Community Ownership: Parents likely have a strong say in how the service operates and what happens to children, all money earnt stays within it, and teachers may be paid better and childcare charges may be lower compared to most (but not necessarily all) private and corporate owned services. (Ask: Is it an Incorporated Society? Does it also have charitable status?)
Small Boutique Centre: Centres with 50 or fewer children make it easier for staff to provide a warm and nurturing environment, for children to have their individual needs met and skills, knowledge, and competencies extended. (Ask: For continuity of care and relationships, do children stay with the same group of children and teachers throughout their time at the service?)
100% Qualified Teacher Funded: All staff counted toward meeting the minimum adult-child ratio requirement must hold a practising certificate as a teacher if the service receives this level of Ministry of Education funding. (Ask: Does the service count teachers trained in the ECE of children birth to 5 years and not primary or secondary school trained teachers?)
Men Included on Teaching Staff (as at last year): There are strong benefits of having both men and women on the teaching team for the quality of care and education a service provides to children. Additionally, gender bias in staff recruitment and employment is not generally acceptable in society today. (Ask: How many teaching staff are employed and what proportion are men?)
(as at last year):
Clean Licence Record (last year and the year before): To be licensed a service must comply with regulations that help ensure children’s safety, care, and a suitable standard of education. When requirements are breached the Ministry of Education may downgrade a service’s licence to provisional or issue a suspension. (Check the lists of services placed on a provisional or suspended licence https://oece.nz/public/information/standards/ published each year)
(last year and year before):
Recommended Highly by 80% or More Families: At least 80% of families recommend the service and rate it as being very good to excellent on a range of aspects of quality. (Note that a response rate of at least 51% families on the OECE parent survey https://oece.nz/public/information/resources/parent-survey/ research instrument within the last three years is necessary here)
1 Review on “Northcote Central Kindergarten”
Both of my children have attended this kindergarten and had a great experience. The teachers are warm, sensitive and responsive to the children’s needs. There is a lovely environment outside – with low trees that children can safely climb, a changing outdoor playground, sandpit, mud kitchen and water trough. The children do a range of creative crafts, messy play and imaginative play. They also look after the pet guinea pigs and fish and tend to the garden which has herbs, fruit trees and flowers. We have enjoyed getting to know other families from the community here – Northcote Central kindy is a reflection of the diversity of the neighbourhood and the family events offer families a chance to share their culture and their food (yum!). The kindergarten is also strongly into sustainability and is an Enviroschool, teaching our kids about recycling and composting. The teachers incorporate Te Reo Maori and many of the languages spoken by families into their songs and daily mat time routines, which we think is great.