30 Maxwell Road, Blenheim
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 are as follows:
Outcome Indicators(What the service knows about outcomes for learners) |
Whāngai Establishing |
Ngā Akatoro Domains |
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Learning Conditions
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Whakaū Embedding Whāngai Establishing |
Education Angels is one of seven home-based education and care networks owned by Education Angels In Home Childcare Limited. Educators are located in the Blenheim area. An operations manager supports a team of eight qualified visiting teachers. A small number of children attending this service are of Māori heritage. Some progress has been made towards the key next steps identified in the 2016 ERO report.
Children, including infants and toddlers, learn in a rich child-led, curriculum aligned with 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 educator’s homes and the wider community.
Visiting teachers coach and mentor educators to implement a culturally responsive curriculum. Educators confidently use te reo Māori with children and integrate tikanga Māori into their daily curriculum and in documentation. Educators and visiting teachers are culturally responsive in their interactions with parents. These practices support Māori learners to experience success as Māori.
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.
Visiting teachers are developing their capability through on-going professional development. Building their 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. 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 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 their 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 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 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.
Kathy Lye
Director Review and Improvement Services (Acting, Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini
14 February 2023
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Early Childhood Service Name |
Education Angels |
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Profile Number |
45734 |
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Location |
Blenheim |
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Service type |
Home-based service |
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Number licensed for |
80 children, including up to 80 aged under 2 |
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Percentage of qualified teachers |
100% |
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Service roll |
18 |
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Review team on site |
November 2022 |
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Date of this report |
14 February 2023 |
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Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review, October 2016 |
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Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
Little Sparks -Marlborough is well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Little Sparks - Marlborough is a privately owned home-based early childhood care and education service. One of the owners works as part of the teaching team of qualified and registered early childhood teachers, known as coordinators in this service.
The manager and coordinators support the provision of care and education for infants, toddlers and young children in the child's own home with a nanny or an au pair. Care arrangements can also be made in the home of an educator. The home-based service offers families consistent, personalised caregiving for their children within a small group setting of up to four children, including a maximum of two children under two years old.
Coordinators, educators, nannies and au pairs work collaboratively with other early childhood services to meet the needs of each individual child and their family. Coordinators organise regular playgroups and events to promote larger group experiences for children.
The manager and coordinators have recently reviewed the service philosophy to ensure it reflects their shared values and provides a focus on inclusive, positive, respectful environments for children.
This is the first ERO review and report for this service.
The manager and coordinators foster positive and respectful relationships with children and families, and with educators, nannies and au pairs.
Coordinators provide regular and effective professional advice to educators, particularly in regard to guiding assessment of, and planning for, children's learning and wellbeing. They work closely with educators to help them develop interesting learning experiences for children and to support the provision of healthy and safe environments. Coordinator visit reports are detailed and informative. They include a summary of children's learning and are well used to continually build on educator, nanny, and au pair practices.
Educators develop informative individual learning journals for each child. These highlight children’s interests and involvement in a wide range of home and community activities including social, creative and physical play.
Parent views and aspirations for their children's learning are actively encouraged and valued. They are warmly invited to attend professional development and social events provided by the service.
Centre leaders are promoting an increasing focus on bicultural perspectives and ways to support Māori children to succeed as Māori. This is evident in the service philosophy and other key management and curriculum documentation. Internal and external professional development is helping to grow understandings of te ao Māori and appropriate cultural practices.
Leaders make good use of internal review. It is focused on continual improvement and results in well-considered changes to practices. There is extensive provision of targeted internal and external professional development at all levels of the organisation to build on knowledge and capability. This includes the recent development of a new appraisal system and a focus on supporting Pasifika children and families.
The service is well led by the cohesive ownership group and the collaborative, reflective leadership team. They are well supported by an external professional advisor. This year they have developed and implemented a wide range of useful systems and processes to guide the effective operation of the service. Purposeful alignment of strategic goals and annual action planning promotes the achievement of service priorities and positive outcomes for children.
The owners and leadership team have identified, and ERO's evaluation has confirmed, that the key next steps for the service are to continue to:
refine and embed new appraisal systems for coordinators and performance management systems for educators
strengthen bicultural perspectives to ensure sustainable practices
increase the consistency and quality of assessment and planning processes.
Before the review, the staff and management of Little Sparks - Marlborough 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 service has developed a range of formal and informal systems for managing health and safety requirements.
The next ERO review of Little Sparks - Marlborough will be in three years.
Lesley Patterson
Deputy Chief Review Officer Southern
3 October 2016
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 |
45734 |
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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 60 aged under two |
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Service roll |
107 |
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Standard or Quality Funded |
Standard |
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Gender composition |
Girls 54; Boys 53 |
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Ethnic composition |
Māori Pākehā Other ethnicities |
6 95 6 |
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Number of qualified coordinators in the network |
3 |
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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 |
August 2016 |
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Date of this report |
3 October 2016 |
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Most recent ERO report |
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: 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.