1 Carlyle Street, Mataura
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 | Not meeting |
| Governance, management and administration | Meeting |
At the time of the review, ERO identified non-compliance with regulatory standards that must be addressed.
Hope Preschool is a Christian-based centre located in new purpose-built facilities within a rural setting. The centre manager is supported by a board of trustees. Two separate classrooms cater for the age and needs of children attending. There is a small number of tamariki Māori and increasing numbers of children of diverse ethnicities who attend.
The service curriculum is consistent with Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. It is underpinned by Christian values, and informed by assessment, planning, and evaluation that demonstrate an understanding of children’s learning and their interests.
Adults providing education and care engage in positive interactions to enhance children’s learning and nurture reciprocal relationships. Premises support the provision of different kinds of indoor and outdoor play, and a range of learning experiences. Positive steps are taken to respect and acknowledge the aspirations held by parents and whānau for their children.
Consistent implementation and monitoring of health and safety practices are required to meet and maintain aspects of regulatory compliance.
ERO found areas of non-compliance in the service relating to:
[Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care Services 2008, HS28]
Since the onsite visit, the service has provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed the following non-compliance:
Ensuring relevant emergency drills are carried out with the children (as appropriate) on at least a three-monthly basis [HS8].
ERO recommends the Ministry follows up with the service provider to ensure that non-compliances identified in this report are addressed promptly.
The next ERO review is likely to be an Akarangi | Quality Evaluation.
Patricia Davey
Director of Early Childhood Education (ECE)
31 January 2024
| Early Childhood Service Name | Hope Preschool |
| Profile Number | 46421 |
| Location | Mataura |
| Service type | Education and care service |
| Number licensed for | 45 children, including up to 15 aged under 2 |
| Percentage of qualified teachers | 80-99% |
| Service roll | 59 |
| Review team on site | November 2023 |
| Date of this report | 31 January 2024 |
| Most recent ERO report(s) | Akarangi | Quality Evaluation, March 2022; Education Review, June 2018 |
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 Hope Preschool are as follows:
Outcome Indicators |
ERO’s judgement |
|
What the service knows about outcomes for learners |
Whāngai Establishing |
Ngā Akatoro Domains |
ERO’s judgement |
|
He Whāriki Motuhake The learner and their learning |
Whakaū Embedding |
|
Whakangungu Ngaio Collaborative professional learning builds knowledge and capability |
Whakaū Embedding |
|
Ngā Aronga Whai Hua Evaluation for improvement |
Whakaū Embedding |
|
Kaihautū Leaders foster collaboration and improvement |
Whakaū Embedding |
|
Te Whakaruruhau Stewardship through effective governance and management |
Whakaū Embedding |
Hope Preschool provides education and care for children from two years to school age. This Christian centre is governed by a Charitable Trust. A manager is responsible for the day-to-day operation of the service. Most of the teaching team are qualified early childhood teachers.
Children experience a broad and responsive play-based curriculum in a calm learning environment. Teachers support children to make choices about their play, challenge themselves physically, investigate and develop their understanding of the world around them. Children are active participants in imaginative play, art and literacy curriculum experiences.
Teachers model appropriate social behaviours and affirm positive dispositions for learning. Children are well supported to become socially and emotionally competent and to develop self-management skills. Respectful relationships, manaakitanga, whanaungatanga and predictable routines contribute to children’s sense of belonging and wellbeing.
Children with additional needs are very well supported to access the whole curriculum. Teachers work closely with parents, local schools and external specialists to develop individual plans that guide teachers’ practices and support learning. This assists a successful transition to school.
The recently implemented assessment and planning processes are beginning to show children’s progress in relation to the learning outcomes in Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. Parents’ contributions about their children’s learning are increasingly evident. Further work is needed to embed these improvements. Learning records and planning could better recognise the diverse languages and cultures of children attending.
The teaching team is in the early stages of implementing a rich bicultural curriculum. All children will benefit from greater opportunities to learn about te ao Māori and to hear and use te reo Māori. Teachers recognise the need to build their confidence in the use of te reo Māori.
There is a strong culture of collaboration among trustees, the manager and teachers. With parents, they have developed the service’s philosophy, values and goals. Effective governance and management systems enable teachers to focus on children’s wellbeing and learning. A useful framework for internal evaluation is in place and teachers are continuing to embed their understanding of evaluation for improvement.
Hope Preschool will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement planning. These are to:
provide children with rich opportunities to hear and use te reo Māori and learn more about the history, culture and perspectives of tangata whenua
embed recent improvements to assessment and planning for learning, including clearly showing children’s progress in relation to the learning outcomes in Te Whāriki and children’s language and culture
strengthen evaluation capability at all levels of operation to increase understanding of how well the service’s curriculum and systems are supporting equitable and excellent outcomes for children.
