5 Hall Road, RD3, Alexandra
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Kids Pace Education
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.
ERO’s Judgement
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.
Background
Kids Pace Education is a home-based education and care service. There are seven educators providing in-home education and care for children in Central Otago and Southland. The owner and a visiting teacher are responsible for day-to-day operations and compliance. During the review, the selection of educator homes was limited by educator availability and illness.
Summary of Review Findings
The curriculum is aligned to the service philosophy and Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. Educators engage in meaningful and positive interactions that follow children’s interests to enhance their learning. Children’s preferences are respected, and they are involved in decisions about their learning experiences.
The design and layout support the provision of different types of indoor and outdoor experiences. There is a range of equipment and materials provided that is appropriate for children’s learning and abilities.
Parents are provided with opportunities to contribute to the development and review of the service’s operational documents and are informed about the running of the service.
Key Next Steps
Next steps include increasing visiting teachers’ capability to:
- use the learning outcomes in Te Whāriki to identify priorities for children’s learning and inform curriculum planning, evaluation and assessment of children’s progress
- further gather and respond to parents’ aspirations for their child’s learning.
Next ERO Review
The next ERO review is likely to be an Akarangi | Quality Evaluation.
Patricia Davey
Director of Early Childhood Education (ECE)
20 December 2023
Information About the Service
Early Childhood Service Name | Kids Pace Education |
Profile Number | 45951 |
Location | Alexandra |
Service type | Home-based service |
Number licensed for | 80 children, including up to 80 aged under 2 |
Service roll | 56 |
Review team on site | December 2023 |
Date of this report | 20 December 2023 |
Most recent ERO report(s) | Akanuku | Assurance Review, August 2022; Education Review, June 2018 |
General Information about Assurance Reviews
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.
ERO undertakes an Akanuku | Assurance Review process in any centre-based service:
- having its first ERO review – including if it is part of a governing organisation
- previously identified as ‘not well placed’ or ‘requiring further development’
- that has moved from a provisional to a full licence
- that have been re-licenced due to a change of ownership
- where an Akanuku | Assurance Review process is determined to be appropriate.
Management Assurance on Legal Requirements
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:
- curriculum
- premises and facilities
- health and safety practices
- governance, management and administration.
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:
- 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; safety checking; teacher certification; ratios)
- relevant evacuation procedures and practices.
As part of an Akanuku | Assurance Review ERO also gathers and records evidence through:
- discussions with those involved in the service
- consideration of relevant documentation, including the implementation of health and safety systems
- observations of the environment/premises, curriculum implementation and teaching practice.
Kids Pace Education
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.
ERO’s Judgement
Regulatory standards | ERO’s judgement |
Curriculum | Meeting |
Premises and facilities | Meeting |
Health and safety | Not meeting |
Governance, management, and administration | Meeting |
At the time of the review, ERO identified non-compliance with regulatory standards that must be addressed.
Background
Kids Pace Education is a home-based education and care service. There are eighteen educators providing in-home education and care for children throughout Central Otago and Southland. The owner and a visiting teacher are responsible for day-to-day operations and compliance. Since ERO’s June 2018 review the service has made progress with developing the educator appraisal system and supporting educators to develop their bicultural practice.
Summary of Review Findings
The curriculum is informed by parents’ aspirations and children’s interests and is aligned with Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. Visiting teachers work closely with educators to implement learning programmes for children in their homes.
Educators' homes are resourced to reflect the service’s philosophy and support different kinds of indoor and outdoor play. A range of learning experiences are provided that are suitable for children with a wide range of abilities. Educators are coached and mentored by visiting teachers to use te reo Māori with children.
Visiting teachers need to consistently monitor the implementation of health and safety standards in homes to ensure that all aspects of regulatory compliance are maintained.
Actions for Compliance
ERO found areas of non-compliance in the service relating to:
Visiting teachers ensuring that in educators homes:
- heavy furniture, fixtures and equipment that could fall or topple and cause serious injury or damage are consistently secured
- daily hazard checks accurately identify and record all known hazards in the home and mitigation strategies are in place to manage these
- there is robust documentation of excursions, relevant risk assessments and evidence of parental permission whenever a child leaves the premises on an excursion.
[Licensing criteria for Home- based Education and Care Services 2008, HS6, HS11, HS14].
Next ERO Review
The next ERO review will be in consultation with the Ministry of Education.
Dr Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini
12 August 2022
Information About the Service
Early Childhood Service Name | Kids Pace Education |
Profile Number | 45951 |
Location | Alexandra |
Service type | Home-based service |
Number licensed for | 80 children, including up to 80 aged under 2 |
Service roll | 139 |
Review team on site | June 2022 |
Date of this report | 12 August 2022 |
Most recent ERO report(s) | Education Review, June 2018; Education Review, March 2015 |
General Information about Assurance Reviews
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.
ERO undertakes an Akanuku | Assurance Review process in any centre-based service:
- having its first ERO review – including if it is part of a governing organisation
- previously identified as ‘not well placed’ or ‘requiring further development’
- that has moved from a provisional to a full licence
- that have been re-licenced due to a change of ownership
- where an Akanuku | Assurance Review process is determined to be appropriate.
