158 Balmoral Road, Mount Eden, Auckland
View on mapERO’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 |
Since the onsite visit, the service has provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed non-compliances and is now taking reasonable steps to meet regulatory standards.
AppleSeed Educare provides education and care in a mixed-age group setting. The service has been under new ownership since October 2021. The owner oversees daily operations and administration. She is supported by seven staff including two head teachers. Children attending the service are from culturally diverse backgrounds.
The curriculum provides a language-rich environment that supports children’s learning. It provides a range of experiences and opportunities to enhance and extend children’s learning and development.
The practices of adults providing education and care demonstrate an understanding of children’s learning, and knowledge of relevant theories and practice in early childhood education. They engage in meaningful, positive interactions to support children’s learning and nurture reciprocal relationships.
Children’s preferences are respected, and they are involved in decisions about their learning experiences.
Next steps include:
Since the onsite visit, the service has provided ERO with evidence to show it has addressed the following non-compliance:
The next ERO review is likely to be an Akarangi | Quality Evaluation.
Patricia Davey
Director of Early Childhood Education (ECE)
9 February 2024
| Early Childhood Service Name | AppleSeed Educare |
| Profile Number | 45857 |
| Location | Mount Eden, Auckland |
| Service type | Education and care service |
| Number licensed for | 33 children, including up to 8 aged under 2 |
| Percentage of qualified teachers | 80-99% |
| Service roll | 30 |
| Review team on site | December 2023 |
| Date of this report | 9 February 2024 |
| Most recent ERO report(s) | Akarangi | Quality Evaluation, July 2021; Education Review, November 2017 |
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. 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 regulatory 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:
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 AppleSeed Educare are as follows:
Outcome Indicators |
ERO’s judgement |
|
What the service knows about outcomes for learners |
Whakawhanake Sustaining |
Ngā Akatoro Domains |
ERO’s judgement |
|
He Whāriki Motuhake The learner and their learning |
Whakawhanake Sustaining |
|
Whakangungu Ngaio Collaborative professional learning builds knowledge and capability |
Whakawhanake Sustaining |
|
Ngā Aronga Whai Hua Evaluation for improvement |
Whakawhanake Sustaining |
|
Kaihautū Leaders foster collaboration and improvement |
Whakawhanake Sustaining |
|
Te Whakaruruhau Stewardship through effective governance and management |
Whakawhanake Sustaining |
AppleSeed Educare is a privately owned service. The two owners and a qualified early childhood supervisor lead a team of three qualified teachers and a cook. The service offers full-day early childhood education and care for children in a mixed-group setting.
Children’s social and emotional wellbeing is prioritised and positively nurtured by teachers. Children appear settled in the centre environment and develop close friendships with their peers. The mixed age group environment helps to promote their leadership skills. Teachers skilfully support the development of tuakana/teina relationships. This fosters leadership and reciprocal learning opportunities between older and younger children.
Children can experiment, investigate, and explore to make sense of their world in the centre. Teachers respond to children’s interests with a wide range of new experiences, challenges and resources to support their learning. Teachers’ modelling of vocabulary and storytelling is extending children’s oral language, literacy skills and imagination. Children confidently make independent choices about their play.
The cultures, languages and traditions of children and their families are visible and highly valued in the service. Inclusive practices are evident in the service’s curriculum. Teachers are considering ways to extend and improve their culturally responsive practices.
Leaders have established a culture of high relational trust at all levels of service operations. Positive relationships between leaders, teachers and families is resulting in a professional team environment that supports the retention of staff and families.
Service leaders encourage shared leadership in the teaching team. Leaders and teachers participate in regular professional learning to enhance their professional knowledge. Internal evaluation documents clearly show the many changes and improvements teachers have made to improve learning outcomes for children. Governance and management systems show a commitment to realising the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
AppleSeed Educare will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:
Before the review, the staff and management of AppleSeed Educare 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:
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.
Steve Tanner
Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern)
Northern Region | Te Tai Raki
8 July 2021
| Early Childhood Service Name | AppleSeed Educare |
| Profile Number | 45857 |
| Location | Mt Eden, Auckland |
|
Service type |
Education and care service |
|
Number licensed for |
33 children, including up to 8 aged under 2 |
|
Percentage of qualified teachers |
80%+ |
|
Service roll |
28 |
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori 1 |
|
Review team on site |
May 2021 |
|
Date of this report |
8 July 2021 |
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review, November 2017 |
|
Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Appleseed Educare in Mt Eden provides full-day early childhood education and care for up to 27 children. The centre is a mixed-age service with children up to 5 years playing and learning alongside one another. Families that attend come from diverse cultures, and include a small number of Māori and Pacific families.
The centre changed ownership in May 2015, maintaining the name but rebranding to reflect the centre's environment and philosophy. The centre operates in a refurbished bungalow and the new owners have made further improvements in its environment.
