Campus Creche Trust

1 Evaluation of Campus Creche Trust

How well placed is Campus Creche Trust to promote positive learning outcomes for children?

ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.

Background

Campus Creche Trust is an education and care service, owned and operated by a charitable trust, and is located on the Waikato University campus in Hillcrest, Hamilton. It is licensed for 143 children including up to 42 under the age of two years, in four age-based facilities. The current roll of 93 includes 21 children who identify as Māori and a similar number from a range of other ethnicities. The service employs 18 fully qualified and registered teachers.

The service has an overarching philosophy that strongly promotes the provision of nature-based learning experiences for children. It aims to nurture children’s wellbeing and belonging and maintain positive, reciprocal relationships with children and their whānau. Each facility has its own mission statement that outlines how it will implement the Campus Creche Trust philosophy.

The Campus Creche Trust is now governing and managing a separate facility at another Hamilton location, Campus Creche at Fraser, and this service is on a separate licence and not part of this ERO review.

The service has a positive reporting history with ERO and has made good progress in addressing the next step from the last ERO review in 2014, strengthening their bicultural curriculum.

The Review Findings

Older children experience a highly responsive curriculum that reflects their interests, needs and strengths. Flexible routines support learners to self-manage and engage in active play and exploration, take risks, problem solve and develop social competence. Trips out of the centre into the bush, and the wide open spaces within the centre grounds, encourage children to engage with nature. Inclusive practices support children with additional learning needs. Children are viewed as confident and competent learners.

Nurturing and affirming relationships promote confidence and a sense of belonging for younger infants and toddlers. Oral language development is well supported through meaningful conversations, storytelling, music and singing. There is a need to review the mostly teacher-led routines in the younger children's room to be more responsive to individual rhythms, and ways of learning, placing trust in them to be competent explorers and risk-takers.

Māori learners are well supported to achieve success. Strong relationships with whānau, hapū and iwi are evident and curriculum experiences include karakia, waiata, learning about Atua, and sustainability-kaitiakitanga. Māori concepts such as ako, whanāungatanga and manaakitanga are evident and teachers are at differing stages of developing skills and confidence in implementing te reo Māori. The multi-cultural teaching team reflects the diversity of the families attending. Children's language, culture and identity are celebrated and affirmed.

Rich portfolios capture children's learning. A centre-wide internal evaluation focus on assessment has strengthened the consistency and quality of how children's learning is documented. Children's dispositions, interests and strengths are recorded and these learning stories are available online for parents to access. Continuity of learning over time builds a picture of the child as a successful learner.

A collaborative leadership approach is building capability within the service. A strength of the leadership team is the pastoral care and support provided for teachers. External coaching and mentoring is adding strength to internal expertise. Leaders contribute to the wider education community.

Leaders have set expectations in relation to teachers' knowledge of the revised New Zealand early childhood curriculum, Te Whāriki. Further support and a strategic approach is required for teachers to realise this goal. A recent review of the appraisal system has developed aspects of the process and sets clear expectations. This process should now be further strengthened to meet the Education Council's indicators of good practice.

Trust members and management are focussed on quality outcomes for children. Committee members have a range of useful skills and work well with managers and leaders. Long term strategic and management plans are guiding operations. Teachers and parents are consulted as part of regular policy reviews and other areas relating to the direction of the centres. Effective internal evaluation across the organisation is leading to positive outcomes for children.

Key Next Steps

Next steps for Campus Creche Trust leaders and teachers are:

• to review routines and teaching practices for infants and toddlers, to align with current research and quality indicators of best practice.

To further strengthen the appraisal process consideration should be given to developing:

• teachers' understanding of goal setting, including alignment to the organisation's strategic goals

• stronger links to the Standards for the Teaching Profession in the appraisal policy, procedures and in practice

• consistency of feedback and open-to-learning conversations.

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Campus Creche Trust 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.

Actions for compliance

In order to improve practice the endorsement of teaching practicing certificates must be based on full evidence being sighted.

Next ERO Review

When is ERO likely to review the service again?

The next ERO review of Campus Creche Trust will be in three years.

Phil Cowie

Director Review and Improvement Services Central Region

18 December 2018

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 Early Childhood Service

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 ERO’s Approach to Review in Early Childhood Services.

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.