A'oga Amata EFKS Newtown

A'oga Amata EFKS Newtown - 01 Jun 2023

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 A’oga Amata EFKS Newtown are as follows:

2 Context of the Service

A’oga Amata EFKS Newtown is a bilingual Samoan education and care service. It is located on the grounds of the EFKS Newtown Church. Children enrolled are mainly of Samoan heritage, and there are an increasing number of children from non-Pacific ethnicities. The staff are long serving and include a centre manager who oversees daily operations. She is supported by the Komiti Fa’afoe which governs the service.

3 Summary of findings

Tamaiti continue to experience a curriculum that values who they are as learners, in an environment where their cultural heritage is affirmed. Mixed age grouping supports toddlers to challenge themselves and play with older tamaiti. The concept of aiga is explicitly evident with tuakana | teina relationships between older and younger children valued as a way to support children’s growing social competence and relationships with others.

Children demonstrate a strong sense of belonging and confidently explore the environment and activities provided. They have opportunities to be creative and imaginative in their play. Faiaoga facilitate this well. They could further strengthen their practices by being more intentional in noticing and responding to the spontaneous learning that is happening. Older tamaiti have opportunities to lead their play. Providing more complexity to extend these children to independently problem-solve and investigate would be of benefit to this age group.

The promotion of te reo Māori is visible in the curriculum. Teaching practices have been enhanced through faiaoga reflecting on and actioning improvements to increase their use of te reo Māori.

Komiti Fa’afoe work together with teachers to build shared understanding of how the curriculum, leadership and governance all contribute to improved outcomes for tamaiti. Equity of access for all children and aiga participation are key features in this community. Some parents have enrolled in night classes to learn gagana Samoa so that they are able to support the language-learning of their tamaiti. Teachers respect and support children from other ethnicities, and they learn about their languages and cultures.

The service has clear systems and processes in place. An internal evaluation process has been identified as a priority area for improvement. This focus should include inquiry into how improvements made impact on children’s learning and the professional practices of faiaoga.

4 Improvement Actions

A’oga Amata EFKS Newtown will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:

• To increasingly show how teaching practices and the curriculum responds to children from other ethnicities in assessment and planning records.

• For faiaoga to reflect and evaluate the impact of professional learning courses on their professional practice.

• For leaders and faiaoga to develop the collective capability to undertake and document internal evaluation processes that result in improvement for tamaiti.

5 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of A’oga Amata EFKS Newtown 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.

6 Action for Compliance

Since the onsite visit, the service has provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed the following
non-compliance:

• Maintaining records of relevant emergency drills and carrying out each type of drill with children (as appropriate) on at least a three-monthly basis (HS8).

Patricia Davey
Director of Early Childhood Education (ECE)

1 June 2023

7 About the Early Childhood Service