Since the 2014 ERO review some staff have changed and a new centre manager has been appointed. There are four qualified teachers, a cook and regular relievers. The centre directors are responsible for the administration and managerial tasks and work collaboratively with the centre manager. Staff come with a diverse range of cultural strengths and teaching experience. Nutritious meals are cooked on site in response to children’s cultural and dietary needs.
The centre's philosophy is based on developing meaningful relationships in a family environment. Its vision and mission statements reflect the image of a child as a 'leaderful learner'. Children are encouraged to lead their own learning and are viewed as competent explorers. Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, and the Reggio Emilia philosophy of the environment being the third teacher, guide teacher practices and programme implementation.
ERO's 2014 review of Appleseed Educare noted that next steps were to improve self-review, planning and assessment, strategic and annual planning and support for children to transition to school. The new owners and manager have made good progress in these areas. They have participated in a leadership professional learning programme that has helped them to introduce new approaches.
Children are confident communicators, active explorers and decision makers. They make discoveries and have fun as they learn through play. Children lead their learning and show a strong sense of belonging and ownership in the centre. Children learn at an unhurried pace in a calm, child focused, home-like environment.
Children engage in self-chosen and cooperative play for sustained periods. They happily share ideas with peers and adults. The centre's emphasis on tuakana/teina relationships is evident in the support and care that older children show for infants and toddlers. Teachers sensitively support children to develop social competence through friendships and engage in group activities. Children approach teachers with trust and affection when requiring reassurance or assistance. Their emotional and social development are nurtured.
The centre's environment provides children with many choices. It is carefully organised and attractively presented to promote curiosity and investigation. Thoughtful resourcing, an increased level of challenge and targeted planning, allow for children to be physically active and join in group games in the outside area. Resources are presented to help develop and extend children's interests and their evolving ideas and understandings about the world around them.
Teachers implement a culturally responsive programme based on fostering child-led learning. Programmes are inspired by children's interests, the centre’s philosophy and, Te Whāriki. Partnerships with parents are supported by a culture of care and respect. Teachers have a strong commitment to inclusion and children with special needs are welcomed. Teachers value the contributions and the strengths that children and their families bring.
The centre's philosophy acknowledges the bicultural heritage of Aotearoa New Zealand and this is reflected in teachers' practice. Teachers and children use words and phrases of te reo Māori in routines and conversations, as well as in waiata and dance. Teachers look for authentic ways to include te ao Māori in the programme. They affirm Māori children’s cultural identity in meaningful ways.
Teachers value and actively support children's learning through play. They provide children with good opportunities to be creative, use literacy, mathematics, science and technologies as part of their play and discussion. Children's language skills, including their first languages, are very well supported by teachers.
Teachers view infants and toddlers as capable, competent young learners who benefit from being in a mixed-age setting. They promote young children's growing sense of self. Teachers understand the characteristics and preferences of infants and toddlers and provide them with easy access to the outside environment and play equipment. Younger children have space and time to make choices and discoveries. Very young children are developing secure attachments and independence.
Curriculum planning and implementation are responsive to children’s ideas and emerging interests. Documentation showing how children engage in the programme is displayed for adults and children. Children’s portfolios are highly valued, include their input and are often added to by families.
Online communications and portfolios increase opportunities for whānau to contribute to their children’s learning. The transition to school programme is well organised and includes regular visits to local primary schools. Parents are provided with good information to help ensure that children’s transitions into the centre and to school are responsive to individual needs.
The centre's strategic planning, and philosophy provide good guidance for centre governance and management. There is efficient recordkeeping, clear reporting and a comprehensive framework of policies and procedures. Internal evaluation is child focused, purposeful and used to inform improvements. Good systems are in place to monitor health and safety and keep up-to-date with legal requirements.
Effective management and sound professional leadership guide the centre well. Teachers are enthusiastic and work collaboratively. The manager encourages teachers' leadership abilities. A sound appraisal process supports teachers to improve their professional capabilities. An external appraiser for the manager would enhance this process. Teachers make very good use of professional development opportunities to reflect on and improve their practice.
Key next steps that will contribute to sustainable, ongoing improvement, include:
Before the review, the staff and management of AppleSeed Educare 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:
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 AppleSeed Educare will be in three years.
Graham Randell
Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern
Te Tai Raki - Northern Region
8 November 2017
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 |
Mt Eden, Auckland |
||
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
45857 |
||
|
Licence type |
Education & Care Service |
||
|
Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
||
|
Number licensed for |
27 children, including up to 8 aged under 2 |
||
|
Service roll |
32 |
||
|
Gender composition |
Girls 18 Boys 14 |
||
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori |
2 |
|
|
Percentage of qualified teachers |
80% + |
||
|
Reported ratios of staff to children |
Under 2 |
1:4 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
Over 2 |
1:8 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
|
Review team on site |
August 2017 |
||
|
Date of this report |
8 November 2017 |
||
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review |
March 2014 |
|
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 ERO’s Approach to Review in Early Childhood Services.
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.