28 Nen Street, Oamaru
View on map|
Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
Little Wonders Childcare (Oamaru) is well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Little Wonders Childcare (Oamaru) is part of the Evolve Education Group. It provides full-day care for up to 100 children, including 25 under 2 year olds. Children learn and play in four areas according to their age and readiness for the next area. The centre has recently developed a wilderness garden which supports nature play and the development of physical skills.
Since ERO's 2015 review, the service has been purchased by the Evolve Education Group and a new centre manager was appointed in June 2017. The centre manager oversees the day-to-day running of the service and is supported by two team leaders and a team of teachers. Most of the teachers are fully qualified. The Evolve Education Group regional manager and area manager provide ongoing support and have oversight of the service.
Leaders, teachers and whānau have developed a guiding vision and philosophy for the service that is consistent with the Evolve Education Group's values and vision. They celebrate the following whakatauki - He waka eke noa. A canoe which all may travel without exception.
Positive, inclusive relationships are evident across the centre. Children benefit from respectful, caring and thoughtful interactions between each other and their teachers. They are confident to approach adults and are encouraged to be independent and self-managing. Children's ideas are encouraged, accepted and respected.
The centre environment effectively provides children with variety and challenge. Children take part in a wide range of learning experiences. Teachers gather parents’ aspirations for their children’s learning and meaningfully respond to these. They plan relevant activities that foster learning and development for individual children and small groups. They know children in their care well and record children’s learning and dispositions in learning stories.
Infants and toddlers experience a calm and unhurried learning environment. Teachers offer them choices about what is to happen and wait for them to respond. Children with additional learning needs are well-supported and outside agencies are engaged where appropriate.
Leaders and teachers are growing their knowledge of te reo Māori and Māori perspectives and seeking and responding to the contributions of whānau of Māori children.
Collaborative and respectful leadership recognises and uses the strength of teachers, parents and whānau to support learning. This is highly evident in the development of understanding of different cultures and the acknowledgement of local environmental opportunities. Parents provide strong support for the centre in these two areas.
A range of communication strategies ensure that parents and whānau are meaningfully engaged in their child's wellbeing and learning. Parents and whānau are regularly asked for their views about important matters related to the service's programmes and practices.
Transition into, within and beyond the centre provides children and parents with some confidence and security around these changes.
The Evolve Group has supported the centre well by providing a number of new initiatives and improved systems and practices that promote positive outcomes for children. The centre has a good framework to ensure internal evaluation is happening at all levels. The strategic plan gives a clear direction for the future and alignment can be seen through all internal evaluation processes.
The key next steps for the leaders and teachers are to:
ensure that reporting at all levels is evaluative rather than descriptive
fully embed the recently developed appraisal system to ensure a high quality appraisal process.
Before the review, the staff and management of Little Wonders Childcare (Oamaru) 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:
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.
Alan Wynyard
Director Review and Improvement Services Southern
Southern Region
26 March 2019
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.
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Location |
Oamaru |
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Ministry of Education profile number |
80085 |
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Licence type |
Education & Care Service |
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Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
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Number licensed for |
100 children, including up to 25 aged under 2 |
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Service roll |
99 |
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Gender composition |
Girls 46 Boys 53 |
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Ethnic composition |
Māori |
10 |
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Percentage of qualified teachers |
80% + |
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Reported ratios of staff to children |
Under 2 |
1:4 |
Better than minimum requirements |
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Over 2 |
1:8 |
Better than minimum requirements |
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Review team on site |
February 2019 |
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Date of this report |
26 March 2019 |
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Most recent ERO reports |
Education Review |
February 2015 |
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Education Review |
December 2011 |
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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:
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.
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.
|
Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Little Wonders Childcare (Oamaru) is a large, high-performing, privately-owned centre that has been in operation for five years. It provides care and education for children from three months to school age. The centre manager leads a team of two head teachers, each having responsibility for a different age group. Children from within the town of Oamaru and surrounding district attend. The centre is open from 7am until 6pm.
The centre provides children with food throughout the day. Meal times are an important aspect of the curriculum as many children spend most of their days at the centre.
Since the 2011 ERO review, the centre has successfully made further developments to:
Governance and management are strong at this centre. This ensures that all aspects of daily practice are supported to be high quality. The senior leaders are empowering the teachers to use their strengths and develop their leadership skills. The leaders and teachers find the appraisal process encourages useful discussion and drives up teaching practice.
The manager spends time in the various rooms with the children and teachers, and is well informed about what happens for children in all areas of the centre. The strategic plan is well developed and guides the direction and focus areas for the year.
Self review is well understood by teachers and leaders. It is done in depth and leads to positive outcomes for children. It is triggered by identified needs. Current research is carefully considered when changes and further developments are made in response to findings. Professional learning and development is highly valued and included in the review process so that teachers are better equipped to support children’s learning.
Children benefit from an inclusive culture at the centre where their backgrounds and cultures are known by teachers, valued and celebrated. The manager has deliberately sought to appoint teachers with specific links to the Pacific Island community and with strengths in building teachers’ capability in te reo and tikanga Māori. Throughout the centre the acknowledgement of, and commitment to, Māori is well displayed and strongly evident. There is a conscious effort to introduce all children to cultures other than their own.
Children take part in a wide variety of interesting learning experiences. These include:
Relationships, particularly in the infants’ room, are supportive, positive and respectful and build on children’s identified interests. Teachers communicate closely with parents. ERO observed caring, nurturing teacher-child interactions. Teachers respond sensitively to children’s verbal and non-verbal cues. They provide a well-resourced, calm learning environment.
The systems for ensuring clear communication are well developed and implemented. Teachers are thoroughly informed about the direction of the centre. Within each room, they have developed philosophies in line with the Little Wonders’ philosophy to show the differing needs of the age groups. Parents are regularly communicated with about their children’s learning and the strategic focus areas of the centre.
Centre leaders have identified, and ERO agrees, that aspects of planning and assessment could be improved. After five years of development, the senior leaders recognise it is timely for them to focus more on reviewing the quality of what happens for children. To ensure that all aspects of centre operations are covered over time it would be useful to adopt a long-term view to planned self review.
Before the review, the staff and management of Little Wonders Childcare (Oamaru) 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.
The next ERO review of Little Wonders Childcare (Oamaru) will be in four years.
Graham Randell
Deputy Chief Review Officer-Southern Southern Region
11 February 2015
|
Location |
Oamaru |
||
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
80085 |
||
|
Licence type |
Education & Care Service |
||
|
Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
||
|
Number licensed for |
100 children, including up to 25 aged under 2 |
||
|
Service roll |
125 |
||
|
Gender composition |
Girls: 63 Boys: 62 |
||
|
Ethnic composition |
Māori Pākehā Pacific South American Asian German |
13 95 8 5 3 1 |
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Percentage of qualified teachers 0-49% 50-79% 80% Based on funding rates |
80% |
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Reported ratios of staff to children |
Under 2 |
1:4 |
Meets minimum requirements |
|
Over 2 |
1:8 |
Better than minimum requirements |
|
|
Review team on site |
December 2014 |
||
|
Date of this report |
11 February 2015 |
||
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review |
December 2011 |
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:
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:
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.