Nau mai ki tenei wiki Kōrero. Wow did someone say summer was just around the corner! You might have been dusting off your sunshades, but hey don't put your gumboots away yet!! Kotahi te aho ka whati; ki te kapuia e kore e whati. One strand of flax is easy to break, but many strands together will stand strong. Jane 
Finance Update End of Month Infocare Cut-Off A reminder that next week is financial month end (Monday 30 November) and we will be working on Board and Kindergarten reports for the month of November shortly. Your Infocare records for November need to be completed by noon on Monday 7 December. This means we would like you to complete the following tasks in Infocare, up to and including Monday 30 November, as appropriate: - Sign in sheets marked in Infocare (actual attendance)
- Fee invoices created and committed (for the week ending Friday 27 November)
- Staff timetables (“staff hour count”) completed
- Online sign off of your monthly roll return
Any ratio, attendance or roll issues should be communicated to the Wellington Association Office (please call Tania on 04 232 3069 or 0800 546 337). Tania will also follow up with you if she has any questions related to your records. Bank Closures/Cheques/Credit Cards & "Fraedom" Some of you will have noticed and been affected by recent ANZ and BNZ branch closures in your area. Please let us know if you have been impacted so we can work with you to identify alternative banking solutions for your kindergarten. Please also continue to encourage your families and whanau to use online banking wherever possible. The use of cheques is being phased out by the major Banks so we will not be able to accept cheques as payment and/or issue petty cash cheques from April or May next year. We are in the process of developing and testing a new online/phone app based credit card system called Fraedom which soon be rolled out to kindergartens and replace our current petty cash and debit plus card arrangements. It will also be used to capture and code all your payment receipts. There will be training for those affected so watch this space! For any questions about our current banking arrangements please email julie.muller@wmkindergartens.org.nz or karyn.lewis@wmkindergartens.org.nz.
Learning Support Webinar It's time for another webinar from the learning support team.
This time we are focusing on "The Bread and Butter of Visuals at Cottle". This webinar will give you insight to the visuals that we have in place and how they support the learning of our tamariki and the systems and processes within our kindergarten.
Enjoy!
Click here to view webinar
Language Learning Walk Polly Newtown is a speech language therapist based in the Wairarapa who has shared one of her videos with us for us to share with you. This video has some useful strategies to help develop a child's speech in a simple way. Click here to view the video and click here to see more of Polly's work.
Election Banners Thank you to those kindergartens that have sent back the election banners. There are still a number outstanding so if you still have yours can you please try and get them back to the Association office as soon as you can. You can give these to your Senior Teacher to return when they next visit if that suits better. We will store these until the next election and then re-distribute. Thanks! 
Research Opportunity Who is the researcher? Helen McConnell is studying towards a Doctorate in Education at Victoria University of Wellington. This research has been approved by the Victoria University of Wellington Human Ethics Committee Research Master Application ID: 0000026892. Who is being invited to participate in the research? Both Kaiako and whānau in any kindergartens are being invited to respond to an online survey(phase one) as well as optional individual interviews (phase two) What is the research about? Helen’s study focuses on early learning distance education in Aotearoa New Zealand, investigating the teaching and learning partnerships between whānau and teachers. With the recent Covid-19 pandemic, services were required to adopt remote/distance programmes of learning. This study looks at what services were provided and how the distance and online learning supported children’s early learning experiences. What is the research approach? This research project is a mixed methods case study with two phases. Phase One is an online anonymous survey which will provide an overview of early childhood teachers’ and whānau experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic in New Zealand. Helen is interested in understanding participants experiences of remote/distance teaching. She would appreciate honest opinions, but participants should not feel obligated to answer a question if they do not wish to. Phase Two is optional and will involve either an online or face-to-face interview. It will seek to further understand participants experiences of remote/distance early learning education during the pandemic. What is required of the research participants? Kaiako should click on this link to complete the centre survey. Whānau should click on this link to complete the whānau survey. It would be helpful if kindergartens were able to share the link and the research request with their whānau in a newsletter or storypark communication. Helen will contact people directly if they have expressed a willingness to participate in individual interviews.
Christmas Stencils Thanks to Julie in the office we have been gifted some Christmas stencils for any kindergarten that would like them. They are large, ideal for painting on windows, are on heavy card and there are some really cool designs. If you would like these for your kindergarten please email korero@wmkindergartens.org.nz Here is a selection of these stencils. 
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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