Counties Manukau Kindergarten Association Inc

1 ERO’s Judgements 

A Governing Organisation Evaluation evaluates the extent to which organisational conditions support equitable and excellent outcomes for all learners in the organisation’s services. Te Ara Poutama- indicators of quality for early childhood education: what matters most is the basis for making judgements about its effectiveness. The Governing Organisation Quality Evaluation Judgement Rubric derived from the indicators, is used to inform the ERO’s judgements about this organisation’s performance. 

ERO’s judgement for Counties Manukau Kindergarten Association Inc is as follows:

ERO’s judgement Organisational Conditions 

The organisation conditions encompass Ngā Akatoro | Domains of: 

• Ngā Aronga Whai Hua | Evaluation for improvement
• Kaihautū | Leadership fosters collaboration and improvement 
• Te Whakaruruhau | Stewardship through effective governance and management. 

2 Context of the Governing Organisation 

Counties Manukau Kindergarten Association Inc (the association) is a regional organisation comprised of 22 kindergartens and six early learning services. ‘Children, Family, Community: Together shaping our World’ is the association’s vision. 

An elected board of management governs the association. Through the recent review of the association’s constitution a tangata whenua seat has been established. The Māori development coordinator facilitated the appointment through consultation with mana whenua. 

A recently appointed chief executive with oversight of the association works alongside a senior leadership team. They are supported by four education managers who share responsibility for curriculum, pedagogical leadership, and quality assurance of its services. At the time of this evaluation all services were on a full licence. 

Findings from ERO’s evaluation at the governance and organisational level included evaluating the extent to which Counties Manukau Kindergarten Association Inc strategic intentions, quality improvement systems, processes and practices support the provision of a quality curriculum at individual service level. 

3 Summary of findings 

Conditions supporting the association to build an effective culture include: 

• a clear vision, values, and strategic goals that reflect the aspirations of kaiako, whānau and centre communities 
• high levels of relational trust across the association enabling leaders and managers to work together to build professional practice 
• using leaders’ individual strengths, skills, and expertise to foster collective responsibility 
• useful processes to undertake review to improve aspects of operations, management, and practices across the association. 

Quality systems and processes that are not yet well established include: 

• robust processes for regular monitoring and supporting teachers understanding of the regulatory standards and licensing criteria
• sufficient guidance for teachers focused on providing a quality curriculum. Increased monitoring by education managers of curriculum implementation is required. 

Management have yet to establish the organisational conditions to do and use evaluation for improvement. Currently internal evaluation at organisational level is not effectively used to identify and report on the quality, effectiveness, and value of its programmes to inform decision making, and goals as outlined in their strategic plan. 

The Māori development coordinator has established strong connections with local mana whenua to support the association’s commitment to honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi. The coordinator continues to increase knowledge and understanding of te ao Māori at all levels. A formalised Māori strategy is yet to be developed to enable the organisation over time to measure its success and identify additional and targeted resourcing. 

4 Summary of findings from visits to services 

ERO visited a sample of 12 kindergartens to verify what Counties Manukau Kindergarten Association Inc knows about the quality of each of the services’ learning conditions and to what extent the organisational conditions support service improvement. ERO selected the service sample in consultation with the governing organisation. 

 Education managers have established strong working relationships with head teachers to foster a culture of reflection and improvement. Targeted teaching and learning resources are provided to teaching teams. 

Teaching practices that promote positive outcomes for children includes: 

• building strong, trusting relationships with parents, whānau and their communities to support collaboration and engagement 
• intentional teaching strategies to promote children’s developing social and emotional competence 
• collaboratively working with whānau and external agencies to support children with complex needs 
• viewing younger children as capable and competent, supporting them to fully participate in a variety of interesting learning experiences 
• fostering peer to peer relationships within mixed-age group settings. 

Most services are in the early stages of: 

• providing opportunities for parents and whānau to contribute to local curriculum design and planning that reflects agreed priorities for children’s learning, aligned to the learning outcomes from Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum
• developing a curriculum that reflects mana whenua knowledge, values, and beliefs 
• establishing learning focused partnerships with families that are responsive to Pacific values and knowledge 
• understanding the difference between review and evaluation. 

5 Improvement actions 

Prior to the next ERO evaluation Counties Manukau Kindergarten Association Inc will progress the following actions through its Quality Improvement Planning. These include: 

• improving the monitoring of compliance 
• establishing clear indicators of quality for each strategic goal and develop a plan to support the implementation of these 
• developing and implementing comprehensive guidance and shared expectations for teachers about the curriculum and teaching and learning. This will also support the education managers to report to the board about the quality of the of the curriculum, teaching and learning and inform decision making.  

6 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements 

As part of this review, a representative of Counties Manukau Kindergarten Association Inc completed an ERO Governing Organisation Assurance Statement and Self-Audit Checklist. In these documents they stated that the organisation has the systems, processes, and practices to be assured that service providers for licensed services within the organisation are meeting legal requirements related to: 

• curriculum 
• premises and facilities 
• health and safety practices 
• governance, management, and administration. 

The licensed service provider/s of the sampled services listed at the end of this report also completed an ERO Assurance Statement and Self-Audit Checklist for their service. In these documents they attested that they have taken all reasonable steps to meet legal requirements, including those detailed in Ministry of Education Circulars and other documents, related to these areas.

All early childhood services are required to promote children's health and safety and to regularly review their compliance with legal requirements. 

7 Actions for Compliance 

During its visits to sample services ERO identified the following non-compliances: 

Non-compliances  

8 Next ERO Review 

The next ERO review is likely to be in 14-18 months. 

ERO will visit a different sample of services at that time. 

Patricia Davey 
Director of Early Childhood Education (ECE) 

29 November 2023 

9 About the Governing Organisation 

10 List of sampled services 

All sampled services are on a full licence. 

Services sampled in this evaluation: