Richmond Road Primary School, Ponsonby, Auckland
View on mapAkarangi | Quality Evaluations evaluate the extent to which early childhood services have 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 and Early Childhood Education (ECE) Improvement Framework (teacher led services) are the basis for making judgements about the quality of the service in achieving equity and excellence for all learners. Evaluations for improvement | Ngā Aronga Whai Hua is integrated across all of the above domains.
ERO’s Akanuku | Assurance Review reports provide information about whether a service meets and maintains regulatory standards. Further information about Akanuku | Assurance Reviews is included at the end of this report.
Regulatory standards | ERO’s judgement |
| Curriculum | Meeting |
| Premises and facilities | Not meeting |
| Health and safety | Not meeting |
| Governance, management and administration | Meeting |
At the time of the review, ERO identified non-compliance with regulatory standards that must be addressed.
A’oga Fa’a Samoa Incorporated is an immersion Samoan early learning service situated in the grounds of Richmond Road Primary School. A parent board provides governing oversight. A centre manager leads a team of thirteen qualified staff and four support staff. All children attending are of Samoan heritage.
The service curriculum respects and supports the right of each child to be confident in their own culture. It encourages children to understand and respect other cultures. Children are provided with a language-rich environment that supports their learning.
The curriculum is informed by assessment, planning, and evaluation that demonstrates an understanding of children’s learning, their interests, aiga, and life contexts. Adults engage in meaningful, positive interactions to enhance children’s learning and nurture reciprocal relationships. Children have a range of experiences and opportunities to enhance and extend their learning and development.
Consistent implementation of operational requirements is required to maintain regulatory standards.
ERO found areas of non-compliance in the service relating to:
Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care Centres 2008, PF3 and HS4.
Since the onsite visit, the service has provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed the following non-compliances:
ERO recommends the Ministry follows up with the service provider to ensure that non-compliances identified in this report are addressed promptly.
The next ERO review is likely to be an Akarangi | Quality Evaluation.
Filivaifale Jason Swann
Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern)
Northern Region | Te Tai Raki
6 October 2022
| Early Childhood Service Name | A’oga Fa’a Samoa Incorporated |
| Profile Number | 20197 |
| Location | Ponsonby, Auckland |
| Service type | Education and care service |
| Number licensed for | 50 children, including up to 16 aged under 2 |
| Percentage of qualified teachers | 100% |
| Service roll | 56 |
| Review team on site | August 2022 |
| Date of this report | 6 October 2022 |
| Most recent ERO report(s) | Education Review, November 2017; Education Review, October 2013 |
All services are licensed under the Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008. The legal requirements for early childhood services also include the Licensing Criteria for Education and Care Services 2008.
Services must meet the standards in the regulations and the requirements of the licensing criteria to gain and maintain a licence to operate.
All early childhood services are required to promote children’s health and safety and to regularly review their compliance with legal requirements. Before the review, the staff and management of a service 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:
As part of an Akanuku | Assurance Review ERO assesses whether the regulatory standards are being met. In particular, ERO looks at a service’s systems for managing the following areas that have a potentially high impact on children's wellbeing:
As part of an Akanuku | Assurance Review ERO also gathers and records evidence through:
| Not well placed | Requires further development | Well placed | Very well placed |
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
A'oga Fa'a Samoa is a well-established total immersion Samoan early learning service. The aoga is located on the Richmond Road Primary School grounds and is licensed for 50 children, including up to 16 aged up to two years of age. All children attending are of Samoan heritage.
The aoga's philosophy promotes language immersion and nurtures the children's identity, language and culture. Key teachers stay with groups of children from when they are first enrolled to when they transition to school. The values of the 'Poutu Model' of alofa (love), tautua (service) and fa'aaloalo (respect) are the guiding principles for the aoga's vision for Samoan children and their families.
