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Nau mai ki tenei wiki Kōrero.  

Conference is not far off and the team are busy putting the final touches on what should be another amazing event.  Just a friendly reminder that conference registrations close this Sunday, 23 June. 

          Jane.

Mana Atua

He Whānau Manaaki o Tararua Staff Conference 2019

Update No 7

We are excited to welcome you to the seventh Conference update! There will be further news, information and guidance each week in the Korero, so you may want to print this off each week so you have a record of it for the whole team.

We look forward to welcoming you to this year’s annual Staff Conference on the 8 and 9 of July

The theme of this year’s Conference is – Mana Atua.

Registration: Please note that registration for conference closes on Sunday 23 June 2019 at 5pm

Non-teaching staff

The Staff Conference begins at 8.30am for non-teaching staff on Monday morning 8 July. A Conference Keynote speaker and a variety of workshops will take place for Homebased TONI Educators, Community Navigators, Transport Teams, Teacher Aides and Administrators. All non-teaching staff are warmly invited to attend and then to stay on for the whole staff meeting in the afternoon. If you live north of Waikanae or in the Wairarapa, you will also be able to access hotel accommodation on the Sunday night – see below for further details.

Whole Staff Meeting

The compulsory Whole Staff Meeting will be held on Monday, 8 July starting at 12.45pm at Te Papa in Wellington. All teachers, kindergarten based students and office staff are required to attend and all other staff strongly encouraged to attend. We are very excited to announce that the Key Note speaker this year is Gilbert Enoka who has for the past 16 years been the Mental Skills Coach for the All Blacks and will be sharing his own personal story as well as the transferrable strategies he uses in his work.

Teachers Conference

The Teachers Conference will take place on Tuesday, 9 July at Te Papa in Wellington, beginning with a prompt start of 8.00am. More details regarding content will be available in future editions of the Korero.

Please see the Kaupapa for Day 1 July 8, and Day 2 July 9 below: (please note there are some room changes on Day 2)

Car Parking

Te Papa offers a special function attendees rate of $12.00 from 6.00am to 6.00pm and an evening special of $8.00 from 5.00pm to 2.00am the next day. There is a car parking validator machine available at the registration desk in the Angus room, bring your ticket in and pass it through the machine, then you will need to go to a pay station on departure and the special function attendees rate will apply.

Water bottles

Due to our ongoing commitment to sustainability we will not be providing bottled water in the Conference bags. Water stations and paper cups will be available throughout the venue; therefore we encourage you to bring your own water bottles.

Conference Lunch

Lunch will be provided by the Association using the Te Papa caterers and will be served in the Oceania room. In response to feedback from 2018 Conference, lunch will now be served over two sittings, this allows everyone to have room to enjoy lunch more comfortably. Your Conference tag will identify which sitting you are in.

Therefore, it is important that you only attend the lunch sitting you have been allocated; for example Kākāriki group will have lunch at 11.30am and the Kahurangi group will have lunch at 12.40pm.

Mid winter celebration

We are aware that it can be difficult for staff who live outside of the Wellington area to attend our end of year celebration.

Therefore, this year we are inviting all staff to our celebration at Macs Bar on Monday 8 July, after the Staff Meeting at 5.00pm to 9.00pm.

This is a wonderful opportunity to mix and mingle with each other. We will be providing kai and subsidised drinks, and there will be music along with a photo booth and flower wall so you can take photos to remember the celebration!

Please RSVP for the celebration as part of your Conference registration, we look forward to seeing you there!

Conference Registration

Registration for workshops and key presentations opened on Monday 10 June and closes at 5pm on Sunday 23 June 2019. Registrations are through HR.Net.

Please note that each staff member must enrol into HR.NET themselves using their personal login details. Therefore it is important that you check that your personal login for HR.Net is working before registration opens.

If you are experiencing any difficulties please contact Hannah To’omaga by email on Hannah.toomaga@wmkindergartens.org.nz and she will be happy to help you.

