Turtle Safe. Here's what we do to practice for an earthquake here at KIndergarten!

A newsletter from the association

Welcome back!

Tēnā Koutou Whānau! Where did the term break go?

The team hope you have been able to take advantage of the sun in the break.... and have survived the cold snap of this weekend! Keep warm! We are looking forward to seeing you all and hearing your stories.

Don't forget to pack a named sunhat - all our outdoor players will be wearing them over the next two terms. We will be sunscreening children mid session each day ( barring indoor play days due to rain ) so PLEASE if your child has any sunscreen allergies, let the team know an d bring in a name d tube of their preferred sunscreen for the team to keep on hand.

Week one looks to be fairly busy. We are pleased to welcome 4 new children and to share two children's graduation ceremonies, The committee also have a meeting planned for Thursday night - all are warmly invited to attend. This should get us started in the term with a hiss and a roar!

A reminder that the kindergarten will be closed on Monday the 22nd for the Labour day public holiday.

Don't forget to set aside the 25th of October for the committee organised fundraiser - the Pub Quiz at the 'One Fat Bird'. It's a whole lot of fun! If you haven't heard the details yet, ask the team or check out the posters in the cloakroom!

See you soon!

Did you Know?

Bee Healthy Regional Dental Service provides free dental care for pre-school and primary-school-aged children for the greater Wellington Region (Wellington, Hutt Valley, Porirua and Kapiti Coast) in a friendly, professional atmosphere using mobile dental vans and community-based dental clinics. For information about free adolescent dental care (school-year 9 to their 18th birthday), visit our website www.beehealthy.org.nz If you would prefer your child to receive dental care from your family dentist, please note that their dental care will not be free. The services provided by Bee  If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Bee Healthy 0800 TALK TEETH (825 583).

fun in the last week of term 3

Kia ora,

 

Bee Healthy Regional Dental Service, provider of free dental care for children under 18 years old in the Greater Wellington Region, will be at Frank Kitts Park, Wellington Waterfront (weather permitting) between 10am and 2:15pm offering FREE* drop-in dental checks for preschoolers that have not had a dental checkup this year. As a drop in service, dental checks will be provided on a first in, first seen basis. Checkups are 20 minutes per child. During busy periods there may be a wait.

*To be eligible for FREE dental checks, child needs to be enrolled with Bee Healthy Regional Dental Service. Parents can enrol their child by calling 0800 TALK TEETH (0800 825 583).

 

Getting regular dental checkups plays an important part in preventing cavities and tooth decay so the earlier children gets their teeth checked and develop good dental habits, the healthier their teeth will stay. Children should start getting annual dental checkups from 2 years of age so if children are due for their annual check-up or have dental concerns, parents can bring them along to our dental van these upcoming school holidays.

 

I have attached a copy of the poster and  link to our Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/2200118910267818/

We would be grateful if you can share these with the whānau that attend your early childhood education centre so that parents can take advantage of this opportunity to have their children’s teeth checked. In the event of bad weather - cancellation notifications will be posted on the Facebook event page the day beforehand.

 

 

Kind regards,

 

Jennifer Liu

Oral Health Promoter

Artwork from this week! Awesome 2D work!

Keeping up with the play!

welcome to a New team member....

Ni hao, I am Hongmei Wei and I have been a short term relieving teacher since 2017 and as a long relieving teacher since May 2018 at Northland Kindergarten.  I feel so lucky to be able to work with the fun team of experienced,  dedicated and professional teachers.  I really enjoy working with young children and seeing them enjoy and take pride in learning.  I live in Thorndon with my husband Yee and two sons Shanli and Shanwen

policy for transition to schools.....

Northland Kindergarten Procedures

Transition to School

Our extensive research into effective transitions between settings has highlighted that there needs to be a range of processes being in motion at the same time.

·        The school gets ready for the child,

·         the child gets ready for the school,

·        the family  feel included and comfortable,

·         and the kindergarten team smooth the way…..

How does this work at Northland Kindergarten?

1.    The team will provide information to schools if they ask while preparing their returns to ascertain class sizes and class/teacher needs.  We will ensure families are regularly asked about intentions as yet unstated to keep our records up to date.

2.    The kindergarten team  actively encourage families to enrol children at the school of their choice in a timely way so that children can be included in the school’s own transition to school process. This is done through conversations and/or a flyer sent out at the start of the term the child goes to school detailing the farewell process and useful facts about enrolling and making the transition effectively.

3.    The team will provide transition visits to some of our three main feeder schools,  ( this amount as they are the ones allowing us regular access to visit with a group of near graduates. ) Policy for excursions is followed in this instance.

The group will access a normal school session with a maximum of 8 students, and the team will help the visitors to participate successfully. Photographs will be taken to give the children opportunities to reflect on what happened during their visit ( NE teachers will be made aware of this so they can indicate any current issues with this). These visit pics will be reviewed in a range of ways by the team. They will be available on the children’s computers for group discussion and for families to view – generally in a ‘Photostory 3’ format.  A synopsis of a visit will be present in children’s profiles for kaiako, tamariki and whanau to use as a basis for discussion. The rationale for this is helping children feel the normality of both settings, and finding similarities and differences we can explore together for a smooth transition. It also behoves us in bicultural terms to personally deliver our precious children to a new setting as best we can.

