Early Learning Regional News – March 2016

• Tai Tokerau regional update
• Auckland regional update
• Waikato regional update
• Bay of Plenty-Waiariki regional update
• Hawke’s Bay, Gisborne regional update
• Taranaki, Whanganui, Manawatu regional update
• Wellington regional update
• Nelson, Marlborough, West Coast regional update
• Canterbury regional update
• Otago, Southland regional update

Tai Tokerau regional update

Kia ora koutou

2016 is well underway and services are again engaging with our youngest learners. This is the year we plan to reach 98% participation in early learning services for all 4-year-olds prior to enrolling in school. In our region, we are currently at 93.1% (leaving 118 4-year-olds needing to enrol). So this is the time to focus in on any children that you know are in your geographical area not attending and act on what you can be doing to support their engagement into early childhood education (ECE). If you know of children not participating, and would like support with your ideas or finding appropriate services for them, contact one of the Te Tai Tokerau ECE team.

Strengthening Early Learning Opportunities (SELO) professional development programmes under the umbrella topic of Identity, Language and Culture are also underway and include exciting topics to enable teachers and educators to make changes in their ECE service practices including:

• Confident and competent teachers and tamariki
• Developing bicultural practices using Te Whariki and Ka Hikitia
• Te reo for beginners – in practice
• Inclusive practice and what this really looks like
• Community responsiveness
• Understanding governance and management for centre leaders.

If you would like to know more about any of these programmes, get in touch with one of our team.

Best wishes for a great 2016 from the Te Tai Tokerau ECE team: Irene Iwikau, Des Tipene, Sacha Cherrington, Haley Conaghan, Belinda Woodman and Sharleen Edmonds.

Ngā mihi

Hira Gage
Director of Education
Te Tai Tokerau
Tel: (09) 436 8914
Email: hira.gage@education.govt.nz

Educare Totara Park

Children at Educare Totara Park playing on the life-sized snakes and ladders.

Educare Totara Park is a new ECE centre here in Whangarei. Alan Lints and the team have created an amazing outdoor area based on his dream to create an area that would provoke children’s thinking about their use of the outdoors. One area is a full-sized snakes and ladders game that came about after the following thoughts:

Looking through the eyes of an energetic 4-year-old child when you are in your 50s is a tough ask. However, transforming an iconic board game into real time ‘snakes and ladders’ was always going to be a winner. Educare Totara Park was named because of a stunning stand of totara trees. Once some legal clearing of trees was undertaken it was easy to see how these gnarly totara trees cut long ways would form an incredible platform for our tamariki to explore our natural play area. Customised ladders allow the children to move between the snakes seamlessly and an over-sized dice completes the real time challenge.

As for rules? What rules? Tamariki explore as they see fit. One minute they are ‘snaking and laddering’, the next minute they are playing on the waterfall or watering the garden with another hollowed-out totara log. Educare’s no plastic playground is a hit, not only with the tamariki but adults as well. “Bet you can’t beat the kids at their own game”.

Breakfast meetings for ECE service managers and senior staff

Megan Cochrane from Blossom Consulting Ltd hosts a managers’ network breakfast every 2 months in Whangarei. This is a great opportunity to have a professional chat over breakfast. Megan sometimes invites a speaker to discuss a topic with the group. The next one is planned for 30 March 2016 – if you are interested contact her at: meganblossom@xtra.co.nz.

Auckland regional update

Counties Manukau Children's Team

The Counties Manukau Children’s Team goes live on 22 March. If your service is in Papakura, Manurewa or Clendon, there is a meeting on 16 March at 6pm you are welcome to attend at Taonga Education Centre, 11 Dalgety Drive, Wiri. At this meeting you will be able to meet members of the Children’s Team and have your questions answered about how the team will work.

If you would like to attend please email Karalee Tangiau: karalee.tangiau@education.govt.nz. If you can't attend this meeting, but would like more information, you can contact Sarah Morrison on 027 245 2211 or sarah.morrison@education.govt.nz.

