Young World Childcare Centre

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 Young World Childcare Centre are as follows:

2 Context of the Service

Young World Childcare Centre is one of two education and care services under common private ownership. The qualified service owners oversee operations. A newly appointed centre manager leads a culturally diverse team, which includes four registered teachers. A quarter of children enrolled are of Pacific heritage.

3 Summary of findings

Children engage in play of their choosing in a settled, calm environment. Children’s mana is recognised and fostered within a curriculum that supports them to take increasing responsibility for their own wellbeing. Teachers who work with infants are responsive to children’s verbal and non-verbal cues and support them to explore the environment.

An online system for documenting children’s learning and assessment is newly established. This platform provides regular opportunities for parent contributions. Further work is required to build teachers’ understanding and use of the learning outcomes in Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum.

Leaders are encouraging teachers to take personal responsibility for their own professional learning. Processes to further support teachers’ engagement in a professional growth cycle are currently being developed. Reflection and inquiry are at the beginning stages at this service. Critical reflection amongst leaders and teachers is not yet being used to drive change and improvement.

Appropriate tools and approaches are used to gather a range of relevant information for evaluation and improvement purposes. Further work is required to build the capability of the teaching team to use internal evaluation to show how the curriculum is impacting on children’s learning. A focus is required on mentoring and coaching support throughout the service to build teachers’ collective capability.

Governance and management structures are being refined with the appointment of a new service manager. Leaders have worked to develop appropriate and realistic expectations for the teaching team. The establishment of a cohesive team culture that advocates for professional accountability and collective responsibility for children’s learning and wellbeing must be a priority for service leaders. 

4 Improvement actions

Young World Childcare Centre will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:

• strengthen teachers’ understanding of how Te Whāriki can be used to design, plan, and implement a responsive curriculum

• increase teachers’ professional accountability and collective responsibility for the wellbeing and learning of all children in the service

• strengthen the service’s leadership and governance capacity to drive change and improvement.

5 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Young World Childcare Centre 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.

Filivaifale Jason Swann
Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern)
Northern Region | Te Tai Raki

11 October 2022

6 About the Early Childhood Service