||
|
Service roll |
86 |
||
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Gender composition |
Girls: 33 Boys: 53 |
||
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Ethnic composition |
Māori |
2 |
|
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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 |
1:4 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
Over 2 |
1:8 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
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Review team on site |
July 2018 |
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Date of this report |
30 August 2018 |
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Most recent ERO report(s) |
First report for this centre |
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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.