Starting Line Home Based Childcare

1 ERO’s judgement of Starting Line Homebased Childcare 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

Starting Line Home Based Childcare is an independently owned and operated home-based service.  They are licensed to provide education and care for 50 children from birth to school age. The leadership team comprises of the services license provider, a visiting teacher and a consultant who provides external oversight. All children currently enrolled are of Chinese heritage.

4 Progress since the previous ERO report

This is the first ERO review of this service.

5 Learning Conditions

The learner and their learning | He Whāriki Motuhake

Children experience an environment that is reflective of their home culture. This supports them to be confident in their home languages and enables educators to work closely with parents.

• The service provides opportunities for parents and whānau to contribute to the curriculum, there is recognition of language, culture and identity. The service has self-identified the need to strengthen bicultural practices.
• There is a strong focus on children’s learning dispositions. Management is to determine how children’s working theories, knowledge and skills are being planned for and assessed against the full breadth of the curriculum.
• The service’s newly developed systems for planning, assessment and evaluation are yet to consider age-appropriate learning opportunities for infants.

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

Management has provided support to the visiting teacher by an external consultant to build professional knowledge and expertise. The effectiveness of this support on lifting capability is yet to be considered.

• Educators are directed towards professional learning material. This is informal and not always appropriately sourced to lift their understanding or provide practical application strategies.
• The service has translated extracts of Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, into Mandarin to support educators’ understanding of the curriculum.
• Leadership is beginning to develop their systems and processes for curriculum planning, teaching practices and assessment of children’s learning.  They have yet to consider the evaluation on effectiveness of these systems in delivering on individualised outcomes for children’s learning.

6 Organisational conditions

Leadership fosters collaboration and improvement | Kaihautū

Management have yet to develop the conditions that support leadership capability. The delivery of key roles and responsibilities is not yet monitored for effectiveness.

• Professional support is not yet targeted to the individual needs of the educators or the visiting teacher. Management have not yet developed systems to monitor professional growth to be assured it is leading to intended outcomes.
• Internal evaluation is currently focused on accountability. The service is in the early stages of shifting their focus into quality improvement planning.
• The service has developed a philosophy which outlines their values and beliefs. They are in the early stages of enacting this philosophy in practice in a way that aligns to Te Whāriki.

Stewardship through effective governance and management | Te Whakaruruhau

The organisation has developed a strategic plan that identifies their priorities for children’s learning. It aims to strengthen leader and educator capability but does not identify strategies or actions to take to meet their stated goals.

• The priorities identified within the service’s newly developed strategic plan are linked to children and their learning opportunities.
• The leadership team has supported educators through their level 4 studies and has made this a priority within their organisation.
• Induction processes within the organisation have been developed which focus on compliance and maintaining the regulatory requirements. They do not yet support educators or visiting teachers to implement a quality curriculum.

7 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Starting Line Homebased Childcare 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?

Starting Line Homebased Childcare will include the following actions in its quality improvement planning:

• To develop individualised development plans that consider the dispositions, working theories, knowledge and skills of the children within this service.
• Continue to develop the visiting teachers understanding of the breadth and depth of Te Whāriki to support the educators to plan and implement a responsive curriculum.
• Increase the availability for all employees to have access to intentional and targeted support to lift their capability.

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

Patricia Davey
Director of Early Childhood Education (ECE)

7 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).