Northern Auckland Kindergarten Association

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 Northern Auckland Kindergarten Association 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

Northern Auckland Kindergarten Association (trading as Kaitiaki Kindergarten Association) is a regional organisation comprising 13 kindergartens and one early learning service. At the time of this evaluation all services within the association were on a full licence. 

An elected governing board works with the association’s support office to enact the vision, mission, and strategic priorities for children’s learning. The general manager has been recently appointed and works alongside the operational and professional practice leaders (PPLs). They are responsible for the administration and implementation of policies and procedures of the association and its services.

Two PPLs provide curriculum leadership, guidance, and professional learning to grow the capability of teachers across the association’s services. 

Findings from ERO’s evaluation at the governance and organisational level included evaluating the extent to which Northern Auckland Kindergarten Association’s 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 enact aspects of its vision, mission, values, and strategic intentions include:

• a new strategic plan developed in consultation with relevant stakeholders that is beginning to promote children’s learning capabilities
• prioritising relational trust and collective responsibility to provide appropriate guidance to support teachers
• taking steps to advocate and action the association’s commitment to the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi through an established relationship with tangata whenua to support meaningful curriculum
• retaining experienced and knowledgeable senior leaders to provide differentiated and targeted support to build teachers’ capability
• prioritising children’s learning and wellbeing as central for all decision-making
• providing some opportunities for relevant, timely professional learning and development for staff to build capability.

Currently there is no formal monitoring and evaluation of the strategic intentions and priorities to determine what the association knows about what is happening for children. Reporting aligned to current strategic objectives would be more useful to the board to inform and prioritise decision-making.

Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum and Kaupapa Māori assessment for learning | Te Whatu Pōkeka are used as the basis to underpin curriculum expectations. Senior leaders have yet to establish a system that explicitly provides clear curriculum expectations and to regularly report on the quality of outcomes for children.

Improvement strategies and initiatives that the association is implementing well include:

• thoughtful resourcing of additional staff to work collaboratively with teachers to provide flexible interventions for children with additional development and learning needs
• the establishment of an emerging leaders’ programme that aims to build capability across the association and its services
• PPL facilitating and strengthening the Enviroschools Kaupapa to prioritise sustainable practices through a te Ao Māori lens 
• the deliberate placement of culturally diverse teachers who reflect their communities enabling communication in the home languages of children to build a sense of belonging
• responding to the changing needs of learning communities to include enrolment of younger children and extended hours of care.

Leaders have identified that working more effectively with children of Pacific heritages, their families and respective communities is an area for further development. They are yet to determine strategies to progress this goal.

A recent appointment of a health and safety officer places an emphasis on the ongoing monitoring and reporting of the association’s regulatory requirements. It is too early to report on how effective these changes have been. 

The PPLs have a useful system and process to undertake internal evaluation. Leaders are beginning to build a shared understanding to establish the conditions to do and use evaluation for improvement. They have yet to draw on reliable data to make accurate judgements about the quality, effectiveness, and progress towards achieving their identified intentions and priorities. 

4 Summary of findings from visits to services

ERO visited all 14 services to verify what Northern Auckland Kindergarten Association knows about the quality of each of the services’ learning conditions and to what extent the organisational conditions support service improvement. 

A cohesive PPL team collectively hold extensive knowledge of each service, including strengths and each teaching team’s next steps. They are advocates for equity and social justice for children and their whanau. ERO was able to verify the practices during the onsite sample service visits.

Conditions that promote positive outcomes for children include: 

• effective relationships with children and whānau positioning some teaching teams well to develop learning focussed partnerships
• intentionality of Enviroschools Kaupapa to address issues of sustainability viewing children as global citizens and kaitiaki of their environment and papatūānuku
• the use of te reo Māori in authentic and empowering ways 
• teachers working collaboratively with whānau and external agenciesto develop individualised planning for all children to support ongoing learning and development 
• viewing younger children as capable and competent learners through the provision of caring relationships fostering a positive sense of belonging.

Some services have effectively adopted Kaupapa Māori assessment for learning | Te Whatu Pōkeka to assess and document children’s learning and development providing insight to their dispositions and interests. There is now a need to ensure assessment practices make explicit children’s learning aligned with the learning outcomes from Te Whāriki.

Most teaching teams are at the early stages of developing a shared understanding of internal evaluation processes and practices. To better build teacher capability there is now a need for PPL’s to provide regular feedback and monitoring through the duration of the evaluation process as it unfolds. 

5 Improvement actions

Prior to the next ERO evaluation Northern Auckland Kindergarten Association will progress the following actions through its Quality Improvement Planning. 

• Develop and implement systems, processes, and practices to support the board and senior leaders to evaluate the progress of their strategic intentions and priorities; determining what is working, what is not working and for whom, to inform future planning.
• Strengthen reporting functions at all levels using the curriculum learning outcomes from Te Whāriki and Kaupapa Māori assessment for learning | Te Whatu Pōkeka; to monitor the quality of provision and maintain a focus on what is important for each service.
• Build a shared understanding of Pacific values, knowledges, and practices to promote positive outcomes for Pacific children, their families, and respective communities.

6 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

As part of this review, a representative of Northern Auckland Kindergarten Association 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 Next ERO Review

The next ERO review is likely to be in 3 years.

Patricia Davey
Director of Early Childhood Education (ECE)

22 August 2024 

8 About the Governing Organisation 

9 List of sampled services

All sampled services are on a full licence.

Services sampled in this evaluation: