Welcome to our latest update of information and stories you may be interested in... We often get a number of queries of where to locate previous editions of the Kōrero. All previous editions can be found at www.wmkindergartens.org.nz/archive. You could save this as a shortcut on your desktop so it is always handy. Jane. 
Conference 2018 Kia ora koutou katoa, Not long now till our wonderful All Staff Conference at the Te Papa Museum, in Wellington! The overarching lens for this year’s Conference is PANONI - Celebrate! Challenge! Change! - With the aim of transforming our practice, assumptions, and ways of being! Please note that Registration through HR.Net has now closed. If you missed the opportunity to enrol please contact Hannah To’omaga who will be happy to help you at Hannah.toomaga@wmkindergartens.org.nz
PA1 Cut Off Tomorrow Just a reminder that the cut off date for PA1’s related to property work over the July term break is tomorrow Friday 22 June 2018. Any questions please contact Lorraine.Coulston@wmkindergartens.org.nz
New Head Teacher Meeting Just a friendly reminder that the New Head Teacher meeting this term is on Thursday 28th of June 2018, 9am – 3pm at the Association Office. Please ensure that you enrol on HR.Net as soon as possible. You can view the agenda here. As part of the agenda we will have an opportunity to have an open forum to share and discuss ‘what’s on top’ and or specific topics of interest. Please send these ideas prior to the day directly to helen.tyrell@wmkindergartens.org.nz. Looking forward to seeing you all then.
Giveaway Day The next giveaway day is being held this Saturday at Nuanua Kindergarten. If you have any goods you wish to donate to this giveaway day we would appreciate them being dropped off at the office by tomorrow 3pm. Donated goods could include clothing, bedding, kitchen utensils, furniture and linen. We are always appreciative of the generosity of our kindergartens, their families and community. Thank you.
ECE Census  The Annual ECE Return Week this year is 18 to 24 June. The ECE Return is completed on Infocare. Please see the instructions here. The Census needs to be completed by Wednesday 4 July. If you require assistance to complete the ECE Return please contact Tania Braybrook 04 232 3065 or by email tania.braybrook@wmkindergartens.
Facebook  All kindergartens are expected to have a facebook page as a free and easy way to market your kindergarten, and to connect with your families. It’s a great way of making learning visible, and alerting your parents to free and low cost activities for families in your communities. You should post once a week, and maybe up to three times a week (any more than that and items can get lost on your feed). The Whānau Manaaki facebook page often has items of interest you can repost – for example, Matariki events. Have a look at what other kindergartens are doing – you don’t need to be on facebook yourself to check a facebook page. Lots of kindergartens are making the most of Facebook, here are a few you can check out: Katoa, Upper Hutt, Awatea, Waikanae, Adventure. Of course there are many more! For those kindergartens that don’t regularly post, Whānau Manaaki may do some posts for you. If you need any help or have any queries contact Chanelle at Whānau Manaaki’s office, chanelle.huia-rutten@wmkindergartens.org.nz. We are in the process of updating our social media policy so this will be circulated shortly.
Men's Network Casual Drinks Friday 29th June at: Parrot Dog Brewery 60-66 Kingsford Smith Street Lyall Bay Wellington Time: 6.00pm onwards For more information and if you want to join our facebook group contact adrian.smith@wmkindergartens.org.nz 
Reliever Shortages As you may have noticed, Whānau Manaaki Kindergartens is facing a shortage of relievers during this winter. We usually have a greater need for relievers because of winter illnesses, but there is also a general shortage of early childhood teachers which is now being felt in the kindergarten part of the sector. What we’ve done - as you know, we recently hired several itinerant relievers for a fixed term period. We are making it easier for relievers to get reimbursed for travel costs, and we are making professional development (including first aid certificates) and the costs associated with PD available to registered relievers. We are also making sure our relievers have a Whānau Manaaki email address and an HR.Net login so we can communicate with them easily and they have better access to PLD. We continue to advocate publicly (including at parliament last week) for more qualified teachers in the sector, which should encourage people to train and lead to a greater pool of teachers overall and therefore, more relievers. What we’re doing – some of those appointed to itinerant reliever positions have since gained permanent positions, which is great news but also means we are still short in some areas, so we are now looking for people who would like to relieve in Wellington city and Porirua for the rest of this term and next term, on a fixed term basis. If you know of anyone suitable please encourage them to email vacancies@wmkindergartens.org.nz. We are trying to make sure that relievers are aware that as a Kindergarten Reliever they don’t have to pay for their practising certificates as it’s paid for by the Ministry (a provision of the collective agreement). Also we will continue to pay those undergoing a refresher course to register, as if they are registered. We continue to encourage teachers to register as casual relievers. If you have any friends, or know anyone, you could encourage them to sign up with us – you could tell them about the things we’ve discussed above so they know how it can work. Also, because we are short of qualified relievers, we are looking to have early childhood students registered as in training relievers. If you know any students who may be interested, please alert them to this opportunity. Every kindergarten should have two or three parents who would be available to relieve in an emergency. Kindergartens should contact us through the same address to set this up, vacancies@wmkindergartens.org.nz. People need to have already completed the police vet before working as an unqualified reliever so there are forms they need to complete. Thank you for your patience as we endeavour to cope with the demand. Thanks too, to Nikki and Dhanaye who continue to do a great job for us all. Please let us know if you have any other ideas to help with the reliever shortage.
