24 A Fairlands Avenue, Waterview, Auckland
View on mapERO’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 |
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Curriculum |
Meeting |
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Premises and facilities |
Meeting |
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Health and safety |
Meeting |
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Governance, management and administration |
Meeting |
At the time of the review, ERO found the service was taking reasonable steps to meet regulatory standards.
Waterview Early Learning Center is one of four services under the same ownership. The owner works closely with a centre manager, four qualified teachers and three support staff. The community is ethnically diverse. A quarter of children enrolled are Pacific, and a small number are Māori. This is the first ERO review of this service since a change of ownership in 2019.
The service’s curriculum is consistent with Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. It is informed by assessment, planning and evaluation that demonstrate an understanding of children’s learning, their interests, whānau and life contexts.
Adults providing education and care engage in meaningful, positive interactions to nurture reciprocal relationships. They provide children with a curriculum that is inclusive, and responsive to children as confident and competent learners. Children’s preferences are respected, and they are involved in decisions about their learning experiences. A language-rich environment supports children’s learning and development.
Next steps include:
developing teachers’ shared understanding of intentional teaching practices and cultural competencies needed to respond to individual children’s learning
increasing the extent to which information documented about children's learning reflects their identity, languages and cultures.
The next ERO review is likely to be an Akarangi | Quality Evaluation.
Patricia Davey
Director of Early Childhood Education (ECE)
18 September 2023
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Early Childhood Service Name |
Waterview Early Learning Center |
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Profile Number |
20514 |
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Location |
Waterview, Auckland |
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Service type |
Education and care service |
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Number licensed for |
40 children, including up to 14 aged under 2 |
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Percentage of qualified teachers |
80-99% |
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Service roll |
35 |
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Review team on site |
August 2023 |
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Date of this report |
18 September 2023 |
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Most recent ERO report(s) |
First ERO review of the service under new ownership. |
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.
having its first ERO review – including if it is part of a governing organisation
previously identified as ‘not well placed’ or ‘requiring further development’
that has moved from a provisional to a full licence
that have been re-licenced due to a change of ownership
where an Akanuku | Assurance Review process is determined to be appropriate.
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:
curriculum
premises and facilities
health and safety practices
governance, management and administration.
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:
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; safety checking; teacher certification; ratios)
relevant evacuation procedures and practices.
As part of an Akanuku | Assurance Review ERO also gathers and records evidence through:
discussions with those involved in the service
consideration of relevant documentation, including the implementation of health and safety systems
observations of the environment/premises, curriculum implementation and teaching practice.
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Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
ABC Waterview is well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
ABC Waterview provides for up to 40 children in an adapted residential property. Programmes provided for older children are in the Oaktree room, and for up to 14 infants and toddlers in the Acorn room. The centre caters for the neighbouring community.
The centre is part of the BestStart charitable trust. It provides an overarching governance and management framework to support operations and curriculum delivery in individual centres. Business managers (BM) and professional services managers (PSM) lead the staff professional development and provide strategic guidance.
The majority of the staff are new to the centre. A centre manager, an assistant manager and a head teacher have been employed recently. BestStart has appointed a new PSM and BM to support centre management and teachers' professional practice. The new team has worked to re-establish management and curriculum practices.
Managers have addressed the areas for development identified in ERO's 2015 report. The centre's philosophy has been reviewed and emphasises children's learning through play.
This review was part of a cluster of nine reviews in BestStart's Upper North Island region.
Children socialise well with their peers in a calm and relaxed atmosphere. Friendships are fostered, and children support each other through tuakana/teina relationships.
Staff provide gentle and nurturing care and encourage infants and toddlers to explore their surroundings. Stimulating resources and activities help children to gain confidence in exploring the environment and interacting with others.
Leaders and teachers are focusing on building whanaungatanga in the centre and have taken deliberate steps to welcome whānau and the neighbouring community. Teachers know children well and are now building constructive learning relationships with children and parents.
With the help of parents and community, leaders and teachers have recently put considerable work into improving the learning environment for children. The strategic purchase of new resources is adding to children's choices and engagement in play.
Staff and families have diverse cultural backgrounds and languages. Leaders and teachers are extending their knowledge and skills to better support this rich diversity of cultures and languages. Teachers are studying te reo Māori to gain confidence in bicultural practices. Their planned work to unpack Tapasā, the Ministry of Education's cultural competencies framework, will help them to better respond to Pacific cultures.
Teachers plan programmes for groups of children. They include experiences that support children's developing oral language. A next step is to develop individual planning processes that focus on each child's learning dispositions and interests and can be used by teachers to extend children's learning.
Individual learning records are available online for parents to view their children's learning records and to communicate with the centre. Parents are encouraged to participate as learning partners with their children and the teachers.
Leaders are establishing a culture in the centre that supports ongoing improvement. They are beginning to build teachers' professional practice to support improved outcomes for children.
Centre operations are guided by strategic and annual plans, and a shared vision. These are linked to BestStart strategic goals, which promote a sense of belonging to a wider learning community and support more widespread collaboration amongst teaching teams. Leaders and teachers regularly revisit the centre's strategic goals and annual action plans to monitor quality and promote ongoing improvement.
Key next steps for improvement are to:
establish individual planning processes to focus on each child's learning dispositions and interests, and extend learning
build teachers' capability through inquiry into the quality and effectiveness of teaching practices, and developing shared understandings of relevant theories and practice in early childhood education
engage in shared professional development to develop leaders' and teachers' professional capacity and to support coaching and mentoring.
Since the onsite phase of the review ERO has requested, and BestStart managers have provided, an action plan that shows how the priorities for improvement will be addressed. ERO will request progress updates against the plan.
Before the review, the staff and management of ABC Waterview 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
27 September 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.
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Location |
Waterview, Auckland |
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Ministry of Education profile number |
20514 |
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Licence type |
Education & Care Service |
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Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
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Number licensed for |
40 children, including up to 14 aged under 2 |
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Service roll |
28 |
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Gender composition |
Girls 16 Boys 12 |
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Ethnic composition |
Māori |
7 |
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Percentage of qualified teachers |
80% + |
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Reported ratios of staff to children |
Under 2 |
1:5 |
Meets minimum requirements |
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Over 2 |
1:10 |
Meets minimum requirements |
|
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Review team on site |
July 2019 |
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Date of this report |
27 September 2019 |
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Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review |
June 2015 |
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|
Education Review |
September 2012 |
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Supplementary Review |
August 2009 |
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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.