30 Carr Road, Three Kings, 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 |
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Curriculum |
Meeting |
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Premises and facilities |
Meeting |
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Health and safety |
Meeting |
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Governance, management and administration |
Meeting |
During the onsite visit, the service provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed non-compliances and is now taking reasonable steps to meet regulatory standards.
Brilliant Minds Early Childhood Centre is privately owned and operated. Two owners and an experienced, qualified manager lead a team of four qualified teachers, eight unqualified teachers and a cook. Most children attending the service are of Indian heritage. This is the service’s first ERO review under new ownership.
Adults providing education and care engage in meaningful, positive interactions to enhance children’s learning and nurture reciprocal relationships. Teachers demonstrate an understanding of children’s learning and development, and knowledge of relevant theories and practices in early childhood education.
The service curriculum is inclusive, and responsive to children as confident and competent learners. Children’s preferences are respected, and they are involved in decisions about their learning experiences.
The service has a language-rich environment that supports children’s learning. Teachers provide children with a range of experiences to enhance children’s learning and development, both indoors and outdoors, individually and in groups. Leaders need to continue monitoring the implementation of operational systems and processes to maintain regulatory standards.
Next steps include:
improving the extent to which planning, and assessment documentation shows children’s progress and learning
over timeincreasing the opportunities children have to hear and speak te reo Māori in meaningful contexts.
During the review, the service provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed the following non-compliances:
Ensuring any windows or other areas of glass accessible to children are made of safety glass or covered by adhesive film designed to hold the glass in place in the event of it breaking (PF7).
Keeping a record of all medication given to children while attending the service. Records to include evidence of parental acknowledgement (HS28).
The next ERO review is likely to be an Akarangi | Quality Evaluation.
Patricia Davey
Director of Early Childhood Education (ECE)
12 September 2023
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Early Childhood Service Name: |
Brilliant Minds Early Childhood Centre |
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Profile Number: |
46201 |
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Location: |
Three Kings, Auckland |
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Service type |
Education and care service |
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Number licensed for |
68 children, including up to 20 aged under 2 |
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Percentage of qualified teachers |
50-79% |
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Service roll |
50 |
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Review team on site |
August 2023 |
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Date of this report |
12 September 2023 |
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Under previous ownership: Education Review, March 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.
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.
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 practic
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Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
Brilliant Minds Early Childhood Centre is well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Brilliant Minds Early Childhood Centre is set in the industrial area of Three Kings, Auckland. The centre had a change of ownership, and a new teaching team was established in August 2018. The centre is divided into four teaching spaces. Infants and toddlers have separate rooms and there are two rooms for pre-schoolers. The infants and toddlers share a common outdoor play area that supports tuakana/teina relationships. The pre-schoolers also have a communal outdoor play space.
An experienced centre manager leads a team of nine teachers, five of whom are registered. Together with the licensee, she oversees day-to-day centre operations. She is also responsible for the planning and provision of programmes for children.
The curriculum is based on Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, and inspired by Emilio Reggio teaching practices.
Children are happy and confident in the centre, where their languages and cultures are affirmed. They settle quickly into activities after they and their families are welcomed into the centre each day. While adults share information, children rekindle friendships and move on to investigate provocations that teachers have set up. Teachers interact with children to ensure they are settled, and to encourage them in their play.
The learning environment supports children's learning through exploration and discovery, with a variety of high quality resources. The natural and open-ended resources promote children's creativity and exploration learning opportunities. Children's independence is fostered through many opportunities to make choices, develop self-help skills and use their talents.
Teachers plan activities from observing children's interests. While this approach helps teachers to provide activities that reflect these interests, it does not identify specific teaching strategies or goals to extend children's learning. Teachers would benefit from support to strengthen their understanding of their role in extending children's learning, and developing children's critical thinking skills.
Teachers share learning stories with parents through an online portal. The availability of hard copies has enabled access to these stories for all families, and provides more opportunities for two-way conversations about children and their learning outcomes.
Children up to the age of two years benefit from caring teachers who promote a calm and peaceful environment. Education and care routines are appropriately individualised. Younger children have easy access to the outside area for their own exploration and play with older children.
Leaders have developed good systems to support the effective management and operation of the centre. They work collaboratively with staff to monitor the centre's direction. Leaders plan to incorporate the 2017 revision of Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, and other strategic documents to develop a clearer alignment with valued outcomes for children.
Centre managers agree that development priorities include:
formalising the centre's vision, and aligning the philosophy, the strategic plan and the annual work plan with the vision
prioritising whole-centre professional development to build teachers' professional practice and the enactment of the centre's philosophy
establishing an organisational culture that supports ongoing improvement
ensuring teacher appraisal procedures align with the appraisal policy
strengthening internal evaluation.
