10 Beatty Street, Otahuhu, Auckland
View on mapERO’s Akanuku | Assurance Review reports provide information about whether a service meets and maintains regulatory standards. Further information about Akanuku | Assurance Reviews is included at the end of this report.
Regulatory standards | ERO’s judgement |
| Curriculum | Meeting |
| Premises and facilities | Meeting |
| Health and safety | Meeting |
| Governance, management and administration | Meeting |
Since the onsite visit, the service has provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed non-compliances and is now taking reasonable steps to meet regulatory standards.
St Mary’s Family Pre-School is one of two services owned and operated under the umbrella of the Anglican Trust for Women and Children. A qualified centre manager supports a team of three certificated teachers and one unqualified teacher. The majority of children attending the service are of Māori or Pacific heritages.
Adults providing education and care engage in meaningful, positive interactions to enhance children’s learning and nurture reciprocal relationships. The service curriculum acknowledges and reflects the unique place of Māori as tangata whenua. It is inclusive, and responsive. Children’s preferences are respected, and they are involved in decisions about their learning experiences.
The service curriculum provides children with a range of experiences and opportunities to enhance and extend their learning and development. Teachers support children’s developing social competence and understanding of appropriate behaviour.
Leaders and teachers need to consistently monitor and make changes to policies and practices, when required, to remain compliant with all regulatory standards.
Next steps include:
Since the onsite visit, the service has provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed the following non-compliances:
The next ERO review is likely to be an Akarangi | Quality Evaluation.
Patricia Davey
Director of Early Childhood Education (ECE)
24 June 2024
| Early Childhood Service Name | St Mary’s Family Pre-School |
| Profile Number | 25091 |
| Location | Otahuhu, Auckland |
| Service type | Education and care service |
| Number licensed for | 35 children, including up to 12 aged under 2 |
| Percentage of qualified teachers | 80-99% |
| Service roll | 18 |
| Review team on site | April 2024 |
| Date of this report | 24 June 2024 |
| Most recent ERO report(s) | Education Review, January 2019; Education Review, March 2015 |
All services are licensed under the Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008. The legal requirements for early childhood services also include the Licensing Criteria for Education and Care Services 2008.
Services must meet the standards in the regulations and the requirements of the licensing criteria to gain and maintain a licence to operate.
All early childhood services are required to promote children’s health and safety and to regularly review their compliance with legal requirements. Before the review, the staff and management of a service 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:
As part of an Akanuku | Assurance Review ERO assesses whether the regulatory standards are being met. In particular, ERO looks at a service’s systems for managing the following areas that have a potentially high impact on children's wellbeing:
As part of an Akanuku | Assurance Review ERO also gathers and records evidence through:
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Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
St Mary's Family Pre-School is well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
St Mary's Family Pre-School is one of two preschools operating under the umbrella of the Anglican Trust for Woman and Children (ATWC). It is licensed for 35 children, including 10 up to two years of age. Most children who attend the centre have Pacific heritage, while those with Māori heritage make up the next largest group.
The preschool provides all-day and sessional services. About 20 percent of the roll is made up of children whose parents attend an ATWC residential parenting programme. The preschool provides a programme based on "attachment theory and the circle of security".
A preschool manager has a governance role at the centre and reports to the Trust Service Delivery Manager. A centre supervisor has oversight of day-to-day operations and the curriculum.
The 2015 ERO report identified that development was necessary to improve programmes to meet children’s learning needs, internal evaluation and teacher appraisal. While some progress has been made in these areas, further work is necessary.
Children are settled in the centre and demonstrate a sense of belonging. They play and learn in a welcoming environment that supports their physical and emotional wellbeing.
Mothers from the ATWC residential programme attend Wednesday morning sessions with their children. During this time, teachers and ATWC personnel coach the mothers about how to play and interact with their children with the aim of improving outcomes for children and families.
Infants and toddlers play in a separate inside area and share the playground with older children. Teachers focus on forming secure attachments between adults and children. Their responsive caregiving practices result in a calm environment. Teachers should now consider ways to provide children with a wider variety of activities, including sensory exploration. Better access to the outdoor environment would also enhance children's opportunities to learn and explore.
Teachers know children and families well and interact with them in attentive ways. They encourage children to make choices within a prepared environment. A strong ethic of care is embedded in their teaching approaches. A greater emphasis on helping children to develop more respectful approaches in their conversations with others would be a worthwhile development.
While teachers are working with children in small groups they should consider how they could more effectively respond to and extend children's thinking and learning. It would also be beneficial for children if they had more opportunities to express their ideas, problem solve, and lead their own learning.
Portfolios are an attractive record of children's participation in the programme. Assessment processes are developing. There are some good examples of teachers identifying children's individual interests and dispositions. In order to build on this good practice, teachers should document children's learning progress and how they plan to respond to children's interests, play and learning.
Teachers make curriculum decisions collaboratively. They are developing ways to gather parent aspirations and to reflect these within planning. Teachers are building their knowledge and understanding of the revised early childhood curriculum, Te Whāriki 2017. Developing shared understandings about how to assess and plan for learning will improve teaching practice and learning outcomes.
Teachers understand the importance of promoting te reo and tikanga Māori. Continuing support for teachers to use te reo in the programme will help them to develop more consistent practices. Teachers could continue to find ways to reflect children's diverse cultures in the programme.
Centre policies and procedures are being developed. Continuing with regular policy reviews will assist teachers to ensure that policies are understood and implemented. Internal evaluations are regular and follow an established process, and have resulted in recent improvements to the learning environment.
The centre's appraisal process has been improved to meet the requirements of the Education Council's teaching standards. Teachers have accessed relevant professional development opportunities to improve their practice. Leaders should continue to support teachers to evaluate the effectiveness of their teaching, and to gauge the impact that professional development has on children's learning outcomes.
The strategic plan is aligned with the centre annual plan. By setting specific actions and quality indicators teachers would be better placed to evaluate the progress being made towards achieving the centre's strategic aims and goals.
Key next steps for the centre include continuing work to:
establish sound and shared understandings about the use of Te Whāriki 2017 to strengthen evaluation, assessment and planning and to guide the review of the centre's philosophy
build teaching practices that empower children to think creatively and lead their own learning
strengthen teachers' implementation of the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi in the programme
establish culturally responsive practices with children and families from Māori, Pacific and other cultures.
Before the review, the staff and management of St Mary's Family Pre-School 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.
The next ERO review of St Mary's Family Pre-School will be in three years.
Steve Tanner
Director Review and Improvement Services Northern
Te Tai Raki - Northern Region
31 January 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 |
Otahuhu, Auckland |
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Ministry of Education profile number |
25091 |
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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 |
35 children, including up to 10 aged under 2 |
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Service roll |
27 |
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Gender composition |
Girls 17 Boys 10 |
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Ethnic composition |
Māori |
4 |
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Percentage of qualified teachers |
80% + |
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Reported ratios of staff to children |
Under 2 |
1:3 |
Better than minimum requirements |
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Over 2 |
1:7 |
Better than minimum requirements |
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Review team on site |
September 2018 |
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Date of this report |
31 January 2019 |
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Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review |
March 2015 |
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Education Review |
March 2012 |
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Education Review |
September 2008 |
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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:
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.