Finance Update Year End Infocare Cut-Off Next Friday is our Financial Year End (29 June 2018). We need your help to finalise our Infocare records so we can prepare your year-end kindergarten accounts and our 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 would have your Infocare records, for the period ended Friday 29 June, completed on Friday 29 June. This means we would like you to complete the following tasks in Infocare up to and including Friday 29 June, as appropriate: - Sign in sheets marked in Infocare (actual attendance)
- Fee invoices (for the week ending 29 June) created and committed
- Staff timetables (“staff hour count”) for the week ending 29 June completed
- Online sign off of your monthly roll return
- Any ratio, attendance or roll issues are communicated to the Association (please call Hannah or Tania)
We will be reviewing your Infocare data so you may receive reminder emails or queries on Monday 2 July. No changes to Infocare for the period to 29 June 2018 will be able to be made after 4pm, Monday 2 July 2018. 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. This will also mean there is little or no cash held 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 27 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 in the first week of July to start their review of our financial records for the year ending 30 June 2018. 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 Wednesday 4 July 2018 and please give some thought to those June 2018 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) on Friday 13 July 2018. Please check your kindergarten mail over the term break and scan/email any late invoices you receive after the Wednesday 4 July 2018 cut-off date to brendon.fyfe-gits@wmkindergartens.org.nz. 2018/19 Budgets Thanks to all those who have submitted your 2018/19Budget 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 2018/19 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 2018 kindergarten accounts;
- Finalisation of your 2018/19 budgets; and
- Kindergarten AGM processes.
What Should Be In The New Strategic Plan For Our Sector?  As the government develops a new strategic plan for early childhood education, there’s a survey you can do to contribute your ideas. The government also wants to hear from whānau and the wider community, so encourage your families to take part as well. You can post the link on your facebook page. The survey closes on July 12, and asks what is working well in early childhood education, and what needs to change. Here’s the link to the survey. Meanwhile the Ministry is continuing to provide resources for people to take part in the overall debate on education. Here’s the link to the Ministry’s Mātauranga online hub. If you want to have a staff meeting focusing on these issues, there’s a conversation tool on the site, designed for up to five people, and a small group conversation tool, designed for 20 people. These are in English and Te Reo Māori. Videos are being added to the website all the time, and feedback from the education summit will be added to the site shortly.
Findings From Before School Checks Often Not Followed Up, Report Shows The Growing Up in New Zealand study has found that issues resulting from the Before School checks are often not followed up. The longitudinal research study is headed by Susan Morton from Auckland University, and tracks 7,000 children. It began in 2008, and is expected to continue until the children are 21. The latest report, when the children are aged six, shows most have attended early childhood education, and have transitioned well to school, which their parents attribute to their early childhood experience. Nearly all of the 7000 children had the Before School check, and a quarter were found to have concerns, most frequently hearing or sight issues, however in many cases these were not followed up. Families whose children were identified as having weight issues or behavioural concerns were unlikely to get any further support. Other concerns identified in the report were the number of changes of teacher that children had in the first year of school, and the number of children who shifted house frequently, disrupting their education. With more families renting, this underlines problems associated with New Zealand’s insecure tenancy laws. There is a lot of rich data in the full report, including on transition to school from the parents’ perspective. Here’s a link to the full report.
Fanau Pasifika Fono Fanau Pasifika held their community fono on Monday. Senior management from the association attended. Many people braved the torrential rain and came to hear about what the association and Fanau Pasifika can do to support the Pasifika community. Mandy shared the exciting renovation plans for Fanau Pasifika. The kindergarten space has been planned to accommodate the needs of the community and for events to be held there. One of the new features will be a beautiful kitchen for aiga to gather.  
Musical Fun At Carterton Jonas visited with us last Thursday and the children and whānau thoroughly enjoyed this interactive music session. He is more than happy to travel throughout the lower North Island. For more information click on the link at the left of the Kōrero.  ]
This Week On Facebook  Waitangirua Kindergarten visited their local marae.  
Waikanae Kindergarten shared this fancy video describing their fundraising plans! Matariki joined facebook, check out their page here.
Awatea Kindergarten Adopted A Star!  As part of our Matariki celebrations we have adopted a star from the Carter Observatory/Place Space. It is now known as the Awatea Kindergarten Star and will be ours forever! It is placed closely to the Matariki cluster. This is the notice the kindergarten put up for their families and whānau to see. 
For Sale Wadestown Kindergarten have this drying rack surplus to requirements. Make them an offer and it is all yours! 
Free To A Good Home! Waikanae Kindergarten have a number of items they want to give away. If you are keen on any of these please contact the kindergarten directly. You will need to be able to pick the items ups from Waikanae.    
 
Appointments and Resignations Congratulations to the following on their recent appointments: | Morgan Batt | .7 Teacher/Playgroup Co-ordinator | Katoa | | Scott Marris | Head Teacher | Waikanae |
We wish all the best to the following who have resigned: | Lapae Kisona | .8 Teacher | Titahi Bay | | Sonya McIntyre | .8 Teacher | Owhiro Bay |
Hot Tip  I know we are all trying to do our bit to reduce the amount of plastics we use, in particular plastic bags but how many of you still use plastic bags to line your rubbish tins? Here's a really cool idea to replace those plastic bin liners. 
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