Brighton Street, Leithfield
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 |
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Premises and facilities |
Meeting |
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Health and safety |
Meeting |
|
Governance, management and administration |
Meeting |
At the time of the review, ERO found the service was taking reasonable steps to meet regulatory standards.
Leithfield Playcentre is a whānau-led early childhood education service administered by Te Whānau Tupu Ngātahi o Aotearoa – Playcentre Aotearoa. Since the previous March 2014 ERO report there has been significant restructuring and change at the national Playcentre level. This Playcentre offers two morning sessions for children from birth-to-school-age. A small number of Māori and Pacific learners attend the service.
The philosophy expresses the playcentre’s beliefs, values and attitudes about the provision of early childhood education and care, within a whānau led service. The curriculum is inclusive, and responsive to tamariki as confident, competent learners and communicators. Tamariki and their whānau are given the opportunity to develop understandings of te ao Māori. Adults are nurturing and caring. The preferences of infants, toddlers and young children are respected.
A national policy, procedure and process framework guides the operation of each playcentre. The whānau group take reasonable steps to promote the good health and safety of children enrolled in the service.
Next steps include:
extending the whānau groups’ confidence and competence in the meaningful use of te reo Māori and tikanga Māori with tamariki
embedding the new assessment, planning of evaluation processes to support and extend the learning of tamariki.
The next ERO review is likely to be an Akarangi | Quality Evaluation.
Dr Lesley Patterson
Director Review and Improvement Services (Southern)
Southern Region | Te Tai Tini
14 November 2022
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Early Childhood Service Name |
Leithfield Playcentre |
|
Profile Number |
70079 |
|
Location |
Leithfield |
|
Service type |
Playcentre |
|
Number licensed for |
25 children, including up to 10 aged under 2 |
|
Percentage of qualified adults |
0-49% |
|
Service roll |
25 |
|
Review team on site |
September 2022 |
|
Date of this report |
14 November 2022 |
|
Most recent ERO report(s) |
Education Review, March 2014; Education Review, July 2010 |
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.
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.
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.
How well placed is Leithfield Playcentre to promote positive learning outcomes for children?
|
Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
Leithfield Playcentre is well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children.
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
This playcentre operates under the guidance of the Canterbury Playcentre Association. The playcentre is a parent cooperative with parents encouraged to be involved in all aspects of the centre’s programme and operation. The playcentre philosophy is based on the belief that children reach their full potential when their parents understand their development and take part in the learning process. Adults with higher playcentre training take responsibility for coordinating the programme each session.
Leithfield Playcentre is open for two sessions a week. It operates out of a local community building. Since the July 2010 ERO review, there has been a complete change in the parent group and coordinators.
Recently there has been an increase in the number of parents involved in the playcentre and undertaking training provided by the association. In 2012 the playcentre parents, with the support of an association appointed centre mentor, improved practices to meet the requirements for relicensing under new Early Childhood regulations.
In response to ERO’s previous recommendations, improvements have been made to food routines, assessment and planning practices. There are now more systematic processes in place to monitor health and safety requirements.
This review was part of a cluster of six reviews in the Canterbury Playcentre Association.
Children experience positive, nurturing relationships with adults and with other children in their play. The adults are helping children in the interactions and friendships they form with others to encourage children’s sense of belonging.
The learning programme includes:
Parents are taking a more active role in the planning of programmes and for assessing children’s progress. This has occurred because of the contribution of parents, coordinators and the centre mentor to the development of useful guidelines to help them in their planning. The end of session evaluations with and by parents, plus the strong links to Te Whāriki, the New Zealand Early Childhood Curriculum, are supporting positive outcomes for children and their learning.
The centre mentor is a positive influence in the numerous improvements that are occurring in the centre. Her collaborative and inclusive leadership is supporting the centre parents to develop confidence in the interactions with children and the strategic direction for the centre. Clear and focused reporting to the Playcentre Association by the centre mentor is ensuring these changes will be sustained.
Self review is well developed and understood by parents for making planned and informed improvements to centre practice. The process is well documented, includes the gathering of different perspectives and links with other Playcentre processes.
The adults in the centre are welcoming and provide a good community base for social interactions and advice and support for parenting. The centre has clear expectations for parent involvement and this is evident in the way parents work well together for the children.
The playcentre is located in the community centre and this encourages parents to develop and maintain strong links to the community. Parents make good use of community resources and are building strong links with the local school and other playcentres.
The parent group and ERO agree, that the following developments would help them continue to improve the programme for children and to sustain the best current practices.
Developing long term plans would help the parent group to more clearly identify priorities for future development and provide greater continuity as changes occur in parent group leadership.
Children’s learning would be further supported by increasing parents' understanding and confidence in:
There is significant change occurring in the structure of governance and management at association level. The recent review of governance and management has been supported by useful and consultative processes.
The association has identified, and ERO agrees, that the next steps for the association include association staff:
In addition a system for the regular appraisal of Centre Support Team members should be re-established.
Before the review, the staff and management of Leithfield Playcentre 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:
All early childhood services are required to promote children's health and safety and to regularly review their compliance with legal requirements.
When is ERO likely to review the service again?
The next ERO review of Leithfield Playcentre will be in three years.
Graham Randell
National Manager Review Services Southern Region
14 March 2014
|
Location |
Leithfield, North Canterbury |
|
|
Ministry of Education profile number |
70079 |
|
|
Licence type |
Playcentre |
|
|
Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
|
|
Number licensed for |
25 children, including up to 10 aged under two |
|
|
Service roll |
18 |
|
|
Gender composition |
Girls 10 Boys 8 |
|
|
Ethnic composition |
NZ European/Pākehā |
18 |
|
Review team on site |
December 2013 |
|
|
Date of this report |
14 March 2014 |
|
|
Most recent ERO reports These are available at www.ero.govt.nz |
Education Review |
July 2010 |
|
Education Review |
March 2007 |
|
|
Education Review |
April 2004 |
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.