The Secret Garden Childcare Ltd

1 ERO’s judgement of The Secret Garden Childcare Ltd is as follows:

For an explanation of the judgement terms used and of the evaluation process please refer to the last page of this report. These judgements are based on the evidence provided to ERO during the evaluation.

2 ERO’s Judgements

Akarangi | Quality Evaluations evaluate the extent to which early childhood services have 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 and Early Childhood Education (ECE) Improvement Framework (teacher led services) are the basis for making judgements about the quality of the service in achieving equity and excellence for all learners. Evaluations for improvement | Ngā Aronga Whai Hua is integrated across all of the above domains.

3 About the Service

The Secret Garden Childcare is a privately owned service. All day education and care is provided from birth to school age. The learning environment is separated into two age-based spaces. A qualified centre owner undertakes the role of centre manager and is supported by a team leader to oversee day-to-day operations and lead the curriculum. Team leaders are responsible for the teaching and learning within their rooms. The service’s philosophy is strongly linked to the theories of Reggio Emilia and Pikler teaching and learning. It promotes a culture of respectful and unhurried care practices.

4 Progress since the previous ERO report

The June 2021 ERO report identified two improvement actions - to deepen internal evaluation practices to systematically monitor what is working well and for which learners; and to explore reciprocity within learning-focused partnerships to further enrich and extend children’s learning and progress. Good progress has been made. 

Several staffing changes have occurred since the previous evaluation of this service. Leaders have been focusing on supporting teachers to build a consistent approach to teaching and learning. Leaders and teachers work collaboratively through internal evaluation to generate positive impacts for teaching and learning. A variety of strategies are used to gather parent voice that contributes to decision making and children’s learning.

5 Learning Conditions

The learner and their learning | He Whāriki Motuhake

The embedded curriculum gives emphasis to the service’s philosophy, priorities and core values.

• Well-resourced learning environments and intentional teaching strategies support children’s creativity, wondering, critical thinking and decision making. Children experience an unhurried approach to developing their knowledge and make sense of their world through play.
• Children engage in sustained interactions with teachers and their peers, supporting their oral language development and social and emotional competency. Infants and toddlers benefit from caring and nurturing interactions with teachers, responsive to their needs and preferences.
• Teachers are engaged in learning-focused partnerships with parents through curriculum involvement and responding to their aspirations. Language, culture and identity is yet to be woven through assessment for all children.

Collaborative professional learning and development builds knowledge and capability | Whakangungu Ngaio

Leaders effectively support and provide the conditions that enable teachers to grow their professional knowledge and practice.

• Leaders and teachers work collaboratively as a professional learning community. There are clear expectations for quality teaching and learning in place to guide teacher practice.
• A range of reviews have taken place that are change and improvement focussed. They continue to refine the process to know the impact of changes made for individuals and groups of children.
• Teachers show a commitment to ongoing learning and inquire into their practice, which leads to positive impacts on practice for children.

6 Organisational conditions

Leadership fosters collaboration and improvement | Kaihautū

Leaders and teachers undertake ongoing professional learning that builds their knowledge, expertise to implement a curriculum reflective of the philosophy.

• An improvement focussed leadership team continues to build professional practice and relational trust.
• A distributed leadership team approach provides opportunities for all teachers to further their learning. Teachers take a collective opportunity for the well-being and learning of children and their families in the service.
• Collaborative relationships support the team to utilise their internal expertise and subject content knowledge to increase their collective capacity.

Stewardship through effective governance and management | Te Whakaruruhau

Stewardship prioritises children’s learning and wellbeing as primary considerations in resourcing and strategic decision making for the service.

• Leaders actively seek the input of all families with parent aspirations and voice clearly reflected in the service’s plans and priorities for children’s learning and wellbeing.
• Leaders work collaboratively to enact the services vision, values and strategic priorities.
• The centre manager promotes a high level of professional accountability. Individualised support is in place for teachers to grow their professional knowledge, targeted to learner outcomes.

7 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of The Secret Garden Childcare Ltd completed and 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:

• curriculum
• premises and facilities
• health and safety practices
• governance, management and administration.

During the review, ERO looked at the service’s system for managing the following areas that have a potentially high impact on children’s health and safety:

• emotional safety (including positive guidance and child protection)
• physical safety (including supervision; sleep procedures; accidents; medication; excursion policies and procedures)
• suitable staffing (safety checking of staff, ratios)
• relevant evacuation procedures and practices.

All early childhood services are required to promote children’s health and safety and to regularly review their compliance with legal requirements.

8 Where to next for improvement?

The Secret Garden Childcare Ltd will include the following actions in its quality improvement planning:

• Continue to grow teacher’s cultural competence to increase reflection of all children’s cultures throughout the service’s curriculum documentation.
• Refine the internal evaluation process to know the impact of changes made for which individuals and groups of children.

Further information about how ERO evaluates early childhood services is available here.

Patricia Davey
Director of Early Childhood Education (ECE)

4 October 2024

9 Information About the Service

Description around ERO’s judgement terms                                      

ERO’s judgements are based on Te Ara Poutama and the Early Childhood Education Improvement Framework (teacher led services).