9 Copper Beech Avenue, Frankton, Queenstown
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 |
|
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 |
Not meeting |
At the time of the review, ERO identified non-compliance with regulatory standards that must be addressed.
Zigzagzoo Early Learning Centre Remarkables Park is one of two services owned by Auckland-based Inspired Schools. An operational manager oversees both services alongside three team leaders who have leadership roles. Nearly half of the enrolled children are from diverse cultural heritages, including a small number of Māori children.
The curriculum is guided by the philosophies of Reggio Emilia and Resources for Infant Educarers which prioritise freedom of movement and creativity and curiosity. It is aligned to Te Whāriki , the early childhood curriculum. Children are provided a range of experiences and opportunities where they can make learning choices. Teachers respond to them in respectful ways to support their learning.
The facility is purpose-built to suitably support the provision of indoor and outdoor play. Governance and management systems relating to human resource management, and aspects of health and safety need to be rigorously applied to continuously meet the Regulatory Standards. Parents need to be provided with meaningful opportunities to contribute to the service operation.
ERO found areas of non-compliance in the service relating to:
opportunities provided for parents and adults to contribute to the development and review of the service’s operational documents.
Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care 2008, GMA4.
Since the onsite visit, the service has provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed the following non-compliances:
consistent recording of checks carried out while children are sleeping
the daily hazard checks of equipment, premises and facilities are consistently completed and include all prescribed aspects including electrical, medicine, kitchen and laundry, and windows and other areas of glass
consistent recording of written authority from parents for the administration of medicine and parent acknowledgement of medication administered
all children’s workers who have access to children are safety checked in accordance with the Children Act 2014.
Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care 2008, HS9, HS12, HS28, GMA7A.
ERO recommends the Ministry follows up with the service provider to ensure that non-compliances identified in this report are addressed promptly.
The next ERO review is likely to be an Akarangi | Quality Evaluation.
Dr Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini
5 October 2022
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Early Childhood Service Name |
Zigzagzoo Early Learning Centre Remarkables Park |
|
Profile Number |
46204 |
|
Location |
Queenstown |
|
Service type |
Education and care service |
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Number licensed for |
80 children, including up to 25 aged under 2 |
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Percentage of qualified teachers |
80-99% |
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Service roll |
109 |
|
Review team on site |
August 2022 |
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Date of this report |
5 October 2022 |
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Most recent ERO report(s) |
Akanuku | Assurance Review, September 2019; Education Review, June 2018 |
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.
having its first ERO review – including if it is part of a governing organisation
previously identified as ‘not well placed’ or ‘requiring further development’
that has moved from a provisional to a full licence
that have been re-licenced due to a change of ownership
where an Akanuku | Assurance Review process is determined to be appropriate.
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:
curriculum
premises and facilities
health and safety practices
governance, management and administration.
As part of an Akanuku | Assurance Review ERO assesses whether the regulatory 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:
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 certification; ratios)
relevant evacuation procedures and practices.
As part of an Akanuku | Assurance Review ERO also gathers and records evidence through:
discussions with those involved in the service
consideration of relevant documentation, including the implementation of health and safety systems
observations of the environment/premises, curriculum implementation and teaching practice.
Regulatory standards |
ERO’s judgement |
|
Curriculum |
Meeting |
|
Premises and facilities |
Meeting |
|
Health and safety |
Meeting |
|
Governance, management and administration |
Meeting |
At the time of the review, ERO found the service was taking reasonable steps to meet regulatory standards.
Zigzagzoo Early Learning Centre Remarkables Park is located in Frankton, providing all-day education and care from Monday to Friday. It is owned and governed by ACG Education Group. Significant progress has been made to address the recommendations from ERO’s June 2018 review. This includes improved systems for planning assessment and evaluation, identifying priorities for learning, and improved appraisal processes.
The centre manager and team leaders plan and implement a programme based on Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. The programme is based on the interests, strengths and capabilities of their children. A range of experiences support children to understand the cultural heritages of both parties to the Treaty of Waitangi.
There are suitable governance and management structures. The centre has been supported with SELO professional learning to address the areas identified in ERO’s June 2018 review. All reasonable steps have been taken to promote health and safety practices. Teachers use internal evaluation processes to improve aspects of education and care.
For ongoing improvement, key next steps include:
The next ERO review is likely to be an Education Review.
Dr Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini
6 September 2019
|
Early Childhood Service Name |
Zigzagzoo Early Learning Centre Remarkables Park |
|
Profile Number |
46204 |
|
Location |
Queenstown |
|
Service type |
Education and care service |
|
Number licensed for |
80 children, including up to 25 aged under 2. |
|
Percentage of qualified teachers |
80%+ |
|
Reported ratio of adults to children under 2 |
1:4 - Better than regulatory standards. |
|
Reported ratio of adults |
1:6 - Better than regulatory standards. |
|
Service roll |
57 |
|
Gender composition |
Boys 31, Girls 26 |
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori 6 NZ European/Pākehā 23 Other ethnic groups 28 |
|
Review team on site |
August 2019 |
|
Date of this report |
6 September 2019 |
|
Most recent ERO report(s)
|
Education Review June 2018 |
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:
|
Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
There are two Zigzagzoo early childhood centres in Queenstown. The Academic College Group (ACG) based in Auckland is the licensee of Zigzagzoo early childhood services, having taken ownership of this service in 2014. An operations manager has overall responsibility for both centres. A team leader supports the learning and teaching within each of the three rooms. The three Queenstown team leaders are new appointments.
