Welcome to our latest update of information and stories you may be interested in... Another month over and we move into Autumn!  Keep up all your great work! Jane. 
End of Month Infocare Cut-Off Today is financial month end and we will be working on our February Board and Kindergarten reporting next week. To help us with this we would be grateful if you could have your Infocare records for this week (being the week ended Friday 1 March) completed by the end of the day tomorrow. This means we would like you to complete the following tasks in Infocare up to and including Friday 1 March, as appropriate: - Sign in sheets marked in Infocare (actual attendance)
- Fee invoices created and committed
- Staff timetables (“staff hour count”) completed
- Online sign off of your monthly roll return
- Any ratio, attendance or roll issues are communicated to the Association (please call Tania or Cathryn)
Please let Tania or Cathryn know ASAP if you expect there to be any delay with completing these tasks by the due date.
Sharing Te Whāriki With Our Families 
For the next few months we will be running a campaign on our facebook page sharing quotes from Te Whāriki. This will be accompanied by photos from kindergartens 😊
Keep an eye out for these and feel free to use them on your facebook pages and in your kindergartens!
Senior Teacher Announcement A very warm welcome to Glenda Rowe who has been appointed permanently to the Senior Teaching team – congratulations Glenda! Glenda joined the Senior Teaching team in Term 4 last year as an Acting Senior Teacher, and she will continue to support the kindergartens she worked with during that time. She brings a wealth of knowledge with her to this role, especially her particular expertise, knowledge and understanding of te Ao Māori, the role and place of other agencies and organisations, and the wider political context of ECE and education. I know that you will all join us in congratulating Glenda as she continues on in this exciting journey! Ko te ahurei o te tamaiti arahia o tatou mahi. Let the uniqueness of the child guide our work Sharon and the Senior Teaching Team
Margaret May Blackwell Fellowship Research Scholarship 2019 The Margaret May Blackwell Fellowship is offered annually to those working in early childhood education who wish to do a short research project outside Aotearoa New Zealand in the current calendar year. - The fellowship funds travel and accommodation to a maximum of $16,000.
- Applications must be received by 28 March 2019.
- The recipient will be selected by a panel from the sector.
The fellowship will be advertised in the Education Gazette due Monday 25 February. Details and instructions for applicants are also on the NZCER website here and more details can be found by clicking on the links below: Information Sheet Application Form Referee Form
Kindergarten Annual Celebrations Does your kindergarten hold an annual celebration? We’d love to hear about it!
We are looking into how we can support our kindergartens celebrate annual events like Children’s Day and Matariki and the possibility of kindergartens celebrating these events together, resulting in a community wide event.
This may be seen as a way to bring together our kindergartens, families and wider communities. Having annual events like these will also help to create awareness in the community and ideally help with kindergartens rolls where need be. If you are interested, have some ideas of your own or would be open to hosting a celebration for your community please let Chanelle at the office know, so that we can best support you.
Mid Term Advertising There is a mid term advertising post available for kindergartens to use on the WMK facebook page, feel free to share and use this page. If they would like further advertising/promotion/promotional material please contact Chanelle. 
ICT And Cyber Safety Recently there has been a number of youtube and youtube kids videos affected by ‘trolls’ for want of a better word. Essentially damaging content is being uploaded to play half way through children’s videos in an effort to spread unsafe messages while parents/caregivers aren’t watching. This is a reminder of how important it is for our teachers to: - Watch all online video content prior to showing children.
- Supervise children while they are watching online videos.
As great as new technology is in allowing us access to knowledge at the drop of a hat, we do need to keep in mind the safety risks that come with this technology. This is a good time to be thinking about your kindergartens ICT and cyber safety guidelines. Please see our policy here.
Have Your Say On The Future Of Early Childhood Education With just a fortnight to go until submissions close on the government’s early learning plan, it’s time to have your say if you have not already. Whānau Manaaki Kindergartens is finalising its submission, but individual teachers and teams are encouraged to also have their say. For kindergartens immediate funding for 100 per cent qualified teachers is the top priority. This should be followed by regulation for 100 per cent qualified teachers across the sector, recognising that many people will need to train or be attracted back to teaching to reach this target. The Child Poverty Action Group has released a discussion document from Professor Jenny Ritchie which makes some points you might like to consider when you make your submission. You can view that document here.
Voting Starts This Week For The Teaching Council The government changed the law so that teachers can once again vote for their representatives on the Teaching Council, so it’s important to take advantage and make your vote count. Every teacher should get an email with the list of candidates and a link to their profile statements. Teachers without email addresses will be sent a letter, and can request that their voting papers be posted. Here’s the link for the candidates profiles. The election is being run by an independent company, Election Services. Voting closes on March 26. For more information, go to the Teaching Council website.
