Penguins School of Early Learning | Education Review Office
ERO’s judgements for Penguins School of Early Learning are as follows:
Penguins School of Early Learning is owned by ACG Education Limited. A newly appointed and experienced centre manager and operations manager lead a large team of qualified teachers and support staff. The service is ethnically diverse with a high percentage of children with Chinese heritage enrolled.
Children and their families are warmly welcomed into the service. They experience familiar routines that support their settling-in and foster a sense of belonging. Children have access to indoor and outdoor spaces that are well resourced to facilitate their play and learning preferences.
Children have opportunities to learn and hear te reo Māori through waiata and kupu. Children with Pacific heritage participate in and celebrate special events that support their cultural identities. Infants and toddlers are nurtured, well cared for, and benefit from one-to-one relationships with their teachers. A peaceful learning environment supports children’s exploration, developing independence, and self-help skills.
Teachers know children well and have established positive relationships with them and their families. They are inclusive and accepting of all children. Strategies are being implemented to support children with additional learning needs. Teachers could promote children’s languages, cultures, and identities more strongly through centre documentation.
Parents, who spoke with ERO, talked about the positive and respectful relationships they have with teachers. They expressed appreciation for how approachable teachers are, how well they support their aspirations for their children’s learning, and for the nurturing care their children receive.
The operations and centre managers work well together to support teachers’ developing skills and knowledge. Relational trust is evident across the staff team. Teachers access a variety of professional learning opportunities that inform their practice and enable them to further promote children’s learning and development.
Internal evaluation follows an established process that is improvement focused and linked to promoting positive outcomes for children. Leaders and teachers could work towards engaging parents and whānau more in the service’s internal evaluation processes.
Penguins School of Early Learning will include the following actions in its Quality Improvement Planning:
Deepening learning-focused partnerships with parents and whānau to inform a rich and responsive curriculum.
Evaluating the impact of staff professional learning on learning outcomes for children.
Promoting children’s complex thinking and learning through provision of more challenging learning experiences.
Before the review, the staff and management of Penguins School of Early Learning 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:
Parents have given prior written approval to their child’s participation and of the proposed ratio for regular excursions at the time of enrolment (HS17).
An annual plan guides the service’s operation and identifies ‘who’ in relation to key tasks undertaken each year (GMA8).
Early Childhood Service Name Penguins School of Early Learning
Location Howick, Auckland
Māori 4%, NZ European/Pākehā 16%, Chinese 65%, Indian 5%, other Asian 4%, other ethnic groups 6%
1 Evaluation of Penguins School of Early Learning
How well placed is Penguins School of Early Learning to promote positive learning outcomes for children?
Penguins School of Early Learning is one of four early learning services owned by ACG Education. The service is licensed for 150 children, including up to 25 aged under two years. Nearly half of the children enrolled are Chinese and a small number have Māori or Pacific heritage.
The centre's philosophy statement highlights guiding principles that include kind and caring interactions, and the importance of respectful relationships. It notes that children's strengths and interests will be enriched and extended within a play-based programme.
Since the 2014 ERO review, the service has undergone several changes. A new centre director was appointed in May 2017 just before ACG Education acquired the service. Several new team leaders and staff members have recently been appointed.
There are seven rooms for age-related groups of children in the large, purpose built premises. Most rooms provide access to outdoor areas, which allow for some mixed-age play opportunities. A dedicated team of cooks provides meals for children.
ACG Education managers support the centre director in the overall management and leadership of the service. Team leaders have oversight of their teaching teams and the daily running of each room. Most teachers are qualified.
The 2014 ERO report highlights positive relationships, well planned learning programmes and high quality care and learning experiences for infants and toddlers. These strengths continue to feature. The report also identified areas for improvement, including self review, appraisal, programme planning and assessment. Good progress has been made in these areas.
Children are happy and confident, and interact well with their peers and teachers. Teachers' interactions with children and families are warm and respectful. Children's social and emotional competence is promoted well and families are valued members of the centre.
The education and care provisions for infants and toddlers are very good. Teaching approaches are strongly influenced by Magda Gerber philosophical approaches. Teachers are highly responsive to children's temperaments, preferences and interests. They maintain calm interactions and provide younger children with space and time to lead their learning. Teachers value and respect play as a means for learning.
Children over two years of age participate in a semi-structured programme that allows them to freely explore the environment. They confidently make decisions about their own play. The well-resourced learning environment provides children with easy access to a variety of appropriate areas of play. Children who have additional learning needs receive very good support.
Leaders provide useful guidelines to help teachers plan well. Planning, assessment and evaluation processes respond successfully to children's individual strengths, dispositions and interests. Teachers view children as capable and competent learners. Older children are involved in planning their programmes.
Teachers work well together to support children’s play. They recognise children's developmental stages and respond to their interests appropriately. They value children's ideas and contributions to their learning. Well considered processes support children's transitions into and within the service.
Cultural events such as Matariki, Chinese New Year and Diwali are celebrated with children and families. Centre leaders are committed to enhancing the service's bicultural curriculum. They acknowledge how children's different cultures could be better reflected in learning records. Leaders also identify that improving teachers' use of te reo Māori with children is a next step.
Staff encourage parents and whānau to take an active role at the centre. They offer a variety of useful opportunities to communicate with parents and value their input. Online learning records give families ready access to information about their children’s learning.
The centre director and managers are reviewing systems, practices and processes. New leaders are well supported to build their leadership skills. Mentoring processes are in place to help extend teacher capability. The director is considering how she can more regularly participate in professional networks as a service leader.
The service has a well-documented set of policies. Good internal evaluation processes are systematic and help guide aspects of centre improvement. A new appraisal process has been developed but is yet to be fully implemented. Managers acknowledge that having a deeper understanding of the Ministry of Education's strategy Tātaiako: Cultural Competencies for Teachers of Māori Learners, will help meet Education Council requirements.
Key next steps for ongoing improvement are:
managers strengthening long term planning to support the implementation of annual goals, and the use of evaluation to determine how well goals are met
managers accessing professional development that supports staff to implement a bicultural curriculum and deepen their understandings of Pacific learners
teachers strengthening goal setting, action plans and inquiry into teaching practice as part of their appraisal process.
The next ERO review of Penguins School of Early Learning will be in three years.