81 Forbury Road, St Clair, Dunedin
View on mapNot well placed | Requires further development | Well placed | Very well placed |
Helen Deem Kindergarten is well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.
Helen Deem Kindergarten provides early childhood education for children aged two years old to school age. It is licensed for 43 children. The roll of 44 children is culturally diverse. Many children are English language learners. Sessions operate from 8.30am to 2.30pm.
Teachers aim to support children to become competent, confident life-long learners and communicators, with a sense of belonging and contribution. They plan to achieve these outcomes through building caring, reciprocal relationships with children and families, valuing the input and involvement of families, promoting children's initiative, independence and social competence and the provision of a bicultural curriculum.
Good progress has been made in addressing the areas for development identified in the kindergarten's October 2015 ERO report. These included strengthening systems and practices for individual and group planning, internal evaluation and deepening partnerships with families.
Helen Deem Kindergarten is one of 24 kindergartens governed by Dunedin Kindergartens (DK). Day-to-day operations are led by a head teacher with the support of four experienced, qualified teachers. A senior teacher from DK provides support for professional and operational practice.
This review was part of a cluster of 11 DK kindergartens reviewed at the end of 2019.
Children experience a broad curriculum which effectively supports many of the kindergarten's learning priorities for children. They have meaningful opportunities to learn alongside and with each other. This supports their developing communication and social skills. There are increasing opportunities for all children to learn about New Zealand's bicultural heritage. Excursions in the local community, co-construction of the learning environment and predictable daily routines and practices support children to develop a sense of belonging. The kindergarten environment is very well used to promote children's understandings about and participation in sustainability, conservation and learning about the natural world. Some of these priorities could be more explicit in the kindergarten's documented philosophy.
The learning environment is very well resourced and purposefully set up to support positive learning outcomes for children. It provides a wide range of opportunities for children to explore, experiment, create and collaborate. The outdoor environment enables children to take risks and challenge themselves physically. In response to an increasingly culturally diverse roll, teachers are considering how they ensure the learning environment and curriculum reflect and affirm all children's cultural identities.
Teacher interactions affirm children's learning dispositions and foster their developing capabilities and initiative. Teachers model and encourage positive social interactions. They work closely with new children and their families to get to know children's interests, preferences and needs and to build trusting relationships. They encourage children to make decisions about their learning and play, and to take responsibility for the learning environment. Older children are actively encouraged to lead and support the learning and wellbeing of younger children.
Effective learning-centred partnerships with parents and families enhance children's learning. Teachers are increasingly sharing their curriculum principles and priorities with parents and working with them to co-construct relevant learning goals for children. Parents are welcome to participate in and contribute to the learning programme. Teachers are mindful of communicating effectively with parents who have English as a second language. They work particularly closely with parents of children with additional needs, and with specialist personnel and agencies, to develop plans and strategies to meet the needs of these children.
Children's progress and learning is effectively documented, assessed and planned for. Learning stories affirm children's learning dispositions, make important new learning explicit, show how teachers have responded to parents' aspirations for their children and include children's own reflections on their learning. Teachers are strengthening the way they reflect children's culture, language and identity in assessment stories. Deliberate teaching strategies to extend children's learning are increasingly visible in learning stories.
Teachers collaborate effectively for the planning, delivery and evaluation of the kindergarten's curriculum. They take collective ownership for promoting positive outcomes for all children and share in the planning for individuals and groups of children. They undertake professional learning, inquiry and evaluation as a team and use this to build shared expectations of effective practice and to identify and address areas for improvement. The teaching team could make reporting to DK on these centre wide developments, and the resulting outcomes for children, more specific and evaluative.
The board of DK has made good progress in addressing the governance recommendations from ERO's 2015-2016 reviews. DK's mission and strategic priorities are well known and reflected in each kindergarten's strategic and annual plans. It has a sound policy and procedure framework that provides guidance for kindergartens and sound systems to monitor health and safety. Leaders and teachers benefit from relevant professional development and leadership support. DK actively supports equity of outcomes for all children by funding additional teaching resources to support children with additional needs.