If you are a relieving teacher please contact Hannah To’omaga by email on Hannah.toomaga@wmkindergartens.org.nz with your choices and she will enrol you.

Registration for workshops and key presentations for Mana Atua Conference 2019!

For this year’s Conference each teacher will have the choice of:

• · 1 x workshop in either a 11.30am time slot or a 12.40am time slot (this choice will determine which lunch sitting you will attend)

and

• · 1 x key presentation in either a 1.45pm time slot or a 3.00pm time slot

Please note: you will automatically be enrolled into the main Keynotes. The workshops and key presentations are as below.

Key Note Speakers

We are very excited to share with you information about our Key Note speakers. The following are extracts drawn largely from our Keynote Speakers’ biographies.

On the Monday 8 July:

For Non-teaching Staff in the morning, Jean Mitaera.

Jean is Cook Islands Māori, born and bred in Newtown, Wellington. Jean is a researcher, educator, trainer and facilitator. She is a former senior policy adviser who has taught at Victoria University of Wellington and is currently the Chief Advisor Pacific Strategy for WelTec and Whitireia.

For the Whole Staff Meeting in the afternoon, Gilbert Enoka.

Gilbert has a long history of success as a mental skills coach with New Zealand’s corporate and sporting elite. He is internationally renowned for his 18-year history with the All Blacks, first as their mental skills coach and now as All Blacks Manager - Leadership. His skills have been highly sought after by the All Blacks, The Canterbury Crusaders, Super 12 rugby team and the New Zealand Cricket Team.

On the Tuesday 9 July:

Anthony Semann

Anthony is primarily a presenter and researcher. His background is in education, research and management – in government, corporate and community based organisations. Anthony’s expertise as a researcher and his specialist knowledge of early education has seen him work across Australia, Asia, Europe, America, France and New Zealand. Anthony challenges organisations and people. He asks them to reflect. To ask how their communication, their leadership, their values, their relationships and their workplace culture and diversity effect what they do. He asks them to reflect because it is these things that affect their services, businesses and ultimately the community.

Dr Rangimarie Turuki Arikirangi Rose Pere CBE

Dr Pere has had the great honour of interacting and sharing ancient teachings with 150 + Nations, throughout the Americas, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, Great Britain, East Asia, the South Pacific, Europe, and more recently, Alaska.

Honoured as a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 1996 for her contribution to Education in New Zealand, and the British Commonwealth, Dr Pere is the author of

Te Wheke - A Celebration Of Infinite Wisdom. Based on the symbol of the Octopus – Te Wheke: a celebration of infinite wisdom – provides a selection of simple ancient teachings which give an understanding of how all learning dimensions are valued and connected.

Hinewirangi Kohu Morgan

Hinewirangi is an artist, poet, and a visionary.

She is the Director of Te Whānau o Te Rau Aroha Ltd, and she and her staff work within Te Ao Marama-Waikeria prison. She is part of a women’s collective-Ka Ata Mai, teaching creative ways of working with Maori, and is part of Te Kotahi research team, Waikato University.

She teaches in New Zealand and abroad, conducting workshops on all aspects of Māori philosophies of mental, physical, and spiritual well-being. Her areas of expertise include

Traditional Māori parenting and healing; Māori flute-making; and indigenous

poetry and drama.

Looking forward to seeing you all on Monday 8 July and Tuesday 9 July! 

Giveaway Day

Just a reminder that the next Giveaway Day for our Porirua community is this Saturday, 22 June at Nuanua Kindergarten. If you have any items that you would like to donate please drop them to the Association Office tomorrow, Friday.

Enrolling Now!    

Are you interested in having an Enrolling Now flag at your kindergarten? 

Chanelle has managed to source 15 of these flags so if you are interested in having one please contact her at chanelle.huia-rutten@wmkindergartens.org.nz.  She will arrange for one to be sent.  They come with brackets so they can be attached to a wall or a fence.

Annual ECE Return Due

The Annual ECE Return Week this year is 24 to 28 June. 

The ECE Return is completed on Infocare.  Please see the instructions here.

