4 West Crescent, Te Puru
View on mapThames Coast Community Kindergarten Inc
Thames Coast Community Kindergarten Inc
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 Thames Coast Community Kindergarten Inc are as follows:
Outcome Indicators(What the service knows about outcomes for learners) | Whakaū Embedding |
Ngā Akatoro Domains | |
Learning ConditionsOrganisational Conditions | Whakaū Embedding Whāngai Establishing |
2 Context of the Service
Thames Coast Community Kindergarten Inc is governed by a parent committee. Different sessions are offered for children. Children up to three years old attend along with their parents. A small number of children identify as Māori or Pacific. Some progress have been made since the 2021 ERO report.
3 Summary of findings
Children experience a responsive curriculum that supports play-based learning. Intentional teaching practises promote children’s independence, social competency, imagination, creativity, foundational literacies, and active exploration. Community connections have enhanced children’s transition to the local primary school.
Children and their families benefit from strong learning partnerships with teachers who know them well. Parents play a crucial role in decision making and actively participate through board involvement, attend various sessions and celebratory events, and share their valuable home and cultural knowledge. Additionally, daily conversations are held to discuss their children’s ongoing learning, development and progress.
Assessments and group planning are increasingly reflecting children’s interests, home experiences, languages and cultural identities. These practices are making learning more evident in relation to the valued outcomes in Te Whariki, the early children curriculum. Parental aspirations are now being formally incorporated into assessments. The next step is to improve individual planning to reflect teachers' responses to children’s identified learning.
Leaders and teachers collaborate regularly to share professional knowledge. They have access to mentoring, annual goal setting, relevant professional development and opportunities for critical reflection. Professional growth cycles are yet to be refined to show the relationship between teachers’ professional practice and outcomes for learners. A next step is to consider analysing and documenting how the new knowledge and shifts in practice are impacting the learning of children.
Evaluation practices show some progress, including outcomes for learners and the gathering of wider community voice. Evaluation processes are mostly focused on what teachers and children are doing rather than how well or effectively practices are supporting children’s learning. This limits opportunities for scrutinising and improving practice.
Appropriate communication strategies are established to facilitate informed governance decision-making. The learning and well-being of children are significantly enhanced by maintaining small group sizes and favourable adult-to-child ratios.
4 Improvement actions
Thames Coast Community Kindergarten Inc will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:
- Strengthen assessment to clearly show teachers’ responses to individual children’s identified learning.
- Continue to build leaders’ and teachers’ capability through the refinement of the professional growth cycle.
- Develop the leader and teachers’ understandings to do and use evaluation for improvement, in order to monitor the effectiveness and impact of changes and shifts in teaching practice on children’s learning outcomes.
5 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements
Before the review, the staff and management of Thames Coast Community Kindergarten Inc 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)
14 August 2024
6 About the Early Childhood Service
Early Childhood Service Name | Thames Coast Community Kindergarten Inc |
Profile Number | 34085 |
Location | Te Puru |
Service type | Education and care service |
Number licensed for | 30 children, including up to 8 aged under 2 |
Percentage of qualified teachers | 100% |
Service roll | 36 |
Review team on site | June 2024 |
Date of this report | 14 August 2024 |
Most recent ERO report(s) | Akarangi | Quality Evaluation, June 2021; Education Review, May 2017 |
Thames Coast Community Kindergarten Inc
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 (PDF 3.01MB) are the basis for making judgements about the effectiveness of the service in achieving equity and excellence for all learners. The Akarangi Quality Evaluation Judgement Rubric (PDF 91.30KB) derived from the indicators, is used to inform the ERO’s judgements about this service’s performance in promoting equity and excellence.
