Little Footsteps - Taylor Pass Road

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 Little Footsteps – Taylor Pass Road are as follows:

2 Context of the Service

This is one of three Little Footsteps centres. Daily operations are the responsibility of a recently appointed centre manager, supported by the owner. A quarter of children are Māori and a few other children diverse ethnicities attend. Since the centre opened in March 2022 there has been significant staffing changes.

3 Summary of findings

Infants, toddlers and older children learn alongside each other in a mixed-age learning environment. Each child has a primary caregiver to support their physical and emotional well-being. Responsive teachers provide sustained interactions to extend children’s verbal and non-verbal language and communication through child-centred learning. Children are supported to develop social and emotional competency skills which promote a sense of security.

Some aspects of a bicultural curriculum are evident. There are opportunities for children to hear and use te reo Māori within the broad programme. A curriculum that reflects the cultures, languages and identities of all children is not yet developed. 

Planning and assessment of children’s learning is variable. Parent goals are sought, implemented into individual children's planning and discussed at staff meetings. However, this is not always visible within assessment narratives. The team has not fully explored the learning outcomes of Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, to understand them and apply them through planning and assessment. Teachers are describing what children are doing but are yet to consistently recognise and respond to children’s learning. 

Systems and processes to support and maintain improvement require stronger implementation. Leaders identify the need to review and enact the service’s philosophy, vision, plan and priorities for improvement, in collaboration with whānau. Clear expectations of consistency and content of reporting on operations and curriculum from centre leaders to the owner requires strengthening. Appraisal and professional growth processes are yet to:  

• effectively support teachers to improve their professional knowledge 
• identify the impact of new learning and intentional teaching strategies on children’s outcomes.

4 Improvement actions

Little Footsteps – Taylor Pass Road will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning: 

• Unpack the learning outcomes from Te Whāriki and align children’s learning and progress to these through documented assessment.
• Further integrate parent and whānau aspirations through planning and assessment of the curriculum.
• Leaders to fully establish and monitor a professional growth cycle that meets the Teaching Council requirements.
• The service provider to regularly monitor the implementation of policies, procedures and practices and ensure the service consistently meets the regulatory standards.

5 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

Before the review, the staff and management of Little Footsteps – Taylor Pass Road 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 Actions for Compliance 

ERO identified the following areas of non-compliance:

• Ensuring the service 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.
• Including actions taken by staff in all records of injuries, illnesses and incidents that occur at the service.
• Implementing a system of regular appraisal.
  Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care Services 2008, C6, HS27, GMA7.

During and since the review, the service provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed the following non-compliances:

• Recording the date on which each step of the safety check was taken, including the date of the risk assessment required to be completed after all relevant information is obtained (GMA7A).
• Having evidence of how evaluation of relevant emergency drills has informed the annual review of the service’s emergency plan (HS8).

7 Recommendation to Ministry of Education

ERO recommends the Ministry follows up with the service provider to ensure non-compliances identified in this report are addressed.

Patricia Davey
Director of Early Childhood Education (ECE)

26 April 2024 

8 About the Early Childhood Service