Tiny Voices Napier

Education institution number:
47840
Service type:
Education and Care Service
Definition:
Not Applicable
Total roll:
65
Telephone:
Address:

147 Carlyle Street, Napier South, Napier

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Tiny Voices Napier

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 Tiny Voices Napier are as follows:

Outcome Indicators

(What the service knows about outcomes for learners)

Whāngai Establishing

Ngā Akatoro Domains

 

Learning Conditions
Organisational Conditions

Whāngai Establishing

Whāngai Establishing

2 Context of the Service

Tiny Voices Napier is one four privately owned services in the North Island under the same ownership. The centre manager is supported by two head teachers. The philosophy places the child and family at the centre of the programme. A small number of children are of Māori or Pacific heritage.

3 Summary of findings

Children experience a responsive and inclusive curriculum that promotes exploration and challenge. They lead their own learning, showing agency and independence within a language-rich environment. Infants and toddlers benefit from caring, nurturing relationships where their verbal and non-verbal cues are responded to.

Individual children’s cultures and languages are evident in the learning environment. Success for Māori learners is well promoted through the incorporation of Māori language and culture in the curriculum. Teachers actively seek ways to maintain connections to children’s home languages and cultural identities, including for Pacific aiga and other culturally diverse groups of children. Parents and whānau have some opportunities to contribute to the design of a curriculum that reflects their ways of knowing, being and doing. 

Assessment, planning and evaluation of children’s learning is variable. Children’s learning and successes are regularly documented in learning stories. Parent aspirations are considered through planning, however learning-focused partnerships with parents are yet to be established for all. Teachers are beginning to strengthen consistency in evaluating how well intentional teaching strategies contribute to children’s learning. A shared understanding is still required of the learning outcomes in Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, and how these outcomes are used to inform assessment and planning.

Leaders and teachers are improvement focused, using systems and processes for evaluation. Mentoring contributes to the ongoing development of teaching, leadership abilities and relational trust. Leaders and teachers are yet to consistently identify outcomes for children’s learning when inquiring into the effectiveness of their teaching practice.  

4 Improvement actions

Tiny Voices Napier will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:

  • Continue to build teachers’ knowledge to use the learning outcomes from Te Whāriki to monitor children’s developing capabilities.

  • Use evidence of children’s progress and learning as a basis for collective inquiry into the effectiveness of teaching practice.

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Tiny Voices Napier 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)

19 June 2023

6 About the Early Childhood Service

Early Childhood Service Name

Tiny Voices Napier

Profile Number 

47840

Location

Napier South, Napier

Service type

Education and care service

Number licensed for

75 children, including up to 20 aged under 2

Percentage of qualified teachers

80-99%

Service roll

66

Review team on site

May 2023

Date of this report

19 June 2023

Most recent ERO report(s)

Akanuku | Assurance Review, March 2022

Tiny Voices Napier

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

Tiny Voices Napier is a newly licensed education and care centre. It is one of four privately owned services located in the North Island. A general manager provides professional support to the centre manager. The philosophy places the child and family at the centre of the programme.

Summary of Review Findings

Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, underpins the service philosophy and implementation. Assessment, planning and evaluation is informed by children’s interests and preferences. The service curriculum supports children’s developing social competence and understanding of appropriate behaviour.

Parents and whānau have regular opportunities to be involved in decision making that contributes to their child’s learning. Ongoing internal evaluation and review improves the quality of education and care. Management systems and processes provide ongoing guidance for implementation of the service’s operation.

Key Next Steps

Next steps include continuing to:

  • strengthen the extent to which children’s culture, language and identity is responded to and documented in assessment and planning
  • deepen internal evaluation to further promote positive learning outcomes for children.

Next ERO Review

The next ERO review is likely to be an Akarangi | Quality Evaluation.

Shelley Booysen
Acting Director Review and Improvement Services (Central)
Central Region | Te Tai Pūtahi Nui

17 March 2022 

Information About the Service

Early Childhood Service Name

Tiny Voices Napier

Profile Number

47840

Location

Napier

Service type

Education and care service

Number licensed for

60 children, including up to 20 aged under 2

Percentage of qualified teachers

50-79%

Service roll

71

Ethnic composition

Māori 9, NZ European/Pākehā 49, Other ethnic groups 13

Review team on site

February 2022

Date of this report

17 March 2022

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.