News from Josef

Today we received a card and photo from Josef and his whanau. This is what they had to say:
Kia Ora All
Sorry it's taken a while for us to send a thank you card... You guys are amazing, thank you Irene for taking wee Josef in without any hesitation. He enjoyed his time at Kidspace and often talks about the centre and Thumper (Murphy).

We are still living in Christchurch and have adjusted to our environment. Josef's papa is working in the red zone with the rebuild, he said there's not many buildings left in the CBD with wide empty spaces. As for wee Josef he is back at his daycare and enjoying life. I have returned back to work. Our building is in the CBD just borderline of the red zone, so slowly we are getting some normality back into our lives...

Thank you for all you have done.
Arohanui
George, Josef and Josef Jrn. xox

ECE Funding Cuts and YOU

How are you getting on with filling your sheet for the petition about the early childhood education funding cuts? Each sheet only has 10 lines, so yourself and 9 others! There are more sheets pinned to the noticeboard for you to take if you can get more than 10 signatures. You have until the 18 May (so that they can be in Wellington by 20 May). The goal is to get 70,000 signatures nationwide - prior to the rally in Hastings I heard that there were only 22,000 signatures so still quite a way to go!

There is a huge amount of research that clearly shows that quality early childhood education makes an enormous difference for children's success later in life. It has been estimated that $1 of government funding spent on quality early childhood education saves between $11 and $20 spent on health, welfare and justice. One of the indicators of quality early childhood education is qualified teachers, however the government has said that 80% of registered teachers is all that is now required and has pegged the funding back to this level. Would you accept 80% registered teachers in schools? Yet by the time your child gets to school 90% of their brain is already formed.

We are doing all we can to absorb these funding cuts without raising fees. We are trimmed to the bone and any further cuts would be critical. If the government gets the idea (or already has the idea) that we, teachers and parents, have accepted the cuts, then we can be sure there will be more to come - or other more insidious moves such as the changes due to take effect from 1 July to increase the maximum permitted license size from 50 to 150 children and from 25 to 75 under 2s (with no requirement that these children be split into smaller groups). Also for under 2s there only has to be one 'person responsible' (registered teacher) for 50 children - the rest could be school leavers on the minimum wage. Does this sound like putting the best interests of the child first - I don't think so!

New Zealand has led the world with early childhood research and our curriculum, Te Whariki. Please don't let us lead the world with these backward fiscal measures.

Irene

Hui at Pukemokimoki Marae

On Thursday 7th of April, Irene, Mohanan, Ann, Yvonne and myself attended a hui at Pukemokimoki Marae in Riverbend Road. The topic of the 3 hour workshop was about 'cultural identity' in relation to the new licensing criteria. The afternoon ran in line with Maaori tikanga and kawa (protocols and customs). The group of 40 plus people were welcomed onto the marae with a powhiri, including waiata, hongi and shared kai.

Followed by that, we watched a powerpoint presentation by Christine Taare from the Ministry of Education and Parpara Wano from Camberly Kindergarten. They discussed the Ministry of Education publications, Te Whatu Pokeka and Ka Hika Tia. Other presenters shared stories and exemplars from their own early childhood centres , including teachers becoming learners and children becoming teachers (the concept of ako).

We have all reflected on what we learnt from this workshop and have reported back to the rest of the team at our staff meeting. One of our team goals this year is to deepen our understanding of bicultural practice so it was helpful to us hear from other centres and to become more familiar with these MOE publications.

Ainslee

From The Browns

KIA ORA KIDSPACE! its the brothers here Elijah & Laker Brown we are on school holidays at the moment and love Onekawa School, we have just started talking to our school teacher (Miss Borgman) because we are a little shy still but we are getting a lot more confident as we keep going to school. We are in the same classroom this year but sit at different tables when we do our work. Our friends are Azlow & Isaiah. Our niece goes to Kidspace, it is Teihana, we are her Uncles (that's funny) we went Charlies 5th Birthday party at Jungle Junction it was fun! Ka kite ano
The Browns!

Budget Blues!

It was announced in last weeks budget that early childhood centres with 80 - 100% registered teachers would have their Ministry of Education funding cut by about 6% from 1st February 2011. Added to this cut in funding, will be the increased GST we will have to pay on what funding and fees we do receive.

It seems crazy that quality centres like KIDSPACE who have invested heavily in attracting qualified staff are now being penalised for doing the right thing.

We are waiting on more specific information to be released from the Ministry of Education. As a member of the Early Childhood Council, we will be looking at their advice to members before making any decisions that affect staff or families.
Irene

'Flu Vaccine

You may have seen in the weekend newspapers about changes to advice given about immunising under fives with the flu vacinne following some adverse reactions in Western Australia. New Zealand has not had these reactions but as a precaution the Health Ministry is advising parents to avoid the Fluvax vaccine (which is now almost out of stock here anyway)for under fives and opt for the Influvac or Vaxigrip.

KIDSPACE teachers Team Building day

On Saturday 6th March the teachers of KIDSPACE had a team building day in the fabulous upstairs meeting room above Thorps Coffee House. All of our regular team attended even Jess and Ann who are currently at other centres on practicum. We played games, discussed our KIDSPACE shared vision and had a wonderful spread of kai thanks to Eneri's mum and owner of Thorps Coffee House. We really bonded as a team and enjoyed this day with our tamariki always at the heart of our brain storming. Over the coming months we will continue to develop our strategic plan. Initially, we will be working on increasing our confidence and competence in using Te Reo Maaori. We would be interested to hear your ideas for future development.

