Pohutukawa Kidz

1 ERO’s judgement of Pohutukawa Kidz is as follows:

For an explanation of the judgement terms used and of the evaluation process please refer to the last page of this report. These judgements are based on the evidence provided to ERO during the evaluation.

2 ERO’s Judgements

Akarangi | Quality Evaluations evaluate the extent to which early childhood services have 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 and Early Childhood Education (ECE) Improvement Framework (teacher led services) are the basis for making judgements about the quality of the service in achieving equity and excellence for all learners. Evaluations for improvement | Ngā Aronga Whai Hua is integrated across all of the above domains.

3 About the Service

Pohutukawa Kidz is privately owned and operated. Governance, management and curriculum leadership is provided by the qualified owner. The newly formed teaching team includes three qualified teachers and three staff.

The service provides for children from infancy to school age, in two areas. The centre is culturally diverse. The philosophy references Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, and Tiriti o Waitangi.

4 Progress since the previous ERO report

The December 2020 ERO Akanuku | Assurance Review report identified two improvement actions related to teachers planning to support the specific needs of boys and two-year-old children and to provide more practical, hands-on experiences to support children’s gross motor skill development.

Some progress is evident in the provision of experiences to support children’s gross motor skill development. However, there is minimal documented evidence available that shows shared understanding around planning to support the specific needs of boys and two-year-old children. Documented assessment and planning information shows what children are doing rather than their learning and progress over time.

5 Learning Conditions

The learner and their learning | He Whāriki Motuhake

The service’s curriculum is beginning to reflect aspects of Te Whāriki. The service is taking steps to identify its priorities for children’s learning and is at an early stage of using these to inform its curriculum.

• The documented curriculum has a focus on adult-led activities and is yet to show strategies used by teachers to extend children’s play and their ideas.
• Teachers are yet to demonstrate a shared understanding on recognising and responding to individual children’s identity, language and culture.
• Children work in small groups and friendships are evident. They benefit from teachers’ responsive interactions.

Collaborative professional learning and development builds knowledge and capability | Whakangungu Ngaio

Leaders and kaiako are at an early stage of building their cultural competence and knowledge and understanding of Te Whāriki.

• Leaders and kaiako are yet to use the learning outcomes of Te Whāriki to inform assessment and planning.
• There is limited evidence of changes in teacher practice because of professional learning and development, and its impact on outcomes for groups of learners.
• Teachers integrate some aspects of te reo Māori and tikanga Māori into the daily curriculum. Continuing to develop teachers’ cultural expertise is a strategic priority for the service.

6 Organisational conditions

Leadership fosters collaboration and improvement | Kaihautū

The service is establishing the conditions to develop leadership capability to support quality teaching.

• Leaders are taking steps to build relational trust to enable collaboration and improvement.
• A professional growth cycle process is being implemented with a new teaching team and is yet to evidence how it is contributing to the service achieving its vision and goals.
• Leaders should increase opportunities for whānau Māori and Pacific to voice their views and share their aspirations for their children’s learning.

Stewardship through effective governance and management | Te Whakaruruhau

The service’s planning and priorities for improvement are being developed.

• The service is at an early stage of consulting with parents and whānau about the vision, plans and priorities for improvement. The philosophy is enacted in practice and shared with parents.
• Internal evaluation follows a process. A strategic priority identified by the leader is to build collective capacity to do and use evaluation for improvements. This includes team’s shared understanding on using a range of data for analysis and effectively monitoring progress and improvements.

7 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Pohutukawa Kidz completed and 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 system for managing the following areas that have a potentially high impact on children’s health and safety:

• emotional safety (including positive guidance and child protection)
• physical safety (including supervision; sleep procedures; accidents; medication; excursion policies and procedures)
• suitable staffing (safety checking of staff, 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.

8 Where to next for improvement?

Pohutukawa Kidz will include the following actions in its quality improvement planning:

• Develop a shared understanding around using the learning outcomes from Te Whāriki, to record children’s progress over time
• Increase the visibility of teachers’ response to individual children’s identity, language and culture in assessment and planning documentation
• Support leaders and teachers to evaluate the effectiveness of improvements made, in relation to outcomes for groups of children over time.

Further information about how ERO evaluates early childhood services is available here.

Patricia Davey
Director of Early Childhood Education (ECE)

4 October 2024

9 Information About the Service

Description around ERO’s judgement terms                                      

ERO’s judgements are based on Te Ara Poutama and the Early Childhood Education Improvement Framework (teacher led services).