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Nau mai ki tenei wiki Kōrero.
It is a long weekend with Easter, so however you choose to spend this time away from work enjoy! Daylight saving ends as well so don't forget to put your clocks back, and it is also a great time to check the smoke alarms in your homes.
Ko ngā pae tawhiti, whaia kia tata.
Ko ngā pae tata, whakamaua kia tina.
The potential for tomorrow depends on what we do today.
Jane
Farewell To Sharon Coulton 
Sharon Coulton, Whānau Manaaki’s Team Leader, Senior Teachers, has accepted a position at the Teaching Council, Matatū Aotearoa, and will leave Whānau Manaaki at the beginning of May.
Sharon has been at Whānau Manaaki since 2017, and has seen the organisation, and the Senior Teaching team grow with the addition of the 15 Whanganui Association kindergartens.
Sharon says that this is an exciting time, but, tinged with sadness, as she’ll be sad to leave Whānau Manaaki, because of the strong commitment everyone has to the early childhood sector, tamariki, kaiako, whānau, and communities – and because of the people, and their sense of fun and collegiality.
Her position at the Teaching Council will be Professional Responsibility Manager, and Sharon is looking forward to joining the Council at a time when there is lots of exciting work happening, particularly around leadership.
He aha te mea nui o te ao
What is the most important thing in the world?
He tangata, he tangata, he tangata
It is the people, it is the people, it is the people.
Tūhonohono 
Please remember to book all your PLD through Tūhonohono. If you run into any problems booking courses please contact Kaz.
If you are having problems accessing Tūhonohono please contact Jan. Remember, you do not need to log in to Tūhonohono with a user name or password, you only need to click on the Log in With Whanau Manaaki Details button.
Important Information: Practising Certificate Renewal
All teachers need to ensure that you renew your practising certificates three months before your practising certificate expires. If you do not have a current practising certificate this affects the funding that He Whānau Manaaki receives from the Ministry of Education.
A reminder pops up on Infocare so check with your Administrator if needed, and there is also a reminder on your homepage of Tūhonohono.
The Teaching Council of Aotearoa online renewal system, called Hapori Matatū is where teachers apply. You need to apply at least 6 weeks in advance to ensure that you have allowed time for your application to be processed.
Before you can access the online system, every teacher needs to get an Education Sector Logon, or ESL. This logon only needs to be obtained once, from the Ministry of Education. In order to do this you should either:
- download the ESL 51 form (Education Sector Logon ECE User Request) from the Teaching Council website, or the Teachers Toolbox
- complete the details,
- send it to your Senior Teacher who will complete Part 3 of the form and send it to the Ministry of the Education.
The request for an Education Sector Logon must be signed by a delegated authoriser and for He Whānau Manaaki this is the Senior Teachers only.
After an application for an ESL has been sent to MoE you will receive an email back from them which asks you to log in within 2 weeks to set up your account in Hapori Matatū. If you do not do this the login will expire. Once you have logged in to Hapori Matatū you can then follow the instructions to complete your application to renew your practising certificate.
You will need to search and select the person who will endorse your application as your professional leader. This person is your/a SENIOR TEACHER. You need to use the name that the Senior Teacher is registered as or use their registration number. Once you have completed your application your Senior Teacher as nominated endorser will receive an email asking them to complete their part of the process.
Once the process is complete you will receive confirmation of your renewal. We need you to send a copy of the confirmation email and a copy of the digital practising certificate to Tania Braybrook so that we can update our records.
Useful guides and tips
To make sure you have the best experience using Hapori Matatū, the Teaching Council recommend using Google Chrome as your browser. For Apple users Safari isn’t fully supported and until it works well, we’d recommend downloading Chrome.
End of Month Infocare Cut-Off
Yesterday was financial month end and we will be working on our March Board and Kindergarten reporting next week.
To help us with this, we would be grateful if you could have your Infocare records for this week (being the week ended Friday 2 April) completed by the end of the day on Tuesday 6 April.
This means we would like you to complete the following tasks in Infocare up to and including Friday 2 April, as appropriate:
- Sign in sheets marked in Infocare (actual attendance)
- Fee invoices created and committed
- Staff timetables (“staff hour count”) completed
- Online sign off of your monthly roll return
- Any ratio, attendance or roll issues are communicated to the Association (please call Tania Braybrook)
Please let Tania know ASAP if you expect there to be any delay with completing these tasks by the due date.
2021/22 Kindergarten Budgets
We have begun the process of preparing the 2021/22 WMK Association budget and are due to present this to the Board in May. As usual we require your input as part of this process and are requesting that you prepare and submit your 2021/22 kindergarten budget to us over the coming month.
Your kindergarten budget for the year to 30 June 2022 will be due at the Association in early May.
Please work with your Senior Teacher, Kindergarten team and Whanau Groups/Committees (where appropriate) to complete this exercise, which will also mean budgeting for your 2021/22 fundraising activities, IT purchases and property projects, as well as use of your Equity and Targeted funding (where applicable). The budgets you submit will be collated and reviewed by the Association and will be used as a reference against which PA1 requests made during 2021/22 are evaluated.
We will email you your budget template and instructions after Easter, along with details of the Association staff that will be available to support you complete the exercise.
2020/21 Whānau Contribution Tax Certificates
Your families may be starting to ask about their 2020/21 Whānau Contribution/Donation Tax Certificates. These are being generated in the coming weeks and will summarise all whānau contributions and other donations made to Whānau Manaaki Kindergartens (received and banked) in the period 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021.
It would be helpful if you could check that your parent and whānau email details in Infocare are accurate as these will be used to distribute the tax certificates.
Any queries about the tax certificates can be emailed to donations@wmkindergartens.org.nz.