Since the on-site phase of this ERO review, the service has begun to take steps to address some of these priorities. The director has provided ERO with an action plan that shows how key next steps will be addressed. ERO will request a progress update in six months.
Before the review, the staff and management of Brilliant Minds Early Childhood Centre 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.
Steve Tanner Director Review and Improvement Services
Northern Region
7 March 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.
|
Location |
Three Kings, Auckland |
||
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
46201 |
||
|
Licence type |
Education & Care Service |
||
|
Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
||
|
Number licensed for |
68 children, including up to 20 aged under 2 |
||
|
Service roll |
48 |
||
|
Gender composition |
Girls 25 Boys 23 |
||
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori |
1 |
|
|
Percentage of qualified teachers |
50-79% |
||
|
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 |
January 2019 |
||
|
Date of this report |
7 March 2019 |
||
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
First ERO report under new name and ownership |
||
|
Previously known as: Peter Pan Childcare Centre Education Review |
October 2015 |
||
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 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.
|
Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Peter Pan Childcare Centre Carr Road is a newly established purpose-built centre located in Three Kings. It is privately owned and part of a growing group of Peter Pan Childcare Centres.
The centre is licensed to provide education and care for up to 68 children from three months to school age. It is organised into four rooms to provide for the different age groups. Infants and toddlers, and pre-schoolers have their own outside area spaces.
The centre’s philosophy is aligned with Reggio Emilia education practices and the principles and strands of Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. It promotes respectful and trusting relationships and encourages a learning programme and environment where children are listened to, respected, valued and feel a sense of belonging.
The centre is governed by the owner operators of Peter Pan Child Care Ltd. Very good systems, procedures and processes are in place to support the operation of the centre. A professional practice mentor supports the centre lead teacher and teachers. The teaching team has fully and provisionally registered teachers.
The majority of children attending are Chinese and Indian. Together with Māori, New Zealand European/Pākehā and Pacific children, they represent the cultural diversity of the centre’s community.
Managers supply healthy, nutritious meals for children. They access support from external agencies to provide for special needs children.
The attractive and well designed indoor and outdoor environment is pleasing and inviting. Teachers create interesting learning spaces and children have access to high quality, well organised resources.
Children are warmly welcomed into the centre. Teachers recognise the importance of building responsive relationships with children and families. They spend time developing conversations and information sharing.
The youngest children are well cared for in a warm and nurturing environment. Teachers provide children with individualised care throughout the day and support language development through routines and daily happenings. Toddlers are encouraged to develop independence and to make choices in their play. Teachers support children with their language by singing songs at mat and group times.
Children are confident, capable and enjoy exploring the indoor and outdoor environment. They develop an awareness of the community around them through frequent excursions outside the centre. Children's play enhances their social and communication skills through their interactions with peers, in groups and with adults.
Teachers listen carefully to children to find out their strengths, interests and needs. They provide literacy and numeracy through play for children and support and encourage them to develop self-managing skills. Teachers also plan projects to extend the interests of the two older groups of children.
Teachers carry out their own research about children’s current investigations to deepen their understanding about children’s learning. The professional practice mentor has regular meetings with teachers to discuss, assess and plan from children’s interests. She leads by example to build a collaborative professional learning community. Managers are now considering how to promote curriculum leadership opportunities for staff.
Managers agree that the centre’s commitment to The Treaty of Waitangi and bicultural practices could be more visible in the centre’s philosophy. This addition could help teachers to ensure that the identity, language and culture of Māori learners and their whānau is better affirmed.
Managers are deliberate in appointing staff with similar cultures and languages of the children and their families at the centre. They acknowledge the importance of ensuring that children’s cultures and languages are reflected in the centre documents and environment, especially for Māori learners and children from Pacific nations.
Managers agree that next steps for the centre include:
Before the review, the staff and management of Peter Pan Childcare Centre Carr Rd 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.
The next ERO review of Peter Pan Childcare Centre Carr Rd will be in three years.
Graham Randell
Deputy Chief Review Officer Northern (Acting)
9 October 2015
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 |
Three Kings, Auckland |
||
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
46201 |
||
|
Licence type |
Education & Care Service |
||
|
Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
||
|
Number licensed for |
68 children, including up to 20 aged under 2 |
||
|
Service roll |
75 |
||
|
Gender composition |
Boys 39 |
||
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori |
4 |
|
|
Percentage of qualified teachers 0-49% 50-79% 80%+ Based on funding rates |
80% + |
||
|
Reported ratios of staff to children |
Under 2 |
1:5 |
Meets minimum requirements |
|
Over 2 |
1:10 |
Meets minimum requirements |
|
|
Review team on site |
August 2015 |
||
|
Date of this report |
9 October 2015 |
||
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
No previous ERO reports |
|
|
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.