23 Cornwall Street, Lower Hutt
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 Akarangi Quality 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 Education Angels In Home Childcare Wellington are as follows:
Outcome Indicators |
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What the service knows about outcomes for learners |
Whāngai Establishing |
Ngā Akatoro Domains |
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Learning ConditionsOrganisational Conditions |
Whakaū Embedding Whāngai Establishing |
Education Angels In Home Childcare Wellington is one of seven privately owned home-based education and care networks owned by Education Angels In Home Childcare Limited. Educators are located in Eketāhuna. An operations manager supports a team of eight visiting teachers. A high number of children attending this service are of Māori heritage. Some progress has been made towards the key next steps identified in ERO’s 2019 report.
Children, including infants and toddlers, learn in a rich child-led curriculum, which is aligned to the organisation’s identified learning priorities and Te Whāriki the early childhood curriculum. They benefit from a wide range of indoor and outdoor learning experiences in educators’ homes and in the wider community, including everyday activities such as gardening, cooking, and imaginative play.
Visiting teachers effectively coach and mentor educators to implement a culturally responsive curriculum. Educators and visiting teachers are culturally responsive in their interactions with parents. Māori learners’ wellbeing and mana are enhanced.
Daily contact in the homebased setting enables parents and educators to regularly discuss the child, their aspirations for learning and develop learning-focussed relationships.
A new system for assessment planning and evaluation is yet to be fully implemented with all educators. The quality of assessment information is variable. Documentation does not consistently show children’s learning progress over time in relation to the priorities for learning and Te Whāriki learning outcomes.
The visiting teachers are developing capability for their role through on-going professional development. Continuing to build their own confidence and capability to integrate te ao Māori within the curriculum, requires further focussed attention.
On-going reflection and review results in changes to aspects of the service’s operation. Effective internal evaluation that focusses on outcomes for children is not yet well understood or implemented across the organisation.
Comprehensive policy, practices and procedures guide the operation of the organisation. There are clear expectations of visiting teacher’s roles and responsibilities for coaching and mentoring educators’ practice. However, not all visiting teachers have a well-developed understanding of how to ensure educators' homes maintain minimum requirements as specified by the regulatory standards and licensing criteria.
The organisation has several positive initiatives in the early stages of implementation, including strengthened induction and appraisal processes, and visiting teacher reporting to governance.
Education Angels In Home Childcare Wellington will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning.
For leaders and visiting teachers to:
continue to develop all educators understanding and use of the learning outcomes in Te Whāriki to better show children’s learning and progress over time in assessment documentation
continue to grow their capability to include te ao Māori perspectives and use te reo Māori more frequently within the curriculum and documentation
develop shared expectations of how the licensing criteria and regulatory standards are met and maintained in educators’ homes
develop their understanding and use of all aspects of an effective internal evaluation process to better know what is working well or not and for whom within the network and across the organisation.
Before the review, the staff and management of Education Angels In Home Childcare Wellington 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.
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.
During the onsite visit the service provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed the following non-compliance:
heavy furniture, fixtures and equipment that could fall or topple and cause serious injury or damage are secured.
[Licensing Criteria for Home-based Education and Care Centres 2008, HS6].
Kathy Lye
Director Review and Improvement Services (Acting, Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini
15 February 2023
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Early Childhood Service Name |
Education Angels In Home Childcare Wellington |
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Profile Number: |
30305 |
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Location |
Palmerston North |
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Service type |
Home-based service |
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Number licensed for |
50 children, including up to 50 aged under 2 |
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Percentage of qualified teachers |
100% |
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Service roll |
15 |
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Review team on site |
November/2022 |
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Date of this report |
15 February 2023 |
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Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review, February 2019 |
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Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
Education Angels One Palmerston North is well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Education Angels One Palmerston North is one of seven Education Angels home-based early childhood education and care networks operating across New Zealand. This is one of two networks located in Palmerston North. It is licensed for 80 children including 80 up to two years of age. The current roll of 55 children includes 11 who identify as Māori.
The service was purchased by Education Angels organisation in August 2018. It was formally known as Sprouts in-Home Childcare Manawatu 9.
The owner/managers are responsible for the business aspects of Education Angels organisation. An operations manager has oversight of administration, finance and educator training. Two visiting teachers have responsibility for curriculum and the day-to-day running of the service.
The December 2016 ERO report identified a number of next steps for improvement. The previous owner had been progressing work in the following areas: governance; assessment for learning; internal evaluation; bicultural practice; appraisal; strategic planning; and establishing systematic assurance practices.
This is the first ERO review of this service under its new name the Education Angels organisation.
A clear vision sets direction for the service and is aligned to the philosophy that outlines the service’s valued outcomes for children.
The service has appropriately developed and implemented systems, processes and practices to monitor that its expectations for provision of quality education and care are being met. A focus has been on quality assurance, appraisal and induction processes to support new educators and visiting teachers.
Children benefit from positive and caring relationships with educators and visiting teachers. They engage in a wide range of learning opportunities within the home, playgroup, music sessions and the wider community. This provides opportunities for them to socialise with other children while in their educators' care.
Regular visits from visiting teachers support educators to provide for the needs of the children in their care. These visits include a focus on building educators' understanding of Te Whāriki and their capability to work with the early childhood curriculum. Some useful templates have been developed to support them to plan for children’s learning in relation to their interests and stages of development. It is timely to review current assessment, planning and evaluation practices and guidelines to better support educators' knowledge and understanding of what effective practice looks like, including:
Documentation shows how visiting teachers and educators use te reo Māori, waiata and karakia with children. Continuing to implement a culturally responsive, curriculum reflective of the local context remains a priority.
A recent review of monthly visit reports has strengthened the identification and response to children’s learning and subsequent sharing of this with families. Further information is provided for parents about their child’s day through daily diaries and individual learning journeys. These are an attractive record of children’s engagement in learning and stages of development.
Careful consideration is given to the placement of children with educators. This is personalised and responsive to the needs of individual children and their families.
Infants and toddlers are viewed as confident and capable learners and are well supported in home environments that promote their sense of belonging and wellbeing.
Developing a shared understanding of internal evaluation and using this to systematically evaluate the effectiveness of the curriculum in reflecting the philosophy and newly implemented systems and practices is a key next step. This should enable the leadership team to know what is working or not working, who for and why. Findings should then be used to inform decision-making for on-going improvement and future development. Developing a clear and carefully considered strategic plan outlining direction and actions for the organisation, defined by outcomes for children, should support this.
The leadership team and ERO agree the next steps are to:
Before the review, the staff and management of Education Angels One Palmerston North 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:
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.
The next ERO review of Education Angels One Palmerston North will be in three years.
Phil Cowie
Director Review and Improvement Services
Central Region
5 February 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 |
Palmerston North |
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Ministry of Education profile number |
30305 |
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Institution type |
Homebased Network |
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Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
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Number licensed for |
60 children, including up to 60 aged under 2 |
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Service roll |
55 |
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Standard or Quality Funded |
Quality |
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Gender composition |
Boys 29, Girls 26 |
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Ethnic composition |
Māori |
11 |
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Number of qualified coordinators in the network |
2 |
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Required ratios of staff educators to children |
Under 2 |
1:2 |
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Over 2 |
1:4 |
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Review team on site |
November 2018 |
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Date of this report |
5 February 2019 |
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Most recent ERO report(s)
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This is the first report for Education Angels One Palmerston North |
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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:
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
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.