Nau mai ki tenei wiki Kōrero. It was great to hear on the 1pm update that there were no community cases of Covid 19 after the large amount of testing that was done in the Wellington area yesterday. If you have not managed to catch up on my email from yesterday have a look today. Make sure you have every thing you need to manage your kindergartens at Level 2 and remember to reach out if you are needing any support. Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, engari he toa takitini My strength is not as an individual, but as a collective. Mandy xoxoxo 
Applying For Leave Unless you are one of the three trial kindergartens for Staffsync you need to continue to apply for your leave through iPayroll.
Senior Teacher Update Kia ora koutou katoa, New Head Teachers Meeting Term 2 Monday 28 June at Te Puna, WMK offices 10am to 3pm. Please ensure you have enrolled via Tūhonohono along with recording any dietary requirements. 
Te Manawa Communities of Learners These PLD discussions in your team meetings continue to develop our shared understanding of how Communities of Learners look in practice. The matrix with the feedback from Head Teachers and teams provide snippets of how this will look and offers your team provocations for in depth discussions about what it would look like, feel like in your setting. Keep talking together and contact your Senior Teacher for any support 😊
Finance Update Financial Year-End Wednesday 30 June 2021 is our financial year-end so we require your assistance to close off our accounting records and ensure they are tidy for our audit review. Year-End Banking If you have any cash on hand at the kindergarten (e.g. from fundraising events or fee payments) then this needs to be banked prior to year-end. If you could aim to bank all monies into the WMK “02” account before Friday 25 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. This means we need to ensure that all invoices for goods and services that relate to this period (1 July 2020 to 30 June 2021) 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 2 July 2021 and please give some thought to those June 2021 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 in the last week of term and over the term break and scan/email any late invoices you receive after the Friday 2 July 2021 cut-off date to accounts@wmkindergartens.org.nz. Infocare Year-End Cut-Off We also need your help to finalise our Infocare records so we can prepare your year-end kindergarten accounts and our WMK annual financial statements for our auditors. To help us with this we would be grateful if you could have your Infocare records, for the period ended Friday 2 July, completed on Friday 2 July. This means we would like you to complete the following tasks in Infocare up to and including Friday 2 July, as per a normal month end cut-off: - Sign in sheets marked in Infocare (actual attendance)
- Fee invoices (for the week ending 2 July) created and committed
- Staff timetables (“staff hour count”) for the week ending 2 July completed
- Online sign off of your monthly roll return
- Any ratio, attendance or roll issues are communicated to the Association (please call Tania)
- Print the Frequent Absence forms for June for all children that are highlighted Orange and Red (please call Tania if you need assistance)
We will be reviewing your Infocare data so you may receive reminder emails or queries on Monday 5 July. No changes to Infocare for the period to 2 July 2021 will be able to be made after 4pm, Monday 5 July 2021. Please let Tania know ASAP if you expect there to be any delay with completing these tasks by the date indicated.
Annual ECE Return Due Please note: The return for the 2020 ECE Census can be submitted on any date between 1 and 9 July. The Annual ECE Return Week this year is 21 to 25 June 2021. The ECE Return is completed on Infocare. Please see the instructions here. If you require assistance to complete the ECE Return please contact Tania Braybrook 04 232 3065 or by email tania.braybrook@wmkindergartens.
PLD First Aid The July courses are pretty much all full. If you have a July expiry date, then you will need to book through Tūhonohono onto one of the October courses - please note that some of these are full also! Kaz has been trying to "shoulder-tap" people but please do contact her here if you need to renew your First Aid and you are not yet booked on a course. Remember the "grace" period has reverted back to 3 months. Please also note in Tūhonohono the NEW course we have arranged for 13 January 2022 in Wellington. Child Protection There are still a few spaces available on the courses being offered in July in the regions. Ohakune/Taihape/Waiouru - you will be aware of the course being held on 14 July - please book through Tūhonohono. Please note that of the 3 courses being offered in Porirua during the October term break, only the afternoon on 8 October has spaces available. Any queries, please feel free to contact Kaz.
Kindergartens Aotearoa Work Continues Early childhood consultant Clare Wells has been holding meetings around the country about the proposed move to Kindergartens Aotearoa, which will be voted on in September. Kindergartens Aotearoa is a collective of eight regional kindergarten associations which plan to form one large organisation to grow and strengthen the kindergarten movement, and to have a strong national voice for children and families and quality early education. Clare, who was the Chief Executive of New Zealand Kindergartens for many years, has been employed as part of preparing the business case for Kindergartens Aotearoa. This week, she and Barry Jordan, who is also contracted to develop the business case, met Whānau Manaaki’s staff and the board to discuss progress. Clare and Barry are meeting with all associations that have expressed interest in the concept. Whānau Manaaki’s Kaitiaki o Kaupapa Māori Lou Fruean says an exciting thing about the initiative is that it can start as a Tiriti-based organisation from its inception. The kindergartens involved are developing a memorandum of understanding with NZEI Te Riu Roa and with the Ministry of Education, so that other organisations are informed about the proposal and how it would work. Here’s a photo of Clare meeting with the senior teaching team in Wellington this week, before the level 2 restrictions took effect. 
Early Childhood Teacher Shortage The early childhood union NZEI Te Riu Roa says low pay and poor conditions across the sector mean many centres are struggling to attract qualified teachers. There were more than 500 vacancies for teachers this month, and early childhood vacancies are comparatively much higher than those in the school sector. NZEI says pay parity between kindergarten teachers (who are paid around 50 per cent more than other ECE teachers) and the rest of the sector is needed urgently to address the problem. The government has provided funding from next January to boost pay for teachers to some extent, but critics say it is too little and too late. Centres need to opt in for the extra funding, and it’s not yet clear how many centres will choose this.
New Zealand One Of The Most Expensive Countries For Early Education A new report on early childhood education shows that while New Zealand has good quality ECE compared to other countries, we are one of the most unaffordable. New Zealand ranks 33 out of 44 countries in the OECD because of our costs and level of parental leave. The Children’s Commissioner and NZEI Te Riu Roa have called for early childhood education to be funded so that more families can afford it. Meanwhile the Assistant Māori Children’s Commissioner Glenis Phillip Barbara says cost barriers need to be removed from kōhanga reo because of the enormous lifelong benefits to children. The UNICEF report Where do rich countries stand on childcare? said a two-parent family would spend up to half of one salary for two children in full time education and care. One issue the report raised was the lack of paid leave for partners after a birth. The report said quality in New Zealand is good, when assessed by qualifications of teachers and ratios. Victoria University Professor of Early Childhood Studies Carmen Dalli said the report showed the country was doing some things well, "it's a good reminder that the work is not yet done". "We should not underplay the finding about quality: because it's the quality of services that matters for children's development. "This government has a policy focus on wellbeing; improving affordability and longer parental leave would support well-being for children as well as for families and all of society." The top ten countries according to the report are Luxembourg, Iceland, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Portugal, Latvia, Denmark, South Korea and Estonia.
New Zealand’s First Children’s Commissioner, Sir Ian Hassall Has Died Sir Ian who was a paediatrician and a strong advocate for children died last week, age 79. He was Plunket’s Medical Director before becoming Children’s Commissioner in 1989. He also helped set up the children’s phone counselling service, What’s Up. He was involved in many campaigns to improve the health and safety and lives of children and he was an advocate for children’s rights before this idea was widely accepted. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was among many who paid tribute to Sir Ian. "He was truly a humble man who dedicated his life's work to the betterment of children," she said. 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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