109 Cambridge Road, Hillcrest, Hamilton
View on mapLittle Discoverers
Little Discoverers
ERO’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.
ERO’s Judgement
Regulatory standards |
ERO’s judgement |
Curriculum |
Meeting |
Premises and facilities |
Meeting |
Health and safety |
Not meeting |
Governance, management and administration |
Not meeting |
At the time of the review, ERO identified areas of non-compliance with regulatory standards that are an unacceptable risk to children.
Background
Little Discoverers, previously known as Curious Cubs, changed ownership in December 2022. There have been significant staff changes. The owners lead daily operations and the curriculum. The multicultural roll includes a fifth who are Māori. The centre philosophy prioritises a family-friendly approach to early learning.
Summary of Review Findings
Adults providing education and care engage in meaningful, positive interactions to enhance children’s learning and nurture reciprocal relationships. The curriculum is responsive to children as confident and competent learners. Children’s preferences are respected, and they are involved in decisions about their learning experiences within a language-rich environment. Children’s social competency and understanding of appropriate behaviour are supported.
The premises provide an appropriate range of experiences for children’s age and stage, both indoors and outdoors, individually and in groups.
Greater attention is needed from leaders to consistently implement the centre’s policies and procedures to ensure ongoing regulatory compliance.
Actions for Compliance
ERO found areas of non-compliance in the service relating to:
-
ensuring earthquake drills are practised on at least a three-monthly basis with children
-
ensuring safety checking of children’s workers is undertaken in accordance with the Children’s Act 2014, before the worker has access to children.
Licensing Criteria for Education and Care Services, 2008, HS8, GMA7A.
Since the onsite visit, the service has provided ERO with evidence that shows it has addressed the following non-compliances:
-
Checking laundry facilities as part of daily checks to equipment, premises and facilities for hazards to children (HS12).
-
Documenting parental approval of adult:child ratios for regular and special excursions (HS17).
-
Obtaining written permission from parents before a child travels in a motor vehicle while in the care of the service (HS18).
Recommendation to Ministry of Education
ERO recommends that the Ministry reassess the licence issued to this service provider. ERO will not undertake a further review of this service until the Ministry of Education is satisfied that the service meets regulatory standards.
Next ERO Review
The next ERO review is likely to be an Akarangi | Quality Evaluation.
Patricia Davey
Director of Early Childhood Education (ECE)
6 November 2023
Information About the Service
Early Childhood Service Name |
Little Discoverers |
Profile Number |
46199 |
Location |
Hillcrest, Hamilton |
Service type |
Education and care service |
Number licensed for |
44 children, including up to 10 aged under 2 |
Percentage of qualified teachers |
80-99% |
Service roll |
34 |
Review team on site |
September 2023 |
Date of this report |
6 November 2023 |
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Previously reviewed as Curious Cubs Early Learning Centre: Akarangi | Quality Evaluation, August 2022; Education Review, June 2018 |
General Information about Assurance Reviews
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.
ERO undertakes an Akanuku | Assurance Review process in any centre-based service:
-
having its first ERO review – including if it is part of a governing organisation
-
previously identified as ‘not well placed’ or ‘requiring further development’
-
that has moved from a provisional to a full licence
-
that have been re-licenced due to a change of ownership
-
where an Akanuku | Assurance Review process is determined to be appropriate.
Management Assurance on Legal Requirements
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:
-
curriculum
-
premises and facilities
-
health and safety practices
-
governance, management and administration.
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:
-
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 certification; ratios)
-
relevant evacuation procedures and practices.
As part of an Akanuku | Assurance Review ERO also gathers and records evidence through:
-
discussions with those involved in the service
-
consideration of relevant documentation, including the implementation of health and safety systems
-
observations of the environment/premises, curriculum implementation and teaching practice.
Curious Cubs Early Learning Centre
ERO Early Childhood Service Akarangi | Quality Evaluation Report
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 Curious Cubs Early Learning Centre are as follows:
Outcome Indicators(What the service knows about outcomes for learners) |
Whāngai Establishing |
Ngā Akatoro Domains |
|
Learning ConditionsOrganisational Conditions |
Whakawhanake Sustaining Whakaū Embedding |
2 Context of the Service
Curious Cubs Early Learning Centre is one of two privately owned centres in Hamilton. The centre manager, supported by the centre director, oversees daily operations, and leads a team of four qualified and two
in-training teachers. The centre places value on relationships with families, and for children to learn in a homely environment. Approximately a third of children attending identify as Māori. Children of Indian and other ethnic groups also attend.
3 Summary of findings
Children’s learning and development is well supported through caring, learning focused partnerships. Parents aspirations are prioritised. Kaiako who work with infants maintain a calm, slow pace, and are highly responsive to non-verbal cues. Children’s interests and inquiries are intentionally responded to. Oral language, creativity, and early literacy and numeracy are well supported. Children’s understandings about the world around them are extended.
Children with additional learning needs experience a highly responsive, inclusive environment. Leaders advocate for children and whānau to gain access to additional support. Early interventions are responsive to children’s identified needs. Children participate fully in the curriculum alongside their peers.
Kaiako practices ensure that the languages and cultures of children are recognised and fostered as:
-
assessments make links to children’s home experiences
-
children regularly hear Te Reo Māori and Punjabi languages
-
tikanga practices are woven into routines.
Kaiako are committed to growing their bicultural competencies to further enhance experiences for tamariki Māori and all children.
Evaluation and inquiry support ongoing curriculum development in response to children’s learning needs. Professional learning is effectively shared within the service to provide a rich, responsive curriculum. The service is establishing and linking learning outcomes from Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, to assessment practices. Evaluations generate evidence of improvements that promote children’s learning.
Governance is committed to supporting equitable outcomes for children. Collaboration with agencies and community organisations supports children’s learning and wellbeing. A positive working environment facilitates a low turnover of kaiako. The service fosters a sense of security for tamariki.
4 Improvement actions
Curious Cubs Early Learning Centre will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:
-
Work with parents, whānau and mana whenua to design a localised curriculum which includes the history, protocols and legends of the local area.
-
Further develop the localised priorities for learning to reflect the learning outcomes in Te Whāriki to inform/guide curriculum design and evaluation.
-
Strengthen internal evaluation practices to understand how well individual and groups of children are progressing in terms of the valued outcomes in Te Whāriki, and evaluate how improvement actions have impacted on outcomes for children.
5 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements
Before the review, the staff and management of Curious Cubs Early Learning Centre 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
22 August 2022
6 About the Early Childhood Service
Early Childhood Service Name: |
Curious Cubs Early Learning Centre |
Profile Number: |
46199 |
Location: |
Hamilton |
Service type |
Education and care service |
Number licensed for |
44 children, including up to 10 aged under 2 |
Percentage of qualified teachers |
80-99% |
Service roll |
43 |
Review team on site |
July 2022 |
Date of this report |
22 August 2022 |
Most recent ERO report(s)
|
Education Review, June 2018; Education Review, March 2015 |