794 East Coast Road, Albany, Auckland
View on mapCity Impact Church Care and Education
City Impact Church Care and Education
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 (PDF 3.01MB) are the basis for making judgements about the effectiveness of the service in achieving equity and excellence for all learners. The Akarangi Quality Evaluation Judgement Rubric (PDF 91.30KB) derived from the indicators, is used to inform the ERO’s judgements about this service’s performance in promoting equity and excellence.
ERO’s judgements for City Impact Church Care and Education are as follows:
Outcome Indicators |
ERO’s judgement |
What the service knows about outcomes for learners |
Whakaū Embedding |
Ngā Akatoro Domains |
ERO’s judgement |
He Whāriki Motuhake The learner and their learning |
Whakaū Embedding |
Whakangungu Ngaio Collaborative professional learning builds knowledge and capability |
Whakaū Embedding |
Ngā Aronga Whai Hua Evaluation for improvement |
Whakaū Embedding |
Kaihautū Leaders foster collaboration and improvement |
Whakaū Embedding |
Te Whakaruruhau Stewardship through effective governance and management |
Whakaū Embedding |
2 Context of the Service
City Impact Church Care and Education is one of five services affiliated with City Impact Church. A governance team provides operational support, alongside a regional manager. A qualified centre manager leads a team of seven qualified teachers and five unqualified staff. The service offers full-day and sessional education and care for children between two and five years of age.
3 Summary of findings
Children are encouraged to learn with and alongside their peers. This has led to an environment of acceptance and participation for all children. They have some opportunities to initiate their own play and to make choices. During these times children demonstrate curiosity and become fully involved in a wide variety of learning experiences that encourage problem-solving and taking on appropriate challenge.
Teachers intentionally introduce literacy and numeracy in the curriculum. Priority is given to supporting children’s oral language development and helping children to become articulate and confident communicators. Children’s home languages and cultural identities are respected. Teachers could now build culturally responsive partnerships with whanau to support children’s learning.
The curriculum is based on a Christian-based philosophy that values children having a sense of security, belonging and confidence. Teachers include the service’s biblical curriculum in planning and assessment processes. There are some good examples of how teachers have used assessment information to plan for and respond to children’s dispositions, interests, and inquiries.
Leaders and teachers now need to embed a curriculum that more closely aligns with Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, and reflects current understandings of high-quality practices in an early learning environment. Routines could more consistently empower children to take a lead in their learning.
The governance team work well together to implement operational systems. Managers and teachers contribute to developing and implementing the services’ policies and practices. A new system for internal evaluation is beginning to demonstrate how practices support children’s learning outcomes. These frameworks are supporting the service to plan for and progress its long-term improvement goals.
4 Improvement actions
City Impact Church Care and Education will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:
- Increase opportunities for children to experience a curriculum that promotes sustained,
child-initiated learning. - Build partnerships with whānau that help teachers to respond to parent aspirations for their child’s learning. This includes growing teachers’ knowledge and understanding of culturally responsive teaching practices.
- Use internal evaluation systems, including inquiry, to evaluate how well progress and improvement actions have resulted in positive outcomes for children.
5 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements
Before the review, the staff and management of City Impact Church Care and Education 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.
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; police vetting; teacher registration; ratios)
- evacuation procedures and practices for fire and earthquake.
All early childhood services are required to promote children's health and safety and to regularly review their compliance with legal requirements.
Phil Cowie
Acting Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern)
Northern Region | Te Tai Raki
23 September 2021
6 About the Early Childhood Service
Early Childhood Service Name |
City Impact Church Care and Education |
Profile Number |
10016 |
Location |
Albany, Auckland |
Service type |
Education and care service |
Number licensed for |
128 children over 2 years of age |
Percentage of qualified teachers |
80-99% |
Service roll |
64 |
Ethnic composition |
NZ European/Pākehā 6, Chinese 42, South African 7, |
Review team on site |
July 2021 |
Date of this report |
23 September 2021 |
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review, April 2018; Education Review, June 2014 |
City Impact Church Care and Education - 06/04/2018
1 Evaluation of City Impact Church Care and Education
How well placed is City Impact Church Care and Education to promote positive learning outcomes for children?
Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Background
The City Impact Church Care and Education service is part of the educational campus of the City Impact Church in Browns Bay. It is one of two early learning services owned and operated by the church. It is licensed for 128 children, including up to 30 children aged under two years, in all-day education and care. Forty percent of the children enrolled are Chinese, and there are small groups of children of other diverse ethnicities.
The Christian-based philosophy and vision guide teacher practices. Education and care are offered in an environment of spiritual character, values and principles. It is important to the service to provide an environment where children and families feel safe, nurtured and at home.
Since the 2014 ERO review, the service has undergone a re-structure. The centre is now divided into four rooms for different age-groups, including a separate building for preschool (4 to 5 year old) children. Outdoor areas for children up to four years allows for some mixed-age play opportunities. Infants and toddlers have their own outdoor space.
The manager, centre supervisor and mentor teacher provide leadership for the large teaching team. Four team leaders have oversight of staff and the daily running of each room. The mentor teacher provides ongoing support and professional development for provisionally certificated teachers. Most teachers are qualified.
The 2014 ERO report identified positive relationships, good professional learning opportunities and good support for children who speak languages other than English. These aspects continue to be noteworthy. The report also identified areas for improvement, including learning partnerships with families, the integration of Māori perspectives and the explicit use of Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. Good progress has been made in these areas.
The Review Findings
Children are friendly and confident, and interact well with their peers and teachers. They are encouraged to take increasing responsibility for their own and others' wellbeing. Their social and emotional competence is promoted well.
Since the 2014 ERO review, managers have established consistent caregiving practices for children up to three years old. Teachers respond sensitively to each child's changing needs and preferences. They recognise that continuity is important in establishing a secure foundation for young children's care and education. Children who have additional learning needs receive good support.
Children come from a range of cultural backgrounds with the largest group being Chinese. Staff who are speakers of children's home languages communicate well with children and their families. This use of home languages strengthens relationships.
Teachers who are culturally competent often share their knowledge with colleagues. Events such as Waitangi Day and Matariki are celebrated with children and families. Centre managers are committed to enhancing the service's bicultural curriculum and supporting teachers to use te reo Māori with children.
Children over two years of age participate in a semi-structured programme, and freely explore the environment. Teachers provide activities that support children's play choices. They could continue to improve the quality of the programme and the extent to which they foster children's language development through meaningful conversations.
Centre managers have started to review the learning environment. Creating homely, child-friendly and whānau-friendly spaces is a priority. Using research, and developing a responsive learning environment that supports children's cultures, interests and dispositions are likely to help improve outcomes for children.
Transition processes are well considered. They support children's sense of belonging as they transition into the service, between rooms, and when moving on to school. The centre manager is exploring opportunities to enhance relationships with local early learning services and schools, and to support children's transitions to school.
Internal evaluation processes are well established. Centre managers include parents in internal evaluation and are responsive to their input. Appraisal processes have been strengthened. Managers agree that it is timely to review leadership opportunities that could support the enactment of the service's goals and priorities.
Key Next Steps
Key next steps for ongoing improvement are to:
- strengthen long-term planning to support the implementation of annual goals, and the evaluation of centre practices against measurable indicators
- further support the emergent curriculum through ongoing external professional development to help teachers to improve planning, assessment and evaluation processes
- develop a child-centred curriculum that builds on children’s individual interests and promotes their creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving skills.
Management Assurance on Legal Requirements
Before the review, the staff and management of City Impact Church Care and Education 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.
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; police vetting; teacher registration; ratios)
- evacuation procedures and practices for fire and earthquake.
All early childhood services are required to promote children's health and safety and to regularly review their compliance with legal requirements.
In order to improve current practice managers should:
- strengthen processes for recording accidents and undertaking analysis, so as to minimise or remove risk to children.
Next ERO Review
When is ERO likely to review the service again?
The next ERO review of City Impact Church Care and Education will be in three years.
Julie Foley
Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern (Acting)
Te Tai Raki - Northern Region
6 April 2018
The Purpose of ERO Reports
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.
2 Information about the Early Childhood Service
Location |
Albany, Auckland |
||
Ministry of Education profile number |
10016 |
||
Licence type |
Education & Care Service |
||
Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
||
Number licensed for |
128 children, including up to 30 aged under 2 |
||
Service roll |
161 |
||
Gender composition |
Boys 51% |
||
Ethnic composition |
Pākehā |
33% |
|
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 |
February 2018 |
||
Date of this report |
6 April 2018 |
||
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review |
June 2014 |
|
Education Review |
April 2011 |
||
Education Review |
April 2008 |
3 General Information about Early Childhood Reviews
ERO’s Evaluation Framework
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:
- Pou Whakahaere – how the service determines its vision, philosophy and direction to ensure positive outcomes for children
- Pou Ārahi – how leadership is enacted to enhance positive outcomes for children
- Mātauranga – whose knowledge is valued and how the curriculum is designed to achieve positive outcomes for children
- Tikanga whakaako – how approaches to teaching and learning respond to diversity and support positive outcomes for children.
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.
ERO’s Overall Judgement and Next Review
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:
- Very well placed – The next ERO review in four years
- Well placed – The next ERO review in three years
- Requires further development – The next ERO review within two years
- Not well placed - The next ERO review in consultation with the Ministry of Education
ERO has developed criteria for each category. These are available on ERO’s website.
Review Coverage
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.