The Census needs to be completed by Wednesday 5 July.

If you require assistance to complete the ECE Return please contact Tania Braybrook 04 232 3065 or by email tania.braybrook@wmkindergartens.

Part Time Teacher Get Together

Teachers who work part-time will meet again this term break, on Wednesday 10 July at 1 pm in the Johnsonville Community Centre.

This is the second meeting of three this year for the group.  It is a great opportunity to meet others, discuss issues, and find solutions together to any problems.

All are welcome and if you would like to know more feel free to email Debby, debby.king@wmkindergartens..org.nz 

Hazards 

Just a reminder that the Termly Hazard Checklist is completed during week 9 of each term, which this term is the week of 24 June.

The Hazard Checklist is able to be completed on GOSH and can be found in the “What would you like to report” section on the home page (please see circled red below).

Any hazards that are identified during this process, that cannot be eliminated immediately, need to be entered onto your kindergartens Hazard Register using GOSH. 

Important Amendment To Tapasā - Cultural Competencies Framework

The Teaching Council has made an amendment to Tapasā and this is noted below:

As a result of recent and substantial learning styles approach research we are amending Tapasā to remove reference to Pacific Learners’ learning styles, within Ngā Turu – The Competencies (Turu 3.9). This paragraph currently reads:

3.9 Demonstrates classroom pedagogy that takes into account and incorporates Pacific ethnic-specific starting points, knowledge, learning styles and preferences which are clearly evident in lesson plans and teaching practices.

The new paragraph should read:

3.9 Demonstrates effective classroom/centre pedagogy that takes into account and incorporates Pacific ethnic-specific starting points, knowledge and preferences which are clearly evident in lesson plans and teaching practices.

Why is this change to Tapasā important?

The research findings concluded that learning style matching approaches do not offer significant

educational benefit for equitable and excellent teaching practice. Instead such approaches have been found to stereotype learners, entrench low expectations, and reduce teaching efficacy for culturally responsible teaching.

Action required:

1. Copy or print this letter and place inside your Tapasā booklet (recommended page 14).
2. Please be aware that the online version of Tapasā, has been revised and updated with the new paragraph for Turu 3.9.

For more information or questions please email Teaching Council:tapasaregistrations@teachingcouncil.nz

 You can click here to read the background to this change. 

Year End Infocare Cut-Off

Next Friday is our Financial Year End (28 June 2019).  We need your help to finalise our Infocare records so we can prepare your year-end kindergarten accounts and the year-end WMK financial statements for our auditors who are beginning their work with us soon.

To help us with this we would be grateful if you could have your Infocare records, for the period ended Friday 28 June, completed on Friday 28 June.  This means we would like you to complete the following tasks in Infocare up to and including Friday 28 June, as appropriate:

-          Sign in sheets marked in Infocare (actual attendance)

-          Fee invoices (for the week ending 28 June) created and committed

-          Staff timetables (“staff hour count”) for the week ending 28 June completed

-          Online sign off of your monthly roll return, and

-          Any ratio, attendance or roll issues are communicated to the Association (please call        Tania)

We will be reviewing your Infocare data so you may receive reminder emails or queries on Monday 1 July.  No changes to Infocare for the period to 28 June 2019 will be able to be made after 4pm, Monday 1 July 2019.

Please let Tania know ASAP if you expect there to be any delay with completing these tasks by the date indicated.

Year End Banking

Please ensure that most (or all) of your petty cash is banked before year end.  You should not be holding any cash at your kindergarten over the term break.  If you could aim to bank all petty cash (and other receipts) into the WMK “02” account before Wednesday 26 June this will allow our Finance team to contact you with any queries they have before the end of the financial year.  Can you also update Infocare with details of all deposits made.

Year End Audit and Invoice cut-off

Our auditors will be visiting soon to start their review of our financial records for the year ending 30 June 2019.  This means we need to ensure that all invoices for goods and services that relate to this period are included in your kindergarten accounts.

