Early Learning Regional News - 6 July 2021

Regional News / General News / Other News updates from the Directors of Education for Ministry of Education regions.

Tai Tokerau Regional News

Kia ora koutou,

Ka Hikitia

The Te Tai Tokerau offices of Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga have been making conscious and considered shifts this year towards the region wide promotion of the “Ka Hikitia/Māori Education strategy” amongst its staff members.

To support wholesale awareness in this space, termly staff meetings have been tailored around focused workshops that explore each of the strategy’s five domains - Te Whānau, Te Tangata, Te Kanorautanga, Te Tuakiritanga, and Te Rangatiratanga. Considerable effort has gone into making these sessions as user friendly and meaningful for all whom attend and the feedback from those involved has been overwhelmingly positive.

Prolific carver, local secondary school teacher, and nationally acclaimed waka ama exponent Ralph Ruka was recently commissioned by the Te Tai Tokerau Ministry of Education to produce 5 carved Hoe. Each of the Hoe were individually designed to represent the 5 domains of the Ka Hikitia (Te Whānau, Te Tangata, Te Kanorautanga, Te Tuakiritanga and Te Rangatiratanga).

The Hoe serve as a visual reminder to all about the importance of mātauranga Māori in today’s education system.

Ralph and fellow artist and secondary school educator Janine Tito, who also had a hand in the creation of the Hoe, presented the tāonga to our staff.

Of particular cultural and historical importance was the repurposing of a 20,000 year old piece of Kauri timber that started life in the North and has since found its way back home.

The piece of timber was gifted by Ngāpuhi 100 hundred years ago to help build Hato Tipene / St Stephens college in Auckland and was salvaged when parts of the school was demolished after the school was closed.

Two people stand in front donated Kauri timbers.
Janine Tito and Ralph Ruka

We actively encourage all readers to take up the challenge and promote the strategy amongst your own spheres of influence. Further information can be found on our website.

The Māori education strategy: Ka Hikitia - Accelerating Success 2013-2017(external link)

Mauri ora

Hira Gage
Director of Education Tai Tokerau
Phone: 09 436 8914
Email: hira.gage@education.govt.nz

Auckland Regional News

Tēnā koutou katoa,

Ngā mihi o Matariki, te tau hou Māori. 

Our teams in Tāmaki Makaurau are celebrating Matariki in many ways across our rohe. We wish you, your akonga and whanau all the best with your celebrations at this special time of the year!    

Matariki Celebrations

Auckland playgroups have been getting ready to celebrate Matariki. Tamariki are learning about the stars and the moon, and their effect on how we live. They made their own “pounamu” koru necklaces and attended a Kapa Haka performance at the local library. Tamariki and whānau managed to keep warm in the sun when they planted Te Mara Tautane, a sacred garden planted at the rising of Matariki. All the produce grown here is offered to Rongo, the Māori god of cultivation, and to the star Matariki.

Children's creations for Matariki
Time Capsules

On Friday 4 June 2021 Best Start early childhood centre in South Auckland invited their local community to attend a Time Capsule Ceremony.

The time capsule was originally sealed on the 6 May 2011 with instructions to release the capsule in another 10 years. When opened the capsule contained photos and art creations of those tamariki who attended the service in 2011. To celebrate, staff, tamariki and whanau who previously attended the service returned to enjoy this occasion with the current staff and tamariki at the service.

The centre have put further items created by the current children enrolled at the service into the time capsule and resealed it with the instruction to open in 2031.

Two children and adult preparing to dig up time capsuleGroup looking at contents of time capsuleGroup posing with time capsule.Group posing with time capsule.
Photos of the time capsule opening ceremony at Best Start Early Childhood Centre.

Census due 14 July

Just a reminder to please complete the Census for 2021 by 14 July.

The ECE Census is administered every year and provides a snapshot of high-level statistics for ECE in New Zealand. Data captured is for a one-week period, typically the last week in June and includes information about the services, enrolment/attendance numbers, teaching staff, and the use of languages.

In the 2020 Census, of the 190,348 children in New Zealand enrolled in licensed early learning services, 68,279 were in Auckland. I look forward to seeing the 2021 results!

All the very best to your ākonga and kaiako for the remainder of this term. I’ll be in touch again in July, after the school holidays. Please contact me or my team for support at any time – we are here to help.