ERO’s judgements for Thames Coast Community Kindergarten Inc are as follows:
Outcome Indicators |
ERO’s judgement |
What the service knows about outcomes for learners |
Whāngai Establishing |
Ngā Akatoro Domains |
ERO’s judgement |
He Whāriki Motuhake The learner and their learning |
Whāngai Establishing |
Whakangungu Ngaio Collaborative professional learning builds knowledge and capability |
Whāngai Establishing |
Ngā Aronga Whai Hua Evaluation for improvement |
Whāngai Establishing |
Kaihautū Leaders foster collaboration and improvement |
Whāngai Establishing |
Te Whakaruruhau Stewardship through effective governance and management |
Whāngai Establishing |
2 Context of the Service
Thames Coast Community Kindergarten Inc is located in Te Puru. This community run kindergarten operates sessions for children over three, and up to three years of age. A parent committee provides governance support. A new head teacher leads a team of two fully qualified teachers.
3 Summary of findings
Children enjoy warm and meaningful relationships with teachers that are fostered over time. Time and space to explore, problem solve, and establish relationships with peers is given priority in the older children’s sessions. Younger children, up to the age of three, play alongside peers, teachers, and parents, promoting successful transitions into the kindergarten. Positive relationships in each grouping, enhance children’s learning and development.
Connections with the local school and wider community allow meaningful and contextual learning to take place. Teachers and leaders are beginning to develop their knowledge of te ao Māori. They have self-identified the importance of developing a curriculum that reflects local history, stories, and places of significance to Māori. A focus on teaching strategies to strengthen teachers’ knowledge about children’s culture, language and identity is not yet clearly evident.
Children experience a responsive curriculum where their individual and group learning is planned for. The well-resourced indoor and extensive outdoor areas provide opportunities for children to inquire and lead their own learning. Teachers are beginning to explore children’s learning and progression in relation to the learning outcomes from Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. Teachers regularly discuss children’s learning and provide verbal feedback to parents and whānau. The service has yet to develop learning-focused partnerships.
Teachers engagement in professional learning is creating change in teaching practices. High trust is evident between leaders, teachers, and the parent committee. Leaders and teachers are establishing evaluation for improvement processes. Sound policies and procedures guide centre operation. Teachers are beginning to refine and align the professional growth cycle and evaluative processes to assist them focus on improving learning outcomes for children.
4 Improvement actions
Thames Coast Community Kindergarten Inc will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:
- strengthen evaluation capability that includes a cultural lens, wider community voice, and outcomes for learners
- continue to build leaders’ and teachers’ capability through the refinement of the professional growth cycle
- develop learning focused partnerships with whānau through assessment and planning processes.
5 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements
Before the review, the staff and management of Thames Coast Community Kindergarten Inc 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.
Phil Cowie
Director Review and Improvement Services (Central)
Central Region | Te Tai Pūtahi Nui
21 June 2021
6 About the Early Childhood Service
Early Childhood Service Name | Thames Coast Community Kindergarten Inc |
Profile Number | 34085 |
Location | Te Puru |
Service type |
Education and care service |
Number licensed for |
30 children, including up to 8 aged under 2. |
Percentage of qualified teachers |
80%+ |
Service roll |
32 |
Ethnic composition |
Māori 5, NZ European/Pākehā 20, Other ethnic groups 7. |
Review team on site |
May 2021 |
Date of this report |
21 June 2021 |
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review, May 2017; Education Review, December 2013. |
Thames Coast Community Kindergarten Inc - 01/05/2017
1 Evaluation of Thames Coast Community Kindergarten Inc
How well placed is Thames Coast Community Kindergarten Inc to promote positive learning outcomes for children?
Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Background
Thames Coast Community Kindergarten Inc is a non-profit early childhood service, situated in the small coastal village of Te Puru. The kindergarten was originally established by local families and has operated for over twenty years. It is managed by a voluntary parent management committee and three qualified teachers. The kindergarten runs full-day and sessional education and care for children from birth to school age.
Since the last ERO review, some new parents have been elected onto the management committee alongside long-standing parents. One new teacher appointment has been made and a teacher, who has been at the centre for many years has been appointed to the head teacher role. A kindergarten administrator has been employed to enable teachers to focus on teaching and learning.
Teachers have undertaken considerable professional development about self review and staff appraisal. As a result systems and practices for internal evaluation have been established to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of education and care.
The Review Findings
The kindergarten is very well placed to provide and sustain positive learning outcomes for children.
