17 Mariposa 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 Mariposa Kids are as follows:
Outcome Indicators(What the service knows about outcomes for learners) | Whāngai Establishing |
Ngā Akatoro Domains | |
Learning ConditionsOrganisational Conditions | Whakatō Emerging Whāngai Establishing |
Mariposa Kids is one of three services owned by the same company. The owners are actively involved in governance and management of each service. A centre manager leads a team of four qualified teachers and four unqualified staff, including a cook. The roll is culturally diverse and includes a small number of Māori children.
Infants and toddlers benefit from a calm learning environment. Respectful teaching practices support these younger children to make their own choices. Trusting relationships with children and families enable teachers to respond sensitively to individual children’s needs and preferences.
Opportunities are provided for older children to care for the environment as well as each other. Children were observed engaging in co-operative play with their peers for sustained periods of time. As a result, children develop a sense of ownership for this place.
Some teachers use basic te reo Māori in their interactions with children. Consideration could now be given to how well the curriculum reflects Māori ways of knowing, being and doing.
Assessment records celebrate children’s identity as successful learners. Information gathered from parents is yet to be used to respond to children’s cultures and languages. Teachers are beginning to explore how to use the learning outcomes in Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, to document children’s learning. A system for curriculum evaluation needs to be developed and documented.
Opportunities are provided for teachers to engage in professional discussions with each other. The newly established teaching team now need time to develop shared professional knowledge and capability.
Leaders are working with an external agency to ensure policies and procedures are up to date. A process for internal evaluation is established and strategic and annual plans are in place. Consideration could be given to how these documents link together to support ongoing improvement that includes a focus on children's learning.
Mariposa Kids will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:
Before the review, the staff and management of Mariposa Kids 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)
12 December 2023
| Early Childhood Service Name | Mariposa Kids |
| Profile Number | 20035 |
| Location | Birkenhead, Auckland |
| Service type | Education and care service |
| Number licensed for | 50 children, including up to 10 aged under 2 |
| Percentage of qualified teachers | 80-99% |
| Service roll | 48 |
| Review team on site | August 2023 |
| Date of this report | 12 December 2023 |
| Most recent ERO report(s) | Education Review July 2019 Education Review November 2015 |
|
Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
Mariposa Kids is well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Mariposa Kids in Birkenhead is licensed to provide education and care for 50 children, including 10 children under the age of two years. The roll reflects Birkenhead's culturally diverse community.
The centre's co-owners have responsibility for the daily management of the centre and work with a centre manager and seven teachers. Most of the teaching staff and one of the owners are registered teachers. The centre is organised into two learning rooms.
The centre's philosophy promotes a strong sense of identity for children. Welcoming, respectful relationships are valued. There is also a focus on partnerships with parents and whānau, and helping children develop fundamental skills for life. Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, guides the programme.
Centre leaders have responded well to ERO's 2015 report. They have made progress with strategic planning. Strengthening te reo and tikanga Māori in the centre has been an ongoing focus.
Children benefit from friendly, trusting relationships in the centre. Families are greeted warmly and children settle quickly. Children seek out friendships, play cooperatively, and make choices from the variety of planned learning activities. They relate easily to adults and engage in activities for sustained periods. Teachers know the children and families well and there is a strong sense of respect and calmness in the centre.
Infants and toddlers enjoy nurturing care, and routines are unhurried. Respectful care practices foster children's oral language, social skills and independence. These children have a dedicated play space but benefit from the mixed-age play opportunities. Parents are kept well informed about their children's progress through daily communications.
Teachers work collaboratively and respond to children's needs. They engage children in conversation and support their play. Literacy and numeracy opportunities are integrated into day-to-day activities. Learning promoted through the play programme supports children's transition to school.
Teachers continue to develop their planning, assessment and evaluation processes. They observe and discuss children's interests, and plan activities and resources that relate to shared topics of interest. Shifting to a stronger focus on child-led learning, investigation and inquiry, would help to strengthen centre practices. Teachers should also consider how to extend and challenge children's creativity and imaginative play.
Teachers have made a determined effort to embed aspects of te ao Māori into the programme and learning environment. They confidently use words, phrases and songs in te reo Māori during the programme. Teachers respond to the multicultural community by sharing their own cultures and languages. These approaches help to promote children's identity and language development.
Relationships with parents and whānau are well established. Portfolios are an attractive collection of children's activities and experiences in the centre. Written surveys, informal discussions and electronic communications are used to support parents to be partners in their children's learning. Transitions between the rooms are personalised to meet children's needs.
Managers and teachers continue to refine their regular, formal, and spontaneous self review. An appraisal process supports teacher growth and professional development. Developing a comprehensive strategic plan outlining long-term goals would support ongoing improvements.
Centre operations are guided by a sound base of policies and procedures. Leaders benefit from the guidance of an external mentor. Teachers receive good support from the owners, who contribute their own individual skills to the operation of the centre.
Key next steps are to continue:
identifying ways to further extend and challenge children's creativity and imaginative play
deepening internal evaluation through robust evaluative questions and reasoning
planning and using deliberate teaching strategies to promote and support child-led learning and to extend children's critical thinking
recognising and responding more purposefully to children’s interests and prior knowledge.
Before the review, the staff and management of Mariposa Kids 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:
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.
Steve Tanner
Director Review and Improvement Services Northern
Northern Region
18 July 2019
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 |
20035 |
||
|
Licence type |
Education & Care Service |
||
|
Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
||
|
Number licensed for |
50 children, including up to 10 aged under 2 |
||
|
Service roll |
57 |
||
|
Gender composition |
Boys 29 Girls 28 |
||
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori |
1 |
|
|
Percentage of qualified teachers |
80% + |
||
|
Reported ratios of staff to children |
Under 2 |
1:3 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
Over 2 |
1:8 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
|
Review team on site |
April 2019 |
||
|
Date of this report |
18 July 2019 |
||
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review |
November 2015 |
|
|
Education Review |
May 2012 |
||
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:
Very well placed
Well placed
Requires further development
Not well placed
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.