246 Richmond Road, Lepperton
View on mapRuru House Limited
Ruru House Limited
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 Ruru House Limited are as follows:
Outcome Indicators(What the service knows about outcomes for learners) | Whāngai Establishing |
Ngā Akatoro Domains | |
Learning ConditionsOrganisational Conditions | Whakaū Embedding Whāngai Establishing |
2 Context of the Service
Ruru House Limited is a privately owned, purpose-built service located in a rural setting in Taranaki. The owner is supported by a recently appointed curriculum leader and two established team leaders. Since the 2020 review, there have been a number of changes to the teaching team. A quarter of enrolled children are Māori.
3 Summary of findings
An inclusive, purposefully-designed curriculum supports children to become confident and competent learners who demonstrate a good sense of belonging. Teachers work in partnership with parents and whānau to support children’s developing social competence and emotional wellbeing. The learning environment encourages critical thought, wondering and creativity that challenges children to explore in a nature-based playscape. Teachers effectively engage with whānau to remove barriers and enable all children to participate fully in the curriculum alongside their peers.
Infants and toddlers experience a responsive curriculum where care is understood to be integral to their learning and wellbeing. Teachers are highly attuned to these younger children's communication cues.
Further work is required, to build a culturally responsive curriculum that enables Māori children to succeed as Māori and that supports each child to be confident in his or her own culture.
Leaders continue to develop and implement planning and assessment guidelines to support teachers to effectively plan for learning. While children's learning dispositions are highly evident, the learning outcomes in Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, are yet to be made clearly visible in individual children’s learning journals.
Those responsible for governance and management are improvement focused. Resources clearly align with the philosophy, vision and goals for learning. Leaders and teachers collaboratively engage in relevant professional learning, including building their understanding of te ao Māori. Self-review for improvement is ongoing. Further building leadership capability to effectively mentor teachers to critique their practice is required. Better implementation of aspects of health and safety is also required.
4 Improvement actions
Ruru House Limited will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:
- Intentionally use Te Whāriki learning outcomes, to show individual children’s learning and progress through their assessment and planning documentation.
- Integrate children’s cultures, languages and identity through individual’s learning journals, and the enacted curriculum.
- Build leadership capability to:
- provide teachers with targeted feedback about their practice in relation to new learning that has occurred
- identify what is working or not, and for which child or groups of children.
5 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements
Before the review, the staff and management of Ruru House Limited 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
Since the onsite visit the service has provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed the following areas of non-compliance:
- Consistently carrying out each type of emergency drill with children (as appropriate) on at least a three-monthly basis (HS8).
- Having parental permission and approval of adult: child ratios for special excursions (HS17).
Patricia Davey
Director of Early Childhood Education (ECE)
20 November 2023
7 About the Early Childhood Service
Early Childhood Service Name | Ruru House Limited |
Profile Number | 47610 |
Location | Lepperton, New Plymouth |
Service type | Education and care service |
Number licensed for | 54 children, including up to 24 aged under 2 |
Percentage of qualified teachers | 100% |
Service roll | 72 |
Review team on site | September 2023 |
Date of this report | 20 November 2023 |
Most recent ERO report(s) | Akanuku | Assurance Review, October 2020. |
Ruru House Limited - 29/10/2020
ERO’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.
ERO’s Judgement
Regulatory standards | ERO’s judgement |
Curriculum | Meeting |
Premises and facilities | Meeting |
Health and safety | Meeting |
Governance, management and administration | Meeting |
At the time of the review, ERO found the service was taking reasonable steps to meet regulatory standards.
Background
Ruru House, situated in Lepperton, provides full day, education and care for 54 children. The philosophy emphasises ‘quality care and education for children in a setting that is a safe haven, nestled in nature’. Ruru House opened in January 2019. This is the first ERO review of the service.
Summary of Review Findings
Ruru House’s philosophy guides all aspects of service operation. The design and layout of the premises support the provision of a range of learning experiences.
The curriculum provides children with a range of contextualised experiences. Children are provided with opportunities to enhance and extend their learning. Teachers focus on children’s interests and strengths and promote care for the environment and animals.
Strategies are in place to respect and respond to the aspirations held by parents and whānau for their children. Kaiako support children to be confident in their own culture.
Key Next Steps
Next steps include:
- embedding the use internal evaluation to further develop the local curriculum.
Actions for Compliance
ERO found an area of non-compliance in the service relating to:
- written information letting parents know how to access information regarding the amount and details of the expenditure of any Ministry of Education funding received by the service.
[Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care Centres 2008, GMA3]
Since the onsite visit the service has provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed the following non-compliance:
- providing written information letting parents know how to access information regarding the amount and details of the expenditure of any Ministry of Education funding received by the service
- written communications with parents informing them of the policy and procedure changes.
[Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care Centres 2008, GMA3]
Next ERO Review
The next ERO review is likely to be an Akarangi | Quality Evaluation.
Phil Cowie
Director Review and Improvement Services (Central)
Central Region | Te Tai Pūtahi Nui
29 October 2020
Information About the Service
Early Childhood Service Name | Ruru House Limited |
Profile Number | 47610 |
Location | Lepperton, Taranaki |
Service type | Education and care service |
Number licensed for | 54 children, including up to 24 aged under 2. |
Percentage of qualified teachers | 80%+ |
Service roll | 69 |
Gender composition | Male 38, Female 31. |
Ethnic composition | Māori 19 NZ European/Pākehā 42 Other ethnic groups 8 |
Review team on site | October 2020 |
Date of this report | 29 October 2020 |
Most recent ERO report(s) | First ERO review of the service. |
General Information about Assurance Reviews
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.
ERO undertakes an Akanuku | Assurance Review process in any centre-based service:
- 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.
Management Assurance on Legal Requirements
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 regulated 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; police vetting; teacher certification; ratios)
- evacuation procedures and practices for fire and earthquake.
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 practice.