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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.
(as at last year):
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?)
(last year and year before):
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/
Recommended Highly by 80% or More Families: The service is recommended by at least 80% of families, based on results from the independent OECE parent survey. To qualify, the survey must have a response rate of at least 51% of enrolled families and have been completed within the past three years.
5 Reviews on “Educare Tawa”
I have two kids at Educare Tawa. They both love it there. The teachers are always so friendly and caring and are often cuddling kids who need the extra support.
The food is great! My kids get loads of hidden veggies in their diet.
My 4 year old is always talking about what she has learned so definitely think she’s getting the right level of education there for her age. She’s also made some great local friends.
Highly recommend!
Have had our child there for 4 years across the under and over 2 rooms. Always find the quality of activities really great and exciting for our child and the kaiako really get to know and support the kids with genuine care. While there has been some teaching staff turnover across the 4 years over half have been there long term which has been great for stability.
Excellent!
Ignore the 1 star review below. I have 2 children at Educare and they both love going. Their day is filled with age appropriate activities and learning opportunities through play, moreso now they have a wonderful centre manager in place. Everyday I see the care and support the teachers give to my children. There is always safe staffing as per MoE guidelines.
Our child has been at Educare Tawa for coming up to three years.
Our 4yo loves it there and learns so much about social skills, school preparation but also general education. We receive stories about the day regularly from our child but also from the great and regular communications that the manager sends out weekly. While the bigger room covers the ages 2-5 age appropriate activities are covered too. Our second one will join the daycare soon too. Highly recommended!
Constant staff shortages. they are meant to be a ratio of 1 teacher to 10 children, but regularly you’ll only find 2 teachers supervising the 60 children in the 2-5 y/o room.
Excessive fees. If you research how much funding an ECE receives from the Ministry of Education per qualified teacher and compare that to the fees, you’ll see that this company vastly over-charges the parents for services the government is already providing funding for. combined with the staff shortages above, and clearly the owner is very wealthy