Kindergarten leadership and teachers have identified, and ERO agrees, that further developments to enhance learning outcomes for children are to:
DK's board has clearly identified, and ERO agrees, that the key next steps for DK to further improve outcomes for children are to ensure that:
Before the review, the staff and management of Helen Deem Kindergarten 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:
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:
All early childhood services are required to promote children's health and safety and to regularly review their compliance with legal requirements.
Dr Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region - Te Tai Tini
19 February 2020
The Education Review Office (ERO) is the government department that, as part of its work, reviews early childhood services throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. ERO’s reports provide information for parents and communities about each service’s strengths and next steps for development. ERO’s bicultural evaluation framework Ngā Pou Here is described in SECTION 3 of this report. Early childhood services are partners in the review process and are expected to make use of the review findings to enhance children's wellbeing and learning.
| Location | Dunedin | ||
| Ministry of Education profile number | 5497 | ||
| Licence type | Free Kindergarten | ||
| Licensed under | Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 | ||
| Number licensed for | 43 children aged two years to school age | ||
| Service roll | 44 | ||
| Gender composition | Female 21 Male 23 | ||
| Ethnic composition | Māori NZ European/Pākehā Chinese Indian Other | 3 25 4 3 9 | |
Percentage of qualified teachers 0-49% 50-79% 80%+ Based on funding rates | 80% + | ||
| Reported ratios of staff to children | Under 2 | N/A | Choose an item. |
| Over 2 | 1:10 | Meets minimum requirements | |
| Review team on site | December 2019 | ||
| Date of this report | 19 February 2020 | ||
Most recent ERO reports
| Education Review | October 2015 | |
| Education Review | September 2012 | ||
ERO’s overarching question for an early childhood education review is ‘How well placed is this service to promote positive learning outcomes for children?’ ERO focuses on the following factors as described in the bicultural framework Ngā Pou Here:
Pou Whakahaere – how the service determines its vision, philosophy and direction to ensure positive outcomes for children
Pou Ārahi – how leadership is enacted to enhance positive outcomes for children
Mātauranga – whose knowledge is valued and how the curriculum is designed to achieve positive outcomes for children
Tikanga whakaako – how approaches to teaching and learning respond to diversity and support positive outcomes for children.
Within these areas ERO considers the effectiveness of arotake – self review and of whanaungatanga – partnerships with parents and whānau.
ERO evaluates how well placed a service is to sustain good practice and make ongoing improvements for the benefit of all children at the service.
A focus for the government is that all children, especially priority learners, have an opportunity to benefit from quality early childhood education. ERO will report on how well each service promotes positive outcomes for all children, with a focus on children who are Māori, Pacific, have diverse needs, and are up to the age of two.
For more information about the framework and Ngā Pou Here refer to ERO’s Approach to Review in Early Childhood Services.
The overall judgement that ERO makes will depend on how well the service promotes positive learning outcomes for children. The categories are:
ERO has developed criteria for each category. These are available on ERO’s website.
ERO reviews are tailored to each service’s context and performance, within the overarching review framework. The aim is to provide information on aspects that are central to positive outcomes for children and useful to the service.
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Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
Helen Deem Kindergarten is well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Helen Deem Kindergarten is a long-established kindergarten and one of 24 operating under the Dunedin Kindergarten Association (DK). It is located in the St Clair suburb of Dunedin and provides learning experiences for up to 40 children from 8:30 in the morning to 2:30 in the afternoon. Children may attend all or part of the day as their family chooses.
Children come from diverse family backgrounds and from all areas across Dunedin.
Since the June 2012 ERO review the kindergarten has moved into a new purpose-built centre. A new head teacher began in early 2014.
In its last report ERO requested an action plan to show how many areas of practice were to be improved. These areas have been addressed. The teaching team is now ready to deepen and build on what they have started.
This review was part of a cluster of 24 reviews in the Dunedin Kindergarten Association.
