Waimate 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 Waimate 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

Waimate Kindergarten Association is a small association, made up of two licensed kindergartens and a mobile kindergarten which visits four rural locations and operates as a teacher-led certificated playgroup. At the time of the evaluation ERO was unable to visit the mobile kindergarten.

An elected board of community representatives are responsible for governance. They are supported by a long-standing general manager who has oversight of the day-to-day operations. They are members of New Zealand Kindergarten Association who provide governance support. The general manager is an active member of a management network group, Central South Island Kindergartens (CSIK). This group provides senior teacher support to the kindergartens, professional learning opportunities, and provides policy guidance and networking opportunities. A senior teacher is responsible for overseeing teaching, learning and curriculum across the two licensed kindergartens. An additional senior teacher provides support to the mobile kindergarten. Each kindergarten has a head teacher and a small teaching team including regular relievers, providing consistency for children’s learning and wellbeing. 

Findings from ERO’s evaluation at the governance and organisational level included evaluating the extent to which Waimate 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

Since 2017 the focus of governance and management has primarily been on ensuring the financial viability of the association. During this time two strategic plans have been developed in consultation with families and the community and are beginning to be implemented. Governance is in the early stages of knowing about the quality and effectiveness of teaching and learning.

The board receives information about operations, compliance and progress towards the strategic priorities. However, it requires more detailed information from the senior leadership team about the quality of curriculum, teaching and learning or outcomes for children. This would better enable the board to make well informed decisions about resource allocation and strategic priorities.

Initiatives that the organisation has in place include:

• a certificated, teacher led playgroup which operates as the mobile kindergarten over four rural locations and reaches rural families and communities for children aged 0-school age
• association-wide teacher engagement in professional learning about bi-cultural practice through CSIK
• additional teacher aide hours to support teacher intentional interactions and children with additional needs.

There are well-established systems and processes to monitor and review the implementation of policies, procedures, and practices. These provide assurance to the general manager of the maintenance of regulatory compliance. 

A range of professional learning opportunities for teachers is provided to build their knowledge and understanding and improve teacher practice. The General Manager and Head Teachers need to strengthen their reporting to the Board on the impact of the professional learning to better understand the outcomes for children as a result of this.

Senior teacher regularly visits the kindergartens and provides useful support and feedback on priorities for children’s learning and wellbeing. Senior teacher reporting has an increased focus on recently developed indicators of quality curriculum. These are the foundation of reporting to head teachers and the general manager. However, the general manager reports to the board do not yet include evaluation about the quality or effectiveness of curriculum provision. 

Internal evaluation is carried out at kindergarten level. CSIK has developed guidance for teachers to undertake internal evaluation. The senior teacher has oversight of the evaluation process and provides useful feedback to teachers. However senior teacher feedback and reports are primarily on the process rather than the quality of internal evaluation. This limits what is known about the effectiveness of the evaluation and if the planned improvement actions are having the desired effect.

The associations vision, plans and priorities are beginning to have a focus on teaching and learning, they are taking steps to enact Te Tiriti o Waitangi to inform it’s plans, policies, and practices. This approach is in the early stages of implementation.

4 Summary of findings from visits to services

With the exception of the mobile kindergarten ERO visited all services to verify what Waimate Kindergarten Association knows about the quality of each of the services’ learning conditions and to what extent the organisational conditions support service improvement. 

Curriculum design and teaching practices that support learners include:

• a collaborative approach to working with families and external agencies to support children with additional needs
• intentional teaching that promotes children’s developing social and emotional capabilities 
• teachers’ use of te reo Māori through waiata, karakia and short phrases, which provides children with some opportunities to hear te reo Māori
• assessment, planning and evaluation for children’s learning that shows an increased focus on their developing capabilities in relation to the learning outcomes of Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum 
• supporting children’s developing oral language with responsive and intentional teaching strategies.

5 Improvement actions

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

• Review and strengthen systems and processes for gathering information about outcomes for children’s learning to better inform decision making at board level.  
• Senior teacher to consistently use identified indicators of quality and carry out effective evaluation to know about what is working or not and for whom.

6 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

As part of this review, a representative of Waimate 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)

13 September 2024

8 About the Governing Organisation 

9 List of sampled services

All sampled services are on a full licence.

Services sampled in this evaluation: