12 Westglade Crescent, Birkenhead, Auckland
View on mapAkarangi | 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 are the basis for making judgements about the effectiveness of the service in achieving equity and excellence for all learners. Judgements are made in relation to the Outcomes Indicators, Learning and Organisational Conditions. The Evaluation Judgement Rubric derived from the indicators, is used to inform ERO’s judgements about this service’s performance in promoting equity and excellence.
ERO’s judgements for Next Generation Infant Care are as follows:
Outcome Indicators(What the service knows about outcomes for learners) | Whāngai Establishing |
Ngā Akatoro Domains | |
Learning ConditionsOrganisational Conditions | Whāngai Establishing Whāngai Establishing |
Next Generation Infant Care is one of four services under the ownership of Next Generation Childcare Company Limited. An experienced management team, including the director of the company, oversee the day-to-day running of the service. They lead a team of five qualified teachers. A small number of children with Māori heritage are enrolled.
Children benefit from a calm environment that gives them space and time to make choices and explore. The learning environment is well resourced to encourage children’s critical thinking, wondering and creativity. Teachers respond meaningfully to children’s interests, and they work together to ensure the curriculum is informed by current theories of teaching and learning.
Teaching practices demonstrate that care is understood to be an integral part of the curriculum for infants. Through respectful interactions, teachers respond to children’s verbal and non-verbal cues. Priority is given to encouraging children’s oral language development. As a result, these younger children are very well supported to become articulate and confident communicators.
Children’s learning assessment includes parents’ perspectives and their aspirations for their children’s learning. Leaders acknowledge the need to strengthen assessment practices, so that information gathered is used to inform curriculum planning and evaluation processes. This includes using curriculum evaluation to identify how well teaching strategies impact on the service’s intended learning outcomes for children.
The governance team works well together to implement operational systems. Managers and teachers contribute to developing and implementing the service’s policies and practices. Leaders have recently introduced a peer support initiative that aims to grow teachers’ professional practice. They have also appointed a curriculum leader to have oversight of curriculum planning and assessment processes.
Processes for internal evaluation have been developed. Leaders recognise they need to increase teachers’ capability to do and use evaluation for ongoing quality improvement. This will support the wider organisation to plan for and progress their long-term strategic priorities.
Next Generation Infant Care will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:
The Next Generation organisation will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:
Before the review, the staff and management of Next Generation Infant Care completed an ERO 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.
Patricia Davey
Director of Early Childhood Education (ECE)
8 December 2023
| Early Childhood Service Name | Next Generation Infant Care |
| Profile Number | 10058 |
| Location | Birkenhead, Auckland |
| Service type | Education and care service |
| Number licensed for | 20 children aged under 2 years |
| Percentage of qualified teachers | 100% |
| Service roll | 19 |
| Review team on site | October 2023 |
| Date of this report | 8 December 2023 |
| Most recent ERO report(s) | Education Review, March 2020; Education Review, June 2016 |
Not well placed | Requires further development | Well placed | Very well placed |
Next Generation Infant Care is very well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.
Next Generation Infant Care is licensed to provide full-day education and care for up to 20 children aged under two years. Children access two indoor learning spaces, including a quieter play area for very young children. The centre serves a culturally diverse community.
The centre is one of four under the ownership of Next Generation Childcare Company Limited. An experienced management team, including a director of the company, oversee the day-to-day running of the centre. They lead a team of three qualified teachers and one teacher in training.
The teaching philosophy focuses on the provision of an empowering environment respectful of the aspirations and values of whānau. Teachers aim to support children to become critical thinkers, to value their own and other cultures, and to have control over their learning. Establishing a sense of community with whānau, children and teachers is a central focus of the team.
The 2016 ERO report noted many aspects of quality teaching and learning practices that have been sustained. Areas for development included communication with families, bicultural practice and access to ongoing professional learning and development. There has been very good progress in these areas.
The centre is a member of the Te Ara Whetu Kāhui Ako | Community of Learning.
The centre's philosophy is evident in the programme and teaching practices. Children confidently explore their environment and easily access resources that engage them in play and learning. They play alongside each other and respond with kindness to those around them. Children are relaxed and settled.
Children benefit from having consistency in teaching teams and teachers who provide nurturing, individualised care. Teachers know and understand the communication styles of individual children and skilfully use language to engage them in play and to model interactions with others. Children have developed secure attachments to their caregivers.
Teachers provide a calm, uncluttered environment and actively support children to explore indoors and outdoors. The spacious, natural outdoor play space provides a good range of physical challenges. Teachers support children's choices, include children in decisions that affect them and work well as a team. Children confidently investigate their surroundings, following their interests and curiosities.
Teachers and leaders have implemented numerous communication strategies with families. Time is allocated to welcome new families into the centre through meetings with a leader or teacher. Parents contribute to a blog where they can provide feedback regarding the programme and discuss their children's learning. Teachers gather whānau aspirations and reference these in learning stories supporting learning-based partnerships.
Leaders identify bicultural practice as a significant area of growth in this centre over the past 12 months. Effective professional learning and ongoing internal evaluation is supporting deeper knowledge and understandings of te reo Māori and Māori values and concepts. Teachers use te reo in their interactions with children and in learning stories. Increasing the visibility of te ao Māori in centre practices and documentation is an ongoing goal.
Leaders and teachers are continuing to develop and refine a new process of programme planning. As a result of professional learning, new templates have been introduced to simplify the process and to ensure a meaningful programme is planned for each child within the group setting. Teachers record children's learning through well-written learning stories. Portfolios show continuity and developing complexity of children's learning.
Service leaders have established a culture of continuous improvement. They have implemented a robust process for internal evaluation and successfully engage the whole team in focused professional learning opportunities. This ensures shared understandings across the team and supports the successful implementation of new initiatives that lead to positive outcomes for children. The leadership structure supports all teachers to lead in their area of strength. The service is well managed and led.
To enhance their current high-quality provision for children, centre leaders agree that their key next steps include rationalising and clarifying the centre's strategic goals to establish a clear direction for the future.
Before the review, the staff and management of Next Generation Infant Care 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.
Steve Tanner
Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern)
Northern Region - Te Tai Raki
3 March 2020
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.
| Location | Birkenhead, Auckland | ||
| Ministry of Education profile number | 10058 | ||
| Licence type | Education & Care Service | ||
| Licensed under | Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 | ||
| Number licensed for | 20 children aged under 2 years | ||
| Service roll | 20 | ||
| Gender composition | Girls 13 Boys 7 | ||
| Ethnic composition | Māori NZ European/Pākehā Indian other ethnic groups | 2 8 4 6 | |
| Percentage of qualified teachers | 80% + | ||
| Reported ratios of staff to children | Under 2 | 1:4 | Better than minimum requirements |
| Review team on site | January 2020 | ||
| Date of this report | 3 March 2020 | ||
Most recent ERO report(s)
| Education Review | June 2016 | |
| Education Review | June 2013 | ||
| Education Review | March 2010 | ||
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.
The overall judgement that ERO makes will depend on how well the service promotes 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.