Ngā mihi nui,

Isabel Evans
Director of Education Auckland
Phone: 09 632 9333
Email: isabel.evans@education.govt.nz

Waikato Regional News

Director’s Korero

It’s a time of excitement tinged with sadness for the Waikato Region as we say farewell and thank you to Shane Ngātai, who finished his secondment as Director of Education on 30 June, and prepare to welcome our New Director, Marcus Freke on 19 July.

Shane has made a huge impact in the 9 months he has been with the Ministry and will be missed (though we will still see him as he resumes his substantive role as Principal of Rhode Street school).

Marcus will be known to many of you through his roles as Principal of Endeavour School, President of the Waikato Principals’ Association, and Assistant Lead for Te Pae Here Kāhui Ako. He has been a Principal in 4 schools over a 21 year period and brings a wealth of understanding of the sector and its needs. We are looking forward to seeing what insights and new approaches he will bring through his experience and leadership.

Ezra Schuster, Director of Education and Public Service Lead for the Bay of Plenty Region, will be Director for the Waikato in the period between Shane’s leaving and Marcus arriving. If you need to contact him during this period you can do so via Colleen Kiely at colleen.kiely@education.govt.nz or on 0211780295.

New Service Managers for Learning Support

Due to the addition of another Learning Support Service Manager position in Waikato and the retirement of our longest serving Service Manager, Neil Bleaken, we have reorganised our Learning Support staff into 8 teams from 1 July. As part of these changes we welcome our new Service Managers Te Mania Kottaiya and Maria Love. Te Mania and Maria are both very experienced Ministry staff members that you may have met in their previous roles.

The reorganisation has seen us split our previous Waikato South team into two. These area and management changes should not change the Learning Support staff members who currently work within your area.

Our Service Managers are:
Waikato North: Sarana King (no change to area)

Waikato North East: Peter Reid (no change to area, previous Service Manager - Neil Bleaken)

Waikato Central South:Te Mania Kottaiya (new area covering the wider the Cambridge Area, previous Service Manager - Toia Caulcutt)

Waikato South East: Maria Love (New area covering Matamata, Tirau, Putaruru,
Tokoroa, Mangakino area, previously Service Manager – Toia Caulcutt)

Waikato South West: Toia Caulcutt (no change to area, previous SM Peter Reid)

Hamilton City North: Kuvern Kistern-Nair (no change to area)

Hamilton City East: Gill Dowson (no change to area, Martin De Lisle is currently acting as Service Manager while Gill is on leave)

Hamilton City West: Lisa Palmer (no change to area)

Please feel free to ring your Service Manager at any time. They will also be actively looking for opportunities to get out and about to meet you.

Koroneihana 2021

Many of you will be aware that it is not too far away until Koroneihana (Coronation) 2021 celebrations. This year these will take place from 18 – 22 August 2021 at Turangawaewae Marae, Ngaaruawaahia. This event is in celebration of Kiingi Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero Te Tuawhitu 15th Koroneihana anniversary and the theme for this year will have a core focus on “nurturing our tamariki mokopuna”, which connects directly with the mahi of early learning services. Keep an eye on the Kiingitanga Facebook page to find out more information about the calendar of events and where your early learning service might like to participate.

Designing Local curriculum

This leads nicely into thinking about designing local curriculum. Did you know that all the tools you need to understand and design your own local curriculum are available online? Design steps and examples can be found at Te Whāriki online, along with concepts and links to key documents that give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi and support you to implement a bicultural local curriculum for all mokopuna within your community.

Local curriculum design guide - Te Whāriki Online website(external link)

SELO update

As the financial year comes to an end for our 2020/2021 SELO contracts, it has been fantastic to read the feedback and evaluate comments from participants involved with the various contracts that we have offered to the region. We are keen to continue the momentum of professional development and learning being offered and value your ideas for future topics of interest. Please send any emails to enquires.hamilton@education.govt.nz.

If your early learning service, nga Kōhanga Reo or playgroup has a story of success or celebration that you would like to share with the wider Waikato region, please email it through to linda.baxendine@education.govt.nz. We are always happy to receive contributions.

Bay of Plenty Regional News

Tēnā koutou katoa

Ka nui nga mihi ki a koutou

While Ezra is Acting Director for the Waikato region in between Shane Ngātai finishing his secondment last Wednesday and Marcus Freke starting, he has asked me to be the Acting Director for the Bay of Plenty – Waiariki region.