The head teacher, with the support of the teaching team and kindergarten families, has established an organisational culture that promotes high levels of relational trust and collaborative ways of working. Over many years the kindergarten has successfully maintained strong reciprocal, responsive, and respectful relationships with families. The kindergarten continues to provide an inclusive, collaborative and shared approach to the management and leadership of the kindergarten. Teacher and parent partnerships contribute to children's sense of belonging and support their wellbeing.
Teaching is highly effective in developing children’s confidence and competence as lifelong learners. Teachers encourage children to make sense of the natural, social, physical and material worlds, to use their imagination and be creative. They recognise and value the importance of children's learning through play, and are highly skilled in noticing and responding to their interests and strengths. Teachers are intentional in the way they recognise and respond to all opportunities to engage in, and extend children’s learning. They take time to listen and explore deeper meanings, supporting them to critically think, problem solve and inquire.
Teachers know about current theories of learning and teaching. They use this knowledge to design a curriculum that is highly responsive to each child's unique knowledge, skills and dispositions. Children are encouraged to take responsibility for their self care, and be self-motivated, independent learners. Literacy, mathematics, science and other learning areas are integrated daily. Use of the local community further enriches children's learning experiences.
Teachers take personal responsibility for learning about the languages and culture of all children attending the service. Teachers validate to ao Māori, and te reo and tikanga Māori are an integral component of the daily programme. Teachers are beginning to develop a relationship with the local iwi, which should help them to strengthen the bicultural curriculum, and to affirm Māori children's language, culture and identity.
The environment is well planned to meet the diverse interests, strengths and abilities of toddlers and young children. Assessment scrapbooks build a picture of each child's progress over time and success in learning. Rich narratives capture the depth and complexity of children's learning.
Children's wellbeing is given priority during their transition into the kindergarten, and when moving onto school. Teachers work alongside families to develop an approach that best suits the needs of children. Reciprocal visits from the new entrant class to the kindergarten foster children's social relationships and friendships. Regular visits from the kindergarten to school also help children to experience a smooth transition to school.
Leadership, management and governance ensures an effevtive focus on kindergarten improvement and positive outcomes for children. Teachers belong to a professional cluster group with other local early childhood services. This enables them to reflect on their own practice, as well as to share their professional knowledge with others.
Teachers work in close partnerships with parents. Families are invited to actively contribute to all decisions for kindergarten operations. The parent management committee is dedicated and effectively manages the service. The kindergarten's strategic goals are developed in consultation with the community and monitored. Progress in meeting the goals are regularly shared back to the community. Teachers have established robust, well-developed internal evaluation practices, providing a sound foundation for ongoing improvement to support positive outcomes for children.
Key Next Steps
ERO, teachers, and the parent committee agree the next steps for development are to continue developing the bicultural curriculum in partnership with local iwi. This is likely to further enrich children's learning, and develop their knowledge about local histories and areas of significance.
Management Assurance on Legal Requirements
Before the review, the staff and management of Thames Coast Community Kindergarten Inc 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.
Next ERO Review
When is ERO likely to review the service again?
The next ERO review of Thames Coast Community Kindergarten Inc will be in four years.
Lynda Pura-Watson
Deputy Chief Review Officer Waikato/Bay of Plenty
1 May 2017
2 Information about the Early Childhood Service
Location |
Thames, Waikato |
||
Ministry of Education profile number |
34085 |
||
Licence type |
Education & Care Service |
||
Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
||
Number licensed for |
30 children, including up to 5 aged under 2 |
||
Service roll |
37 |
||
Gender composition |
Girls 19 Boys 18 |
||
Ethnic composition |
Māori Pākehā Other European Asian |
9 21 4 3 |
|
Percentage of qualified teachers 0-49% 50-79% 80%+ Based on funding rates |
80% + |
||
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 |
February 2017 |
||
Date of this report |
1 May 2017 |
||
Most recent ERO report(s)
|
Education Review |
December 2013 |
|
Education Review |
January 2011 |
||
Education Review |
February 2008 |
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.
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 and Next Review
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:
- Very well placed – The next ERO review in four years
- Well placed – The next ERO review in three years
- Requires further development – The next ERO review within two years
- Not well placed - The next ERO review in consultation with the Ministry of Education
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.