Congratulations

The following centres who received Targeted Assistance for Participation (TAP) grants have opened: Akaiti Mangarongaro (Cook Islands) 40 places, Matua Mo E Tama (Niue) 40 places and Puna O Le Atamai (Samoa) 40 places in Mangere East; Mokupuna Ki Roscommon 50 places in Manurewa; and Wee Wisdom Montessori 100 places in Drury. It is great to have quality learning environments for the young children of Auckland.

Opportunities to strengthen learning and teaching

Each month there are opportunities to meet and learn with other ECE providers and teachers. These are funded through Strengthening Early Learning Outcomes (SELO). Every early learning network will have the opportunity to attend an event on each topic over the year.

April 2016

• Growing social competency– there will be a forum for every early learning network in April. Please go to this website for more details and to register: www.eceastute.co.nz.

• Improving your physical environment– there will be an event for the Kuki Airani early learning network. Please register by emailing: earlylearningnetworks.registration@education.govt.nz.

May 2016

• Business strategy events will be held for the Howick, Manurewa, Henderson, Waitakere and Niuean early learning networks. Please go to this website for more details and to register: www.eceastute.co.nz.

• Strengthening child protection practices– events will be held for the Maungakiekie-Tamaki, Devonport-Takapuna, Puketapapa, Albert-Eden, Orakei, Waitemata, Rodney, Upper Harbour and Hibiscus and Bays early learning networks. Please go to this website for more details and to register: www.ecetraining.nz.

• Introduction to autism in an early childhood setting– events will be held for the Devonport-Takapuna and Kaipatiki early learning networks. Please check your inbox for the email invite to come out in April 2016.

• Strengthening bicultural practice– events will be held for the Henderson-Massey, Waitakere Ranges, Whau and the Tongan, Niuean and Home-based early learning networks. Please check your inbox for the email invite to come out in April 2016.

• Improving your physical environment– events will be held for the Puketapapa and Maungakiekie-Tamaki early learning networks. Please check your inbox for the email invite to come out in April 2016.

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

Waikato regional update

Kia ora koutou katoa. Ka nui te mihi ki a koutou.

Communities of Learning

In my last Bulletin article, I told you that we had 10 approved Communities of Learning (COLs) across Waikato. This represents 30% (or 87) of all schools and kura across our region. It means that 36% of all children and young people (approximately 26,000 students) living in the Waikato are in a school or kura that is in a COL.

It’s very exciting to observe, discuss and hear the great work that’s going on as these COLs develop their achievement challenges and organise the way they wish to work together. We’ve had the first achievement challenges, along with their high-level plans, endorsed by the Minister of Education and I expect the appointment of people into the various roles to be confirmed shortly.

I encourage you to talk to your local schooling colleagues (if you have not already) about the formation of a COL in your area and how you could be involved. We have COLs established in Hauraki, Waihi, Thames, Paeroa, Putaruru, Hillcrest, North West Hamilton, Central Hamilton and Cambridge with a specific focus on the Māori medium pathway across Waikato.

We have recently welcomed Bevan Smith as our lead education advisor for COLs. He has a specific responsibility and will grow his specialist skill in supporting COLs alongside education managers and senior advisors who work with schools, kura, early childhood education (ECE) services and kōhanga reo. Bevan will also link with other lead education advisors across the country to ensure we are learning from others and can apply this within our context.

If you would like to talk to us about forming a COL, or want some help on any of this, get in touch with Bevan at bevan.smith@education.govt.nz or myself paula.rawiri@education.govt.nz. I also encourage you to connect with colleagues in other parts of the country who may be in a COL already.

Education Review Office and Ministry of Education in the Waikato

Recently, the Waikato teams of the Ministry of Education and the Education Review Office met here at our Hamilton offices. I understand this is a first for our area and it was a great way to understand each other’s business priorities and discuss how best we can provide a service to you in ECE, kōhanga reo, schools and kura. We’ve taken the approach that while we have our respective roles and responsibilities, we want to work in a collaborative way to get the best outcomes for children and young people.

