Espalier
For early childhood services in Aotearoa

Always ready. Always growing.

Espalier runs your service from one calm place. It keeps you compliant, reviews your policies on time, helps tamariki and kaiako grow, and brings whānau into the life of the centre. AI does the paperwork, and your teachers keep the decisions.

Every app on every plan. Prices in NZD.

  • Compliance
  • Automated policy review
  • Growth & evaluation
  • Involvement
  • AI powered
  • All connected
  • Easy to use
Why we exist

Every hour on paperwork is an hour not spent with tamariki.

We believe the records a service has to keep should come from the work it already does. A teacher posting a photo, a cook recording lunch, or a kaiako talking through a reflection should leave the paperwork done.

What a service keeps today, across paper forms, spreadsheets, shared drives and apps that don’t talk to each other:

  • Licensing criteria
  • ERO reviews
  • Policy reviews
  • Consultation with whānau
  • Professional Growth Cycle
  • Learning plans
  • Incident reports
  • Sleep checks
  • Food served
  • Hazard checks
  • Attendance and ratios
  • Invoices and timesheets
Seven strengths

Structure that helps everyone grow

An espalier is a young tree trained to grow along a frame. Espalier gives your service the same: structure that holds you up while you grow.

01

Compliance, built in

  • Hazard checks daily, weekly, monthly or yearly, with photos as evidence
  • Food served from your own food list, with allergens checked against children
  • Sleep checks, incident sign-off on a phone, live ratios by age band
  • Records that lock as a true record, printable for any date range

Always ready for review.

02

Automated policy review

  • Every policy has its own review date, with reminders at 90 days, 30 days and on the day
  • The scheduled review opens itself and consults whānau and staff
  • A weekly nudge to owners until a stalled review moves
  • Outcomes recorded and shared, and the clock restarts

Policies that review themselves.

03

Growth & evaluation

  • Learning plans for tamariki against Te Whāriki, with whānau aspirations
  • The Professional Growth Cycle against Ngā Paerewa, to attested records
  • Internal evaluation following ERO’s process, tagged with Te Ara Poutama
  • Children’s and kaiako goals linked to the evaluation they serve

Growth you can see, from one child to the whole service.

04

Involvement

  • A live feed of the day, with photos and learning stories
  • Sleeps, meals and care at a glance
  • Messages, notices and events from the room or the whole centre
  • Whānau read policies and have their say, right in the family app

Every family part of the journey.

05

AI powered, teachers in charge

  • Learning stories drafted from photos and a few spoken words
  • PGC reflections transcribed and drafted into evidence
  • The Teacher Agent: say it or snap it, and it’s done
  • Meals recognised from a photo of the plate

Less typing, more teaching.

06

All connected

  • One sign-in, and one record of each child, family and staff member
  • A journal story becomes evidence on a child’s plan
  • A hazard found on a check goes straight onto the register
  • Write a policy once for every centre, and let each one adapt it

One place. One sign-in. Everything talks.

07

Easy to use

  • Buttons that say what happens, in the sector’s own words
  • Sign up and set up rooms and your team in one sitting
  • Bring children, families and policies across from your files
  • Care, naps and food logged in a couple of taps, or just say it
  • An assistant that finds any page across every app
  • Phones for whānau, iPads for teachers, nothing to set up for families

Simple from the first tap.

Automated policy review

The review cycle runs itself, so nothing slips

Keeping every policy current is the compliance job services fall behind on most. Espalier watches every review date, opens reviews on time, consults the people they affect and chases anything that stalls, with a record of every step for your next ERO visit.

  1. Reminded before it’s dueAutomaticThe policy owner and manager hear 90 days, 30 days and on the day the review falls due.
  2. The review opens itselfAutomaticFamilies and staff get the current policy with your review questions. Read receipts show who has read it.
  3. Feedback, then a reportAutomaticComments arrive by section. When consultation closes, the owner gets a report of who read it and what they said.
  4. Nothing stallsAutomaticEvery Monday, owners get a list of reviews that are overdue, unstarted or waiting on an outcome, until they move.
  5. Decide, record, restartSign off “no changes” or publish a new version through your approvals. Everyone it concerns is told, and the review clock restarts.
How it fits together

Seven strengths, one loop

The everyday work of a centre, turned into its records, its growth and its relationships.

  1. Involvement

    A teacher posts a moment of learning for whānau.

  2. AI powered

    AI drafts the learning story for the teacher to check.

  3. Growth & evaluation

    It becomes evidence on the child’s plan and the centre’s evaluation.

