38 Devon Street, Stoke, Nelson
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 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 Nurture@Home Marlb are as follows:
Outcome Indicators(What the service knows about outcomes for learners) | Whakaū Embedding |
Ngā Akatoro Domains | |
Learning ConditionsOrganisational Conditions | Whakaū Embedding Whakaū Embedding |
Purchased in February 2023, this is one of three homebased services under shared ownership. The owner and visiting teachers are qualified early childhood teachers who provide guidance and support to educators, children and their families. Most educators have completed a relevant qualification. A small number of children who attend are Māori or of Pacific heritage. As part of this evaluation, ERO visited a sample of educators’ homes in Blenheim.
Children experience calm, unhurried, engaging learning environments. They follow their interests, learn in small groups, and regularly visit the local community with their educator. Children who require additional resources are well supported to meet their individual goals.
Visiting teachers, coach and mentor educators to develop an understanding about how children learn, and the importance of assessment, planning and evaluation for learning. A more clearly defined process is required to support educators to document children’s learning. As a group, visiting teachers plan and provide regular larger group learning-based play opportunities to support children’s social and emotional skills development. They support educators well through monthly visits to homes and ongoing specific communication.
Educators and visiting teachers incorporate learning dispositions and some learning outcomes from Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, into assessment documentation to show children’s increasing capabilities and development. There is some variability in learning documentation as visiting teachers work alongside newer educators. Children’s languages, cultures and identities are somewhat visible through the documented curriculum.
The leadership team creates close relationships with educators, children and whānau. They place strong emphasis on developing shared understandings about providing a local bicultural curriculum. This work is helping to build visiting teachers’ capability. It is now timely to use this knowledge to support educators to increase their use of te reo Māori and tikanga Māori in their everyday practices.
Leaders engage in regular internal evaluation that improves systems and practices. Clearer steps to make the process more manageable, with a stronger emphasis on the key outcomes for children when monitoring and evaluating, is required.
Nurture@Home Marlb will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:
Before the review, the staff and management of Nurture@Home Marlb completed an ERO 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.
Patricia Davey
Director of Early Childhood Education (ECE)
25 July 2024
| Early Childhood Service Name | Nurture@Home Marlb |
| Profile Number | 45722 |
| Location | Nelson |
| Service type | Home-based service |
| Number licensed for | 80 children, including up to 80 aged under 2 |
| Service roll | 70 |
| Review team on site | May 2024 |
| Date of this report | 25 July 2024 |
| Most recent ERO report(s) | Akanuku | Assurance Review, March 2021; Education Review, May 2019 |
ERO’s Akanuku | Assurance Review reports provide information about whether a service meets and maintains regulatory standards. Further information about Akanuku | Assurance Reviews is included at the end of this report.
Regulatory standards | ERO’s judgement |
| Curriculum | Meeting |
| Premises and facilities | Meeting |
| Health and safety | Meeting |
| Governance, management and administration | Meeting |
At the time of the review, ERO found the service was taking reasonable steps to meet regulatory standards.
Step 2 Growth Marlborough Ltd is privately owned. A qualified early childhood teacher is the coordinator for seven educators that provide care and education in their own homes. The May 2019 ERO report found the service practices required further development. The service received a full licence in August 2020. ERO visited four educator homes as part of this review.
Educator premises are resourced to provide for the learning and abilities of the children attending. Local excursions and playgroup extend the in-home curriculum and provide for wider social interactions. Recent professional development for leaders and educators has provided children with opportunities to develop an understanding of the dual cultural heritage of Aotearoa New Zealand. Health and safety checklists and supervision plans for children are completed by educators and monitored by visiting teachers. Governance and management systems, and ongoing self review that supports improvement have been established.
Next step is for leaders to:
The next ERO review is likely to be an Akarangi | Quality Evaluation.
Dr Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini
15 March 2021
| Early Childhood Service Name | Step 2 Growth Marlborough Ltd. |
| Profile Number | 45722 |
| Location | Blenheim |
| Service type | Home-based service |
| Number licensed for | 50 children, including up to 50 aged under 2. |
| Service roll | 23 |
| Ethnic composition | Māori 6, NZ European/Pākehā 16, Other ethnic groups 1. |
| Review team on site | December 2020 |
| Date of this report | 15 March 2021 |
| Most recent ERO report(s) | Education Review, May 2019. |
All services are licensed under the Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008. The legal requirements for early childhood services also include the Licensing Criteria for Education and Care Services 2008.
Services must meet the standards in the regulations and the requirements of the licensing criteria to gain and maintain a licence to operate.
