JoJo's Early Learning Limited

ERO’s Judgements

Akarangi | 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 (PDF 3.01MB) are the basis for making judgements about the effectiveness of the service in achieving equity and excellence for all learners. The Akarangi Quality Evaluation Judgement Rubric (PDF 91.30KB) derived from the indicators, is used to inform the ERO’s judgements about this service’s performance in promoting equity and excellence.

ERO’s judgements for JoJo's Childcare Ltd are as follows:

Context of the Service

Jojo’s Childcare Ltd is a privately owned service in a semi-rural community. The owner oversees governance and management. A newly appointed centre manager leads the teaching team. Children are cared for in separate learning areas, grouped according to their age. The centre is supported by an administrator and a cook.

Summary of findings

Children are keen learners and engage well with their peers. Kaiako provide a curriculum that promotes older children’s agency, independence and decision making. Children are confident and have a strong sense of belonging in the centre.

Kaiako who work with infants and toddlers maintain a calm, slow pace that reflects concepts of aroha. This good practice demonstrates that care is understood to be an integral part of the curriculum.

Leaders and kaiako collaboratively develop and maintain responsive and respectful relationships with children and parents. They seek and use parents’ views to develop a responsive and meaningful curriculum. They have started to engage with tangata whenua to grow the knowledge and capability of the teaching teams to deliver an authentic local curriculum.

A good process of internal evaluation generates new knowledge for leaders and kaiako. They inquire into aspects of practice, asking themselves what works well and why. They make evidence-based changes and are beginning to evaluate the effectiveness and impact of these changes. Relevant external expertise is carefully selected from the wider early childhood education community to support them to grow their knowledge.

The service provider and centre manager have complementary roles. They have developed a positive, collaborative working environment that has led to relational trust at all levels. They provide environments that prioritise a sense of security for adults and children, both physically and emotionally. Human resource policies, procedures and practices promote the recruitment and selection of kaiako who support the service’s philosophy and values.

Improvement actions

JoJo's Childcare Ltd will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:

• continue working with iwi to implement bicultural practices and a localised curriculum
• continue to strengthen, through internal evaluation, equitable opportunities and outcomes for all children
• support kaiako to design a curriculum that recognises and responds to each child’s language, culture and identity.

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of JoJo's Childcare Ltd 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.

Steve Tanner
Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern)
Northern Region | Te Tai Raki

12 May 2021  

About the Early Childhood Service

1 Evaluation of JoJo's Childcare Ltd

How well placed is JoJo's Childcare Ltd to promote positive learning outcomes for children?

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

Background

JoJo's Childcare Ltd is a private, family owned and managed centre. It provides education and care for up to 100 children, including up to 25 children under two years of age. The centre caters for different age groups in four separate learning areas: The Pipi and Kina rooms cater for infants and toddlers; Paua for children between two and three and half years; and Kūtai room for older children. Each room is led by a head teacher.

The centre employs 24 permanent staff, 17 of whom are registered teachers. Some staff are new to the centre and three head teachers are also new to their leadership roles. The centre owner/director continues to work closely with the centre manager.

The centre’s philosophy statement focuses strongly on respectful practices that value collaboration and partnerships with families. A recent review of the philosophy has prioritised building bicultural partnership with tangata whenua and the celebration of the centre's increasingly diverse community. Providing a caring, stimulating environment that supports children’s holistic needs is important to teachers.

The centre's 2013 ERO report noted positive relationships and sensitive transitions through the different learning spaces. These positive aspects continue to be evident. ERO also identified the need to develop strategic and annual planning, and strengthen the quality of curriculum and bicultural practices. The need to refine programme planning and to develop strategic priorities was also identified. Since that time, good progress has been made in a number of areas.

The Review Findings

Children in this centre play confidently and with enthusiasm. They benefit from a high staff-to-child ratio that provides good support for their play, learning and care. The youngest children particularly benefit from consistent nurturing, individualised and gentle care that is sensitive to their rhythms and needs.

Older children are leading their own learning and becoming competent problem solvers. The attractive, well resourced environments encourage children's exploration and engagement in play and learning. Respectful teaching practices and sensitively timed interactions support children to settle and become highly focused in activities, both indoors and outdoors.

There is a strong focus throughout the centre on building bicultural practice and working in partnership with whānau. Teachers support each other to become more confident with te reo and tikanga Māori through daily routines and as children play. Leaders are keen to strengthen this aspect of teacher practice and further professional learning has begun to build capability and establish consistent practice. Staff are using Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, Ka Hikitia: Accelerating Success 2013 – 2017,Nga Arohaehae Whai Hua, and other documents, to promote shared understandings of good quality teaching and learning.

The owner and centre manager work collaboratively to establish sustainable leadership across the centre. Their recent focus has been on developing a centre culture that is conducive to ongoing improvement. Managers are continuing to work on refining appraisal processes and on ensuring that effective teaching teams support children's learning across the centre.

As a result of sound self-review processes, the centre vision, philosophy, strategic approach and annual plan are well aligned and show a clear future direction. Self review is collaborative and linked to children's learning, providing good guidance for centre managers and teachers.

Key Next Steps

Centre managers agree that they should continue to develop internal evaluation processes and use information gained through these processes to further progress all areas of centre operations, including:

• embedding new systems and processes to strengthen teacher capability and the sustainability of good practice

• documenting how effectively planning, evaluation and assessment are helping teachers to extend children's learning

• continuing to develop teachers as effective leaders of internal evaluation

• continuing to strengthen bicultural practices.

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of JoJo's Childcare Ltd 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.

Next ERO Review

When is ERO likely to review the service again?

The next ERO review of JoJo's Childcare Ltd will be in three years.

Graham Randell

Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern

23 September 2016

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.