4.    Children will experience how a graduation ceremony will work as part of tangata whenua farewelling past  graduates to their new setting. It gives us the opportunity to open dialogue with near graduates ( in particular) about the notion of going to school.  The ‘transition to school’ flyer and interpersonal discussion  will help families be part of this.  Making a hat well in advance is a shared project to help process the finality of the move forwards.  Children having autonomy over the hat design, the cake design, the plan for the ceremony re: songs or stories they would like the tangata whenua to share with them as they leave the group, special claps they can lead the group with... all give them a sense of leading, ownership and control of the process as they move through.

5.    The team will engage in professional discussion where sought and where we feel particularly useful with any school we are sending children to. In some cases this will include inviting the NE teachers, STJC, and/or principals to the kindergarten to share our programme aims and processes as well as our knowledge of how our precious tamariki show their best learning approaches. It may also include the team engaging in meetings in the school context.

6.    The team will support this work smoothing the way to school with a preparation of a boundary object to precede their start date. Approximately 2 months before they start school, the team will begin to prepare a learning pūrongorongo – a document telling the relevant information.. It is likely to include a cover sheet to introduce the learner. It will include a letter from the child telling their new teacher what they think is important about them as a learner. The team will invite families to share anything they would like to about their child they feel a new teacher might find useful to know. The team will copy the last several Learning story style assessments which will be analysed in the usual way such  anecdotal material is unpacked… usually in terms of the ‘Te Whāriki early childhood curriculum’, bicultural lenses, how learning has been strengthened, how their identities are developing, common learning approaches, motivations  or dispositions identified. It is usually inclusive of NZ Primary curriculum analysis.   This document will generally be mailed to the school concerned marked the attention of the NE teacher. We know this  helps the new context know the child as a learner more quickly and be able to support their sense of belonging in the class room and wider school context more quickly and effectively. Children needing this document to be completed will be highlighted on our term planner of children’s assessment records.

7.    The team member who has charge of the transition portfolio for that child will ensure that each step will be facilitated.

LAST REVIEWED: Jan 2017

NEXT REVIEW:   Jan 2018

To be read in conjunction with  Policy and Procedure guide:

teaching and learning: transition to school

we had fun in term one... we learned a lot. Roll on term two!

 Thanks to Ray and Kyle's families for their permission and sharing of this pic as Ray don's the leadership Korowai and has a farewell graduation to school ceremony.  Happy School days! It's all part of our supporting successful transition to school as we celebrate Ray's time at Kindergarten, add closure and a 'feed forward' to the next step in the learning journey....

Bellevue Kindergarten has written to local MP Greg O’Connor and to the Minister of Education and Prime Minister about the inadequacies of the Learning support service, and Whānau Manaaki Kindergartens has issued a press release to underline those points. Here’s the release:

Kindergartens agree learning support services are  at crisis level

Whānau Manaaki Kindergartens agrees with school principals that the Ministry of  Education’s learning support service is in crisis.

The New Zealand Principals Federation says waiting lists are too long for children needing extra help at school and Whānau Manaaki says waiting times for early intervention services (for preschool children) are even longer.

Whānau Manaaki Kindergartens runs 85 kindergartens and a homebased service in the lower North Island.

"Children face unacceptable delays before being assessed and provided with services", says Amanda Coulston, Chief Exeuctive of Whānau Manaaki Kindergartens.

Even once assessed and qualifying for support, that support is inadequate she says.

The Head Teacher of Bellevue Kindergarten in the Wellington suburb of Newlands, Sue Scott, is speaking out because the service is short-changing children.

Sue says children with severe needs get two and a half hours a day of support, with a maxiumum of seven and a half hours a week. For children who need an adult support at all times to ensure their safety, this is simply not good enough.

“The lack of support for high needs children impacts hugely on the child, but also on the remainder of the group” she says.

Sue has written to the Ministry of Education, the Prime Minister, the Minister of Education and her own MP about the problems children are facing. ”I can no longer say nothing and just be grateful for the support that is given.”

Yay - this sounds promising.

This from the Wellington District Police Facebook Page

Our crash analyst and child seat technician Sergeant Wilson has given us some valuable content to pass on.

This image below is based on a good safe install of a child restraint. It is based on crash dynamics/physics and on statistics based on the safest position in vehicles.

The numbers represent the best placement for child restraints in order- so if 1 does not work, then the next safest option is 2 etc.

It also represent the age order of children - so if you have 2 children in restraints the youngest would go in 1, next oldest would go in 2 and so forth.

Sergeant Wilson has explained this in a clip if you would like further understanding as to how he has come to this evidence based conclusion https://youtu.be/ytaEPTOpWgw

#saferkids #saferjourneystogether #wellingtondistrictpolice