Waiapu Kids Merivale Whānau Aroha – Tauranga

The staff from Waiapu Kids are keen to share this story with you all:

Staff and tamariki are overjoyed about their newly refurbished space to work and play in at Waiapu Kids Merivale Whānau Aroha in Tauranga.

The community-based centre, which is overseen by Anglican Care Waiapu (ACW), the social services arm of the Anglican Diocese of Waiapu, reopened after an extensive six-week renovation.

ACW have occupied the building in Merivale since it was built by the Ministry of Education in 2005, operating it as a mixed-age centre. In 2016 our licence was increased in response to the community’s need to cater for more children under the age of two. With the increased licence and the shifts in teaching and learning practice, it was clear that the environment was no longer fit-for-purpose.

We spent four years planning and researching. This included decisions on whether to remain as a mixed-aged setting, whether or not to develop age-related spaces, and whether to continue with the whānau aroha meeting space which helps us provide wrap-around services for our whānau.

In December 2019, our Board approved a business case and agreed to invest significant funds to complete the project. The business case was built around our strategic objective to demonstrate excellence in educational outcomes as part of ACW’s vision of fulfilled lives, connected communities. The Ministry, as owner of the building, signed off on the plans.

Our final plans for renovation were based on:

  • Improving the asset, giving it a much-needed refresh, and making better use of space.
  • Promoting positive behaviour by having age-related learning spaces, rest areas, and a warm, inviting, and homely centre.
  • Empowering teachers by providing an environment that supports them to teach and promote social competence, quality educational practice, and enable trauma-informed practice.

In March this year, after the inevitable COVID-19 delay, we finally saw all the elements of this project coming together and work started in April. We had no choice but to close the centre for the expected four weeks for the renovation. This stretched to six weeks because we experienced a few hurdles along the way as seems the case for all building projects (!).

There was no break for the staff. They drew on their creative and artistic talents to upcycle old furniture and resources. This handiwork has brought more warmth and freshness into our centre. Staff also completed professional development during this time, overhauled the menus, and visited other ACW services in the Bay of Plenty to gain new perspectives and establish new professional relationships.

After six weeks of close-down, a steep learning journey in project management, and working on a building site, we opened our doors again to our tamariki and whānau on 10 May.

The project would not have been possible without Stead Construction who project managed the build and Collingridge and Smith Architects who provided us with the architectural drawings, plans and council consents.

Since reopening everyone is reaping the rewards from the improved functionality of our centre. Our older children have Matariki projects underway in our busy project room. Our infants and toddlers are sleeping longer in their secluded sleep sanctuary. The restructuring of access to our outdoor environment has given our tamariki increased freedom and space to explore.

We had big dreams, and despite the many challenges this project brought, the rewards are worth it. It is a privilege to proudly share the finished product with our centre whānau now, and well into the future.

Table and chairs in activity spaceFour beds and sparkle lightsOpen space at service

Staffing Matters

We are currently recruiting to a Manger Education role. This is the role that Merle Ramsay has been acting in and she has indicated that she will not be applying for the role. We are looking for someone with an education background (early learning, primary, kura, wharekura or secondary) and with leadership experience. The role is preferably based in the Rotorua office and looks after schools in the Rotorua, Taupō, Turangi areas and the early learning services across the region. This role could be a secondment or on a fixed term basis for a period of up to 12 months. For a copy of the job description please contact Pennie Muldoon on 07 3497464 or by email at pennie.muldoon@education.govt.nz. Applications close on Tuesday 20 July 2021.

Stay warm and safe over the winter months and keep scanning.
If you would like to discuss anything feel free to email me at dawid.deVilliers@education.govt.nz or contact me directly on 027 568 0391

Ngā mihi nui,

Dr Dawid de Villiers
Acting Director of Education Bay of Plenty – Waiariki
Phone: 09 632 9333
Mobile: 027 568 0391
Email: dawid.deVilliers@education.govt.nz

Taranaki, Whanganui, Manawatu Regional News

Kia ora,

He mihi mahana ki a koutou katoa.

Welcome to the July Bulletin. The year just seems to be flying by and winter is certainly upon us. We are now past the winter solstice and can look forward to longer days again – even if the weather continues to be a bit chilly!

