#247

Scroll down this page

to see all our
LATEST NEWS  

Our latest news:

...and get more detail 

on the stories below
by clicking through them...

Nau mai ki tenei wiki Kōrero.  

We’ve come to the end of another year – I’m sure that as we get older time speeds up!

Thank you all, you have been amazing. Thank you for your tireless work supporting children and whānau, and thank you for supporting each other.

Thank you to the staff of the Whanganui Kindergartens, the Central Plateau Kindergartens and the team in the Whanganui Office.  Joining He Whānau Manaaki meant change, and change can be exhausting, frightening and also exhilarating – I hope you experienced at least a bit of exhilaration :-)

To the staff in our Porirua and Whanganui offices, the Administrators, the Transport team, the Navigators, the Support staff, the Teachers, the Kaimahi; have a wonderful break.  Feel good that you have been part of a great organisation, doing great stuff for thousands of children and whānau.

To those who are leaving us, we wish you only good fortune, and to those returning – 2020 is going to be fantastic!

Kia tau te aroha noa ki a koutou katoa. 

          Xoxo

          Mandy

Timesheet/Payroll Deadlines

With the end of the year tomorrow and another pay to prepare tomorrow, we do need to get timesheets etc in a bit early so we can process things on time. 

Whanganui and Central Plateau Kindergartens - please have all leave requests in iPayroll by 9am Friday 20 December.

All other kindergartens, as follows: 

• For part-year kindergartens these were due at 9am today, 19 Dec
• For full-year kindergartens, by 9am tomorrow Friday 20 Dec.

Please email to timesheets@wmkindergartens.org.nz.  If anything changes after you’ve sent them you can email later with amendments. 

End of Year Infocare Cut-Off

It’s that time of year again when we have to close off Infocare for the end of month and term (and year!).

As with normal month end requirements the following should be completed in Infocare by3pm today 19 December:

• Sign in sheets marked in Infocare (actual attendance)
• Fee invoices (for the week ending Friday 20 December) created and committed
• Staff timetables (“staff hour count”) for theweek ending Friday 20 Decembercompleted
• Online sign off of your monthly roll return
• Any ratio, frequent absence, attendance or roll issues are communicated to the Association (please call Cathryn or Tania)

For Full Day kindergartens and those other kindergartens that are open on Friday 20 December the above Infocare tasks need to be complete by3pm on Friday 20 December.

(Bellevue, Greytown, Shannon, Tui Park, Wadestown, Wellington South, Ascot Park, Betty Montford, Heretaunga, Masterton West, Newtown, Parsons Avenue, Raumati Beach, Una Williams, Matariki, Toru Fetu, Tai Tamariki, Owhiro Bay, Te Timatanga Hou, Nuanua, Kahurangi, Waitohi, Fanau Pasifika, Harriette Vine, Maxwell & Districts, Putiki, Te Puna Ako Ki Totara Puku, Waiouru & Taihape)

Payments Processing over the Christmas Break

Due to staff absences at the Association over the holiday break there will be changes to the timing of the weekly Association payment cycle.  Payment of invoices will occur as follows over the coming weeks:

Invoices received at the Association by Wednesday 18 Dec      Paid on Friday 20 December

Invoices received at the Association by Friday 3 Jan                  Paid on Wednesday 8 January

Invoices received at the Association by Friday 10 Jan               Paid on Monday 13 January

Please ensure that regular suppliers to your kindergartens are made aware of these payment timeframes.  

During the coming weeks all requests for urgent payments should continue to be emailed toaccounts@wmkindergartens.org.nzand marked as URGENT in the subject line.

Banking

You should not have any cash left in your kindergarten.  Please ensure you have updated Infocare with details of all deposits made this past week.

Fee Invoicing and Statements

The timetable for fortnightly fee statements being issued to families over the coming weeks is as follows:

Statements for fees up to Friday 13 December                  Distributed Thursday 19 December

Statements for fees up to Friday 27 December                  Distributed Thursday 16 January

Statements for fees up to Friday 10 January                       Distributed Thursday 16 January

Statements for fees up to Friday 24 January                       Distributed Thursday 30 January

Head Teachers will need to ensure that their support staff complete all invoicing for the last week of Term 4 by end of today, Thursday 19 December. Please note that this will probably mean preparing invoices in advance for some children.

Kindergarten Reporting

Kindergarten reports for the financial year to 31 December 2019 will be circulated byWednesday 22 January 2020.   As always your kindergarten accounts should be passed on to your Treasurers and Committees as appropriate.

Infocare Lock Dates for 2020

Details of Infocare Lock Dates for 2020 will be circulated in the new year. 

Hazards

Just a reminder that week 9 of each term, which this term is the week of the16/12/2019,is the time to review your kindergarten Hazard Registers. This is an opportunity to update your Hazard Register, including deciding if the hazard still exists within the kindergarten environment,  

if there are any changes to the actions and approaches you are taking related to each hazard and ensure that hazards that do exist in your environment are included on the Hazard Register.

As a result of feedback from teams, GOSH has created a more user friendly way to review your hazards. You will see now that there is a new icon on your “My Kindergarten” view (see red arrow below).

