ERO Reports

How well placed is Homai Early Childhood Centre to promote positive learning outcomes for children?

Not well placed

Requires further development

Well placed

Very well placed

Background

Homai Early Childhood Centre (HECC) is part of the Blind and Low Vision Education Network NZ (BLENNZ) campus in Manurewa. The centre caters for culturally diverse families from throughout Auckland. Some children and parents are transported to and from the centre by taxi.

The service provides three sessions during the week; a four-hour session on Monday, and whānau sessions on Tuesdays and Fridays. These sessions are for children who are blind, deafblind or have low vision, and their whānau, from birth to school age in small groups of up to 14. The Monday and Friday sessions provide an adapted and expanded core curriculum to support children to become independent and interdependent. Currently children attending the Tuesday whānau session have educational needs in addition to being blind, deafblind or low vision.

HECC has two full-time registered teachers and a part-time, fixed-term qualified teacher working as a Resource Teacher Vision (RTV). They are supported by education support workers, a taxi escort, the BLENNZ Coordinator Visual Resource Centre (VRC), and a team of therapists and professionals. The programme of learning for each child is also supported by their BLENNZ community RTV. The RTV assists with children's transition into community early childhood centres and schools.

The centre is governed by the Homai Early Childhood Centre Education Trust (HECCET). HECCET is made up of seven representatives of the BLENNZ Board of Trustees. Operational decisions are made by the HECC committee, which consists of the centre manager and teaching staff, along with support from the principal, senior managers, coordinator VRC and others when necessary.

The centre has a history of very positive ERO reports. In 2013, ERO identified high quality teaching practices, meaningful partnerships with whānau and caregivers, and improvement focused self review. These practices have been sustained. Next steps in 2013 included developing ways to make children's cultures more visible in documentation, and aligning policies with the early childhood licensing criteria. Progress has been made in these areas.

The Review Findings

The centre's responsive and enabling environment is based around children's individual strengths, needs and abilities, and promotes their confidence and competence. Teachers view children's behaviours as communication. They use a gesture dictionary to help them interact with children in appropriate ways. Teachers communicate with children through gestures, touch, oral language, and sign language. These deliberate and effective practices promote trust and rapport between children, their teachers, and parents and whānau.

Children access innovative and relevant resources, often made in the centre, to match children's developmental needs. They benefit from highly effective teaching strategies aimed at their holistic development including physical, language, literacy, numeracy, and life and independence skills. The programme at the centre reflects both Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, and the 'Expanded Core Curriculum'. This programme has been developed by HECC to benefit children in this unique context.

Children engage in a programme that responds to their strengths and needs each day. They attain maximum benefit from this sensitive approach. Children experience transitions that affirm their individuality, as a result of teachers' skilful management of change. Some teachers are confident with using words and phrases in te reo Māori. The team confidently incorporates waiata and karakia during group times.

Most teachers make efforts to learn and use aspects of the home languages of children whose parents speak languages other than English. The team has given thought to being more deliberate with integrating home languages, resources and songs within the programme.

The centre's philosophy values strong relationships with children, and a whānau centred transdisciplinary and active learning approach. Individual planning is a key feature of the programme. The transdisciplinary team informs and consults with parents in making decisions about children's learning needs. Parents are informed about children's progress and ways to support children's learning on an ongoing basis. Transitions into other centres and schools are well supported, and parents are aware of the support that they can access for their children in these settings.

Teachers promote and implement the vision of BLENNZ and HECC and regularly evaluate its impact on outcomes for children and families. They are highly motivated to build their own professional knowledge and share this with others to improve outcomes for children and families.

A sound internal evaluation framework is used to document regular internal evaluations. These are focused on improvements in outcomes for children. Teachers consider improvements to teaching practice, curriculum, resources and environments, based on evidence. Parents are consulted as part of the review process.

Policies guide practice and reflect current legal and licensing requirements. Teachers could consider involving a core group of parents to contribute to and participate in policy reviews. The centre has made significant progress in aligning policies with the early childhood licensing criteria.

A distributed leadership model is used well to incorporate parent aspirations and the expert opinions of transdisciplinary professionals. This model provides cohesion between the various stakeholders and guides the learning programme for each child.

ERO References