Children benefit from an emotionally warm, welcoming and safe learning environment. Teachers want children to become confident and competent lifelong learners. To support these aims they provide a wide range of learning opportunities. These include:
the introduction of pets to enable children to develop empathy
a focus on developing early literacy and numeracy skills and understandings
successfully integrating literacy and numeracy into music activities
taking children on interesting trips into the city and local community.
Children and their families have positive relationships with the teachers. Teachers foster children’s sense of belonging and support their developing social skills. Children are confident to approach teachers and know their teachers will respond to them and affirm their efforts.
The brand new building allows children free, uninterrupted play. It has a range of well-defined spaces for many activities to occur simultaneously in. This provides children with lots of choice. The interesting and challenging outdoor area provides children with variety. This includes opportunities for exploration and caring for the kindergarten gardens.
In 2014 a high number of two-year old children attended. Teachers were very aware of the need to make changes in the programme to better provide for them while still challenging the older children appropriately. Changes to meet the differing needs were made. For example, older children have separate mat times from the younger children and older children take part in more excursions. Routines throughout the day became more flexible and responsive to children’s needs.
Teachers are currently focusing on building children’s oral language in response to an identified need. There is a strong emphasis on nursery rhymes, fairy tales and Māori legends. Children have many opportunities to hear and revisit learning, such as retelling and acting out stories and integrating art and music into story telling.
The kindergarten has achieved a Healthy Heart award. Children experience some inclusion of te reo and tikanga Māori throughout the day. Teachers should continue to grow this aspect.
Children are mostly well engaged in their play. Many have developed strong friendships with each other. ERO noted groups of children playing together for sustained periods of time.
Children’s profile books record their learning and progress. They are attractive records and are enjoyed by the children and their families. The head teacher has helped teachers to improve the frequency of entries into the books. They are now more accessible to children. Children’s learning goals are displayed for all teachers to see.
Since the arrival of the new head teacher a number of positive changes have been made. Some of these include:
an increased roll with a waiting list
the implementation of useful systems for planning and assessment
strategically purchasing resources to ensure the indoor and outdoor areas are very well resourced and provide materials relevant to the current learning focus
building a collegial teaching team
re-establishing a parent committee.
The board, general manager and senior teachers:
provide appropriate opportunities for parents and staff to contribute their ideas about matters in the association
are responsive to identified needs of children and families within the association and provide funding and support to enable these to be met
have developed a useful framework to guide their work
take all reasonable steps to ensure safe environments for children, teachers and other staff
maintain their professional learning and provide relevant ongoing professional learning for teachers in the association.
Teachers have identified that they wish to continue to deepen partnerships with parents to strengthen children’s learning. The kindergarten philosophy is soon to be reviewed. This is a good opportunity to seek parents’ views about what is valued learning, and to ensure that the important learning is clearly reflected in the philosophy. It is also important to include reference to the bicultural heritage of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Improvements have been made to the way teachers record children’s learning and progress. A next step is for teachers, with the support of the senior teacher, to show in more detail:
what the intended learning is
how they have responded to parents’ wishes for their children
what children’s next learning steps might be
how they intend to support children in reaching their goals.
Teachers reflect on the weekly programme. These reflections could better show what children have learnt and how successfully the strategies teachers used have supported learning.
The teaching team follows a useful process and model for self review. This has been used to improve outcomes for children. There is still work to be done to strengthen this process, such as ensuring that evaluation questions are very clear and indicators are specific and relate to the question. This work needs to be supported by the senior teacher.
The teaching team needs to strengthen the newly developed strategic plan aimed at providing direction for the kindergarten. This should focus on important priorities that will improve outcomes for children. The senior teacher needs to support the teachers to understand the purpose and process for this plan.
The vision of the DK is to provide excellence in early childhood education for all children. The DK is governed by a board and managed by a long-serving general manager. The kindergarten teachers told ERO they appreciated the support they receive from the association and the advice and guidance of the senior teachers.