Well qualified teachers model the Samoan culture and language for children. They are involved in several professional learning and research opportunities that promote innovation and excellence in teaching and learning. Teachers have provided professional development to other early learning services including other aoga amata.
A centre manager works closely with a leader of teaching and learning to manage the aoga's strategic goals. They work together with a management committee to monitor centre priorities. Long-standing teachers are committed to the aoga's vision to deliver high quality outcomes for children.
ERO's 2013 report identified many high quality aspects of good performance and recommended that the aoga review its bicultural curriculum. The management committee and staff have made very good progress in addressing the recommendations from the 2013 ERO report.
The aoga's philosophy is strongly evident in the programme provided for children. Skilled and capable teachers work cohesively to promote Gagana Samoa and Aganu'u Samoa and teachers provide a place of belonging for children, parents and aiga.
Children participate confidently and are empowered to make choices in the programme. They are socially competent, and relate well to each other and to adults in the aoga. Tuakana teina relationships help children to develop responsibilities and negotiate their play choices. Children know they are valued and express themselves freely with adults who support and enable their learning through play. They are empowered to be strong in their identity and lead their learning.
Teachers remain as primary caregivers for groups of children until they leave the aoga for school. Over this extended period of time they build in-depth knowledge of individual children and very trusting relationships with them, their parents and aiga.
An inviting environment offers children many opportunities to explore and discover as they play. The inclusive curriculum is based on children's interests and teachers' deep knowledge of Fa'a Samoa.
Teachers plan a programme based on children's individual or group interests. Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, is highly evident in the programme and in the centre documentation. Authentic contexts for learning underpin all aspects of the curriculum, aoga culture and partnership with parents and whānau.
There is a strong commitment to providing a broad curriculum for children. Teachers provide many, varied learning opportunities for children, including literacy, numeracy, science, art, and music. Teacher's awareness of the bicultural nature of Aotearoa is skilfully woven throughout the curriculum, extending children's knowledge of te ao Māori.
Internal evaluation is well understood and used to make significant changes to many aspects of the aoga's operations and curriculum programme. Teachers demonstrate an understanding of the benefit of reviewing and inquiring into their practice. Professional learning conversations enrich teachers' effective practice.
Very good systems are in place to ensure policies and procedures are reviewed regularly. Staff and parents are all involved in the effective systems and processes that lead to positive outcomes for children. The aoga is influential in leading practice in the early learning sector through the teachers' involvement in research, conferences, and publications.
An experienced and skilled manager leads the teaching team, promoting teachers' systematic inquiry into their practice, which further develops their professional capability. The highly supportive management team who are elected parents, committed to promoting and encouraging emergent leadership. There is a strong focus on sustainability of initiatives that impact positively on children's wellbeing and learning at the aoga.
ERO and leaders agree that the aoga should continue the in-depth research and internal evaluation that guides their high quality innovative practice.
Before the review, the staff and management of A'oga Fa'a Samoa Incorporated 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.
The next ERO review of A'oga Fa'a Samoa Incorporated will be in four years.
Graham Randell
Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern
Te Tai Raki - Northern Region
9 November 2017
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 | Grey Lynn, Auckland | ||
| Ministry of Education profile number | 20197 | ||
| Licence type | Education & Care Service | ||
| Licensed under | Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 | ||
| Number licensed for | 50 children, including up to 16 aged under 2 | ||
| Service roll | 49 | ||
| Gender composition | Girls 26 Boys 23 | ||
| Ethnic composition | Samoan | 49 | |
| Percentage of qualified teachers | 80% + | ||
| Reported ratios of staff to children | Under 2 | 1:3 | Better than minimum requirements |
| Over 2 | 1:7 | Better than minimum requirements | |
| Review team on site | October 2017 | ||
| Date of this report | 9 November 2017 | ||
Most recent ERO report(s)
| Education Review | August 2013 | |
| Education Review | March 2010 | ||
| Education Review | March 2007 | ||
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:
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 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:
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.