Welcome to our latest update of information and stories you may be interested in... Just a reminder this week about promoting the Census completion with your families and whānau and providing any support you can. You can read more below. Jane 
End of Month Infocare Cut-Off A brief reminder that you are due to have your Infocare records for the last week of the month (being the week ended Friday 2 March) completed by the end of the day on Monday 5 March. Regional Staff Meeting for Wellington City North Teams – new date and venue information As you may know, we had to postpone the Regional Staff Meeting on Tuesday 20th February due to the weather. This meeting will now be held at the Johnsonville Club on Tuesday March the 6th from 3:30pm – 5:30pm. Please refer to the online PLD Calendar for additional information. If you have any other queries, please feel free to contact Peni on lupeni.aitogi@wmkindergartens.org.nz
Part Time teachers Support Network My name is Debby King and I am a teacher at Maraeroa Kindergarten. I am interested in starting a support group for teachers who work part time. The idea is to meet up once a term at a location yet to be determined based on the location of where the most interest is coming from, but I will try to make it as central as possible. This will be a great opportunity to connect with others in similar teaching positions and to share strategies of making the role work for the individual and the team. If you are interested or want to know more, please contact me:debby.king@wmkindergartens.org.nz. He Whānau Manaaki Kindergarten Association Men's Group The next get together for the men's group is as follows: Where: The Arborist Rooftop Bar Address: 166 Willis Street, Wellington CBD When: Friday 23rd March Time: 6.30pm All Welcome! For more details or if you wish to join the He Whānau Manaaki Kindergarten Association Men's Group facebook site please contact Adrian at adrian.smith@wmkindergartens.org.nz Targeted Funding for Disadvantage We received advice earlier this month that the Government has introduced Targeted Funding for Disadvantage (TFD). This is an early learning mechanism that provides extra funding to ECE services with children from disadvantaged backgrounds. The Ministry of Education calculated the TFD entitlement of eligible services in December 2017 and we have been notified that 38 of our 85 licenced kindergartens (and our 3 home based services) will receive this funding in 2018/19. We are currently reviewing the Ministry’s spending guidelines and reporting requirements attached to this funding and will keep you posted about how this money will be made available to our eligible kindergartens. If you wish to find out more about TFD please refer to these Ministry releases.
Census 2018 Census day is just around the corner, 6 March, and you have probably already been promoting the completion of the census with your families and whānau. The census provides a wealth of information for our country to understand more about the people who live in New Zealand and to help make good decisions about where services are needed. You will have noticed this year that there is a huge push to have the census completed online. This can prove difficult for some of our families who do not have access to a computer or to wifi. This is a great opportunity for you to support those families and whānau. Setting up a computer or an ipdad in your kindergarten, or holding a special event for the completion of the census would be a great way to show that support. We are interested in hearing how many families take the opportunity to complete their census at the Kindergarten. It would be great if you would keep a record of how many families do so and also take some photos. If you are planning on holding a special event let Chanelle know. She would love to come and take some photos of the event. TONIs Making it Count At Nuanua Some of our TONI educators took the opportunity to complete their 2018 Census information at Nuanua Kindergarten during their playgroup time. They were supported by their Visiting Teacher. Please continue to support your parents and whānau in your own Kindergartens to promote and support them in completing their Census information.  
Teacher Shortage The numbers of people training to be early childhood teachers has fallen dramatically in recent years, the Ministry of Education says. Between 2010 and 2016, the number of people studying for intial teacher qualifications in ECE fell from 6760 to 3615, a drop of 46.5 per cent. But while the drop in teacher numbers has been most marked in early chldhood, the media is mainly focussing on the school sector. Workload and pay issues are highlighted as factors putting people off training. You can read more at these two links: Education Central Stuff and here’s a link to the figures on the Ministry’s Education Counts website. Should Your Kindergarten be in the Education Gazette? The Education Gazette is looking for early childhood stories. If you have something worth sharing, discuss with your Senior Teacher and email your story ideas to: reporter@edgazette.govt.nz. You don’t need to write anything – they will write the story themselves and probably take photos. This is a good way to profile your kindergarten and also the great work that He Whānau Manaaki Kindergarens does around the region. The Gazette is looking for inspiring stories about teaching and learning, success and innovation. If you want support for developing or discussing your ideas contact Jenny Davies at jenny.davies@wmkindergartens.org.nz.