Can you please scan and email (accounts@wmkindergartens.org.nz) all your recent invoices to us at the Association Office by Friday 5 July 2019 and please give some thought to those June 2019 invoices that you will not have received by this date - in these cases can you please contact your regular suppliers and ask them to send their invoices to you so that you can meet this deadline.

We will include all invoices we receive from you in your June kindergarten accounts, which will be emailed to you in “draft” (subject to review by our auditors) later in July. 

Please check your kindergarten mail over the term break and scan/email any late invoices you receive after the Friday 5 July 2019 cut-off date to brendon.fyfe-gits@wmkindergartens.org.nz.

2019/20 Budgets

Thanks to all those who have submitted your 2019/20 Budget templates.  The information you provided has been really useful in helping the Association Board set its financial targets for the coming year.  Your budget information will be included in your 2019/20 monthly accounts so you can track your kindergarten performance against the targets you have set. 

For those that have still to complete their templates please email them ASAP to brendon.fyfe-gits@wmkindergartens.org.nz.

Committee Newsletter

Early next week we will be circulating a Committee Newsletter which will provide details about:

-          Kindergarten monthly accounts being issued over July and August

-          Finalisation of your 30 June 2019 kindergarten accounts

-          Finalisation of your 2019/20 budgets, and

-          Kindergarten AGM processes.

Meet The Team At The Whanganui Office

We are pleased to introduce you to the team at the Whanganui Office, no doubt you will have the opportunity to meet our Whanganui whānau at conference!  

From left to right:
Trish (General Manager), Kaz (Karen, Personal Assistant), Andrea (Administration Officer) and Karyn (Finance Manager), missing – Rachel (Operations Manager) and Pamela (HR Administrator). 

Matariki Celebrations

Senior Teachers, Tania Jack and Raewyn McKenna, Head Teacher, Linda Walker and teachers Justine Iwikau and Helen Fredrickson (teachers from Ohakune Kindergarten) joined over 200 people from the community at Turoa, on Mount Ruapehu, at dawn on Monday, 10 June 2019, to celebrate Matariki/Puanga.

The following outlines this amazing experience for them:

Buses and vans transported everyone from the Maungārongo Marae to the mountain where we gathered, surrounded by snow and silence.

The haunting sound of the pūtātara conch shell trumpet drew us all together for the beginning of the ceremony which included karakia and waiata that acknowledged the mountain and the gathering of those who were there.

This was followed by a short hikoi to a beautiful roaring fire, around which we stood, as names of those who had passed were remembered and recited into the dawn.

We then proceeded to the café where the RAL (Ruapehu Alpine Lifts Ltd) staff warmed everyone up with bacon, egg and hash brown muffins, hot chocolate and hot cups of tea!  A brief presentation on Matariki/Puanga was shared in the beautiful warm atmosphere of the Alpine lodge.

After a short journey down the mountain we arrived back at kindergarten where Linda and her team started their kindergarten day and Tania and Raewyn headed to town to top up with another hot drink before leaving Ohakune.

It was a moving ceremony and an amazing experience that we felt honoured and privileged to participate in, and something special we will remember for a long time.

Tania and Raewyn 

Matariki Themed Exhibition

Maiangi Waitai, teacher at Tai Tamariki Kindergarten, has a matariki themed exhibition, Atea-ā-rangi : Interstellar, at The Dowse Art Gallery in Lower Hutt until 20 October.  Here is what the Dowse say about it:

In her newest project made especially for The Dowse, Maiangi re-imagines oral history traditions related to the Matariki constellation. Creating a superhero figure for each star, complete with its own packaging, she shows us a unique way to consider some of the ideas celebrated in Aotearoa New Zealand during the Māori New Year.

A fun, all-encompassing experience for the whole whānau, this vibrant exhibition explores empowerment, nurturing each other, generosity, gratitude, protection of culture and the environment, working together and having a positive attitude!

Maiangi will also be taking an essential oils workshop, inspired by the exhibition, for adults on 14 September if anyone is interested.  She will also be assisting the educators for one day running workshops with school children.

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