What Makes A Good Life? What Do Children And Young People Think ? The Office of the Commissioner for Children has released a report voicing the concerns of 6,000 children and young people about their lives. Some of the concerns, from children aged as young as seven, make harrowing reading. A third of children reported facing challenges in their lives including racism, bullying, poverty, violence and drugs. Children are concerned that their families don’t have enough money for the basics, that they sometimes can’t afford bus fares for them to attend school, that there is not enough food for school lunches, that their parents have to work long hours and can’t spend time with them and a disabled child reports feeling guilty about the extra costs that their disability imposes on the family. Children also report on school and their teachers and some say their teachers are racist and don’t expect Māori children to achieve. Others say their teachers don’t understand their lives outside of school. The report will provide insights for the government’s child and youth wellbeing strategy and includes the voices of more than 6,000 children and young people. The Office of the Children’s Commissioner says the work shows that children and young people have valuable ideas for policy based on their experiences. The themes that come through are the importance of children having the basics of life and also feeling valued and respected. Not surprisingly healthy whānau are crucial to wellbeing. “Having a good life isn't necessarily about the materialistic things. I think having strong friendships/relationships with people who genuinely care about you contributes better to a good life.” Here’s a link to the full report.
Enviroschools Meeting  Please note early in Term 2 we have a Kickstarter workshop for anyone who feels they need to refresh their knowledge of the Enviroschools process and tools - or for new staff who have not had the opportunity to engage with this before. First meeting of our Existing Enviroschools cluster: - A chance to catch up, share highlights and plans, and do some next steps planning.
- What does growing depth and breadth mean?
Thursday 14th March 3-5pm, kindly hosted by Silverstream Kindergarten Please let me Michelle Ducat know by email, michelle@ducat.co.nz if you can make it on this date. We need as many centres as possible to make it work! Te Awa Kairangi ECE network meeting - open to all early childhood teachers: - Nature's recyclers - Getting inspired about compost
- what works, new ideas and hands on activities we can share with our tamariki with sustainability expert Natalie Hormann
Wednesday 20th March 5.45-7.30 kindly hosted by Smiley Faces Educare. Please RSVP here. We need at least 10 people to run the workshop. Term 2 ECE Kickstarter for Enviroschools A half day workshop to re-energise and bring new team members up to speed with what Enviroschools is all about. 8.45am-12.45pm Friday 3rd May.
This Week On Facebook    The children at Berhampore Kindergarten are developing a sense of empowerment through being given opportunities to take responsibility and ownership over their own learning.  At Johnsonville West Kindergarten the children are experiencing an environment where their play is valued as meaningful learning and the importance of spontaneous play is recognised. The children are having lots of fun.   At Manaia Kindergarten the bug interest is still buzzing along and the tamariki have been on the lookout for different bugs and coming up with their own theories about the insect world. The teachers have seen some fantastic artwork as the children drew their own bugs, there are some very talented artists among them!! They have also been learning the te reo māori kupu/names for some insects, here's a few of them for you to practice: mumutawa - ladybird, ngata - snail, papata - cockroach, anuhe - caterpillar, pungawerewere - spider and purerehua - butterfly.
Handy Facebook Pages  School strike for climate We are school students aged 8-18 from cities and towns across New Zealand. Most of us have never met before but are united by our concern about our planet. We are striking from school to tell our politicians to take our futures seriously and treat climate change for what it is - a crisis. Politicians can show us that they care by taking urgent action to move New Zealand beyond fossil fuels and get the job done of moving us to 100% renewable energy for all.
-This movement may be aimed at school students 8-18yrs, but that doesn’t need to stop our environmentally aware kindergartens getting involved!! Check it out! 
Appointments And Resignations Congratulations to the following on their recent appointment: | Brittany Manawaiti | .8 Teacher | Raumati South | | Bridgett Reid | Teacher | Tai Tamariki | | Julie Rickit | Teacher | Tawa Central | | Ming Zho Weng | .8 Teacher | Onslow | | Glenda Rowe | Senior Teacher | WMK | | Larissa Black | .5 Teacher | Tui Park | | Samantha Whaanga | Relieving Teacher to November 2019 | Otaki | | Sarah Hall | .6 Relieving Teacher to August 2019 | Nuanua/Toru Fetu | | Tino Faumuina | Relieving Teacher to August 2019 | Nuanua | | Rangi Kalman | Administrator | Awatea | | Edwina Hough | Administrator | Khandallah | | Jade Briggs | Relieving Administrator to June 2019 | Wadestown |
We wish all the best to the following who have resigned: | Donna Jackson | Teacher | Pikopiko | | Susana Lepaio | Teacher | Nuanua | | Dee Tingle | Teacher | Toru Fetu |
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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