Te Reo Māori Online PLD Opportunity For Kaiako - He Pātaka Reo
For Those Who Have Expressed An Interest
Kaz has updated this PLD into Tūhonohono and has enrolled all staff who have expressed an interest in completing this online learning. You may have received an email confirming you have been enrolled, you may also notice the date of the course is showing as 31/12/2021. Please note this is just an arbitrary date that was chosen to fill a compulsory field :-) If you check your dashboard in Tūhonohono you will see that you are enrolled on the course. Next week you will receive an email with details from the provider.
For those staff that expressed an interest on 26 March or later, your information will be sent to the provider on the 6 April, uploaded into Tūhonohono to be seen on your dashboard and you will receive an email from the provider approximately 2 weeks after that.
If you do NOT see this on your dashboard, and you sent an expression of interest prior to the 26th March then please contact Kaz.
If you still want to be part of this course, then please use the Forms link here to register - do NOT try to enrol directly in Tūhonohono because your name will not be passed on to the course provider.
Te Reo Māori Online PLD Opportunity For Kaiako - He Pātaka Reo
As we have previously mentioned we are pleased to announce that we have been given the wonderful opportunity to work in partnership with Te Rito Maioha, Early Childhood New Zealand to be able to offer an online Te Reo Māori course (He Pātaka Reo) for kaiako in 2021.
He Pātaka Reo | Te Reo Pantry is an online professional learning and development course made up of three stages consisting of 6 akoranga in each. Each stage covers topics you can use both in your kindergarten and in daily conversations.
They are designed to encourage and support you to build confidence in speaking te reo Māori, and will be a perfect PLD opportunity to support your progress in the Te Tiriti o Waitangi Partnership Standard for the Teaching Profession elaboration ‘’practise and develop the use of te reo me ngā tikanga Māori’’.
Stage 1 starts with the basics including the Māori alphabet and correct pronunciation, how to greet someone and introduce yourself in a traditional way, and how to praise someone in te reo Māori.
Stage 2 introduces more activity-based language to use with outdoor play, physical activity, shapes, painting and more.
Stage 3 continues to grow kaiako use of te reo Māori with puzzles, reading, locating objects, and different words and phrases used in outdoor activities, animals and buildings.
Each akoranga will take approximately 45 minutes. Kaiako can access and review any time throughout the year.
We have a large number of spaces available - but these are limited so please get in quick!
If you are interested in this online learning please complete this form here. And if you have any questions just contact Karen Craig.
Once your interest has been accepted, you will be enrolled into the online course and will then receive an email to your WM account with your individual sign in information and information on how to access He Pātaka Reo.
Exciting times!
Ko taku reo taku ohooho, ko taku reo taku mapihi mauria
My language is my awakening, my language is the window to my soul
Sharon, Kaz and the Senior Teacher Team
Relievers Needed Across Our Region
Whānau Manaaki Kindergartens is short of relievers. More casual (day-to-day) relievers are needed across our region, for both short and longer hours. Please encourage any qualified teacher who may be interested to go to our website to register their interest.
Primary trained teachers with a commitment to play-based learning are also welcome to apply for casual relieving.
Those interested should go to the website.
We are posting on the Whānau Manaaki Facebook page, and every kindergarten should post that message on their own Facebook page – you can just share, or use the message alongside a great photo of your own kindergarten.
We encourage you to share on your own personal Facebook page too, if you can. Thanks everyone!
We Are Looking For Some AWESOME Photos Of Your Tamariki For Our Website!
We are updating the photos on our website and are wanting to collect some images from our kindergartens to feature on the site. If you think you have some great photos please send them through to Mollie and we may feature these on our site!
Please ensure the photos are-
- Clear and good quality
- Children featured have approval from parents to be seen online
- Faces are not covered
Thanks in advance.
Early Childhood Education Scholarships
NZEI Te Riu Roa is offering four scholarships of up to $6,000 each for early childhood teachers or support staff to enhance their skills and knowledge.
The scholarships are open to those who have belonged to the union for at least a year. Here’s a link to more information.
Kindergartens Go Full Year
Durie Hill Kindergarten is switching to become an all-year kindergarten, opening 49 weeks a year instead of the current 40.
Paremata Creche has also changed its weeks of operation, to become full year this year.
That brings the number of kindergartens open all year round to 38, well over a third of Whānau Manaaki’s 102 kindergartens. More are expected to follow this trend.
Full year kindergartens suit many parents, and also attract extra funding.
Changes Affecting Families From This Week
The minimum wage rises from April 1, to $20 an hour meaning 175,000 people will be on the higher rate.
Because of government assistance such as Working for Families and accommodation supplements, not everyone will see extra money as a result of this change.
Benefits are also going up, as is national superannuation, by 3.1 per cent. This is in line with increases to the average wage.
Benefit abatement rates also change from this week, which is expected to mean about 82,000 people are better off because they can earn a bit more before their benefits is affected. People will be able to earn $160 per week.
Union And Employers Call For More Money For Early Childhood Teachers
The union for early childhood teachers, NZEI Te Riu Roa, has joined with Te Rito Maioha /Early Childhood New Zealand representing employers to call on the government to make a significant injection of money in the budget to address pay parity in the sector.
The budget will be on May 20, and the Minister of Education Chris Hipkins has recently said that moving to pay parity in ECE is his highest priority in education.
Hundreds of early childhood teachers will attend union meetings over the next two weeks to discuss the renegotiation of the ECE collective agreement of Aotearoa.
They will consider political action as well.
At the moment there is a pay gap of up to 31 per cent between what kindergarten and other early childhood teachers are paid.
Previous Kōrero Editions
If you are wanting to access previous editions of the Kōrero you can find them at
www.wmkindergartens.org.nz/archive
or you can click here.
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