Millie's House Waiwhetu

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 (PDF 3.01MB) are the basis for making judgements about the effectiveness of the service in achieving equity and excellence for all learners. The Akarangi Quality Evaluation Judgement Rubric (PDF 91.30KB) derived from the indicators, is used to inform the ERO’s judgements about this service’s performance in promoting equity and excellence.

ERO’s judgements for BestStart Waiwhetu are as follows:

2 Context of the Service

BestStart Waiwhetu, previously known as Early Years Wainui Road, provides education and care for children from infants to five years of age. Several changes in staff and management have occurred since the June 2017 ERO review.

In 2014 and in 2017 ERO identified that areas for improvement included assessment for learning, partnership with parents, the bicultural programme and internal evaluation. These have not been sufficiently strengthened.

3 Summary of findings

Significant work is required to support kaiako to develop a shared understanding of guiding documents to provide a high-quality early childhood programme. The centre philosophy is not strongly embedded in practice and no consideration has been given to how the learning priorities of Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum are reflected. BestStart policies are not fully enacted including those related to curriculum design and internal evaluation. This results in teaching practices that are inconsistent.

The teaching team is beginning to build a shared understanding about how the learning outcomes of Te Whāriki are used in assessment. Documentation is of variable quality. Assessment information does not yet reliably:

• identify children’s actual learning or show their progression
• inform the planning, the curriculum and intentional teaching strategies
• reflect all children’s languages, identities and cultures.

Useful group planning is in place that builds on children’s interests. It shows how kaiako are extending children’s learning. A more collaborative approach to working together is developing in the teaching team.

There is a strong focus on kaiako supervising children. When kaiako work alongside children they follow their interests in the play-based programme, however there are missed opportunities to deepen children’s learning.  

The infants and toddlers experience a calm and unhurried learning environment.

The bicultural curriculum requires strengthening. Kapa haka has been provided in the programme with the support of local expertise. Kaiako use te reo Māori during routines, such as karakia for kai and occasionally during the session. A small number of resources reflect te ao Māori. The commitment to te reo me ngā tikanga Māori is not well integrated throughout the curriculum.

Sustainable systems and processes to improve teaching practice and learning experiences for children are not sufficiently developed. Better monitoring of health and safety practices is also required. The appraisal process and shared management reporting is not sufficiently robust. Internal evaluation processes are not yet enabling the team to take action towards realising the philosophy and strategic priorities.

4 Improvement actions

BestStart Waiwhetu will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:

• meaningfully engage with parents and whānau to review the service’s philosophy and determine the learning priorities inclusive of Te Whāriki and the local context
• reflect the agreed learning priorities through curriculum design, intentional teaching, assessment for learning
• centre leaders and BestStart managers need to develop and embed sustainable systems and processes to promote high quality teaching practice and learning experiences.

5 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of BestStart Waiwhetu 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.

Dr Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini

12 May 2021 

6 About the Early Childhood Service