Ilam Montessori Preschool

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 ​Ilam Montessori Preschool​ are as follows: 

2 Context of the Service 

Ilam Montessori Preschool, formerly known as Whales Tales Montessori Preschool, is a small, privately owned service. The philosophy is based on teaching approaches that value children’s self-directed activity and hands-on learning. This is the first ERO report of the service under new ownership. The owner is a qualified early childhood teacher and trained in Montessori approaches. She leads a teaching team of two certificated teachers and two other staff.  

3 Summary of findings 

The service’s curriculum is based on aspects of the Montessori approach and Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. Children learn in well-resourced and purposefully prepared environments. Children with additional learning needs are well supported to work towards achieving their specific learning goals.  

Teachers work collaboratively. They encourage children to explore, practice, and develop their increasing capabilities. They intentionally promote the diverse languages and cultures of their community. Parents actively participate, providing cultural connectivity between home and the service, and expertise to significant celebrations and experiences.  

Aspects of te ao Māori (the Māori world) are included in the curriculum including waiata, some karakia, pepehā, and pūrākau Māori (stories). Leaders acknowledge te reo Māori is yet to be fully integrated in ways that provide a strong foundation for the implementation of a localised bicultural curriculum.   

The service has some evidence of the learning outcomes from Te Whāriki being used to identify children’s skills, knowledge, and attitudes in their assessment and individual planning documentation. These systems require improvement to show how children’s learning progression of learning over time is evaluated and documented. 

Leaders recognise the service is in the early stages of understanding and using internal evaluation processes. While there is a system for self-review and emergent evaluation, a clear framework that promotes evaluation and ongoing improvement has not yet been established.   

Those with responsibility for governance and management place the learning and wellbeing of children at the centre of decision-making. The vision statement supports the service’s priorities for children’s learning. Most policies and procedures are current. However, some require further refinement to provide clearer guidelines and to support increased teacher understandings. 

4 Improvement actions 

​​Ilam Montessori Preschool​ will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning: 

• Increase opportunities for children and teachers to hear and use te reo Māori within daily routines and spontaneously in play-based experiences. 
• Implement a process to evaluate children’s learning over time in relation to the learning outcomes from Te Whāriki. 
• Build teachers’ collective responsibility and capability to do and use internal evaluation for improvement. 

5 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements 

Before the review, the staff and management of ​Ilam Montessori Preschool​ 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. 

Patricia Davey 
Director of Early Childhood Education (ECE)  

​​13 August 2024​   

6 About the Early Childhood Service