Education Review Office report

The Education Review Office (ERO) is a government department that, as part of its work, reviews early childhood services throughout Aoteroa New Zealand. ERO reports provide independent information for parents and caregivers about that service’s strengths and next step for development. 

The ERO has recently changed how it assesses early childcare services. For services that are already assessed as being “well placed or very well placed”, the ERO undertakes an Akarangi-Quality Evaluation. This involved evaluating the extent to which the early childhood service has “the learning and organisational conditions to support equitable and excellent outcomes for learners”.

Two types of indicators are considered:
– Outcomes – how the Centre works with the children and community to look at curriculum outcomes for the children.
– Processes – what conditions are present in the early childhood centre that contribute to a high quality early childhood education necessary to realise the valued learning outcomes for all children.

Each centre is then evaluated in different areas and are given one of five judgements that range from emerging to establishing to embedding to sustaining and, finally, to excelling.

AppleSeed Educare last had a full ERO Review in May 2021 with excellent results. Each area was judged to be “Whakawhanake Sustaining” – meaning that “the service has multiple sources of information that shows children’s increasing capabilities in relation to the learning outcomes in Te Whariki. Information is being used to identify and respond to inequities.” This means that AppleSeed has evidence and has demonstrated to the ERO that it has the capability and capacity to sustain ongoing improvement to the learning and organisational conditions (ie the systems, processes and practices that it has in place) and the organisation conditions of the Childcare – meaning that we have demonstrated that we are “very well placed” in all areas and are constantly improving! Whilst we were very happy with this result, we continue to strive to be “Excelling” in all areas.

The ERO was impressed with AppleSeed Educare’s ongoing development of its practices to continually support meeting the quality learning outcomes for children.

The ERO found:
– the mixed age group environment promoted the children’s leadership skills.
– The teachers skillfully supported the development of tuakana/ teina relationships (relationships between older and younger children). This fostered leadership and reciprocal learning opportunities between older and younger children.
– Teachers responded well to children’s interests with a wide range of new experiences, challenges and resources to support the children’s learning.

Quote from the ERO include:
– “Children’s social and emotional wellbeing is prioritised and positively nurtured by the teachers”
– “Children can experiment, investigate and explore to make sense of their world at the centre”
– “Teachers respond to children’s interests with a wide range of new experiences, challenges and resources to support their learning”
– “The cultures, languages and traditions of children and their families are visible and highly valued in the service”

The full report can be found here.

ERO Visit Dec 2023

On the change of ownership of AppleSeed in October 2021, ERO was required to undertake a further visit to ensure that AppleSeed was meeting and maintaining regulatory standards under the new ownership. This occurred in December 2023 and it was found that AppleSeed was meeting the regulatory requirements.  

The findings were:

“The curriculum provides a language-rich environment that supports children’s learning. It provides a range of experiences and opportunities to enhance and extend children’s learning and development.

The practices of adult’s providing education and care demonstrate an understanding of children’s learning, and knowledge of relevant theories and proactive in early childhood education. They engage in meaningful, positive interactions to support children’s learning and nurture reciprocal relationships.

Children’s preferences are respected, and they are involved in decisions about their learning experiences.”