Nestled Early Learning Centre - 08/12/2020

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	Meeting
Governance, management and administration	Meeting

At the time of the review, ERO found the service was taking reasonable steps to meet regulatory standards.

Background

Nestled Early Learning Centre is one of three early childhood education and care services privately owned and is operated by 4Es Consulting Early Childhood Education Support and Mentoring. The purpose-built centre caters for infants, toddlers and young children.

Summary of Review Findings

A philosophy guides the service operations. It is underpinned by Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum and some of the RIE and Reggio Emilio approaches. The curriculum is informed by assessment, planning and evaluation that demonstrates an understanding of children’s learning, their interests, whānau and life contexts. The design and layout of the premises includes quiet spaces, areas for physically active play, and space for a range of individual and group learning experiences.

Key Next Steps

give greater prominence to te reo and te ao Māori in guiding documentation and teaching practices
strengthen assessment and planning documentation to make the language, culture and identity of children clearly evident
further develop group planning evaluation processes to include a focus on the impact of teaching strategies on outcomes for children.

Next ERO Review

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

8 December 2020

Information About the Service

Early Childhood Service Name	Nestled Early Learning Centre
Profile Number	47690
Location	Christchurch
Service type	Education and care service
Number licensed for	80 children, including up to 20 children aged under 2
Percentage of qualified teachers	80%
Service roll	101
Gender composition	Male 41, Female 60
Ethnic composition	Māori 10, NZ European/Pākehā 73, Other ethnicities 18
Review team on site	October 2020
Date of this report	8 December 2020
Most recent ERO report(s)	First ERO review of the service

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 regulated 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; police vetting; teacher certification; ratios)
evacuation procedures and practices for fire and earthquake.

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.