The Rumpus Room Waterview

1 ERO’s Judgements

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 are the basis for making judgements about the effectiveness of the service in achieving equity and excellence for all learners. Judgements are made in relation to the Outcomes Indicators, Learning and Organisational Conditions. The Evaluation Judgement Rubric derived from the indicators, is used to inform ERO’s judgements about this service’s performance in promoting equity and excellence.

ERO’s judgements for The Rumpus Room Waterview are as follows:

2 Context of the Service

The Rumpus Room Waterview is one of two services under the same ownership. The centre manager is supported by two other staff in leadership positions. They lead a team of 12 qualified teachers, one teacher in training and a cook. A small number of children enrolled are Māori or have Pacific heritages.

3 Summary of findings

Children experience a play-based curriculum that supports their developing friendships, independence, and decision making. Learning environments are well resourced and promote children’s exploration. Teachers are not yet intentionally planning how they will extend children’s learning in relation to the learning outcomes in Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum.

Teachers’ use of basic te reo Māori and integration of some aspects of tikanga Māori are evident. They are working to ensure these practices and protocols are incorporated into their daily practice. Teachers recognise they need to further develop their cultural competencies to help them design a bicultural curriculum that provides children with regular opportunities to explore te ao Māori (the Māori world).

External support is sought in response to children’s individual needs. In addition to this, teachers are beginning to consider their role in working with learners with diverse needs. Monitoring and documenting the provision of equitable opportunities and outcomes for these children is a next step for teachers.

Systems and tools to guide self-review and internal evaluation have been established. Leaders are working to increase the capabilities of their teaching team to do and use evaluation for improvement. Scrutinising their practices based on carefully considered inquiry questions could guide leaders and teachers to make informed changes that improve outcomes for children.

Leaders ensure that teachers have regular access to professional learning opportunities. These are designed to help develop the knowledge, skills, and capabilities of the teaching team. The service recognises the need to evaluate the impact of these experiences to ensure they are having the intended outcomes on both teaching practices and children’s learning.  

4 Improvement actions

The Rumpus Room Waterview will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:

• Develop teachers' cultural competencies to help them provide a more responsive curriculum for all children.

• Build teachers’ capability and understanding of evaluation with a focus on documenting the impact of the curriculum and teaching practices on outcomes for learners.

5 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of The Rumpus Room Waterview completed an 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 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 registration; 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.

6 Actions for Compliance

During the review, the service provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed the following
non-compliances:

• Maintaining evidence of parental approval of the adult:child ratios for regular excursions (HS17).

• Having the written authority of parents within individual health plans to administer category 3 medication (HS28).

Patricia Davey
Director of Early Childhood Education (ECE)

3 November 2023 

7 About the Early Childhood Service