Ako Tahi

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 ​Ako Tahi​ are as follows: 

2 Context of the Service 

Ako Tahi is a not-for-profit centre that is governed by a trust board. The experienced centre manager has responsibility for the day-to-day operation and pedagogical leadership of the centre. All staff are qualified early childhood teachers. A significant number of tamariki Māori attend. This is the service’s first ERO review. 

3 Summary of findings 

The service’s curriculum is based on the principles and strands of Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. It is inclusive and provides children with equitable opportunities to learn. Children experience nurturing, reciprocal relationships with attentive teachers. Calm, unhurried learning environments are based on predictable routines and expectations. Teachers provide children with many opportunities to explore their chosen learning while positively promoting independence and problem-solving skills. 

Leaders and teachers provide guidance to support children’s wellbeing and their sense of belonging. These positive relationships promote ako as a natural way of learning and teaching. Teachers build supportive partnerships with whānau to include their ideas in children’s learning. While teachers are at the early stages of using the learning outcomes from Te Whāriki in assessment documentation, they respond to children’s developing capabilities through their individual learning plans.  

The curriculum acknowledges and reflects the place of Māori as tangata whenua. Children are given the opportunity to develop an understanding of the cultural heritages of both parties to Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Teachers promote aspects of te ao Māori, including te reo Māori, waiata and karakia into day-to-day teaching practices and routines.  

Leadership is becoming increasingly distributed. Leaders and teachers are forming a collaborative, reflective teaching team. It is timely to review the centre’s philosophy to show the basis of current provision for early childhood education and care, and to express the values, and priorities for children’s learning at Ako Tahi more clearly.  

The teaching team engages in self-review and reflection that helps to maintain daily operations and improve the learning environments. Together, they are establishing the organisational conditions to make internal evaluation more effective. Those in governance and management roles advocate for children and whānau and place them at the centre of decision making. Formalising communication and reporting to the board is now needed. 

4 Improvement actions 

​​Ako Tahi​ will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning: 

• Review the centre’s philosophy to reflect current beliefs and values about the provision of early childhood education and care, and priorities for children’s learning. 
• Further develop assessment, planning and evaluation processes to show children’s learning progress over time in relation to the learning outcomes from Te Whāriki. 
• Refine and consolidate internal evaluation systems to do and use internal evaluation for improvement more effectively. 

5 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements 

Before the review, the staff and management of ​Ako Tahi​ 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) 

​​2 July 2024​ 

6 About the Early Childhood Service