Ministry of Education - Licensing Zoom Hui Date Changes

Last month we sent out information to services to join the TWM ECE team to discuss a range of topics relating to the licensing criteria, 2008. We have now presented two of the five scheduled hui with great attendance and feedback from the sector.

Please see further dates below. Invitations with zoom links will be sent closer to the time to all early learning services in the TWM region. We look forward to you joining us.

Thursday 15 July 2021, 7.00pm - 9.00pm: Record Keeping:

  • HS27 - Medical Assistance and Incident Management, HS28 - Medication Recording

Tuesday 27 July 2021, 7.00pm - 9.00pm:

  • Governance and Management for Community based services, committees, and boards

Wednesday 11 August 2021, 700pm - 9.00pm:

  • Feedback about the previous hui and requests for topics to be discussed in Term 3 2021

Winter Reminders

As winter has arrived, it is a good time to remind everyone about the need to regularly review and update your evacuation, communication, and response systems.

Services are also required to keep us updated with any changes, this includes changes to contact names and numbers. The Mataara Alert on Tuesday 22 June identified that several services did not receive the alert or alternatively, the alert was not received by the correct person. It is particularly important that the details of the service provider and the emergency contacts are current, to enable us to be able to make contact quickly in an emergency situation.

Please give us a call, or text message, or email us at ece.twm@education.govt.nz to notify us of any changes.

This month we are also highlighting room temperatures to ensure your service provides the recommended room temperature throughout operational hours, so you are providing a comfortable place of learning.

For further information about heating at your service please see the licensing information on our website.

HS24 for centre-based services(external link)

HS21 for home-based services(external link)

HS24 for ngā kōhanga reo(external link)

HS6 for playgroups(external link)

Te Whāriki Online and New Curriculum Design Tool

Te Whāriki Online has been refreshed and now includes a new Interactive Curriculum design tool. This resource will help to support the design of local curriculum, planning and evaluation. The interactive tool takes you step by step through the design and provides examples along the way.

Local curriculum design guide -Te Whāriki website(external link)

If you would like any support to access this information please send a request to TWM Curriculum Advisors at TWM.CurriculumAdvisors@education.govt.nz.

Kāhui Ako Update – Te Kāhui Ako o Taranaki Mohoao

This Kāhui Ako is made up of 14 Schools and 8 early learning services in Central Taranaki – across Stratford, from Midhirst in the North to Eltham in the south, as far east as Makahu and all the kura and services sitting under the eastern slopes of Taranaki Maunga.

The early learning services in this Kāhui Ako are part of the strong collaboration across this community where the focus of their Achievement Challenges are: Cultural Capacity, Transition, Learner Agency and Wellbeing. Over this past term early learning staff members have been involved in:

An Emerging Leaders’ programme for school and early learning leaders being facilitated by CORE Education. This group of teachers meet once a term to share their leadership journey, to learn from each other and support each other as they collectively realise the Kāhui Ako Achievement Challenge goals.

Early Learning Transition hui. The early learning services meet every term to support the transition of our children to schools. They have developed and shared systems and processes that best support whānau and their tamariki as they move to the primary sector. They work closely with schools to assist with transition, especially for those students with additional learning needs.

Oral Language Support with Del Costello. Early learning services joined this PLD held over 3 days with a purpose of developing school wide/service/team systems to identify, track and support children with oral language difficulties. Sessions also included opportunities for teacher aides working alongside children to enable them to learn practical approaches and simple strategies of how they can strengthen the oral language capability of all children.

Super Staff meeting. At a recent “Super Staff Meeting” held at Taranaki Diocesan School staff from across the Kāhui Ako took the opportunity to strengthen connections and learn from each other through sharing experiences and expertise.

In the final week of Term 2 ECE teachers and whānau have been invited to attend an “Online Safety Information Presentation” where parents will have the opportunity to understand the harms their children are facing online and to learn practical solutions to keep their children safe.

Adults around table attending discussion

If you have issues or ideas you would like to discuss with me then please get in touch. I look forward to hearing from you.

Ngā mihi,

Marlene Clarkson
Director of Education Taranaki, Whanganui, Manawatū
Phone: 06 349 6304
Mobile: 027 275 1450
Email: marlene.clarkson@education.govt.nz

Wellington Regional News

Kia ora Tātou,

Firstly, I’d like to thank our services for their continued calm leadership as we changed Alert Levels last week. I know it’s an unsettling time so your leadership is really appreciated. We fielded a few questions with regards to health guidelines for close contacts of contacts which we quickly confirmed with our Ministry of Health colleagues. When in doubt it is always best to check.