Hamilton Children’s Team

The team is up and running in the city and has a key focus on and responsibility for ensuring that children and young people in this city, who may be vulnerable, get the best service from the collective of agencies and providers that are working with and for them. If you work with children and young people in Hamilton, and are worried about one who might be at risk of abuse or neglect, contact the Vulnerable Children’s Hub on 0800 FOR OUR KIDS (0800 367 687) to discuss this.

In the Coromandel

In the spirit of supporting learning pathways from early childhood into schooling, while in the Coromandel, Cameron Frethey (Senior Advisor), Mere Lawson-Nuri (Manager Education) and I visited Kirsty Miller at the Riverlee Early Learning Centre. This service has a focus on providing children with a ‘home away from home’ environment. The learning we observed the children engaged in was just great. We think as a team it’s important for us to understand how services are working, and particularly how they support children through to schooling. There is no other way to do this other than to get out there and hear and see it happening.

Cameron Frethey, Mere Lawson-Nuri and Kirsty Miller at the Riverlee Early Learning Centre.

Talking with your children

Early childhood teachers play an important role in developing children’s critical thinking skills. The early childhood environment provides many opportunities for children to hear and experience words in lots of ways. Simple tweaks to everyday interactions between adults and children can make a huge difference to a child’s language development. Talking with children about things beyond the here and now will help to develop their critical thinking which is important for language and learning. This page on the Hanen Centre website has some great information.

If you’d like to learn more about building children’s critical thinking skills and how to support children’s language development, the Much More Than Words workshop may be for you.

The next workshop will be held on Thursday 28 April (9.15am to 3pm) at the Ministry of Education office at 19 Home Straight, Hamilton with Aimie Stowers and Ruth Brehaut, Speech & Language Therapists.

This workshop will:

• Raise your awareness of normal speech language development
• Help you to identify possible communication difficulties
• Share strategies to help you support speech language development in young children.

Feedback from previous attendees:

• “Interactive, funny, knowledgeable – thank you.”
• “I especially liked linking relevant examples from our own centre to relevant slides.”

Please enrol so you don’t miss out. You can email Ann Luxton at ann.luxton@education.govt.nz or phone (07) 867 9520.

And, finally, guest wifi has arrived ...

We can now offer guest wireless at our buildings ... so next time you are in please ask at reception for the details.

Noho ora mai

Paula Rawiri
Director of Education Waikato
Tel: (07) 850 8924
Email: paula.rawiri@education.govt.nz

Bay of Plenty–Waiariki regional update

Director’s message

Talofa lava and kia ora koutou.

I hope you’ve had a good month and the warm muggy weather hasn’t bothered you too much. As always, take the time to read the information in this month’s Bulletin as well as my update below.

Recent threats and support

In the last fortnight, several of our schools have had to deal with threats sent to them. I was impressed with the way our schools handled these stressful and disruptive situations. If threats of this nature are made, centres should call the Police immediately and ask for advice. You should note the exact nature of the threat and provide as much detail to the Police as possible. From there, the Police can provide appropriate advice for a response. For example, a non-specific bomb threat may require a slightly different response from the threat of a gunman on the roof of a building.

I also want to acknowledge that some early childhood education (ECE) centres have had to deal with a crisis or serious incident in the past few weeks. I want to remind you that you are never alone when you are faced with something like this. We are able to support you in a number of ways and can provide both practical and strategic support. Please call us and we will activate support for you.

Participation programme initiatives

We are steadily climbing to reach our target of having 98% of children start school having attended an early childhood service. We are awaiting the data to be releasedconcerning children who have started school at the beginning of this year. The beginning of each year is the time when there is the largest number of new enrolments in our schools. As soon as it is available we will let you know. Recently I heard of an ECE service that was providing their graduating children with a certificate that included the child’s Early Learning Information (ELI) number and included the words “Congratulations, you have participated in ECE.” We think this is a great idea as it provides the parents with good information to take to school.

