Nau mai ki tenei wiki Kōrero. It is a busy couple of months celebrating our Pasifika and Māori language weeks. We would love to see photos of how you celebrate these weeks in your kindergartens. Email them through to korero@wmkindergartens.org.nz. Jane. 
For Whanganui Staff Click here to view the latest update of Mahi Tahi. You can click here to view the email access instructions.
Teachers' Appraisal Goal Survey Thanks to everyone who has completed this survey already – we really appreciate this. Please remember to complete the Appraisal Goal survey by tomorrow, 30 August. Please contact your Senior Teacher if you have any concerns about completing this, or Lynette at lynette.wray@wmkindergartens.org.nz if you have any problems with the survey. You can access the survey by clicking here.
Teacher Salary Increases As you will know, a new collective agreement for Kindergarten Teachers, Head Teachers and Senior Teachers was settled last month. This includes new salary rates that apply from 12 July this year for union members. We are still waiting to hear from the Ministry of Education when the funding will come through to us to pay these increases. We are thinking that it is likely to be in the November funding drop but we are just waiting to hear that officially. As soon as we know definite dates, we will let you know and tell you which pay day the increases will be reflected in your pay. Union members will receive back-pay to 12 July (if they were members, and employed, on that date, otherwise it will be to the date of joining). We are also waiting to hear from the Ministry what terms and conditions will apply for teachers who are not members of the union. We expect that the new terms and conditions of the collective agreement will apply as an individual agreement for non-members from some time in October but, again, we are just waiting on official notice about that. As soon as we hear, we will send out a new Individual Employment Agreement to teachers who aren’t union members and the pay increases will apply from the date those teachers sign and return the agreement. If you have any questions feel free to contact Karen on 021 857826 or at karen.skett@wmkindergartens.org.nz . In the meantime, watch this space!
End Of Month Infocare Cut-Off We will be working on Board and Kindergarten reports for the month of August next week so we require your Infocare records for the last week of August to be finalised onMonday 2 September. This means we would like you to complete the following tasks in Infocare, up to and including Friday 30 August, 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 Wellington Association Office (please call Tania or Cathryn 04 232 3069 or 0800 546 337)
Tania or Cathryn will follow up with you on Tuesday if they have any questions related to your records.
Poisonous Plants in Kindergartens  We have had some recent queries about poisonous plants in kindergartens. It is important that poisonous plants in your kindergartens are identified and you have processes to manage them. Generally poisonous plants need not be destroyed just because they have poisonous properties. Don't panic if young children play near such plants. In New Zealand it is inevitable that as children grow up they will be exposed to plants with poisonous properties. To keep things in perspective remember that fatalities are extremely rare and usually a child does not eat enough of the poison plant to cause serious illness. Are there poisonous plants in the kindergarten garden? This is a useful link which helps to identify plants with poisonous qualities. Remember if you suspect a child has ingested parts of a poisonous plant, immediately contact the National Poisons Centre 24 phoneline 0800POISON (0800 764766) If you have any questions about this please contact Lorraine.Coulston@wmkindergartens.org.nz
PLD for Full year and/or Full day Kindergartens 9 November 2019, 9.30am to 1.00pm WMK Office - Te Puna We are pleased to give you advance notice that we are holding a PLD seminar for our full day and/or full year kindergartens on 9 November. Please can you enrol on HRNet as soon as possible to support our planning processes. If you need any support enrolling, please contact Hannah To’omaga by email, on hannah.toomaga@wmkindergartens.org.nz Kaupapa for the day (including morning tea): Being an intentional teacher – How do I respond? Intentional Teaching is explained in Te Manawa as involving teachers ‘being deliberate, purposeful and thoughtful in their decisions and actions. This workshop will focus on: - What is the point of being intentional?
- How, when, where, and about what, am I/are we being intentional?
- How do I/do we strengthen my/our intentional responses?
- What informs intentional teaching?
Using Storypark Effectively - what more can we use it for? This will focus on using Storypark planning feature for a range of purposes, including: - Internal Evaluation
- Appraisal
- Procedure
- Meeting minutes
- Using Storypark to enhance our communication across the team and with whānau
- And more….
Tongan Language Week 
Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori  Maori Language Week is coming up on 9 to 15 September. If you are keen for your kindergarten to be involved in the Wellington hīkoi on 14 September, your can register for the event here. Please also let Lou know so you can hīkoi together. Lou's email address is lou.fruean@wmkindergartens.org.nz
Action Plan For Pacific Education Last year the Pacific Education Team asked you what you thought of their education system and where they could make changes for the benefit of Pacific learners. They want to express their gratitude to all of you who shared your ideas and opinions either face-to-face at one of the 27 fono they held nationwide or through their online survey. What you shared with them is guiding the work of the Ministry of Education. To read about some of the announcements for Pacific learners and their families from the latest budget, go here. They will share more details about some of the education funding at their next fono (read on for more!). They know there is still a lot of work to make sure the education system is working for all Pacific learners and families. This is why Minister Salesa is committed to using your experiences to shape the wider work in education, and to changing the way the Ministry works with Pacific families and communities. To start working differently and reciprocally, they want to come back and collaborate with you to design the next Action Plan for Pacific Education. This will build off all you shared with them last year and make sure they’re capturing what you shared with them. The Ministry of Education will be holding a series of fono from 26 August to 4 October across the country to ask: - Have we honoured and valued your voices in our proposed vision for Pacific education and the changes we need to see to get there
- What do you think about the actions the Ministry is taking to make change for Pacific learners and families?
- How do we know that we are making progress?
To find out where they will be and when – see their list of fono here and the Wellington ones below. This page will be update as venues are confirmed. - Porirua fono Whitireia Monday 9 September 6pm
- Lower Hutt Tokelau fono Naenae College Wednesday 11 September 6pm
- Lower Hutt fono Naenae College Monday 23 September 6pm
- Porirua Tokelau fono Whitireia Thursday 26 September 6pm
- Wellington learning support & disability fono (details TBC – keep an eye on link above)
There is more information here that you can print off and share with your families:
This Week On Facebook  
Another amazing week of fun learning at Gonville. 
Games are great for supporting children to turn take and strengthen their socially competency skills. This game is a firm favourite at Harriette Vine Kindergarten, its called the listening bingo game where the children have to listen very carefully to the sound and match it to the picture 🙂 well done to this group for a great work. 
Some “icey” “cold” “crunch” “crack” “freezing” “breaking” “noisy” “melting” ”glass” ice! fantastic descriptions of this mornings discoveries at Tairangi! 😁❄️❄️❄️
Appointments and Resignations Congratulations to the following on their recent appointment: | Fabian Stoffregen | .7 Teacher | Brooklyn | | Anne Lee | Relieving Teacher to Jan 2020 | Waitohi | | Paula McLean | Relieving .6 Teacher to April 2020 | Adventure |
We wish all the best to the following, who has resigned: | Natasha Curlett | Administrator | Raumati South |
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