Welcome to our latest update of information and stories you may be interested in... We celebrate our inspiring leader Mandy as she receives her Local Hero Award and we welcome the festive season! There is also some really important information regarding Infocare and other finance year end requirements. Please make sure you have a good read of this information and take note of the year end dates. 
Wellington 2018 Kiwibank Local Heros As part of the 2018 Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year Awards, the 39 winners of the Local Heroes category were presented with their awards on Monday night at a special medal presentation ceremony held at the Parliament Buildings in Wellington. The Kiwibank Local Hero Award aims to identify & reward everyday people doing extraordinary things in their local communities. The Local Hero Awards recognises the enormous contribution, sacrifice and commitment of Kiwis who selflessly work to make their local communities a better place. Our very own Mandy received an award for her tireless work with children over many years as a teacher and as CEO of our Kindergarten Association. The award particularly recognised Mandy for her leadership around responding to the needs of local communities, including the YMen initiative. Well done Mandy, we are all so proud of you! 
It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!  
Senior Teacher, Andy Cairns, gets into The children at Nuanua Kindergarten the spirit of Christmas as she prepares loved helping decorate their Christmas for the Etu Ao children's Christmas party. tree. We reckon she makes a great elf!
Christmas Pays You will receive your pay as usual on the 20th December 2017. The following pay that is due on the 3rd January 2018 will be deposited early and be available to you on Saturday 30th December 2017. Please ensure your timesheets, returns and staff hour counts are sent in before you finish for the year and/or by 9.00am Friday, 22nd December at the latest. Any received after this date will be processed in the pay of 17th January 2018.
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.
Senior Teacher Team Update This is to update you that Soreen Scahill will be leaving the Senior Teacher position that she has been filling on a fixed term basis, and taking up the role of relieving Head Teacher at Trentham Kindergarten in Term 1 2018. This will enable her to be closer to her young family. Soreen will also be continuing to coordinate the Learning Support Project that is taking place around the region. Therefore, she will continue to share her wealth of knowledge in the Head Teacher role, and her expertise in supporting teachers working with children with specific learning needs. Although we are sorry to see Soreen leave the Senior Teacher team, we know she’ll do a great job at Trentham. We’ll keep you updated about who will be taking up the Senior Teacher role.
NZEI ECE Scholarship Pene Pokoati from Brian Webb Kindergarten has been awarded a scholarship from NZEI. This scholarship is for support staff and early childhood members. It is available to enhance skills and knowledge within the workplace and in education generally. Pene is using the scholarship to carry out a small scale research project exploring factors that influence Pasifika ECE teachers participation in professional networks and leadership. The team at Brian Webb are excited to celebrate this achievement with Pene and look forward to seeing the fruits of this work. Brian Webb Turns 50!  Brian Webb Kindergarten is turning 50 and are having an anniversary celebration.
The teaching team and families invite those interested to join them for this auspicious occasion. It will take place on Wednesday 13th December at the Kindergarten, 28 Victory Crescent, Tawa fom 5.00pm until 7.00pm. Please RSVP to the Kindergarten by calling 04 232 5305 or by emailing at brianwebb@wmkindergartens.org.nz.
Katoa in the "Movies" Katoa Kindergarten recently uploaded some video clips to their Facebook page. You can view them here.
This video was made up of a small series of clips taken of our tamariki as they were learning through their play. The clips were put together using iMovie. Microsoft Windows Movie Maker or Movavi Video Editor 14 (at a cost) would probably perform the same task. The short video clip was then uploaded directly from the Mac to the Facebook place holder on the kindergarten Facebook page. To do this, go to your kindergarten page. At the top left of the photo on your page is a small white camera icon which changes to Change Cover when you hover over it. Click that, and then scroll down to Upload Photo/Video. It takes a short time before your video is uploaded for the world to see. Have fun!
Whanaungatanga - Sharing Aroha with the Wider Community Tamariki at Campbell Kindergarten visited the residents at Huntleigh Rest Home in Karori recently. The Kindergarten has built a reciprocal relationship with Huntleigh Rest Home through termly and annual visits over the last 10 years. To return their aroha and share the spirit of Christmas, we visited and performed a Christmas concert for the residents. It was a good opportunity for the tamariki to reinforce the concept of learning through the community of learning. 
Manuia le Kerisimasi! Last Friday we had our Etu Ao Christmas Celebration at Nuanua kindergarten. It was a fabulous night with around 200 people enjoying the sunshine, BBQ, fish and chips, ice blocks, bouncy castles and face painting. It was great to see a lot of our new families who have joined our service this year as well as catch up with those who have been with us over the last 5! A big thank you to our TONI educators who do such an amazing job in caring for and educating the 150 children that are currently enrolled with us. We hope you all have a merry Christmas and happy new year Alofa atu. 
