187 Ruahine Street, Terrace End, Palmerston North
View on mapMagic Sparks Nature Preschool
Magic Sparks Nature Preschool
1 ERO’s judgement of Magic Sparks Nature Preschool is as follows:
Domains: Ngā Akatoro | Below the threshold for quality | Above the threshold for quality | ||
The learner and their learning He Whāriki Motuhake | Improvement required | Working towards | Embedded | Excelling |
Collaborative professional learning and development builds knowledge and capability Whakangungu Ngaio | Improvement required | Working towards | Embedded | Excelling |
Leadership fosters collaboration and improvement Kaihautū | Improvement required | Working towards | Embedded | Excelling |
Stewardship through effective governance and management Te Whakaruruhau | Improvement required | Working towards | Embedded | Excelling |
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.
Children’s health and safety | Improvement required | Taking reasonable steps |
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
Magic Sparks Nature Preschool, opened in March 2023, is one of four services owned by Magic Sparks Care and Learning Limited. A centre manager oversees the day-to-day running of both Palmerston North services. The owners and leaders of all four Magic Sparks services form a leadership team to support operations across the group. Teachers’ dual language capability enables them to connect with communities of diverse language learners. The philosophy is based on ‘respect for ourselves, respect for each other, and respect for the environment’.
4 Progress since the previous ERO report
This is the first report for Magic Sparks Nature Preschool.
5 Learning Conditions
The learner and their learning | He Whāriki Motuhake
Children engage well in a curriculum responsive to them as individuals, developed through learner-focused partnerships with parents.
- Children’s cultures and languages are richly interwoven throughout teaching and learning. Te ao Māori is reflected within the curriculum.
- The natural environment offers children opportunities for wonder and creativity through sensory exploration. Sustainability and Papatūānuku rituals of planting and harvesting enrich children’s learning.
- A revised assessment, planning and evaluation process is being implemented to streamline systems and practices across all Magic Sparks services. This is intended to more clearly show parents’ goals for their children, children’s connections to their culture and languages, and their progression in learning over time.
Collaborative professional learning and development builds knowledge and capability | Whakangungu Ngaio
Leaders provide conditions that increasingly support teachers to build professional knowledge and practice.
- With leadership support, a guiding framework enables teachers to inquire into the quality of their teaching practice through a professional growth cycle.
- Leaders and teachers work cohesively as a professional learning community through accessing professional development individually and as a group.
- An improvement-focused leadership team continues to build relational trust and professional practice to enact a rich, responsive curriculum for all children.
6 Organisational conditions
Leadership fosters collaboration and improvement | Kaihautū
Leaders and teachers collaborate to enact their goals and priorities for improvement.
- Internal and external expertise contributes to building capability and collective capacity aligned to the service’s strategic goals.
- Collective, collaborative and distributed responsibilities are enacted to ensure ongoing improvement.
- Leaders and teachers are building capability to do and use evaluation, to better understand the impact of improvement actions on individuals and groups of children.
Stewardship through effective governance and management | Te Whakaruruhau
Governance and management systems and processes are effectively guided by their philosophy, vision values and priorities for learning
- The learning and wellbeing of children and whānau are key in decision making. Leaders identify and act to remove barriers to children’s participation in the service.
- Implementation of the service philosophy is prioritised through processes and practices.
- Regular monitoring and review of practices promote the health and wellbeing of children.
7 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements
Before the review, the staff and management of Magic Sparks Nature Preschool 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?
Magic Sparks Nature Preschool will include the following actions in its quality improvement planning:
- Continue to build capability to embed the revised curriculum assessment, planning and evaluation framework.
- Deepen internal evaluation processes to know what is working well, or not, and for which individuals and groups of children.
Activities undertaken by the evaluation team
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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
Early Childhood Service Name | Magic Sparks Nature Preschool |
Profile Number | 48177 |
Location | Terrace End, Palmerston North |
Service Type | Education and care service |
Number licenced for | 31 children aged 2 and over |
Percentage of qualified teachers | 80-99% |
Ethnic composition Using rounded percentages | Māori 22%; NZ European/Pākehā 27%, Filipino 27%, Indian 19% Samoan 5% |
Service roll | 22 |
Review team on site | July 2024 |
Date of this report | 4 October 2024 |
Most recent ERO report (s) | First ERO report for 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).
Above the threshold for quality | |
Excelling | The service is excelling in the learning and organisation to support high quality education and care for children |
Embedded | The service has embedded its learning and organisational conditions to support ongoing improvement to the quality of education and care for children. |
Below the threshold for quality | |
Working towards | The service is working towards establishing the learning and organisational conditions to support improvements in the quality of education and care for children. |
Improvement required | The service has not yet developed the learning and organisational conditions to support quality education and care for children. |