  4. Compliance

    It sits on the same records that keep you ready for review.

  5. Policy review

    The policies behind it review themselves, with whānau consulted.

  6. All connected

    All of it in one place, under one sign-in.

  7. Easy to use

    Every step takes a tap or a sentence.

The apps

Every app, one sign-in

Every plan includes all of them, for every person in your service.

Espalier Policies

For managers and policy owners
  • A library sorted by licensing criteria, or import your Word and PDF policies
  • Approvals in order, consultation with read receipts
  • Reviews that run themselves
  • New government guidance compared with your policies

Espalier Family

For whānau and teachers, on phones and iPads
  • The day’s feed, learning stories and learning plans
  • Daily care and sleep, logged in a couple of taps
  • Messages, notices and incident sign-off
  • Policies to read and give feedback on

Espalier Operations

For centre managers, admin and cooks
  • Attendance with live ratios by age band
  • Children, enrolments and the waitlist
  • Invoices, staff clock-ins and timesheets
  • Kitchen records and health & safety

Espalier Growth

For kaiako, mentors and managers
  • Reflections, evidence and observations against Ngā Paerewa
  • Record a conversation and get a draft to edit
  • Mentor sign-off and a review calendar
  • Attested records ready for certification

Teacher Agent

For kaiako, in one conversation
  • Type, speak or add photos
  • Naps, care logs, incidents and updates done for you
  • PGC evidence and clocking in, too
  • Anything families will see waits for your confirm

The staff app

Home for everyone on the team
  • What needs attention today
  • An assistant that finds any page across every app
  • Your frequently used pages, and links to other systems
  • Each centre in its own logo and colours
Built for Aotearoa

Made here, for how services here work

Licensing criteriaPolicies, checks and records organised by the criteria you’re licensed against.
ERO’s evaluation processInternal evaluation from noticing to monitoring impact, ready for review.
Te WhārikiLearning plans and stories framed by the strands of the curriculum.
Ngā Paerewa and Te Ara PoutamaTeacher growth and service evaluation against the standards you use.
AI powered

AI drafts. Teachers decide.

Espalier uses AI for the writing and the admin, so teachers can spend their time with tamariki. A person always checks what it drafts.

  • Learning stories from photos
  • PGC evidence from a conversation
  • The Teacher Agent
  • Meals read from a photo
  • Policy import and draft review
  • Guidance compared with your policies
Drafts, not decisionsAI writes the first version; a teacher shapes and approves it.
The person who signs checked itNothing is recorded in someone’s name without them seeing it.
Only what you’re allowedAI acts with your own permissions, never more.
Families see confirmed workNothing reaches whānau that a teacher hasn’t confirmed.
Pricing

One platform, sized for your service

Every plan includes every app and starts with a 14-day free trial. Change plan at any time and we prorate the difference.

Annual: 2 months free
Prices in NZD, plus 15% GST Pay by card or NZ direct debit Families never count towards seats
Trust

Your service’s information, looked after

Held in AustraliaOn AWS in Sydney, encrypted at rest, with point-in-time backups.
Kept separateEach organisation’s data is its own. Staff see only the centres and permissions their role gives.
No accounts made for familiesWhānau sign in with the email their centre holds.
Nothing lostIf a payment is missed, your team can still read everything and families keep using the app.
Questions

Good to know

What happens when the trial ends?

Your subscription carries on with the plan you chose, paid by the card or bank account you added. Without one, your account becomes read-only until you add it. Nothing is deleted.

Do policy reviews really run by themselves?

The reminders, opening the scheduled review, consulting families and staff, the consultation report and the weekly chase all run on their own. Your team decides the outcome: no changes, or a new version through your approvals.

Do parents need to create an account?

They sign in to Espalier Family with the email address their centre holds, so there’s nothing for you to set up. Policies to read arrive there and by email.

Can we bring our existing policies?

Yes. Import Word or PDF documents and Espalier splits them into sections for you to check.

We have more than one centre. Which plan fits?

Growth covers up to five centres. Write a policy once for the organisation and let each centre use it as is or customise it. For larger groups, Enterprise is priced for you.

Does AI decide anything?

No. It drafts learning stories, PGC evidence and records for a person to check, and it can only do what that person is allowed to do. Families never see anything a teacher hasn’t confirmed.

What counts as a staff seat?

Each staff member who signs in, across all your centres. Families never count towards seats.

Where can I find more help?

The help page answers questions about signing in, policies, the family app, running your centre, PGC, billing and privacy.

More time with tamariki.

Set up your centre, invite your kaiako and send your first policy in an afternoon.