Early childhood needs focus on quality

NURTURING: The Ole Schoolhouse infant team leader Julie Hollis with Fiona Wilson, 1, and others from the daycare. PHOTO/BEN FRASER

Rotorua educators say the Government should focus more on the quality of early childhood centres than enrolment numbers, after a damning report was released about the sector.

The Education Review Office (ERO) released a report this week based on a sample of 235 early childhood services providers around the country. It found that while services were warm and nurturing, almost half were not doing enough to help babies and toddlers learn, with 30 per cent having "limited responsiveness" and 16 per cent "not responsive".

Rotorua early childhood centre The Ole Schoolhouse is owned by husband and wife Eric and Julie Hollis and has a waiting list up to March next year.

Mr Hollis said they welcomed the ERO report as it focused on an area that needed to be highlighted.

"We spend a lot of time planning a curriculum of learning for our under-2 children and have very open channels of communication with parents so we can identify learning areas the child is excelling in, and areas which need more work.

"Alongside nurturing and care, it is important to create a dialogue with the children and develop their verbal literacy."

With more than 40 early childhood centres in Rotorua alone, Mr and Mrs Hollis agreed there were inconsistencies and parents should research centres.

Tiaki Early Learning Centre in Owhata has a small group of under-3s with no more than three children per teacher a day.

Nicola Atkinson worked with the under-3s and said that age was a crucial time for learning development.

"It is important we change people's mindsets to realise while all schooling is important, the mental development that goes on between 0 and 3-years-old is crucial.

"It was really disappointing to read how many centres were not meeting the standards they should be and they need to be held accountable as it is our job to ensure the children in our care are getting the highest quality of care at all times."

Western Heights Primary School principal Brent Griffin said other influencing factors were at play.

"The Ministry of Education statistics show about 95 per cent of children are participating in early childhood education but we can categorically say there is a disparity between what the statistics say and what is happening in reality.

"While 95 per cent of children may have been enrolled at a centre, there is no evidence of their attendance rate.

"We've had families come in who say they are enrolled at an early childhood centre but haven't actually attended for a year."

Mr Griffin said his school had a good relationship with the three early childhood centres in the area.

"We hold one-and-a-half-hour sessions on Wednesdays and Thursdays with the 4-year-olds so we are sufficiently confident they are ready for school.

"I think there are many centres around Rotorua doing a fantastic job but it is fair to say there is no consistency across the board, which the ministry should be looking at, rather than the percentage of kids enrolled," Mr Griffin said.

John Paul College principal Patrick Walsh said the report was a concern, as children unprepared for school "start on the back foot".

"School is all about scaffolding and if children start school without the right foundations laid down, they really struggle."

What ERO found

-Early childhood centres gave priority to establishing warm, nurturing relationships

-Centres had less emphasis on communication and exploration

-There was variability in how well services supported infants and toddlers as communicators and explorers

-Structural issues did not appear to contribute to variability

-Variability was found across services with different ratios, group sizes and percentages of qualified and registered teachers