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 “Buttercups Preschool Dallington”
As a concerned mother, I was alarmed to witness a distressing incident at the daycare centre. I am a born and bred New Zealander and have lived in Christchurch all my life, and it was shocking to see our little ones neglected like that. While I was tempted to give the daycare centre a five-star rating, I couldn’t overlook the fact that I saw a young boy, less than a year old, lying on his back and gnawing on the steel side of a pair of kitchen tongs. Unfortunately, there were only two teachers present in the section that catered to children below the age of 2, and they were not attending to the little one.
As a mother, my primary concern is the health and safety of my child and all the other children in the daycare centre. Therefore, my recommendation is to remove all the dangerous things that are not approved children’s toys for children under 2. It is imperative to take every precaution necessary to ensure our little ones are safe and secure while in their care. I hope that the daycare takes the necessary steps to address these concerns and make the necessary changes to prevent such incidents from happening in the future.