The recent close call in Wellington was a good reminder not to be complacent and that Covid-19 is here for the long haul. It is important for us all to keep up with what we know works and maintain our good prevention practices.

At Whakarite | Alert Level 1 we need to:

  • Keep track of where you’ve been and who you’ve seen to support contact tracing if required, using the COVID Tracer App. Make sure Bluetooth tracing is enabled. It’s so important to continue to keep a daily record.
  • Take your laptops and other essential equipment home at the end of each day. Should alert levels change, having your technology at home, rather than in lockdown in an office, will make this more manageable.
  • Keep up the good hygiene measures including regular hand washing, cough/sneeze etiquette and cleaning surfaces.
  • Stay home if sick, even if you are slightly unwell. Call your GP or Healthline if you have cold or flu-like symptoms 0800 358 5453 (24/7). Follow their advice for getting tested.
  • Wear face coverings on public transport and domestic flights. Face coverings are encouraged to be worn when waiting for public transport and in taxis and rideshare services. Face coverings are not required in early learning services.
  • Continue to monitor the Ministry of Health’s COVID-19 Website(external link) for official information.

Urgent Response Fund (URF)

In the previous regional bulletin on 9 June, I said I would share an updated summary of the spread of URF spending across the region.

For Wellington we received a total of 976 URF applications from schools, kura, early learning services and kohanga reo requesting funding for $10,203,584 to support 79,688 learners. We successfully allocated a total of $5,246,938 to the Greater Wellington Region. A huge thank you to the Governance Group panel for their support.

  • 805 (82%) of the received URF applications were approved. Of the approved applications, 209 (26%) of these were early learning services or kohanga reo.
  • Early learning services received $1,230,066 (23.45% of our URF budget) to support 8,733 learners or 41% of our children in Wellington.
  • Schools and kura received $4,015,165.30 (76.52% of our URF budget) to support 52,264 students, or 53.6% of our students for Wellington.

Save the Date – Saturday 24 July 2021

The Ministry of Education in conjunction with Te Rito Maioha are providing a regional professional learning and development day on Saturday 24 July 2021. The day, designed to support inspirational navigation of teaching and learning for change will be an opportunity to network, engage in workshops and open to all Early Childhood services in the Wellington Region.

Keynote speakers are:
Dr Cara Swit – Empowering whanau and kaiako to THRIVE: What does it take?
Jess Stuart – Slowing down to speed up; are you busy or productive?

Watch out for further information and details of how to register for this day. We look forward to seeing you there!

Ngā Manaakitanga

Roy Sye
Director of Education Wellington
Phone:04 4638668
Email: roy.sye@education.govt.nz

Nelson, Marlborough, West Coast Regional News

Ka Hikitia Roadshow

Over the past few months, we have held workshops for sector leaders to equip every licensed early childhood education setting and school in our region with a better understanding of and ability to act on Ka Hikitia – Ka Hāpaitia.

The workshops have been well received and we have really enjoyed coming to see you all. We have found it really inspiring to hear how services have been giving effect to Ka Hikitia in their education settings already.

If you have any exemplars of this mahi within your service, please let your local Education Advisor know, as we would love to hear more!

Adults attending workshop

Upcoming ECE Workshop

After such a great turn out for the last ECE workshop, we will be holding another for early learning services in our region these coming school holidays. Thursday 22 July from 3pm, you are invited to join us either here in the Nelson office or via Zoom. For this workshop we will be covering these topics:

  • C6 of the Licensing Criteria
  • Hazard forms and incident reporting
  • The latest Regulation changes
  • Ka Hikitia – Ka Hāpaitia The Māori Education Strategy

We will send out a formal invite closer to the time to all services in the Nelson, Marlborough, West Coast region. It will be great to see you all there.

SELO Survey

As the current SELO funding round is ending, we are keen to find out your thoughts about what SELO provision might interest you and your team for the coming 2021/2022 year. If you are able to complete a SELO survey at the link below that would be much appreciated:

Future SELO Questionnaire - SurveyMonkey(external link)

The deadline for this is COB 16 July.