Education Council Moves to Online Renewal The Education Council is moving to online renewal of practicing certificates, and is asking teachers to take part in a trial of its new smart PDF EC30 form. If you are renewing in the next three months (and remember you can renew up to six months before your certificate expires) then email the council or contact them on their facebook page. You need to include your email address and your registration number. The new form is more web-based than the previous form, and you can click through the sections but you still need to print it off to send in. The trial only applies to fully registered teachers. Primary teachers have already switched to online renewal, and the process should be completely on line for early childhood teachers by the end of the year. Celebrating Pedagogical Practice On the 20th April between 9.30am and 1.00pm the Senior Teacher team is offering an opportunity for teams or individuals to share their pedagogical practice with colleagues to acknowledge and celebrate the great practices we, as teachers, offer to tamariki and whānau. This was a great opportunity last year for teachers and teams to hear and see what is happening in our kindergartens by our own teachers. You may want to share about Effective or Innovative Practice, Bush Programmes, Enviro Schools, or anything that is unique to your Kindergarten or your own practice. Topics from last year were: - Immigrant Teachers' Perspectives of a Treaty Based Curriculum
- Parent Support - An idea around supporting whānau well being, Pou Pikorua
- How We Developed Tiriti Based Practice
- Beach Kindergartens Presentation for Innovations PD from Plimmerton, Paremata, East Harbour and Raumati Beach
Each team or individual will have a 30 minute presentation slot to present their pedagogical practice, (20 mins to share and 10 mins to allow for questions). If you are interested in being part of this, please send a detailed outline and rationale of your presentation to Tania, tania.jack@wmkindergartens.org.nz, for consideration by 8 March 2018.
2018/19 Kindergarten Budgets We are beginning preparation for the 2018/19 WMK Association budget. The process has been bought forward to allow time for a review of each kindergartens operating, equity funding and capital expenditure prior to including it in the Association budget that will be presented to the Board in May. We are requesting that you prepare and submit your 2018/19 kindergarten budget to us over the coming weeks. Your final kindergarten budget for the year to 30 June 2019 will be due at the Association by Monday 9 April 2018. Please work with your Treasurers and Committees (where appropriate) to complete this exercise, which will also mean budgeting for your 2018/19 fundraising activities, IT purchases and property projects, as well as use of your equity 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 2018/19 are evaluated. We will circulate budget templates and instructions to assist you with the preparation of your budget (these will include your current year results to make preparation easier). The budget templates and instructions will be emailed to kindergartens on Monday 12 March 2018. We are happy to assist you with your budgeting exercise, so please contact Brendon at the Association on (04) 232 1749 or email brendon.fyfe-gits@wmkindergartens.org.nz if you have questions or concerns. Storypark The Senior Teacher team have put together the following instructions to assist you with Storypark. You can click here to be taken to a version that can be easily printed.
Creekfest Fun Creekfest went beautifully on Saturday, the signs and pamphlets looked great along with the 40+ staff who supported the event. The weather was fabulous and the music was flowing! Ultimately it was a great day out for everyone who went along! Thank you to those who were able to come out and show the community what we’re all about! 
Hot Tip  Are you looking for a cool and funky way to use an everyday item in a different way! Then this Top Tip is for you! Ted the Tennis Ball will hold keys, tea towels, pens, letters and even those meeting agendas! Just cut a small hole in the tennis ball on one side so that it can hook onto a nail in the wall, cut a diagonal slit on the opposite side for a mouth and add two googly eyes and you are all done! We can’t wait to see a variety of Ted the Tennis Ball’s making an appearance across our Kindergartens! 
Thank you for taking the time to read Kōrero. Don't forget to check out some of the stories listed down the side menu. Just click between the stories of use the Kōrero bar to come back to this page. | 
