Welcome to our latest update of information and stories you may be interested in... Just a wee reminder to send those Hot Tips in. Have a great week, Jane 
Who's Who in the Office?  We have recently updated this document so please click here to find out who to contact in the office if you have any queries.
Amataga Team Recruiting TONI Educators The Amataga Team is in the process of recruiting the next lot of Homebased TONI Educators in the Porirua area. If you know of anyone who might be interested in being a TONI Educator would you please contact Danny Mareko on 021 446 765 or Raewyn Moffitt on 021 865 293. The training will commence on the 19th February.
Annual Review - A Reminder Before your Annual review you need to, as a team, have decided which areas of practice that you will review and have this done by your Annual review visit. You need to choose 2 areas. These can be Environments, Interactions with Children or Team Dynamics. You need to mark each indicator either Blue- excelling, Green- on track, Orange- requires further development or Red- intervention required. Please click here to access the Annual Review Document for you to use. You will find the document listed as Annual Review November 2017 under the Teaching and Learning heading.
Nicki Cook, Reliever Coordinator, On Leave Nicki Cook will be on leave Thursday 15th, Friday 16th and Monday 19th February and so won’t be available to organise relievers on those days. If you know you will need a reliever for that time please let Nicki know ASAP so she can organise it ahead of time. Otherwise, if kindergartens in the areas Nicki works with need a reliever on the day (for the days she is on leave) you will need to organise it yourselves. We will send out a list to all kindergartens in the Horowhenua/Kapiti, Porirua, Wellington North, Wellington City South and East areas early next week. If you have any problems please contact the office or your Senior Teacher on their cell phone.
Support Staff Meetings (including Administrators, Teacher Aides, Kaimahi, Cooks) (Head Teachers please make sure your Support Staff are aware of this) Over the next two weeks we are looking forward to catching up with all Support Staff at one of the Support Staff meetings being held across the region. These meetings are a great opportunity for you to catch up with other Support Staff as well as staff from the office. It will be a chance to let us know how things are going for you in your roles as well as discussing any ideas or thoughts on how we can further support you. We will also take the opportunity to introduce the appraisal document which Head Teachers will be using with you over this first term. We will pay you for the time you are at the meeting as well as reimbursing you for your travel costs. If the meeting you attend is in your usual hours of work, and you wish to make up that time, we will pay you for that made up time. The meeting times are: 12th February, 1.00pm to 2.00pm, Kapiti Community Centre 14th February, 1.00pm to 2.00pm, North City Plaza - Kiwi Room, Porirua 15th February, 1.00pm to 2.00pm, Johnsonville Community Centre 19th February, 1.00pm to 2.00pm, ASB Sports Centre, Wellington 21st February, 1.00pm to 2.00pm, Cossie Club, Upper Hutt 22nd February, 1.00pm to 2.00pm, Carterton Events Centre Please come along to the closest venue to your Kindergarten. We look forward to seeing you all soon. Cheers Jane Braun, Tania Braybrook and Hannah To’omaga
Margaret M Blackwell Travel Fellowship NZCER is again administering the Margaret M Blackwell Travel Fellowship in 2018. The call for applications will be advertised in the Education Gazette published on 12 February. This fellowship, worth up to $15,000, is for people working in early childhood education who wish to undertake a short term study overseas. The funds are for travel and accommodation, and travel must be completed before 31 December 2018. Moe information and the application forms are on the NZCER website.
For Sale Plimmerton Kindergarten have a book shelf for sale. They are looking at around $150 and you must be able to pick it up. If you are interested please give them a call on 233 1027 or email them directly. 
It's Not a Hot Tip But We Thought it Was Pretty Funny! Lyall Bay Kindergarten teachers found this "masterpiece" created by one of their children. They reckon it just about summed up their day!! 
Hot Tips  This week Leanne provides a great tip on how to pick up shards of glass with a slice of bread. We acknowledge that some may find the use of food for something other than eating as not something they would do. You need to make your own judgements about that. This is something that could be useful if you’re concerned about shards of glass getting in young children’s feet. While this was used on lino it works just as well on carpet.
We’ll have another Hot Tip next week. If you have any Hot Tips, let us know!
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