Welcome to our latest update of information and stories you may be interested in... What a fantastic night it was on Friday at the All Staff Celebration, we certainly hoped you enjoyed yourselves. 
Facebook Group Welcomes Male Staff Following the report on the He Whānau Manaaki Men’s group in last week’s Korero, there is a private Facebook group you can join – email Adrian.smith@wmkindergartens.org.nz for an invitation to join. Christmas Pays You will receive your pay as usual on the 20thDecember 2017. The following pay that is due on the 3rdJanuary 2018 will be deposited early and be available to you on Saturday 30thDecember 2017.
Christmas Leave The end of the year is fast approaching, and the payroll team have commenced inputting leave requests for all staff for the compulsory leave periods over for the Christmas closedown. You may receive an email advising that your leave has been approved - please don’t be alarmed - this just enables us to get on top of the end of year rush and ensure that all pays can be processed on time over the Christmas/New Year period. Sick Leave We told you last week that we would be sending letters about the new sick leave entitlements to all permanent and long-term relieving teachers this week. However, after recent discussions with NZEI and the Ministry this week, we’ve had to defer this and now plan to send them next week. Apologies for the delay. We will be emailing these letters (not posting) to your @wmkindergartens email address.
PA1s for Christmas Break  Just a reminder that any PA1’s for property work teams are wanting to be carried out over the Christmas break need to be emailed to Lorraine Coulston before 5pm 4 December 2017. Any questions, please contact Lorraine.Coulston@wmkindergartens.org.nz
Nicki Cook’s Email When contacting Nicki Cook, Reliever Coordinator, please email nicki.cook@wmkindergartens.org.nz . Nicki has a new personal address which is linked to her WM address so don’t be surprised if you receive a reply from that. But her old ihug address no longer works. The address relievers@wmkindergartens.org.nz now comes to the office (not to Nicki and Dhanaye) and is used for communcication with relievers about their pay and ‘employment’ matters. Please don’t use this address for booking relievers.
Give Away Day There will be another give away day held this Saturday, 25th November, at Nuanua Kindergarten. We are very fortunate for the generosity and care we receive from our kindergartens, families, the wider community and networks who give us items that our families would benefit from. Everything we receive is given away to families for free. If you have any items that you would like to give away including clothing, linen, curtains, furniture, electronics, appliances, toys, books, shoes, kitchen ware, jewellery, make up, toiletries, food (tin and packet) etc please contact Tania at tania.braybrook@wmkindergartens.org.nz or drop them directly to the Association office in Elsdon by Friday at lunch time.
He Whānau Manaaki Symposium There are still some places available for the following workshops, check out HR.Net to enrol! Saturday November 25th Te Rauparaha Arena in Porirua The Senior Teaching team are pleased to provide you with another opportunity to enrol and engage in either one, two or all three of the most popular workshops/presentations from our Annual Staff Conference in July 2017. Workshop 1:- 9.00am to 10.30am Enhancing teachers understandings of Tātaiako – Jenny Ritchie Workshop 2: - 11.15am to 12.15pm Culturally responsive practice that affirms language, culture and identity - Sonja McFarlane Workshop 3: - 1.30pm to 3.00pm Infant mental health, emotional regulation and brain development – Lucie Zwimpfer
Reminder about our Gifts/Acknowledgements Policy We know that often at Xmas time committees and whānau groups are keen to acknowledge the wonderful work kindergarten staff members make, and wish to use kindergarten funds to purchase these gifts. We have a policy that has some specific guidelines for these situations and encourage you all to have a look at this policy here and bring it to the attention of your committees/whānau groups. In particular the policy states: Kindergarten funds will not generally be used to buy gifts for all staff members. However, if the committee/whānau group consider that it is appropriate to use kindergarten funds (and this should be checked by a Senior Teacher or Deputy Chief Executive), then due consideration will be given to the fact that the money has either been raised by the community or provided by WMK for spending on kindergarten operations. The decision to spend kindergarten funds on gifts for staff members should be made prudently. If you have any concerns or questions please give Jane Braun a call.
End of Month Infocare Cut-Off Next week is financial month end and we will be working on our November Board and Kindergarten reporting in the coming weeks. To help us with this, we would be grateful if you could have your Infocare records for the last week of the month (being the week ended Friday 1 December) completed by the end of the day on Monday 4 December. This means we would like you to complete the following tasks in Infocare up to and including Friday 1 December, 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 Hannah)
Please let Tania or Hannah know ASAP if you expect there to be any delay with completing these tasks by the date indicated.
