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 “Millie's House”
I would not recommend Millie’s House Daly Street given the steep decline of the quality of this centre over the past few years.
With our child going to school earlier this year it felt that both the management, teachers, and quality to drop significantly – large turnover of the staff, a new manager that lacks empathy, and no stories or engagement about how our child developed all contribute to low confidence in this centre.
A big selling point originally was higher than minimum ratios, but these are poorly sustained and I have often found rooms at the max with teachers struggling to handle the stretch.
My child also lacked support with toilet training in the rooms, teachers denying help when asked and over this year bathrooms have often been a mess with faeces or wee left uncleaned on the seats.
For the price they truly need to raise the standard and build an engaged and supportive team to give parents trust in this environment