We also have an additional SELO survey coming out to those who have completed SELO 2 or SELO 3 in the past 12 months. The link to this survey will be sent out to services individually.

Incident Reporting HS34

Just a reminder that where there is a serious injury, illness or incident involving a child under the care of your service that is required to be notified to a specified agency, the service provider must also notify the Ministry of Education at the same time. A specified agency is any government agency or statutory body that a service provider is required to notify if there is a serious (or as defined) injury, illness, incident, or allegation. This may include but is not limited to the following: the New Zealand Police; the Ministry of Health; Oranga Tamariki; WorkSafe New Zealand; the Teaching Council; and Office of the Privacy Commissioner. We will discuss this further at our upcoming ECE Hui.

Ngā mihi mahana

Andrea Williams
Director of Education Nelson, Marlborough, West Coast
Phone: 04 4638686
Email: Andrea.Williams@education.govt.nz

Canterbury | Chatham Islands Regional News

Kia ora,

You all make such a difference to the experiences of children and their whānau. As we come to the second half of 2021, I would like to thank you for all the work you do and for the way you and your staff build children’s capacity to cope with changes and challenges. Your commitment and time make sure that every child has the care and education they deserve.

Mataara – emergency contact tool

The recent flooding in Canterbury is a good reminder about the importance of keeping emergency contact details for your service updated. If these have changed, please let your Education Adviser know so we can ensure our records are updated.

In the event of an emergency, or pending emergency that affects an area, we will use Mataara, our emergency contact tool, to send a quick text to check your status. In many instances an email will also be sent to the emergency contact email address.

Mataara is free for you to use. The text comes from 8707 which will only be used by the Ministry. You may like to save this number to your phone as assurance that an emergency text has come from us.

In the meantime, further information about Mataara and emergency preparedness in general can be found on our website.

Preparing for emergencies, traumatic incidents, evacuations and lockdowns(external link)

Canterbury ECE mailbox

Should you need to send any documentation or have any queries for the early learning advisers please use the email ECE.Canterbury@education.govt.nz.

At times our staff can be away from the office for a day or two and are unable to check their emails. This email address above is checked daily and anything requiring action is passed on to an adviser who is in the office.

Licensing timeframes for probationary licences

If you are interested in setting up a new early childhood learning service, please contact the Ministry of Education and we will send you a licensing pack. The pack contains information about the licensing process, including setting a date for the licensing inspection. This is summarised below:

Before a date can be set for Ministry of Education staff to undertake a probationary licensing inspection, a complete application is required to be submitted to the Ministry of Education. A complete application means all required documentation, as listed on the EC/1 application form, and includes the resource consent, the Code Compliance Certificate and Compliance Schedule (if required), fire service approval for your evacuation scheme and the health report. A date for the visit will then be negotiated with you.

Your complete application should be submitted well in advance of your preferred licensing visit date. The ministry has up to 30 working days to approve/decline a licence following receipt of a complete application.

Please do not make any commitments to prospective users of the service as to your first day of operation. It is a requirement that a licence is issued and displayed at the service from the first day of operation and if there is any delay, the service will not be able to operate until the licence is received

Safety checking and risk assessment requirements – Children’s Act 2014

The Children’s Amendment Act 2018 changed the name of the Vulnerable Children Act 2014 to the Children’s Act 2014. When you next update your policies you should also update the name of this Act within any references.

No change has been made to requirements within the act, only the name has changed. Early learning services are still required to have a Child Protection Policy and complete a safety check and risk assessment before a person commences as a children’s worker.

For information about the seven aspects of a safety check and risk assessment, visit our website.

GMA7A Safety Checking(external link)

All aspects of the check must be completed. Responsibility for safety checking always rests with the employing or contracting organisation, and you should exercise due diligence when relying on checks undertaken by others.

To satisfy the requirements, organisations should maintain accurate records about the safety checking process, including when each aspect of the check was completed. If relying on checks conducted by other individuals or organisations, records will need to provide assurance that the check was adequately conducted, including assessment of the risk the person would pose if employed as a children’s worker.

Injuries, Illnesses, and incidents

Injuries, illnesses, and incidents can be a part of early childhood experiences. The Cambridge dictionary defines these as:

  • injury : physical harm or damage to someone's body caused by an accident or an attack
  • illness: the state of being ill
  • incident: an event that is either unpleasant or unusual.

