Parliament Protest...

Parliament protest on World Teachers Day over cuts to early childhood education 

29 October 2015

Teachers, children and concerned parents will be gathering outside Parliament early on Friday 30 October to protest ongoing funding cuts that are starting to bite in early childhood services.

Concerned parents and teachers want to send a message to Education Minister Hekia Parata and the Government on World Teacher’s Day that every child needs a great teacher.

However, the only additional ECE funding in the past five years has been for increased participation, with no extra to cover inflation or other growing costs.

The lost funding means that many ECE services are struggling. For example, Whānau Manaaki Kindergartens (previously Wellington Kindergarten Association) recently announced a range of cost-cutting measures. Teachers will have less planning and assessment time and are being asked to volunteer to reduce hours. Forced redundancies may be required as a last resort.

NZEI Te Riu Roa President Louise Green said kindergartens were a bastion of quality teaching in the sector but a reduction in qualified teachers could lead to a cut in quality education for children.

“The amount of learning that goes on at this young age is extraordinary and we need to stand up for quality teaching for our youngest learners,” she said.

“The government used to fund centres up to 100% of qualified teachers, but reduced that to 80% five years ago. Since then, centres committed to 100% quality teaching have been scrambling to meet the shortfall, but it’s just not sustainable without proper funding.

“World Teachers Day is a chance to remind Minister Parata that all kids deserve quality teaching, and it is the government’s job to fund it.”

How Brains are Built: The Core Story of Brain Development

Drawing Māui's exploits....

Kindergarten photos..... an update

Hello parents,

We would like to invite you all to view your pictures at Inspire Photography's online ordering site.

This gallery and ordering system is live and working as of now. 

To order your photographs:

1. Go to our website at http://www.inspirephotography.co.nz/ and click on Client Galleries in the menu bar.

2. Click the link to your kindergarten and enter in the access code: norkin12

3. Create an account or log in to an existing account to place your order via our online process. Add your selected photos to cart, specifying size, quantity, colour and border preferences.

4. The photos are in black and white and can be ordered in colour, but are not viewable online in colour. All the images have been colour corrected and can be viewed at the studio if you wish. Please contact us for more information.

5. Please check that your child's name is spelled correctly and is present on the group photograph and leave a note on your order if any changes need to be made.

Orders placed within the earlybird period will be dropped off at your kindergarten on or before the week ending Friday the 13th of November.

This gallery will be taken offline and the Earlybird prices will expire at midnight on Thursday the 29th of October - ordering or clearing payments after this date will be charged at our Standard pricing instead, with prints to be collected from the studio, or plus $6 postage if you would prefer for prints to be sent out to you by standard post.  

If you require an alternative method of ordering to our online system please feel free to call or email us and we can organise to send you a paper order form.

If you have any questions please let us know, as the more questions we receive the better we become at informing parents about this process.

Kind regards,

The Inspire Team.

orders@inspirephotography.co.nz

043848009

Inspire Photography

Level 6, Outwide House, 61-63 Taranaki Street

PO Box 19-006, Wellington 6140

A Letter from the association to families......Important!

9 October 2015

Tēnā koe

Message for Parents and Whānau - What’s happening at kindergarten?

At Whānau Manaaki Kindergartens we are having to cuts costs because of ongoing funding shortfalls.  Recently, we have been working with our staff on a change management process to help us cut costs.

We want to assure parents that we will continue to offer a quality service for your children.  We are very proud of the quality education we provide across our 85 kindergartens and our homebased services, but we have to make changes to ensure we stay viable. 

In 2010, the government cut our funding by 14% as it did not believe that kindergartens needed to be fully staffed by trained, registered teachers.

We know that quality teaching makes the difference, and we are determined to ensure that all kindergarten children are taught by fully trained and registered teachers.  All the research, both from New Zealand and internationally, supports the need for qualified teachers to work with our young children.

Since the government cuts in 2010, the government has not adjusted its funding for inflation, another effective cut we have had to absorb.   During this time, we have continued to provide a quality service which is affordable to families as we believe every child is entitled to a high quality education.

Now, unfortunately the time has come for us to make some difficult decisions to preserve our kindergartens.  Salaries are our greatest cost, accounting for almost 90 per cent of our budget.  In some of our kindergartens, we are proposing opening for longer hours – moving to five six hour days – which will increase our income, as well as providing more options for families.  In other kindergartens, we are proposing to reduce the non-contact time teachers have.   We have given teachers more generous non-contact time than most other services, but we can no longer afford this.  We are planning on asking teachers to volunteer for a part-time role, and we hope some teachers may be attracted to this option.  We are endeavouring to avoid any forced redundancies of teachers, although it is possible that this may be a last resort.

As an employer, we know that our teachers are the great strength of our kindergartens and we know that you also recognise this.  We are consulting staff at the current time.  We have always prided ourselves on our record of being a good employer and we are continuing to honour that commitment.

This is a difficult time for everyone but you can be confident that we will continue to provide the same great service to your children.  If you have any concerns we are very happy to hear from you at any time.  You can email me, at amanda.coulston@wmkindergartens.org.nz or phone  029 2626322.

Mauri ora

Amanda Coulston

Chief Executive    

Breaking news... this from 'stuff'

Capital kindergartens may lose teachers to cuts

OLIVIA WANNAN AND TOMMY LIVINGSTON

Last updated 17:19, October 14 2015

CAMERON BURNELL

Parent Niels Waij is concerned about the staff cuts Khandallah Kindergarten, which 3-year-old son Luca attends, and its sister kindies are making due to government funding shortfalls.