In the Week 9 Review option there is a new form called “Kindergarten Hazard Review Audit” (see below).

This form means that you can now complete the week 9 review of the hazards on your register without having to edit each hazard individually.  

You will see on the form there is a tick box which means you just need to look at the hazards and if they still exist, and you are happy with the actions to deal with the hazard, then you just complete the tick box

Upon completing this record, all related hazard records on your Hazard Register will be updated to reflect this review.

2020 Curriculum Development Framework

The Curriculum Development Framework for 2020 has been updated and you can check it out here.   You can also access this document in the Teachers Toolbox called Curriculum Framework 2020. 

The framework includes dates for GOSH as well as Appraisal and STLP actions.  It provides guidance for you to implement specific key expectations within certain time frames throughout the year.  You can use this document to support your planning and operations calendar for 2020.  

Relievers

THANK YOU to all of our wonderful relievers who have worked with us this year.  You turn up and hit the ground running, sometimes with new children and families and teachers every day, and we just couldn’t do it without you. 

We know there can be some challenges – for us and for you - communicating and keeping up to date.  We do try to use a variety of ways to get our messages out to you, with this Kōrero being the main one, but also texting (thanks to our wonderful Reliever Coordinators) and email. 

Did you know that you have a @wmkindergartens email address?  If you’re not sure how to access that, just give Tania Braybrook a call at the office and she’ll be happy to help.  We will be sending out important information to Wellington, Kapiti, Upper Hutt and Wairarapa relievers about the new StaffSync app next year so please do keep an eye on the Kōrero and on your emails.  If you ever think you might have missed something please do let us know as we want to make sure we can reach you. 

In the meantime, have a wonderful, restful, joyful Christmas, New Year and holiday time.  Thank you again for the amazing work you do and we look forward to seeing you all in the New Year. 

End Of Year Celebrations Around Whānau Manaaki

There have been lots of celebrations happening around our teams this past week, here are a few of them:

What a spectacular Christmas party at Irmgard Ritchie.  The children sang Christmas songs including, Pop Bang Crack, A Red, Red Coat and When Santa Got Stuck Up The Chimney.

Aramoho had their Christmas Party and a farewell for their lovely teacher Win Livesay, who finishes her regular role at Aramoho Kindergarten.  The children sang and were very patient through the speeches and then had a shared meal with parents.

Over the past two weeks, children at Newtown have been busy creating Xmas cards for Kainga Ora tenants - Kainga Ora replaces HNZ. One of their Dad's, Josh, works there and approached the kindergarten about helping to bring a bit of Christmas cheer to others.

100 cards were delivered to vulnerable tenants in the Porirua area along with 100 ready made meals (from Wellington City Mission) for Xmas, these were much appreciated and was good to put a smile on their tenants faces.

Zappo came to visit Christine at the WM office this week and delivered her a gorgeous Christmas gift!

The team at Meta Riddiford Kindergarten had a float entered in the Featherston Christmas parade.  The children and teachers really got into the festive mood!

The decorations are a plenty at Gonville Kindergarten.

Cottle Kindergarten had a very special visitor this week, I think there were some very excited children!

It was a beautiful day for the Brian Webb Kindergarten community to celebrate the end of the year with a picnic.

Fun times were had at the Ascot Park Kindergarten end of year party for the children and their families.

Families, friends, teachers and children had a special celebration for Urmila's retirement at Miramar Central Kindergarten.

Appointments and Resignations

Congratulations to staff who have secured positions and farewell to staff who are moving on to new things.

A particular mention of Janet Delaney and Urmila Parbhu who, after 44 years and 37 years respectively are retiring from kindergarten teaching. Their contribution to children, families, the teaching profession, and to the kindergarten movement in general is immeasurable. We wish them only good fortune in their retirement.

Jane Horrax will be staying on in Waiouru as Senior Teacher for the Central Plateau kindergartens, and Senior Head Teacher at Waiouru Kindergarten at this stage, through to June 2020.  Consequentially Simone Laupepe will be staying on in her role as Senior Teacher. Sam O’Connor will be staying on as Head Teacher at Waiouru also.

Katie Fry, who is currently overseeing the three “Hub” kindergartens in Whanganui, will be taking up a part time Senior Teacher role in Whanganui, and will also be sharing a Senior Head Teacher position at Te Puna Ako ki Tōtara Puku Kindergarten.

Jess Firmin, who was team leader at Marie McFarland Kindergarten, will assume the role of fulltime Head Teacher at the kindergarten.  Ngarita King, who was team leader at Barsanti Kindergarten, will take up the position of fulltime Head Teacher at Gonville Kindergarten.  Moliga Taylor, who was team leader at Gonville, will move into a teaching position and Charmika Liyanarachchy will be taking up the role of fulltime Head Teacher at Barsanti Kindergarten.

We congratulate all of these leaders on their appointments, and know that the kindergartens, with the strong leadership and wonderful teams, will go from strength to strength in 2020. 

Congratulations to the following on their recent appointment:

We wish all the best to the following who have resigned:

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.

It is a good idea to save this link as an icon on your desktop.

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.