72 Apollo Dr, Albany, Auckland
View on mapPlayschool 2
Playschool 2
1 Evaluation of Playschool 2
How well placed is Playschool 2 to promote positive learning outcomes for children?
Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
Playschool 2 is well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Background
Playschool 2 is a standard-funded homebased service that provides educators who are au pairs, nannies or family members. Educators are known as kaiako. The place of care is either the child's or kaiako homes. Children enrolled have are from diverse ethnicities. A small number of children are Māori.
The service is one of 11 owned by Playschool Education Ltd. The owner and two managers provide operational and professional support for coordinators and educators nationally. The managers and coordinator, who are registered early childhood teachers, regularly visit all children and support educators to implement the curriculum.
The philosophy is guided by the principles of whakaute (respect), manākitanga (trust), whanaungatanga (partnership) and taiao ako (environment).
The 2017 ERO report identified that coordinators provided good support to educators to improve their professional knowledge and practice. This area of practice has been maintained. Areas for improvement included increasing educators' responsibility for decision making related to the curriculum, and to strengthen bicultural practices. Progress is evident in these areas.
This review was one of four reviews of Playschool Education Ltd services.
The Review Findings
Service documents show that children participate in a variety of learning experiences within and outside of a homebased context. Programme planning is based on activities related to children's interests and significant events in the community. Coordinators help kaiako to identify and link children's interests and skills with Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum.
Leaders are committed to implementing a bicultural approach in the curriculum and to help kaiako grow their confidence in using te reo Māori. They support kaiako to acknowledge diverse cultures through participating in cultural celebrations.
Programme coordinators capably support kaiako to develop an understanding of children as learners. They implement good strategies to help kaiako to improve learning outcomes for children. These include inhouse education modules and regular coaching and mentoring. Coordinators help kaiako to grow their knowledge about curriculum implementation.
Programme coordinators and leaders foster trust amongst kaiako, children and their whānau. They promote the respectful use of resources, and comment positively about the care and relationships between children, their whānau and kaiako.
Leaders have established very good systems and documents to guide kaiako to meet regulatory requirements. They use a well-established framework of self review that leads to improvement in service operations. Internal evaluation could be strengthened through a focus on evaluating improvements to kaiako practice and the impact of this on children's learning.
Key Next Steps
Key next steps for leaders are to:
- strengthen the formal recording of progress towards Playschool's strategic goals in relation to improving outcomes for children
- consider ways to support kaiako to evaluate the effectiveness of their in home curriculum in relation to improved learning outcomes for children.
Management Assurance on Legal Requirements
Before the review, the staff and management of Playschool 2 completed an ERO Home-based Education and Care 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.
Steve Tanner
Director Review and Improvement Services Northern
Northern Region | Te Tai Raki
18 February 2021
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 Home-based Education and Care Service
Location |
Albany, Auckland |
||
Ministry of Education profile number |
25385 |
||
Institution type |
Homebased Network |
||
Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
||
Number licensed for |
80 children, including up to 40 aged under 2 |
||
Service roll |
49 |
||
Standard or Quality Funded |
Standard |
||
Ethnic composition |
Māori |
2 |
|
Number of qualified coordinators in the network |
1 |
||
Required ratios of staff educators to children |
Under 2 |
1:2 |
|
Over 2 |
1:4 |
||
Review team on site |
November 2020 |
||
Date of this report |
18 February 2021 |
||
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review |
February 2017 |
|
Education Review |
December 2013 |
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 the draft methodology for ERO reviews in Home-based Education and Care Services: July 2014
ERO’s Overall Judgement
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.
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.
Playschool 2 - 22/02/2017
1 Evaluation of Playschool 2
How well placed is Playschool 2 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
Playschool 2 is one of eight networks offering home-based education and care that operate under the umbrella of Playschool Education. The main office is located in Auckland. The service, which is owned and managed by the director has been in operation for 10 years, and now includes home-based networks in a variety of places throughout the North Island.
The service employs support personnel and a team of programme coordinators who regularly visit all of the children in the service and support the educators in their practice. Programme coordinators are fully trained teachers and bring a variety of early childhood education experience to their role.
