11 Green Street, Frankton-Hamilton, Hamilton
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Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Gingerbread Cottage is a privately owned and operated home-based education and care service for children from birth to school age in Hamilton and surrounding areas. It is licensed to cater for 80 children. Its roll of 44, includes 14 children of Māori descent. Children are placed in family homes with one educator, who can be responsible for up to four children at any one time. The network offers flexible hours to meet individual family needs.
The service's philosophy states that they strive to build positive, reciprocal relationships to foster a strong sense of belonging. It aims to value children’s knowledge and their learning is fostered in play based environments. Parents are acknowledged as the child’s first teachers.
Since ERO’s last review in 2015 planning, assessment and evaluation has been strengthened and a new visiting teacher has been appointed.
Children’s interests are effectively responded to by educators. Caring, nurturing and inclusive relationships are evident between educators and children. All children are empowered to be involved in learning experiences that build a strong sense of belonging and ability to self manage. There are effective systems and processes in place to support children with additional needs. Learning is contextual to real-life experiences. Children are encouraged to follow their interests and lead their own learning.
Children under the age of two enjoy positive, responsive, one-to-one secure interactions. Infants and toddlers experience continuity of connection between visiting teachers, educators and families. Effective communication systems support sharing of information about infants' routines between care and home. Careful and thoughtful placements by the service match parents' and children’s needs with educators well. Children’s learning is well supported through a clear focus on providing positive and reciprocal relationships
The curriculum is effective in providing positive learning opportunities for children. Experiences outside the home regularly provide children with opportunities for learning in different contexts. Te Whāriki underpins the curriculum provided in this home-based service. Te reo and tikanga Māori are evident in the programme. Children experience a rich curriculum where they are listened to and encouraged to become confident and successful learners and explorers.
Planning for children’s learning is well promoted by visiting teachers both at playgroup and in the educator's home. Assessment reflects children's learning and parents and whānau are able to access their child's individual portfolios. Further strengthening of assessment practices should include clearly documenting children's learning and progress overtime. Educators, parents and children attend regular playgroups, which are held in attractively presented and well-resourced learning spaces. Children's play is recognised and valued as meaningful learning.
The two visiting teachers guide and support educators to meet health and safety requirements and provide an appropriate standard of education and care. They effectively identify and respond to children’s individual learning needs through regular visits and monthly reports. Visiting teachers encourage educators to acknowledge children’s language, culture and identity and reflect this in their programme. Positive and robust induction processes support new educators into the service. There is a strong focus on encouraging educators to engage in professional learning opportunities. Children’s learning is enhanced by visiting teachers who are reflective and responsive to their learning and care needs.
The philosophy, vision and mission effectively guide the service. An annual plan is in place and used by visiting teachers to progress goals and priorities. Self review follows a framework that leads to change and improvement. Leaders acknowledge that the philosophy and long-term strategic direction for the service now needs to be reviewed in order to promote further outcomes for children.
ERO and leaders agree that there is need to review the philosophy and long term strategic direction for the service and strengthen policies, procedures and systems to include:
robust performance management and appraisal policies to ensure consistent expectations and alignment with the Education Council New Zealand guidelines
consistency in assessment practice to show, progressions in learning over time.
Before the review, the staff and management of Gingerbread Cottage 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 Gingerbread Cottage will be in three years.
Lynda Pura-Watson
Deputy Chief Review Officer
Te Tai Miringa - Waikato / Bay of Plenty Region
18 June 2018
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 |
Hamilton |
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Ministry of Education profile number |
45499 |
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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 |
80 children, including up to 80 aged under 2 |
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Service roll |
44 |
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Standard or Quality Funded |
Standard |
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Gender composition |
Girls 24 Boys 20 |
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Ethnic composition |
Māori |
14 |
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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 |
June 2018 |
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Date of this report |
18 June 2018 |
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Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review |
November 2015 |
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Education Review |
April 2017 |
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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.
|
Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
He whānau kōtahi tātou, ā ahakoa he iti he pounamu We are one family, where each member is precious and valued
The guiding principles of this service's philosophy are based on Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. These include:
Gingerbread Cottage network provides home-based education and care for children from birth to school age in Hamilton and surrounding areas. Children are placed in family homes with one educator, who can be responsible for up to four children at any one time. Gingerbread Cottage is licenced to cater for 80 children. Its roll of 39, includes seven children of Māori descent and three Samoan children. The network offers flexible hours to meet individual family, whānau and aiga needs.