Before the review, the staff and management of Hope Preschool 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
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.
Dr Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini
30 March 2022
|
Early Childhood Service Name |
Hope Preschool |
|
Profile Number |
46421 |
|
Location |
Mataura |
|
Service type |
Education and care service |
|
Number licensed for |
25 children two years and over |
|
Percentage of qualified teachers |
100% |
|
Service roll |
50 |
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori 11, NZ European/Pākehā 33, other ethnic groups 6 |
|
Review team on site |
October 2021 |
|
Date of this report |
30 March 2022 |
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review, June 2018 |
|
Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Hope Preschool provides full-day education and care for children aged between two and six years. It is licensed for up to 25 children. Families attend from Mataura and surrounding areas. A quarter of the children identify as Māori.
The centre is governed by a charitable trust. Trustees have delegated the centre manager to have responsibility and oversee the day-to-day aspects of centre operations. Since the 2016 ERO review, the manager has undertaken qualifications in early childhood education teacher training. Other teachers share distributed leadership roles. All teachers are qualified and registered. The centre provides daily meals to children free of charge.
The 2016 ERO report identified that many aspects of governance, management, leadership, teaching and learning required further development to be effective. Good progress has been made in addressing these key areas. Some of these areas require further refinement.
Leaders and teachers have developed and embedded useful systems for planning and assessment of individual children's learning. They clearly identify learning goals, strengths, interests and needs of children. They seek and include parents' and whānau aspirations for their children's learning. Teachers intentionally plan strategies and experiences to support children's learning. They gather assessment information to show continuity, progress and revisiting of learning over time. These processes are contributing to the way teachers are promoting positive outcomes for children.
Children benefit from positive relationships with their teachers. Teachers provide a wide range of interesting experiences to extend children's learning. Children are engaged and settled in the programme.
Teachers have developed close relationships with the local school and Kohanga Reo, to share children's learning. This is supporting children to experience a positive transition to school.
Teachers have clearly identified valued outcomes for children's learning including:
being independent
playing with and alongside others
caring for themselves and others
contributing and communicating their thoughts, feelings and ideas
problem solving through exploration and creativity
knowing they are loved/valued by God.
Teachers need to ensure that the identified valued outcomes for children's learning are guiding group planning. The next step to further develop group planning and assessment, is for teachers to make clearer the intended learning. Teachers can then evaluate how effectively these planned strategies and experiences have supported the intended outcomes for individuals and groups of children.
Teachers plan for children to experience aspects of a bicultural curriculum, through the use of te reo Māori and waiata. Teachers need to further develop their understanding of culturally responsive practices by:
ensuring children's language, culture and identity are visible in assessment information
continuing to develop and extend their use of te reo Māori
making visible te ao Māori in their philosophy, documentation and practice.
Since the 2016 ERO review, trustees, leaders and teachers have engaged with a sense of urgency to respond to areas for further development. They have effectively engaged with external professional learning and development to develop and embed systems, to make processes in the centre sustainable. These include developing:
a strategic plan, with clear annual priorities, identified in consultation with their community
a clear vision and values to guide their work
a useful system for appraisal of all teachers
systems to promote consistency of documentation in assessment and planning.
A next step is for leaders to more deeply evaluate progress towards strategic and annual priorities and report this regularly to trustees.
Leaders and teachers have developed shared understandings and processes to guide internal evaluation, which are leading to improvements in practices. A next step is to deepen their understanding of evaluative processes and practices.
Trustees, leaders and teachers need to:
continue to build culturally responsive practices
strengthen aspects of planning, assessment and evaluation for groups of children
strengthen aspects of internal evaluation
strengthen reporting, including reporting to trustees on progress against strategic priorities and trustees documenting discussions and decisions.
Before the review, the staff and management of Hope Preschool 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.
Trustees, leaders and teachers need to strengthen aspects of practices and policies to ensure:
all records of accidents are signed by parents
the complaints procedure is expanded to better show the processes for responding to a complaint.
The next ERO review of Hope Preschool will be in three years.
Dr Lesley Patterson
Deputy Chief Review Officer Southern
Te Waipounamu - Southern Region
15 June 2018
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 |
Mataura |
||
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
46421 |
||
|
Licence type |
Education & Care Service |
||
|
Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
||
|
Number licensed for |
25 children aged over 2 |
||
|
Service roll |
47 |
||
|
Gender composition |
Boys: 24 Girls: 23 |
||
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori |
11 |
|
|
Percentage of qualified teachers 0-49% 50-79% 80%+ Based on funding rates |
80% + |
||
|
Reported ratios of staff to children |
Over 2 |
1:7 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
Review team on site |
April 2018 |
||
|
Date of this report |
15 June 2018 |
||
|
Most recent ERO report |
Education Review |
February 2016 |
|
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.