The service is developing new systems to be implemented during 2017. These systems are intended to support effective day to day operations and children's learning. The service caters for a diverse community. Parents are the employers of the educators.
This review was part of a cluster of five reviews of Playschool networks. Three of these networks were part of the 2013 ERO review.
The service offers a variety of education and care options. Families are able to choose between au pair, whānau members or nannies. Whānau members provide care in their own homes for their whānau and grandchildren, and nannies work with children in the children's homes. A sister company aligned with Playschool engages au pair from overseas to live with families and to work with their children. The majority of au pair live for up to a year with the families and management use effective systems to manage smooth transitions between au pairs.
Playschool 2 is licensed to cater for 80 children from local communities between birth and school age. There are currently 90 children enrolled. Approximately 75 percent of the children are Pākehā, and 7 percent have Māori heritage. The majority of educators in the network are au pair that stay with families for up to 12 months.
The Review Findings
Management has a clear philosophy and focus on providing quality education and care for children and support for families. Documentation indicates that programme coordinators have good knowledge about families/whānau and their children. Their regular monthly visits are used to model good teaching and give encouragement to support educators' professional growth. Programme coordinators expect educators to include aspirations expressed by families/whānau in the programmes they provide for children. They support educators to increase resources, experiences and opportunities as ways of engaging children in learning through play. The service helps to fund extra community-based experiences to further support children's learning.
The manager and her team provide regular opportunities for productive professional development that has led to the present changes in the organisation. These include a stronger and positive focus on te Ao Māori, and internal evaluation. The building of emergent leadership has been a very positive aspect of recent service operations.
As a result of intensive internal evaluation over the last year, management and the team of programme coordinators have redeveloped many of the resources and guiding material used for managing the work of the service. The service gathered multiple voices to guide these changes. The new manual for educators includes a series of training modules for educators completed over a year. There is a greater focus on extending learning for children and strengthening the use of te reo and tikanga Māori in written and spoken forms.
During 2017 children will be provided with new portfolios for educators to record learning stories and comments about what they observe of children's learning. Programme coordinators and whānau are encouraged to contribute to the children's learning journey. New documentation shows the potential to continue to streamline care and safety procedures.
The newly developed appraisal system for educators has the potential to help identify areas for support and development. A renewed appraisal system for Programme Coordinators meets the requirements of the Education Council. This should be now be embedded in practices. Review dates for making judgements about the effectiveness of these new developments are in place. The work undertaken by the team is a positive step in the growing professionalism of the service. The appraisal process for the service curriculum manager needs to be strengthened to ensure a robust and meaningful process is in place.
Key Next Steps
ERO and management agree that the key next steps for the service are to:
- introduce new documentation to educators, support the embedding of new recording systems and evaluate the effectiveness of these processes in due time
- provide increased time for programme coordinators to undertake this work
- continue to increase educators' responsibility for decision-making in the curriculum
- consider ways to include Te Tiriti o Waitangi principles and practices in management documentation.
Management Assurance on Legal Requirements
Before the review, the staff and management of Playschool 2 completed an ERO Home-based Education and Care 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.
Next ERO Review
When is ERO likely to review the service again?
The next ERO review of Playschool 2 will be in three years.
Graham Randell
Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern
22 February 2017
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 Home-based Education and Care Service
Location |
Albany, Auckland |
||
Ministry of Education profile number |
25385 |
||
Institution type |
Homebased Network |
||
Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
||
Number licensed for |
80 children, including up to 40 aged under 2 |
||
Service roll |
90 |
||
Standard or Quality Funded |
Standard |
||
Gender composition |
Boys 50, Girls 40 |
||
Ethnic composition |
Māori |
6 |
|
Number of qualified coordinators in the network |
2 |
||
Required ratios of staff educators to children |
Under 2 |
1:2 |
|
Over 2 |
1:4 |
||
Review team on site |
January 2017 |
||
Date of this report |
22 February 2017 |
||
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review |
December 2013 |
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 the draft methodology for ERO reviews in Home-based Education and Care Services: July 2014
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.