All early childhood services are required to promote children’s health and safety and to regularly review their compliance with legal requirements. Before the review, the staff and management of a service completed an ERO Centre Assurance Statement and Self-Audit Checklist (PDF 1MB). In these documents they attested that they have taken all reasonable steps to meet their legal obligations related to:
As part of an Akanuku | Assurance Review ERO assesses whether the regulated standards are being met. In particular, ERO looks at a service’s systems for managing the following areas that have a potentially high impact on children's wellbeing:
As part of an Akanuku | Assurance Review ERO also gathers and records evidence through:
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Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
Step 2 Growth Marlborough Ltd is not well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Step 2 Growth Marlborough Ltd is a locally owned and operated home-based childcare service in the Marlborough Region. It comprises of one network with 9 educators. Of the 33 children enrolled six identify as Māori. One coordinator has day-to-day responsibility for the network.
The mission statement advises: "taking educational steps to expand the growth and development of young minds and hearts, through the nurturing of home-based care".
Leaders have responsibility for the provision of care, implementation of an effective curriculum and professional support for educators.
This is the first report for Step 2 Growth Marlborough Ltd.
Children participate in a range of interesting activities in educator homes. Weekly playgroups and regular excursions are offered for educators and children. These provide opportunities for them to meet socially. Providing a wider range of curriculum experiences for children at playgroup to extend learning would be beneficial and compliment the in-home programmes.
Greater clarification of the expectation for the home visits undertaken by the coordinators from the service provider is required. Regular visits are undertaken to educator homes, however documentation does not clearly show how educators are being supported to develop their practice. The coordinator visit records should be strengthened to show:
Follow-up and monitoring of issues related to health and safety
how educators are supported in the meaningful use of te reo Māori
evidence of modelling effective assessment.
Assessment is not well understood. Developing a procedure to guide coordinator and educator practice is essential to support implementation. Educators regularly complete anecdotal notes of children’s engagement in the programme provided, a focus on planning for children’s learning including working with parent aspirations, requires development. This should be achieved through specific guidance and targeted support from the coordinator and implementation monitored and evaluated over time.
The development of an appraisal process is a priority. Appraisal was not completed for the coordinator or educators in 2018. The coordinator’s appraisal for 2019 is not robust. A higher level of engagement is required with a greater understanding of evidencing Standards for the Teaching Profession.
Leaders have yet to develop and implement a suitable review and internal evaluation processes focused on improving outcomes for children.
Positive relationships are evident between the educators and parents. However, a greater focus on learning partnerships should be developed.
The philosophy, recently revised, does not clearly show the learning that is valued in Step 2 Growth. There should be a clearer link to the philosophy in action, through educator practice and coordinator reports.
The service provider must improve the monitoring of all systems and processes including policy reviews. She needs to be assured that the service meets legislative requirements, particularly for health and safety, and provides high quality home based education and care. Priorities for improvement include fully completing the required documentation for all aspects of operation. This includes:
police vetting for all involved in the service
fully implementing the revised job description for the coordinator (developed late 2018)
consistently documenting follow-up of actions to meet health and safety requirements at educator homes
development of a policy or procedure for appraisal and staff appointments
revisiting the child protection policy to include all aspects of the safety checking process
closer monitoring of identification of risks, specifically around animals, and enacting a plan.
Additionally, roles and responsibilities of paid staff should be clearly defined to support shared understandings of service expectations.
Before the review, the staff and management of Step 2 Growth Marlborough Ltd 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.
ERO found significant areas of non-compliance in the service related to:
assessment, planning and evaluation
internal evaluation for accountability and improvement for the quality of education and care
annual review of written emergency plan
appraisal for educators and staff
safety checking of workers.
[Licensing criteria for Home-based Education and Care Services 2008, C2, C5, C6, HS4, GMA5, GMA6A.]
ERO recommends that the Ministry reassess the licence of Step 2 Growth Marlborough Ltd. ERO will not undertake a further education review of this service until the Ministry of Education is satisfied that the service meets licensing requirements.
Alan Wynyard
Director Review and Improvement Services Southern
Southern Region
28 May 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 |
Blenheim |
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Ministry of Education profile number |
45722 |
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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 |
35 |
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Standard or Quality Funded |
Standard |
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Gender composition |
Boys 21, Girls 14 |
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Ethnic composition |
Māori |
5 |
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Number of qualified coordinators in the network |
One |
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Required ratios of educators to children |
Under 2 |
1:2 |
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Over 2 |
1:4 |
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Review team on site |
March 2019 |
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Date of this report |
28 May 2019 |
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Most recent ERO report(s) |
No previous ERO reports |
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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:
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
The overall judgement that ERO makes will depend on how well the service promotes 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.