Grey Valley Playcentre is located in Ahaura, 40 km north of Greymouth. It is the only licensed early childhood centre between Reefton and Greymouth. It runs morning sessions twice a week.
The playcentre is located in a purpose-built facility within the grounds of Ahaura School. It is one of ten parent-led centres that operate under the umbrella of the Buller Westland Playcentre Association.
The association provides policy direction for centre operations, as well as administrative services and quality management. Office holders, along with fieldworkers, provide professional advice and support for centres to develop and promote the benefits of parent-led early childhood services.
Since the playcentre’s last ERO review in March 2008, there have been a significant number of changes in personnel. Team leaders and parents have maintained and built on many of the good practices noted during this review.
Features of the centre include:
The centre’s parent committee and team leaders have developed a range of sound management practices. These are helping to promote ongoing Playcentre improvement.
The next steps for the centre, identified by team leaders, parents and ERO include:
ERO is confident that the service is being managed in the interest of the children. Therefore ERO is likely to review the service again in three years.
Before the review, the management of Grey Valley Playcentre was invited to consider its priorities for review using guidelines and resources provided by ERO. ERO also used documentation provided by the centre to contribute to the scope of the review.
The detailed priorities for review were then determined following a discussion between the ERO review team and the management and staff. This discussion focused on existing information held by the centre (including self-review information) and the extent to which potential issues for review contributed to positive outcomes for children atGrey Valley Playcentre.
All ERO education reviews in early childhood focus on the quality of education. For ERO this includes the quality of:
ERO’s findings in these areas are set out below.
Since the last ERO review, a new group of parents have become involved with the playcentre. They have continued to build on the centre’s programme. Professional development, support and training have helped team leaders and parents improve learning opportunities for children.
The centre’s programme provides children with a wide variety of experiences that are successfully supporting their learning and development. Features of the programme include the:
Team leaders and parents interact with children in ways that help to foster their sense of belonging, well-being and their learning.
During the review visit team leaders and parents interacted with children in respectful, responsive and supportive ways. Children were settled, engaged and comfortable in interacting with adults and their peers.
Reviewers observed many instances of parents:
A feature of this playcentre is the quality of the environment, facilities and resources it provides for children. These facilities are purpose built, spacious and inviting.
Team leaders and parents make effective use of the environment to provide children with a wide variety of interesting indoor and outdoor activities. Well set up activity areas provide children with ready access to an extensive variety of resources that they make good use of to play and learn. Attractive wall displays celebrate children’s learning and provide useful information for parents.
Several leadership and management practices are helping to enhance the quality of care and education for children. These include:
Team leaders and parents recognise the need to build on recent initiatives including improving assessment practices and promoting biculturalism. For example:
Programme planning and evaluation are currently a focus for centre improvement. To support further improvement, team leaders and parents should:
The playcentre’s ongoing programme of self review focuses primarily on resources, some aspects of the programme and revising documented policies and procedures.
Parent opinions about the effectiveness of some aspects of the playcentre’s operation vary.
The value and usefulness of the playcentre’s self-review programme and practices could be enhanced by including a greater focus on evaluating:
Before the review, the staff of Grey Valley Playcentre completed an ERO CentreAssurance Statement andSelf-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 documentation, including policies, procedures and records of recent use of procedures. ERO also checked elements of the following areas that have a potentially high impact on outcomes for children:
In order to improve current practice the managers should:
ERO is confident that the service is being managed in the interest of the children. Therefore ERO is likely to review the service again in three years.
Graham Randell
National Manager Review Services
Southern Region
|
Type |
Sessional Playcentre |
|
Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
|
Number licensed for |
30 children, including up to 15 aged under two |
|
Roll number |
30 |
|
Gender composition |
Boys 18 Girls 12 |
|
Ethnic composition |
NZ European/Pākehā 25; Māori 2; Samoan 1; Asian 2 |
|
Review team on site |
March 2012 |
|
Date of this report |
24 May 2012 |
|
Previous three ERO reports
|
Education Review March 2008 Education Review May 2005 Discretionary Review December 2000 |
24 May 2012
These are the findings of the Education Review Office’s latest report on Grey Valley Playcentre.
Grey Valley Playcentre is located in Ahaura, 40 km north of Greymouth. It is the only licensed early childhood centre between Reefton and Greymouth. It runs morning sessions twice a week.
The playcentre is located in a purpose-built facility within the grounds of Ahaura School. It is one of ten parent-led centres that operate under the umbrella of the Buller Westland Playcentre Association.
The association provides policy direction for centre operations, as well as administrative services and quality management. Office holders, along with fieldworkers, provide professional advice and support for centres to develop and promote the benefits of parent-led early childhood services.
Since the playcentre’s last ERO review in March 2008, there have been a significant number of changes in personnel. Team leaders and parents have maintained and built on many of the good practices noted during this review.
Features of the centre include:
The centre’s parent committee and team leaders have developed a range of sound management practices. These are helping to promote ongoing Playcentre improvement.
The next steps for the centre, identified by team leaders, parents and ERO include:
ERO is confident that the service is being managed in the interest of the children. Therefore ERO is likely to review the service again in three years.
When ERO has reviewed an early childhood centre we encourage management to inform their community of any follow up action they plan to take. You should talk to the management or contact person if you have any questions about this evaluation, the full ERO report or their future intentions.
If you would like a copy of the full report, please contact the centre or see the ERO website, http://www.ero.govt.nz.
Graham Randell
National Manager Review Services
Southern Region
ERO is an independent, external evaluation agency that undertakes reviews of schools and early childhood services throughout New Zealand.
ERO follows a set of standard procedures to conduct reviews. The purpose of each review is to:
Reviews are intended to focus on outcomes for children and build on each centre’s self review.
ERO’s framework for reviewing and reporting is based on four review strands.
ERO reviews do not cover every aspect of centre performance and each ERO report may cover different issues. The aim is to provide information on aspects that are central to positive outcomes for children and useful to this centre.
Most ERO reports include recommendations for improvement. A recommendation on a particular issue does not necessarily mean that a centre is performing poorly in relation to that issue. There is no direct link between the number of recommendations in this report and the overall performance of this centre.