Nau mai ki tenei wiki Kōrero. There are so many good things happening across our organisation and it is great to capture and share them in the Kōrero. Please remember to send through your stories and photos to korero@wmkindergartens.org.nz. It is ANZAC day on Saturday and as such we are observing the public holiday on Monday. Have a nice long weekend. Jane 
He Whānau Manaaki Kindergartens – COVID-19 update #4 (replacing today's email) Kia Ora Koutou Thanks so much to everyone for engaging with their Senior Teacher and Head Teacher to enable us to gather data about whether you can work from home or from a kindergarten. And thanks heaps to those of you who contacted your families to ascertain their needs. It was a huge task, and it was also a really good way of connecting with each other. We’ve begun the process of going through the data we’ve collected, and so will start notifying Head Teachers and teams this evening. This process may take us through to tomorrow afternoon, and the Senior Management Team is working hard to get this done. Our next steps are to collate the “pack” of guidelines, templates, and procedures we have put together and get it out to you by Monday at the latest, so you have it for Tuesday. The following whakatauki seems very appropriate at this time: Kua moea te pō, Kua hii ake te ata, Ko wai me ahau mo te ata The night has been slept, A new dawn unfolds, Who is with me for the new dawn? The latest FAQs can be accessed here. Mandy
Ring The Office If You Need To  The Porirua office phone, 232 3069, is now being answered so please ring if you need to.
Kindergartens Aotearoa Established  As you know we are one of several kindergarten associations around the country moving to form a new organisation, Kindergartens Aotearoa, by 2023. Previously, we had belonged to NZK, (New Zealand Kindergartens) an organisation which has represented many associations well for a number of years. Recently our board made the difficult decision to resign from NZK, as have a number of other kindergarten associations, as we are not confident about how well NZK has been representing our interests. Because of this, we have decided to bring forward the establishment of Kindergartens Aotearoa, so the new organisation can represent our collective interests and those of the kindergarten movement strongly at a national level. Our relationships with government, its agencies, with other kindergarten associations and ECE services, and with the union NZEI Te Riu Roa remain in place. Our vision is for a strong and enduring kindergarten movement, keeping children and whānau at the heart of what we do, protecting and supporting our workforce, and upholding our commitment to Te Titiri o Waitangi. This week, Kindergartens Aotearoa made a statement to the media about reopening next week. Our CEO, Amanda Coulston, was the spokesperson for the new group in this statement. You can read it here. The website, Kindysafe, which was set up in response to the Covid 19 crisis, is also a Kindergartens Aotearoa initiative. The eight Kindergarten Associations which make up Kindergartens Aotearoa are Kaitiaki (Northern Auckland), Auckland, Inspired Kindergartens (Tauranga region) Kindergarten Taranaki, Napier, Whānau Manaaki, Kidsfirst (Canterbury Westland) and South Otago. Together we represent 365 kindergartens and other early childhood services catering for 18,500 children. We employ 2,300 teaching, advisory and support staff. More kindergarten associations are expected to join Kindergartens Aotearoa over time.
Early Learning On TV  Early learning on TV is a good thing to promote with your families – the sections from Karen O’Leary are now available on TVNZ on demand. Here's the link.
Helpful Resources Some of you may find this helpful when explaining Covid-19 to small children or people who may take a little longer to process information. It is a YouTube video which you can access here. 
Feedback We have been receiving fantastic feedback from across our communities and teams about the great work that is going on right across our organisation. If you have received any feedback directly we would love to share that, so please email this to korero@wmkindergartens.org.nz. Here is some we received this week:
So We Thought We Would Join In, Now You Can To!  Did you see the toilet paper throw video last week?
If you want your own video made up with your kindergarten team or whānau, we can help!
All you need to do is take the individual footage (it helps if you create a rule e.g. receive from the right and throw to the left) and then send the clips through to chanelle.huia-rutten@wmkindergartens.org.nz and Chanelle will format these into a video for you!
(wetransfer.com is an easy and free way to transfer your files to Chanelle)
It’ll be awesome to see what everyone comes up with!!
Volunteering In Our Community While we have been at home in our bubbles some of our team have been volunteering in the community to help those who need it during the rāhui. If you have been doing some volunteer work during this time please let us know, we would love to share your story. Mandy Blake, from our Onslow Kindergarten has been working with her church to pack and distribute food parcels in her community. Here she is busy at work, great stuff Mandy! 
Staying Connected! We love continuing to see what is happening for our teams out there in their bubbles and how they are connecting with each other and their kindergarten communities. Keep sending in all those great photos to korero@wmkindergartens.org.nz. Love seeing the Zoom dress ups! We will try to upload as many as we can over the coming weeks. Here's one for this week: 
Wellington South Kindergarten team have been staying connected through their regular Zoom meetings. They decided to take a page out of Hillary Barry's book and have a Formal Friday for their Friday meeting - complete with faux fur and pearls! Gave the meeting a certain gravitas 🙂
This Week On Facebook  
Handy Facebook Pages  You might want to check out the NZDF facebook page over the next few days as we head in to a very different ANZAC Day. They have an initiative called #StandAtDawn. You could share this page with your families, they might like to show you what they are doing as a family this year for ANZAC Day. 
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.
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