Kindergarten teachers across Wellington face job cuts as early childhood education centres are squeezed by government funding drops.
Whanau Manaaki Kindergartens, the non-profit behind 85 kindies in the region, announced last week that "ongoing funding shortfalls" meant they had to cut staff time to remain afloat.
It is believed each kindy will have to lose about 1.6 teachers in a move would reduce the teacher-to-child ratio at each centre.
Chief executive Amanda Coulston said while in 2008 her kindergartens were funded $12.26 per child per hour by the government, today it was $11.77 for the 20 free subsidised hours.
"I defy any organisation to be able to make ends meet with this sort of underfunding."
The scrapping of the government Provisionally Registered Teacher Grant in 2010 to centres with more than 80 per cent qualified teachers was one factor impacting Whanau Manaaki's budgets, Coulston said. They were committed to ensuring all their teachers were qualified, for the benefit of children.
"We wouldn't put 80 per cent professional rugby players out in the World Cup and have the other 20 per cent as big fans and think we're going to get the same result as if we had 100 per cent professional players," she said. "Since ... 2010, the government has not adjusted its funding for inflation, another effective cut we have had to absorb."
Whanau Manaaki sent out a letter to parents on Friday saying it was asking its teachers to volunteer for part-time work and reducing the non-contact time teachers had, to cut costs.
"We're hoping there won't be forced redundancies but we're still at the early stages," she said. "It's been a difficult time for our teachers."
Since 2011 the organisation has asked parents using their free 20 hours of childcare for donations towards the training and registration of teachers. Increasing this and extending kindy opening hours were two options being considered to boost revenue, Coulston said.

Teachers would be told if forced redundancies would be necessary at the start of December, she said.

"It's not unique to us. It's across the board and different services are doing different things to address that."
The possibility of cuts was met with shock by parents at Khandallah Kindergarten.
Dad Niels Waij sends his son Luca, 3, there and said it would have a "huge" impact.
"As it is, there are not a lot of teachers, so that one-on-one time gets lost. They have good systems and with one gone that will be a link out of the chain.
"The kids are little, so it is important. They are taking a lot into their little brains."
Jenny Henderson has Ella, 4, and George, 3, at the kindergarten and said it was "absolutely shocking".
"The teachers here are so awesome. The thought of losing any of them is awful."
Paul Goulter, New Zealand Educational Institute union national secretary, agreed all early childhood education centres were feeling a similar financial squeeze. "Like many others [they] have done their utmost to keep up the quality against this relentless impact of government real funding cuts."
Ministry of Education spokeswoman Katrina Casey said annual inflation adjustments were not made to early childhood education funding rates.
Kindergartens were more generously funded than other childcare centres, which received $11.43 an hour.
The cost to parents had remained constant since 2007, she said.
Labour education spokesman Chris Hipkins said investing in the highest quality pre-school education, with fully qualified teachers, would pay off. "Kids who have been involved in quality early childhood education before they start school tend to do better when they get to school."
Education Minister Hekia Parata refused to answer questions on early childhood education funding.

 - Stuff

Breaking the process into manageable steps

Hi all.... We've had lots of discussions with families of late about ways that toilet training can be supported. here's a handy pic that sometimes help children learn the process involved in successful toileting. we have it in the toilet at kindergarten and talk toileting learners about what each image means so they might use if if they want to to help them remember.  Hope it helps!

welcome back all!

Kia ora koutou, we hope you have all had an enjoyable term break .... We are gearing up to our summer terms which means each tamariki will need to have a pōtae (sun hat) with them. We would appreciate it if you could please sunscreen your tamariki before session, we do however, have a pump bottle available at kindergarten for use if you forget before you get to kindergarten!. We will be applying sunscreen to all children at around midday to top it up. You'll notice our sunshades have been reinstalled to help us all be sunsafe and our programme included a mat time hui discussion about this to reinforce the idea with the group of learners.

A note to the wise... PLEASE name all belongings. Hats, lunchboxes, drink bottles and any warm clothing  or footwear very likely to be discarded during the day. We are keen to help our learners be independently in charge of themselves and take responsibility for their belongings, but it can't be done if we don't know whose they are!!!!

funding from the government continues to threaten ece quality funding....

Media Release

Significant change in ECE requires significant investment

2/10/15

A report released today recommending significant changes to early childhood education will require significant investment to make real gains for the youngest New Zealanders, says NZEI Te Riu Roa.

The Advisory Group on Early Learning report contains a series of recommendations that could represent a major overhaul of early childhood education  but which will require a major funding boost, said NZEI Te Riu Roa National Executive member Virginia Oakly.
“We welcome many of the recommendations of this report,  which are focused on ensuring quality ECE and improving transitions for our youngest learners, “ said Virginia Oakly.

“Whether these recommendations come to life from this report in a market-driven early childhood education system remains to be seen.”
 “Our kindergartens and ECE centres are facing a funding crisis due to a government driving up participation at the expense of quality. Per-child funding is inadequate and quality community centres and kindergartens are feeling a severe pinch.”
 “Good initiatives such as increased non-contact hours and a greater focus on special educational needs will have to be backed up not only with dollars but also with a move away from market-driven provision.”
 Virginia Oakly said that NZEI Te Riu Roa will be working with services and government to ensure the best aspects of this report are implemented and resourced.  She also thanked the NZEI members who contributed to this major report