Grants Making an application for a grant is such a great way to obtain funds for your kindergarten's resources or environment. We are very grateful for the money we do receive through grants. Just a wee reminder, if you are considering making an application for a grant where the intention is to spend the funds on redevelopment of your outdoor or indoor environment you need to have discussed your plans with your Senior Teacher and the Property Team before making the application. Once a grant has been received it must be spent within the provider's stated time frames and it must be spent on what it was requested for in the grant application. If we do not meet the requirements of the grant we have to give the funds back to the provider, obviously something we do not want to do! Please make your grants person aware of the above. As always if you have any questions about grants please make contact with Jan at jan.hannon@wmkindergartens.org.nz.
Fundraising Activities It’s a busy time of year with many kindergartens undertaking fundraising over the coming weeks. It’s a good chance for us to remind Head Teachers and Administrators about some of the things we require so that we can support your activities and process your fundraising transactions accurately: - Let us know of any fundraising activities you are undertaking in advance – a quick email or phone call to Nicola is all that’s needed (nicola.shaw@wmkindergartens.org.nz or 04 232 3069)
- All temporary EFTPOS machines need to be organized through the Association. Please contact Cathryn Wong on 04 232 1745 if you need support with arranging a machine for your event.
- All fundraising payments and receipts need to be processed through the Association bank account, so no funds are to flow through non WMK bank accounts (i.e. no personal staff or parent accounts to be used thanks). If you need urgent payments made for your fundraising activities please let us know and we can action these for you (contact Christine on 04 232 1742)
- Remember to document all fundraising deposits in Infocare, noting where the proceeds are from, eg “donated goods”, so that we can apply the IRD GST rules accurately. If you have a detailed breakdown of your fundraising proceeds email it through to Nicola (nicola.shaw@wmkindergartens.org.nz).
We’d be grateful if you could pass on this information to your parents, whānau and committee members as appropriate.
Facebook Tip  Not everyone is comfortable with photos of their children being posted to facebook and this is completely ok. Although it can make it hard when you are trying to post engaging content, because photos generally get a great response from followers. Instead, post pictures of the children's artwork/creations, environment or if you really need to sometimes you can get great photos only showing hands, feet or the backs of children, which parents may be more likely to agree with. Photos are great, but you don’t have to put photos of children on your page.  
Hazard Reporting  Just a reminder that teams are required to complete the process of identifying hazards. This process was due to be completed by the end of week 3 this term. This process is detailed in the hazard information that was sent to teams at the beginning of this term. Just a reminder the process is: - Teams use the Annual Checklist (available in HWM documents section on GOSH) to identify potential hazards which relate to their kindergarten. Once teams have identified which hazards from the list they believe are applicable to their kindergarten, using the Report a Hazard form on GOSH they add these to their kindergarten Hazard Register.
- Teams may also choose to add hazards to their Hazard Register which they have identified and which are not on the Annual Checklist but are applicable to their kindergarten only. These hazards should only be entered onto the Hazard Register if they are not able to be eliminated immediately.
- If teams identify any hazards which require the property team to eliminate they will need to follow the process for requesting maintenance detailed in the Maintenance Flow chart (available in HWM documents section on GOSH)
- Every kindergarten has their own Hazard Register on GOSH. This can be accessed by clicking on the Hazard registers section on the GOSH home page. Access to kindergarten Hazard Registers requires an email address and password which was included in the hazard information sent to teams at the beginning of the term.
- The Hazard Register is reviewed by your team at the end of each term. The review date for each is entered on GOSH by using the edit option for each hazard and entering the information required
- Senior Teachers will chose one hazard from each kindergarten’s Hazard Register and review the process undertaken by the team
- TheTermly Hazard Checklistis completed during week 9 of each term. The checklist is downloaded from GOSH and is then completed manually. Any hazards that are identified during this process that cannot be eliminated immediately are then entered onto your kindergartens Hazard Register using GOSH. Once you have completed the Termly Hazard Checklist, please upload this onto GOSH using the Hazard checks form and then following the prompts.
Please note that any hazards identified using any part of the Hazard process. that cannot be eliminated immediately so are added to GOSH, consideration must be given regarding howthese hazards are communicated with rest of the team If you require the Hazard information to be resent or if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contactLorraine.Coulston@wmkindergartens.org.nz.
Appointments and Resignations Congratulations to the following on their recent appointment: Dean Hodge, .7 Teacher, Toru Fetu Sue Britton, Teacher, Plimmerton Laura Talbot, Teacher, Plimmerton Lisa Nalder, Administrator, Pikopiko Rose Gawn, Administrator, Ascot Park and Tairangi We wish all the best to the following who have resigned: Linda Muollo, .65 Teacher, Wadestown Leona Smith, Teacher, Plimmerton Lisa Nalder, Teacher, Pikopiko Laura Talbot, Administrator, Tai Tamariki
Work Bench to Give Away This work bench is to be given away. It can be delivered free of charge within surrounding areas to Khandallah Kindergarten. If you are interest please make contact directly with Khandallah Kindergarten. 
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