Nurture and Bloom Early Learning Centre - Te Anau

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 Blue Duck Early Learning Centre are as follows:

2 Context of the Service

Blue Duck Early Learning Centre is one of three privately owned early childhood services. The service owner and a center director support a newly appointed center manager who oversees the day-to-day operations. The center roll is diverse. Almost a quarter of the children attending the service identify as Māori. There are also a small number of children who are of Pacific or Chinese heritage.

3 Summary of findings 

Infants and toddlers experience interactions with teachers that are calm, respectful, and responsive to their abilities. They have a separate play and learning area that are resourced to support their age and developmental needs. 

Teachers engage with children in a responsive and meaningful way that supports their play. There are regular excursions into the community that aligns with the centre philosophy. Children with additional needs are well supported by external agencies, teachers and whānau who work together to guide learning and development.

There is limited use of te reo Māori by teachers in the curriculum. Te reo Māori is reflected in some assessment documentation, however this is not yet a consistent practice. Whānau Māori have requested iwi and home languages to be included in the planning for learning process, and a culturally responsive assessment model is being explored.

Children experience a curriculum that is responsive to their interests and parental aspirations. The meaningful use of the learning outcomes from Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum in assessment documentation is not yet a consistent practice.  

Teachers are supported to engage in ongoing learning and through their professional growth cycle. A useful process is in place for internal evaluation. The process does not yet consistently show how the evaluation has led to improved outcomes for children’s learning or teacher’s practice. Teachers contribute their views to the evaluation focus but have not taken a leading role. The strategic plan has not yet been evaluated.  Greater attention to enacting the requirements of the center supervision policy is required.

4 Improvement actions

Blue Duck Early Learning Centre will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:

• increase opportunities for children to hear and speak te reo Māori in meaningful learning contexts 

• build teacher capability to use the learning outcomes in Te Whāriki, to analyse and interpret significant learning from which to build a rich and relevant curriculum for every child

• build the collective capability of the teaching team to lead effective internal evaluation for improvement.

5 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Blue Duck Early Learning Centre 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.

Kathy Lye
Director Review and Improvement Services (Acting, Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini

21 February 2023 

6 About the Early Childhood Service