Next steps for the board, with the support of the general manager and senior teachers, are to:
continue to define what excellence in education looks like in the DK
further develop strategic planning to better show future goals and priorities and how these will be achieved in the association and in the kindergartens
ensure that the reports they receive show how well the association’s vision and goals are met, are evaluative and inform future planning
continue to strengthen the appraisal process and be assured that appraisals are rigorous and consistent throughout the kindergartens.
With the appointment of a new senior teacher, it is timely for the board and general manager to review the role of the senior teachers and strengthen systems to ensure consistent high quality practice across all kindergartens within the association.
Before the review, the staff and management of Helen Deem Kindergarten 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.
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; police vetting; teacher registration; ratios)
evacuation procedures and practices for fire and earthquake.
All early childhood services are required to promote children's health and safety and to regularly review their compliance with legal requirements.
While on-site, ERO noted some items on high shelves that are a potential risk to children. This needs to be addressed urgently.
When is ERO likely to review the service again?
The next ERO review of Helen Deem Kindergarten will be in three years.
Chris Rowe
Deputy Chief Review Officer Southern (Acting)
The Education Review Office (ERO) is the government department that, as part of its work, reviews early childhood services throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. ERO’s reports provide information for parents and communities about each service’s strengths and next steps for development. ERO’s bicultural evaluation framework Ngā Pou Here is described in SECTION 3 of this report. Early childhood services are partners in the review process and are expected to make use of the review findings to enhance children's wellbeing and learning.
|
Location |
Dunedin |
||
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
5497 |
||
|
Licence type |
Free Kindergarten |
||
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Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
||
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Number licensed for |
40 children, over two years of age |
||
|
Service roll |
49 |
||
|
Gender composition |
Boys: 25 Girls: 24 |
||
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori Pākehā Other ethnicities |
9 34 6 |
|
|
Percentage of qualified teachers 0-49% 50-79% 80%+ Based on funding rates |
50-79% |
||
|
Reported ratios of staff to children |
Under 2 |
Not applicable |
|
|
Over 2 |
1:10 |
Meets minimum requirements |
|
|
Review team on site |
September 2015 |
||
|
Date of this report |
22 October 2015 |
||
|
Most recent ERO reports |
Education Review |
September 2012 |
|
|
Supplementary Review |
June 2010 |
||
|
Education Review |
March 2009 |
||
ERO’s overarching question for an early childhood education review is ‘How well placed is this service to promote positive learning outcomes for children?’ ERO focuses on the following factors as described in the bicultural framework Ngā Pou Here:
Pou Whakahaere – how the service determines its vision, philosophy and direction to ensure positive outcomes for children
Pou Ārahi – how leadership is enacted to enhance positive outcomes for children
Mātauranga – whose knowledge is valued and how the curriculum is designed to achieve positive outcomes for children
Tikanga whakaako – how approaches to teaching and learning respond to diversity and support positive outcomes for children.
Within these areas ERO considers the effectiveness of arotake – self review and of whanaungatanga – partnerships with parents and whānau.
ERO evaluates how well placed a service is to sustain good practice and make ongoing improvements for the benefit of all children at the service.
A focus for the government is that all children, especially priority learners, have an opportunity to benefit from quality early childhood education. ERO will report on how well each service promotes positive outcomes for all children, with a focus on children who are Māori, Pacific, have diverse needs, and are up to the age of two.
For more information about the framework and Ngā Pou Here refer to ERO’s Approach to Review in Early Childhood Services.
The overall judgement that ERO makes and the timing of the next review will depend on how well placed a service is to promote positive learning outcomes for children. The categories are:
Very well placed – The next ERO review in four years
Well placed – The next ERO review in three years
Requires further development – The next ERO review within two years
Not well placed - The next ERO review in consultation with the Ministry of Education
ERO has developed criteria for each category. These are available on ERO’s website.
ERO reviews are tailored to each service’s context and performance, within the overarching review framework. The aim is to provide information on aspects that are central to positive outcomes for children and useful to the service.