BestStart Northwood

1 Evaluation of BestStart Northwood

How well placed is BestStart Northwood to promote positive learning outcomes for children?

BestStart Northwood requires further development to promote positive learning outcomes for children.

The centre manager and kaiako (teachers and adults working with children) require support to build their capability and capacity to promote positive outcomes for all children. Assessment, planning and evaluation practices should be more consistently implemented across the centre and monitored by leaders.

ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.

Background

BestStart Northwood operates under the BestStart management structure. BestStart is a large national organisation that owns early childhood education services across Aotearoa New Zealand. A professional service manager and business manager provide support to this centre and a group of other BestStart centres.

BestStart Northwood offers full-day education and care for up to 68 children, including up to 12 children under two years old. The centre operates out of a purpose-built centre. There is a nursery room for infants and toddlers, and a preschool room and prep-school room for older children. The nursery room has its own outdoor area. The preschool and prep room share an outdoor space.

Since the 2017 ERO review, the centre has faced significant challenges. A fire in 2017 resulted in a relocation while the premises were rebuilt. There has been a staffing restructure and a change in centre manager. In 2019 there was a change in the professional services' manager and business manager.

The centre manager and many of the kaiako are qualified early childhood teachers. At the time of the review, several relievers were filling permanent positions. However, the centre uses consistent and familiar relievers to support responsive relationships with children.

The 2017 ERO report identified key next steps in relation to improving assessment and planning practices and strengthening internal evaluation. Service leaders are in the very early stages of addressing these next steps.

The centre's philosophy places a strong emphasis on relationships, creativity, individuality and imagination in a learning environment that supports children's wellbeing and sense of belonging.

The Review Findings

Kaiako promote respectful relationships with children and families. They show respect for families' cultural practices and preferences to promote positive outcomes for children's and families' wellbeing and belonging.

Kaiako encourage children's oral language and help children engage in sustained play that supports their perseverance. They help children use strategies to play well in groups and successfully learn with and alongside each other.

Infants and toddlers learn in a well-resourced environment, where they are viewed as competent learners. Consistent and responsive caregiving from kaiako who know their preferences and routines is supporting infants' and toddlers' wellbeing and learning.

Kaiako are responsive to improving outcomes for diverse learners. They are currently working with external specialists to further support positive outcomes for these children.

Assessment, planning and evaluation for children's learning requires strengthening. BestStart leaders have recently taken steps to improve teachers' capability in this area. This includes an evaluation led by the professional services' manager and centre manager that has resulted in the development of a more consistent centre-wide assessment and planning framework.

The centre manager and kaiako are in the early stages of implementing the new assessment, planning and evaluation processes. These processes are beginning to support kaiako to be more intentional in how they set up the learning environment and provide a range of opportunities to extend children's learning.

Leaders acknowledge these processes now need to be successfully embedded and include a greater focus on:

• making the language, culture and identity of children, including Māori learners, more visible

• strengthening how they find out about and respond to parent and whānau aspirations for their children's learning

• more clearly showing children's progress over time.

Some elements of a bicultural curriculum, such as the use of waiata, karakia and recognition of aspects of tikanga are evident. Leaders recognise that bicultural practice requires strengthening.

The centre manager and BestStart leaders identified, and ERO agrees, that it is now important to review the centre philosophy and local curriculum. This process should clarify the centre's priorities for learning in order to help strengthen assessment, planning and evaluation practices.

The centre manager and BestStart leaders should also evaluate the impact that staffing changes and expectations have had on the smaller number of permanent, fully-qualified kaiako. It is unclear how these changes are supporting kaiako to work collaboratively and collectively in supporting children's learning.

Internal evaluation requires improvement. Some BestStart evaluation processes have been used by managers in 2019 to identify current areas of focus. Kaiako are in the early stages of implementing emergent and planned reviews of centre practices. These are yet to consistently focus on outcomes for children.

There is a need for ongoing support for leadership and staff development. BestStart managers have recently been providing significant support to achieve improvements related to curriculum planning and delivery. These are in the early stages of development and practices are not yet embedded or sustained.

BestStart policies and procedures provide clear guidance to centre managers and teachers for the operation of the centre and maintaining health and safety for children and adults.

Key Next Steps

In order to improve outcomes for all children, priorities for development are to:

• review the philosophy and clarify the centre's learning priorities

• embed and sustain the newly introduced assessment, planning and evaluation processes

• support more collaborative approaches to assessment, planning and internal evaluation between qualified and unqualified kaiako

• continue to build capability for internal evaluation that is scheduled, collaborative and focused on outcomes for children

• strengthen the planning and delivery of a bicultural curriculum

• provide ongoing support to build leadership capacity so that curriculum design and implementation are effectively led within the centre.

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

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

Actions for compliance

ERO identified areas of non-compliance relating to the curriculum and internal evaluation.

To meet requirements the service needs to improve its performance in the following areas:

• the curriculum is informed by assessment, planning and evaluation

• children are given the opportunity to develop knowledge and an understanding of the cultural heritages of both parties to Te Tiriti o Waitangi

• the curriculum respects and supports the right of each child to be confident in their own culture and encourages children to understand and respect other cultures

• an ongoing process of self review helps the service maintain and improve the quality of its education and care.

Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care Centres 2008, C2, C5, C6, GMA 6

Development Plan Recommendation

ERO recommends that the service, in consultation with the Ministry of Education, develops a plan to address the key next steps and actions outlined in this report.

Dr Lesley Patterson

Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)

Southern Region - Te Tai Tini

12 June 2020

The Purpose of ERO Reports

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.

2 Information about the Early Childhood Service

3 General Information about Early Childhood Reviews

ERO’s Evaluation Framework

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.

ERO’s Overall Judgement

The overall judgement that ERO makes will depend on how well the service promotes positive learning outcomes for children. The categories are:

• Very well placed

• Well placed

• Requires further development

• Not well placed

ERO has developed criteria for each category. These are available on ERO’s website.

Review Coverage

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.