Jessie

Farewell from The Brothers whanau

Dear Kidspace Friends & Whanau,
We would like to take this opportunity to thank KIDSPACE for everything that you all have given to our 4 children who have attended.
Sharn now (9yrs) started in 2002 when she was 2yrs, having come from Kohanga Reo everything was so new & brilliant, warm and inviting! Riana started late 2002/ early 2003, Sadly Riana passed away on 27th Oct 03 17mths old, she absolutely loved KIDSPACE & the teachers at the time were Joy,Leigh Leigh,Yvonne,Jo. Then the twins blessed us Elijah & Laker started in 2005 and now they are off to Onekawa School. Thank you so much Irene & James you have created an environment of warmth & love and have given all our children a truly balanced & inspirational foundation that they will need for their wonderful start to their long lives.
We hope to come back to Kidspace one day NOT with our any more of our own children!! But maybe our Grandchildren, just not too soon.

ERO Visit 14 December

For centres that are already complying with the legal requirements, compliance is not a major focus of the review. Instead ERO is able to focus on the quality of the programme, the quality of adult/child interactions and the learning environment and the impact of these on outcomes for children.

As part of our preparation for this review we need to identify review priorities:

• for areas where we are performing well, the priority will be on validating the results of self review and identifying good practice
• for areas where there is a need for improvement ERO will work with us to formulate strategies for improvement

We are very keen to get your suggestions on what these priorities should be. You can leave a comment on this blog post (either anonymous or with your name so that ERO can follow up if they have any questions) or write on the notice near the sign in table. Thanks for your input.

Pukemokimoki Marae

On Friday I stayed on Pukemokimoki Marae in Maraenui. This was with staff from Little Guppies and Green Meadows Kindergarten too. We had a Noho Marae to discuss The Educaiton Review Office- Maaori Children in Early Childhood Pilot Study. Our facilitator was Papara Wano from Massey University. We did lots of eating, laughing, sharing, singing and crying. We had a wonderful speaker Henere O'Keefe who was very passionate about todays tamariki and he could sing a beautiful waiata.

Pukemokimoki Marae is Napier's newest Marae and has very modern facilities, beautiful carvings and paintings. Last week our children helped me brush up on my waiata, by singing E Toru Nga Mea, Too Ringaringa ki Roto (Put your hand in- "Hokey Tokey") and action song A, E , I, O, U. We hope to visit a marae with our children.

Jessie

Jessie's ULearn Conference in Christchurch

Last week I attended the ULearn 09 conference in central Christchurch. KIDSPACE was invited as part of our three year ICT programme. Early childhood, primary and secondary school teachers, head of departments and principals all went along. We attended breakouts on e-portfolios to podcasting, wikis and blogs to twittering. We also listened to a large number of professional national and international keynote speakers and specialists, doctors and professors in the field of science, curriculum and ICT. All full on technical stuff! The trade hall hosted companies and people such as MOE, HP New Zealand, Computer Concepts Ltd, Scholastic Media & Technology, Quizdom, and Edsoft to name a few. It was very rewarding to know that the early childhood sector is leading with the access and technology that our children can use daily, along with forward thinking professors and teachers in this field. Look out for new ICT equipment soon... a camcorder and digital handheld microscope. I also have a dancing robot video to show the children.

It's all possible.

Photos; trade hall exhibitors, Jessie outside the Christchurch Town Hall, poowhiri to ULearn and a keynote speaker in the Town Hall.

Jessie

Action Research Report

We need a stunning title for our action research report - something catchy that covers our blog/communication /partnership with whanau. There's a box of chocolates for whoever comes up with the title that we use.

4000 and rising!

Check out the blog counter - over 4000 hits! The world map is looking interesting too. I wonder if we could get some red dots in other parts of the world?

My best friend Ruby

"My mum likes Ruby. My mum loves Joaquin, and my mum loves me. I saw Ruby on the computer, she was having a swing. Ruby is my best friend. My mum loves Te Kira too".
Story written by Caelyn and Sarah

Curriculum Review

Curriculum Review: Routines / Transitions
We are currently reviewing our practices around routines and transitions. This is for all children but with particular focus on the ‘in betweenies’ who are moving from being with the little ones to joining the older group. We would be very interested in families thoughts and suggestions. How is it for you dropping off and collecting your child? What works well and what could we improve on? Feel free to talk to staff or write your thoughts down (handwritten, emailed or on the blog).

Photos on the blog

Double click on the photo to see it at full size

What do you think about KIDSPACE?

Have you been particularly impressed about something you or your child has experienced at KIDSPACE? Perhaps you might like to tell others about it? Would you like to share your ideas about what we could do better - staff, activities, resources...? If so, please click on comments below.

What do you think of this blog?

This is the third and final year of our ICT action research project of which setting up this blog is the last cycle. Below is an outline of our research question and the indicators we have developed. We would be very grateful to get your feedback on what you think of the blog and whether any of these indicators are relevant to you.

Research Question: In what ways will we enhance our partnerships with whānau using I.C.T?
Sub Question: What impact will developing a KIDSPACE blog have on enhancing our partnerships with whanau?

INDICATORS - we hope that the blog will promote:
1. Conversations with whanau about learning experiences at KIDSPACE
2. Whanau sharing experiences at home
3. FEEDBACK from whanau responding verbally or commenting on the blog to the learning and information the teachers have shared on the blog and from children giving feedback from having accessed the blog with whanau
4. Connecting with whanau who are not regular visitors to KIDSPACE
5. Teachers gain a greater understanding of children’s interests and strengths
6. Parental leave teachers stay connected with KIDSPACE happenings

KIDSPACE news coming soon.

KIDSPACE teachers are currently practising on a closed blog whilst working on obtaining permission from parents to share daily happenings in the centre on this blog.