Gingerbread Cottage is one of two networks owned and operated by a private home-based care service, Gingerbread Cottage Ltd. One of the service's directors is the licensee for both networks. She has overall responsibility for compliance, financial management and administration. The service has recently employed a teacher manager to improve the quality of self review, professional leadership and support for the visiting teacher and educators in each network. The teacher manager and visiting teachers are fully qualified early childhood teachers.
The visiting teacher guides and supports educators to meet health and safety requirements and provide an appropriate standard of education and care. She regularly visits children in their educators' homes. As Gingerbread Cottage is a standard network, its educators have yet to complete formal early childhood training. The service encourages them to attend workshops and undertake training to support them in their educator role.
The April 2012 ERO report for Gingerbread Cottage network identified several priorities for development including quality assurance, appraisal and self review of educators. The new teacher manager has recently begun to address these priorities. Since the 2012 report the service has also purchased and renovated a large warehouse to provide a permanent base for administration, the playgroup and meetings.
Tamariki experience a wide variety of learning experiences in educators' homes, parks, libraries, music and playgroups, and natural settings. They have many opportunities to work with and alongside children of diverse ages and abilities, and to form trusting relationships with adults in family-like environments.
Educators make good use of annotated photographs in individual learning journals to document babies' and toddlers' physical development, emerging language, friendships and social skills. Journals of older children reflect their love of art, music, dancing, imaginative play, development of more complex language and ideas, and exploration of mathematical and science concepts. The visiting teacher frequently contributes learning stories about outings and playgroup experiences.
Where possible, the visiting teacher places Māori and Samoan children with educators of the same language and culture. Samoan educators strongly support their children's language, culture and identity, with active encouragement and resourcing from the visiting teacher. As a result of visiting teachers attending courses in te reo and tikanga Māori, children and educators are becoming more confident to use Māori phrases and observe aspects of tikanga.
The visiting teacher assists educators to improve the quality of learning outcomes for children by encouraging and supporting them to:
She also uses the service's playgroup to model effective ways to support literacy learning, set up areas of play, and to interact with children.
The visiting teacher communicates regularly with parents/whānau through educators, email, by telephone and occasionally at playgroup. The service provides parents and whānau with both formal and informal opportunities to contribute to the development and review of the service's operations. This was particularly evident in the recent review of the service philosophy. The service is developing effective systems to support operations and professional practice.
A notable feature of the service is the high level of collaboration and communication between visiting teachers, educators and parents. The licensee, teacher manager, visiting teachers and educators have worked cooperatively to develop a set of indicators to evaluate their practice, identify gaps, and to evaluate the effectiveness of plans to address these.
The directors, teacher manager and visiting teachers meet regularly to share information about what is happening within each network. They have recently developed a philosophy, vision and mission statement to guide the direction of the service. These documents clearly specify the service's aims and intentions, which should assist leaders to focus reviews of current practices and new initiatives on improving learning outcomes for children.
A comprehensive framework of policies and procedures supports service personnel to meet health and safety requirements. Processes for reviewing policies and procedures are well developed and inclusive.
The service has a well-developed process to review policies and procedures. The appraisal of visiting teachers is aligned to the practising teacher criteria and regularly monitored during the year. Service managers and teachers acknowledge that the following is an important priority to consider for ongoing review and development:
Before the review, the staff and management of Gingerbread Cottage 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:
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 Gingerbread Cottage will be in three years.
Graham Randell
Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern
23 November 2015
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 |
Hamilton |
|
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
45499 |
|
|
Institution type |
Homebased Network |
|
|
Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
|
|
Number licensed for |
80 children, including up to 80 aged under 2 |
|
|
Service roll |
39 |
|
|
Standard or Quality Funded |
Standard |
|
|
Gender composition |
Girls 20 Boys 19 |
|
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori Pākehā Samoan Indian |
7 28 3 1 |
|
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 |
October 2015 |
|
|
Date of this report |
23 November 2015 |
|
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review |
April 2012 |
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.