 
Pasifika Learning Support Fono At the beginning of this year a new PLD cluster group was established to encourage better services for Pasifika children with additional learning needs, and greater use of existing services. The cluster group has been initiated by Whanau Manaaki Kindergartens and involves families, early childhood services including local Aoga Amata, kindergarten teachers, schools and Ministry of Education staff. Almost fifty people attended the first meeting of the cluster group in Porirua, and parents spoke passionately about the issues and hurdles they faced getting support for their children. Teachers spoke about as pasifika teachers what the complexities are for them and what would support their learning in this area. Pasifika children are less likely to access these services than other children, and when they do, the services may not be what they need. Pasifika families say there are virtually no people from a Pacific background working in this area, and those they deal with can be out of step with their family values. This places even more importance on our Pasifika teachers to feel confident in this area where they play an important bridging role with families and services especially being able to talk in the families own language. The fono this year have focused on providing PLD for both parents and teachers on specific foci that each group have identified. The strength of the fono is the parents and teachers learning together so multiple perspectives guide the discussions. We have informal attendance of Pasifika local church ministers, primary school teachers, Ministry of Education staff, Learning Support Staff and ECE teachers from Aoga Amata – who pop in and out of the different fono knowing they can attend when it suits. These fono will continue next year as the learning momentum and commitment to participating is very successful. Some photos of our last fono held in the end of November. 
End of Year Infocare Cut-Off It’s that time of year again when we have to close off Infocare for the end of month and term (and year!). As with normal month end requirements can you please ensure that the following is completed in Infocare by 3pm on Wednesday 20 December: - Sign in sheets marked in Infocare (actual attendance)
- Fee invoices (for the week ending Wednesday 20 December) created and committed
- Staff timetables (“staff hour count”) for the week ending Wednesday 20 December completed
- Online sign off of your monthly roll return
- Any ratio, attendance or roll issues are communicated to the Association (please call Hannah or Tania)
For Full Day (Johnsonville, Owhiro Bay, Matariki, Kahurangi, Toru Fetu, Nuanua, Te Timatanga Hou, Tai Tamariki) and Full Year (Greytown, Bellevue & Tui Park) kindergartens that are open until Friday, the above Infocare tasks should be completed by 3pm on Friday 22 December (your last day of term). If your support staff are unavailable to work on the days above can you please ensure arrangements are in place so that this deadline is met – this may mean that these tasks need to be completed by Teaching staff before the cut off. Payments Processing over the Christmas Break: Due to staff absences at the Association over the holiday break there will be changes to the timing of the weekly Association payment cycle. Payment of invoices will occur over the coming weeks as follows: Invoices received at the Association by Friday 8 Dec Paid on Monday 11 December Invoices received at the Association by Friday 15 Dec Paid on Monday 18 December Invoices received at the Association by Wednesday 20 Dec Paid on Friday 22 December Invoices received at the Association by Friday 5 Jan Paid on Monday 8 January Invoices received at the Association by Friday 12 Jan Paid on Monday 15 January Please ensure that regular suppliers to your kindergartens are made aware of these payment timeframes. Also, we’d encourage you to get all your December invoices emailed in prior to 20 December so we can arrange prompt payment for you. During the coming weeks all requests for urgent payments should continue to be emailed to accounts@wmkindergartens.org.nz. Banking: Please ensure that there is little or no cash held at your kindergarten over the Christmas break. If you could aim to bank all petty cash and other receipts before Friday 15 December this will allow our Finance team to contact you with any queries they have before the end of the term. Can you also update Infocare with details of all deposits made. Fee Invoicing and Statements: The timetable for fortnightly fee statements being issued to families over the coming weeks is as follows: Statements for fees up to Friday 1 December Distributed Thursday 7 December Statements for fees up to Friday 15 December Distributed Thursday 21 December Statements for fees up to Friday 5 January Distributed Thursday 11 January Statements for fees up to Friday 19 January Distributed Thursday 25 January Head Teachers will need to ensure that their support staff complete all invoicing for the last week of Term 4 by Wednesday 20 December (Friday 22 December for All Day and Full Year kindergartens). Please note that this will probably mean preparing invoices in advance for some children. Kindergarten Reporting: Kindergarten accounts for the financial year to 30 November 2017 will be emailed to kindergartens tomorrow. Accounts for the financial year to 31 December 2017 will be circulated on Wednesday 24 January 2018. As always your kindergarten accounts should be passed on to your Treasurers and Committees as appropriate. Infocare Lock Dates for 2018: Details of Infocare Lock Dates for 2018 will be circulated in the new year. For Sale Plimmerton Kindergarten have this book shelf and table for sale. $70 or near offer each. You must be able to pick up. Please contact the team at Plimmerton Kindergarten if you are interested in purchasing either of these items.  
Thank you for taking the time to read Kōrero. Don't forget to check out some of the stories listed down the side menu. Just click between the stories of use the Kōrero bar to come back to this page. | 