Management Assurance on Legal Requirements
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:
- curriculum
- premises and facilities
- health and safety practices
- governance, management, and administration.
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:
- 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; safety checking; teacher certification; ratios)
- relevant evacuation procedures and practices.
As part of an Akanuku | Assurance Review ERO also gathers and records evidence through:
- discussions with those involved in the service
- consideration of relevant documentation, including the implementation of health and safety systems
- observations of the environment/premises, curriculum implementation and teaching practice.
Kids Pace Education - 21/06/2018
1 Evaluation of Kids Pace Education
How well placed is Kids Pace Education to promote positive learning outcomes for children?
Not well placed | Requires further development | Well placed | Very well placed |
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Background
Kids Pace Education is a home-based education and care service. There are sixteen educators providing an in-home education and care service for children across Southland and Central Otago.
The owner, who is also a visiting teacher, is based in Alexandra. She regularly visits the educators and provides support for them. Another visiting teacher is employed, and is currently on maternity leave. Some children and educators have regular opportunities to attend playgroups.
The 2015 ERO report identified many areas that required further development, including areas of governance, leadership, teaching and learning. Some progress has been made in addressing these key areas. Most of these remain as areas for further development.
The Review Findings
Children benefit from close and responsive relationships with their educators. Educators respond well to children's interests, routines and wellbeing. They plan a range of interesting learning experiences to extend children's learning, including visits into their local communities. These factors are contributing to positive outcomes for all children.
Children with particular learning needs are well supported through access to specific support services. Educators, teachers and parents work collaboratively to develop specific strategies and goals to support them to progress in their learning. Children are well supported to develop their communication skills. Educators support children to learn concepts about science, early literacy and mathematics. Infants and toddlers benefit from time to build relationships and develop their physical skills. Educators deliberately plan experiences to support children, in knowing about and understanding aspects of their bicultural heritage. Visiting teachers should continue to support educators to develop their understanding and use of te reo and tikanga Māori.
A clearly-developed vision and philosophy guides the service's practices. Visiting teachers and educators could more clearly show their valued outcomes for children's learning in the service's philosophy. They could then use these priorities for children's learning to guide both individual and group planning.
The visiting teacher has developed useful systems to build educator capabilities and to strengthen the focus on children's learning. These include:
- a focus on planning and assessment to ensure educators are planning to meet the needs, interests and learning goals of children, both individually and in groups
- responding to parents' aspirations for their children's learning
- a focus on promoting bicultural practices
- supporting educators to develop a better understanding of Te Whāriki (2017)
- ensuring educators have access to, and are promoting, a range of resources to support children's learning.
The owner/visiting teacher has developed useful strategic planning in consultation with her community, to set key priorities for the service. A short-term plan guides the service operations, however this needs significant development to clearly align to the long-term planned priorities, goals and actions. Progress towards achieving these should be regularly monitored, evaluated and reported on by the owner.
The owner/visiting teacher makes good use of networks to support and build professional connections. She ensures there are regular professional development opportunities and networks to share practices between educators. There are clear expectations and guidelines in place to support the induction of new educators to the service. To further build the capability of both visiting teachers and educators, the owner needs to develop a rigorous appraisal system. This needs to include:
- the development of clear guidelines for a regular and effective appraisal process
- specific goals identified for all educators
- recorded robust feedback to support the development and progress towards the goals
- strengthening the process for endorsing teacher registration.
The owner/visiting teacher uses internal evaluation to make useful improvements to practices. She needs to continue to develop her understanding and use of evaluative practices, and develop a schedule to ensure all aspects of practice are reviewed over time.
Key Next Steps
The next steps for the service owner, visiting teacher and educators are to:
- further develop strategic and annual planning
- develop a rigorous appraisal system
- continue to develop internal-evaluation processes and practices
- consistently show how they are extending children's learning
- continue to support educators in developing their bicultural practices.
Management Assurance on Legal Requirements
Before the review, the staff and management of Kids Pace Education 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:
- 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 Kids Pace Education will be in three years.
Dr Lesley Patterson
Deputy Chief Review Officer Southern
Te Waipounamu - Southern Region
21 June 2018
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 Home-based Education and Care Service
Location | Alexandra | ||
Ministry of Education profile number | 45951 | ||
Institution type | Homebased Network | ||
Licensed under | Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 | ||
Number licensed for | 80 children, including up to 80 aged under 2 | ||
Service roll | 81 | ||
Standard or Quality Funded | Standard | ||
Gender composition | Girls: 43 Boys: 38 | ||
Ethnic composition | Māori: Pākehā: Pacific: Other: | 9 68 2 2 | |
Number of qualified coordinators in the network | 1 | ||
Required ratios of staff educators to children | Under 2 | 1:2 | |
Over 2 | 1:4 | ||
Review team on site | May 2018 | ||
Date of this report | 21 June 2018 | ||
Most recent ERO reports
| Education Review: | March 2015 | |
Education Review: | March 2014 |
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 the draft methodology for ERO reviews in Home-based Education and Care Services: July 2014
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.