Nau mai ki tenei wiki Kōrero. Mâlô nî Hope you are having a great week, including celebrating the Tokelaun language. It is Tokelaun language week so if you have done something special in your kindergarten to celebrate this week please remember to send us photos. We would love to share them. Jane. 
Flowcharts on The Website Making your job easier! We have updated a number of useful flowcharts which have now been uploaded to the website. You can view these by clicking here.
Nicki Cook - Reliever's Co-ordinator Taking Leave Nicki Cook is taking leave and won’t be working from Wednesday 6 to Monday 11 November (she’ll be back on Tuesday 12). Kindergartens who work with Nicki will need to organise their own relievers for these days. We will send out an up-to-date list on Monday for you to use while Nicki is away. Please use our Itinerants first as they need to have work. If you have any difficulties please call your Senior Teacher or the office.
End of Month Infocare Cut-Off A reminder that this week is financial month end and next week we will be working on your kindergarten reports for the month of October. As detailed in the Annual Administration Wall Planner 2019, your Infocare records for October are due to be completed on Monday 4 November next week. This means we would like you to complete the following tasks in Infocare, up to and including Friday 1 November, 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)
Tania or Cathryn will follow up with you next Monday if they have any questions related to your records.
Policy Reviews Thanks for your feedback on the draft policies we have published to date. The following policies are now available for your feedback, due back to Jane by the 15 November please, at jane.braun@wmkindergartens.org.nz:
Campaign To Influence Government In Favour Of Children Whānau Manaaki teachers gathered at the office in Porirua this week to write to Cabinet Ministers about the importance of reinstating the 100 per cent qualified teacher funding. Teachers wrote from their heart about their work and its impact on children. Jo Young, from Johnsonville West Kindergarten, said it is so important. “We collectively need to advocate now for the future of our mokopuna.” While it was a challenge to get started writing letters, she was pleased with what she had written, and that she had taken up the wero. Lisa Gray, from Sunshine Kindergarten, described the experience as empowering. “I think it’s so important to be part of the democratic process – we’re citizens, we have a voice. Use it. “ Iona To’omaga, from Moira Gallagher Kindergarten, who also represents teachers on the Whānau Manaaki board, says it was a good chance to get to the heart of the issues in getting our funding back. “The importance of qualified teachers in terms of quality is so clear, it’s black and white.” Doug Millar, from Northland Kindergarten, says it felt good to be taking action, to be doing something to fix the problems of funding rather than just worrying about the future of the sector. Each teacher used broad issues from their experience to talk about the importance for children of qualified teachers and the funding to support them. We are concentrating on writing to Cabinet Ministers because we know that the Minister, Chris Hipkins, has put in bids to reinstate the funding in both last year’s and this year’s budget. He needs support from cabinet colleagues to make sure this happens. Teachers wrote to the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance, Associate Education Ministers, the Minister for Children, the Minister of Social Development, the Minister of Māori Affairs, the Minister for Women, the Minister of Māori Development, the Minister of Pacific Peoples, and other Ministers with whom they had or felt a personal connection. While, unlike the corporate sector, we don’t have a budget to pay for lobbying and advocacy, we do have the numbers of people, both teachers and families, to influence how governments act. 
New App For Organising Relievers We are excited to share the news that Whānau Manaaki is implementing an app-based programme for the coordination and management of relievers, to further support the two Reliever Co-ordinators in their roles. The app is called StaffSync. It is already used in our Whanganui and Central Plateau areas and it is used extensively throughout New Zealand in the Early Childhood Education Sector. We will eventually use the App across the whole of our region (likely by the end of 2020) but initially the rollout, from the beginning of 2020, will be for relievers in the following areas only: - Kapiti
- Horowhenua/Levin
- Wairarapa/Masterton
- Upper Hutt
We expect that there will be very little (if any) impact on teachers in kindergartens, it will be Relievers and our Co-ordinators who will be using the App. We will be providing training for relievers in the four areas throughout November and December. Nicki and Dhanaye, our wonderful Reliever Co-ordinators are on board and will be present at the training. All relievers in the 4 areas noted above will receive an email with the dates and details of the training. Please let us know if you have not received this email. For teachers in our kindergartens, please chat with your reliever/s to ensure they have received the email. Some of you may have noticed you are getting email notifications from StaffSync. This is because we have begun the set up process for the roll out. You don’t need to worry about these notifications and you can feel free to ignore – please don’t reply to them. Any questions can be directed to trish.taylor-pope@wmkindergartens.org.nz.
National Senior Teacher Hui It was an honour for Whānau Manaaki Kindergartens to host around 50 Senior Teachers from around the country at a hui this week. There’ll be more from the Senior Teachers’ hui in next week’s Kōrero. 
This Week On Facebook  
Handy Facebook Pages  More than one neurotype - More Than One Neurotype is about understanding and accepting that everyone is different, and that’s ok. It’s about ‘normal’ as one way of being and that there are many different versions of normal. It’s about neurodiversity; autism, ADHD, sensory processing etc being neurotypes rather than medical disorders where individuals need to learn how to change themselves. I’m a neurodiverse (autistic) homeschooling Mum in a neurodiverse family based in Aotearoa New Zealand, I am not a trained professional. I have a Bachelors degree in Environmental Management, not in psychology, ‘special’ education or any kind of education. My views are based on my own experiences and I make no guarantee of their application to others. I see what I offer here as a beginning. A conversation starter. I want to capture the attention of those to whom all this is new and start them on their path to listening to the voices of the #actuallyautistic community because this is the source of true wisdom and knowledge. 
Congratulations Congratulations to Abby Onnes, teacher at East Harbour Kindergarten, and her husband on the birth of their beautiful new daughter Evelyn. We look forward to meeting her soon. 
For Koha Island Bay Kindergarten have the following items, available for a koha. If you are interested please contact the team direct.  
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