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)
3 Reviews on “Te Kainganui Early Education Centre”
A lovely community centre, with amazing values.
Our children have been attending TK since 2017 and have all been cared for by the warm, loving and professional teaching team. Many of TK’s teachers had quite long service 16, 8, 5 years which I think is telling. The centre has lost a few recently, who have moved to other parts of the country due to the housing crisis in Wellington which is a shame and a loss but the new team are also magic. While we have been at TK they have also had a number of returning teachers which is a good sign and I know that the teachers who left are still in contact with the centre so the children get to hear from them.
Another good sign in my opinion is that the teachers who left are still on friendly terms with management emailing and texting, getting together for coffees etc. It’s just that kind of centre. More like a family.
So, I would say the teachers are treated really beautifully which is very important because that means happy children.
It cares for the kids but not the teachers. This is special place, my grand kiddos have gone through here. But I know my daughter was thinking of pulling her kids after seeing the way some of the staff have been treated by management. Some of her friends still have kids here, amazing care but it feels like all the news we hear now is how another teacher is leaving. It is such a shame, I only met a few of them briefly over the years but all the staff were lovely and really cared for the kids, sad to think one manager is causing so much bother.