This centre is located at Remarkables Park and is a full-day service licensed for 80 children, including 25 under two years of age. The service aims to provide education and care based on philosophies that include RIE (Resources for Infant Educarers) and Reggio Emilia approaches.
Zigzagzoo Early Learning Centre Remarkables Park has a high turnover of staff. There has been little progress with the implementation of practices to address the recommendations of the 2015 ERO review. There are few systems to adequately support the centre operations and ensure positive outcomes for children can be sustained.
The April 2015 ERO report recommended the owners, managers, leaders and teachers:
Two further key priorities from the ERO report were for leaders to ensure that planning for children focused on future learning and to develop bicultural practices, including the integration of Māori perspectives in the programme.
There has been very little significant progress with implementing the recommendations from the 2015 ERO report.
Children at the centre engage well with a range of resources and activities that support and encourage their learning. The environment is spacious and offers many opportunities for children to develop their physical and social skills. Children work and play well together, in small groups or alongside others. Friendships between children are apparent. They enjoy opportunities to be creative and engage in imaginative play together. Children know the teachers' expectations for behaviour. The centre routines are becoming well established. Children are confident and enjoy showing they can take responsibility for their actions and be independent. Teachers work alongside children and engage in purposeful conversations that are affirming and help extend children's thinking.
The operations manager has good relationships with children and their families. She is supportive of staff who are encouraged to develop leadership skills and participate in professional development.
The next steps for governance and management remain those from the 2015 ERO report.
The owners and the centres' operation manager need to ensure there are robust systems to accurately report and monitor compliance with regulatory requirements across all aspects of the operation. This needs to include robust internal evaluation to inform decision making at governance level. This will help determine key strategic and annual priorities for long and short-term centre development.
The ACG licensee needs to provide the centre operations manager with ongoing support and guidance to:
The operations manager needs to clearly identify and communicate centre-wide expectations for teaching and learning. The team leaders in each room have been working independently to establish practices within their teams and develop ways to support children’s learning and development. The team leaders each have individual strengths and abilities but have not yet established how they will work as a team of leaders to ensure consistent practice across the service. Teaching practices need to align to an agreed centre-wide philosophy that has clear key learning priorities.
The team leader in the infant room is making progress building the confidence of her new team of teachers to work collaboratively in response to the needs of children. Team leaders and teachers are affirming of children’s learning and achievements and work alongside children supporting and encouraging them to be independent and develop social skills. Children have access to a range of resources and experiences in the programme that support their interests and provide opportunity for learning.
Next steps for team leaders:
Team leaders need to collaborate to establish effective systems that:
Before the review, the staff and management of Zigzagzoo Early Learning Centre Remarkables Park 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:
All early childhood services are required to promote children’s health and safety and to regularly review their compliance with legal requirements.
ERO identified compliance areas where practices were not satisfactory or requirements were not met. The centre owners (ACG) completed an internal Health and Safety Performance Assessment in 2017 which also highlighted areas of non-compliance identified as a risk.
The overarching concern is the lack of adequate systems and insufficient clarity around processes to identify, maintain and improve compliance with requirements.
To ensure compliance with Regulation 47, the owners need to ensure the service is effectively governed, and is managed in accordance with good management practices. ACG and the centre manager need to ensure there are robust policies and procedures that:
There needs to be a robust system and process to regularly review all aspects of the centre operation to ensure practices meet legal requirements and to build on the quality of centre practices (GMA6).
Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care Centres 2008
ERO recommends that the service, in consultation with the Ministry of Education, develops a comprehensive plan to address the key next steps and actions outlined in this report.
The next ERO review of Zigzagzoo Early Learning Centre Remarkables Park will be within two years.
Dr Lesley Patterson
Deputy Chief Review Officer Southern
Te Waipounamu - Southern Region
25 June 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 |
Queenstown |
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Ministry of Education profile number |
46204 |
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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 |
80 children, including up to 25 aged under 2 |
||
|
Service roll |
106 |
||
|
Gender composition |
Girls: 61 Boys: 45 |
||
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori Pākehā Other |
5 64 37 |
|
|
Percentage of qualified teachers 0-49% 50-79% 80%+ Based on funding rates |
80% + |
||
|
Reported ratios of staff to children |
Under 2 |
1:4 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
Over 2 |
1:8 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
|
Review team on site |
May 2018 |
||
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Date of this report |
25 June 2018 |
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|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review |
April 2015 |
|
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.