Services must notify parents as soon as possible of the event and be able to provide as much detail as possible about what happened, when, and what actions the service took. It is vital to have up-to-date contact information for the parents on children’s enrolment records.

When a child becomes seriously ill or suffers a serious injury while in the care of the service, services must get medical assistance. This would usually be ringing for an ambulance or taking the child to see a doctor. It is always better to seek medical assistance if you are unsure of the extent of the injury or the seriousness of the illness than to risk the consequences of doing nothing.

Guidance regarding requirements for responding, recording and reporting can be found on our website.

Licensing criteria for ECE services(external link)

Feel free to discuss scenarios and questions with your local Education Adviser.

Te Hohepa Kōhanga Reo

Congratulations to the whānau at Te Hohepa Kōhanga Reo who are the recent winners in the 2021 Canterbury Architecture Awards.

Winners revealed: 2021 Canterbury Architecture Awards - Architecture Now website(external link)

Futures Network

Please note that all meetings of this network will be held in the Ministry of Education Conference Room (ground floor), Te Ureti, cnr Hereford St and Cambridge Terrace. Dates for the second half of 2021 are:

Tuesday 14 September, 9.30 – 11.30am
Tuesday 16 November, 9.30 – 11.30am

The closest public parking is the West End parking building – entry via Cashel St. There are also council owned public parking buildings in Lichfield St and at the Art Gallery with the first hour free (check that this offer is still available).

Enjoy this month’s bulletin.

Mā te wā,

Coralanne Child
Director of Education for Canterbury | Chatham Islands
Phone: 03 378 7345
Mobile: 0274 200 251
Email: coralanne.child@education.govt.nz

Otago | Southland Regional News

Kia ora koutou and warm Pasifika greetings,

Mānawa maiea te putanga o Matariki,
Nau mai, haere mai e kā hua o te tau hou Māori,
Mānawatia a Matariki!

Let us honour and celebrate the rising of Matariki,
We welcome the fruits of the year ahead,
Happy Matariki!

It has been great to see early learning services joining with their communities to celebrate Matariki and hear about some of the learning that is occurring for your tamariki.

National Education and Learning Priorities (NELP) and Ka Hikitia Workshops

Thank you to the centre managers, head teachers and kaiako that have attended our workshops in Dunedin and Invercargill. We hope that these have been useful for you to start thinking about the NELP, and how it integrates with your planning and delivery of Te Whāriki.

If you haven’t been able to attend, your Education Adviser is available to talk through the material covered and share the resources.

We look forward to running our third session in Cromwell.

Strengthening Early Learning Opportunities (SELO) 2021-2022

Ngā mihi maioha! It was great to receive such valuable feedback from kaiako regarding our SELO programme from last year and to hear about how SELO could support your mahi for the coming year.

There was high demand for SELO in bicultural responsiveness which we will endeavour to provide the support required. This response links well with Objective 3 included in the National Education and Learning Priorities (NELP) – Quality Teaching and Leadership. You can view the objectives on our website.

The Statement of National Education and Learning Priorities (NELP) & Tertiary Education Strategy (TES) [PDF, 149KB](external link)

The other areas of SELO that were identified were:

  • Infants and Toddlers
  • Leadership for Aspiring Leaders
  • Autism Workshops
  • Oral Literacy
  • Governance, Management and Administration for community based ECE.

We also had a range of other ideas and options suggested which we are considering within the overall budget. We will be in touch with dates of programmes once they have been confirmed so keep a look out on your email for this information in the coming weeks or months.

Mataara – update

Last week we used Mataara to contact schools in parts of Southland where we knew there was adverse weather conditions and that schools and early learning services may have been considering closure. Thank you to all the Principals who responded to the text message or email – this is a useful way to gather information quickly. Responding to the text means we do not need a letter regarding emergency closure – we can generate this directly if you have indicated you are closed. Please note that if you don’t receive a text message, and you are closed, we still need notification from you.

It’s important that your emergency contact information is up to date – if this has changed please let your Education Adviser know.

Please contact me if you wish to discuss any issues or ideas. I look forward to hearing from you.

Mānawatia a Matariki, ngā mihi mahana,

Julie Anderson
Director of Education Otago-Southland
Direct dial: 03 471 5217
Mobile: 027 836 4846
Email: julie.anderson@education.govt.nz

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