Expressions EEC

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 Expressions EEC are as follows:

2 Context of the Service

Expressions EEC is privately owned. The qualified owner leads a diverse teaching team. A third of the children enrolled whakapapa Māori and half are Pacific. Other children attending are from ethnically diverse backgrounds. This is the service’s first ERO review under new ownership.

3 Summary of findings

Children are well supported to develop a strong sense of belonging. Teachers are beginning to work alongside whānau to enable children’s ongoing learning and development. Teaching practices are becoming more intentional and inclusive for some groups of children. Teachers support children’s oral language, literacy, numeracy, social and emotional competency. Children develop their independence, ability to work alongside others and take responsibility of their learning environment.

Children and their whānau are beginning to have their culture, language and identities recognised and reflected within the environment. Te reo Māori and tikanga Māori is used in daily practices. Cultural artefacts and resources are visible in the learning environment. Cultural celebrations are acknowledged and whānau are welcomed to contribute to these. Leaders have identified this as an area of growth.

Curriculum and assessment documentation, based on children's strengths and interests, are beginning to make children’s learning visible. These show children developing an understanding of the world around them. Individual and group planning is in its infancy. Both are yet to clearly evidence the learning outcomes for children. A next step for the service is to incorporate the learning outcomes from Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, in all documented processes.

Leaders and teachers have some opportunities for professional learning. Professional Growth Cycles are established. The service is at an early stage of understanding of how to use evaluation for improvement and is yet to report on outcomes for children’s learning.

Leaders are building relational trust and collaboration for improvement across the newly formed team. Shared leadership practices are beginning to build capability. Leadership and governance are building sound foundations that once embedded will positively support children and their whānau.

4 Improvement actions

Expressions EEC will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:

• Leaders and teachers to build a shared understanding on how to do and use internal evaluation to promote continuous improvement that reports on outcomes for children’s learning.
• Leaders and teachers to embed the learning outcomes from Te Whāriki, The Early Childhood Curriculum through all documentation processes.

5 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Expressions EEC 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.

Patricia Davey
Director of Early Childhood Education (ECE)

3 July 2024

6 About the Early Childhood Service