We are in the middle of evaluating our Targeted Assistance for Participation (TAP 3) proposals. We have had a high number of proposals and are sure we will be able to use our allocated budget. These grants enable services in target areas to increase their capacity to enrol more children.

We still have some Strengthening Early Learning Opportunities (SELO) funding to allocate. If you have identified a professional development need in your centre please call Renee Jensen on (07) 349 0832. She will be able to talk through your ideas and let you know if we are able to assist.

Rotorua and Eastern Bay of Plenty Children’s Team

We have 2 Children’s Teams up and running in our region with a focus on and responsibility for ensuring that children and young people across Rotorua and the Eastern Bay of Plenty, who may be vulnerable, get the best service from the collective of agencies and providers that are working with and for them. If you work with children and young people and are worried that one might be at risk of abuse or neglect, contact the Vulnerable Children’s Hub on 0800 FOR OUR KIDS (0800 367 687) or the relevant Children’s Team Director for your area, listed below. You can also find more information on the Children’s Action Plan website and the Children’s Action Plan Facebook page.

Mahalia Paewai
Children’s Team Director
Ground Floor
1144 Pukaki Street
Rotorua
Tel: (07) 347 5010
Mobile: 029 200 3672
Email: mahalia.paewai@childrensactionplan.govt.nz

Donna Poynton
Children’s Team Director
Eastern Bay of Plenty
26 Richardson Street
Whakatane
Mobile: 029 350 0039
Email: donna.poynton@childrensactionplan.govt.nz

If you have questions about anything in this Bulletin, don’t hesitate to talk with Aroha, Gina, Jon, Renee, Chrissy or Michelle in the first instance or contact me directly at the email address below.

Ngā mihi

Ezra Schuster
Director of Education Bay of Plenty – Waiariki
Tel: (07) 349 8309
Email: ezra.schuster@education.govt.nz

Hawke’s Bay, Gisborne regional update

No update this month

Taranaki, Whanganui, Manawatu regional update

Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou katoa

Warm greetings to you all.

Early Learning Sector Forums

As mentioned in the February Pānui, plans are well underway for hosting 3 sector forums across our region. Each forum will have a focus topic and provide opportunities for you to engage with your regional Ministry of Education team.

Invitations confirming dates and venues will be sent to all licensed services and certificated playgroups. We look forward to seeing you there.

Communities of Learning

Investing in Education Success (IES) is a government initiative focused on lifting student achievement. One of the strategies of IES is the formation of Communities of Learning (COLs), which provide exciting and innovative opportunities for education-focused communities to work together to strengthen seamless educational pathways. To date, the Minister has approved 5 COLs in our region. Our teams will be working to support a number of others to establish throughout the year.

• Find more information about COLs.

In response to developing COLs we are working to develop a project that will focus on continuity of learning, links between the New Zealand Curriculum and Te Whāriki and developing educationally powerful relationships with local schools. The project will invite over 80 early childhood education (ECE) services and Kōhanga Reo to participate and will be rolled out in 3 different geographical areas. Do consider participating if your service is invited. If you would like more information about the project please contact Leigh Owen at leigh.owen@education.govt.nz.

Reminders

The new Food Safety 2014 has now come into effect. Ministry for Primary Industries website has more information about Early Childhood Education Services - Guidance.

A number of our Ministry of Education licensing and certification forms have been recently updated as a result of the Vulnerable Children’s Act 2014. Please remember to ensure you use the most up-to-date versions that are available on the Ministry of Education website.

Please contact me, using the details below, if you wish to discuss any issues or ideas. I look forward to hearing from you.

Ngā mihi

Jann Marshall
Director of Education Taranaki, Whanganui, Manawatu
Tel: (06) 349 6352
Mobile: 021 229 7685
Email: jann.marshall@education.govt.nz

Wellington regional update

Kia ora koutou

I continue to touch on what the Wellington region is doing towards the Government’s Better Public Services goal that “In 2016, 98% of children starting school will have participated in quality early childhood education.”

It is fantastic that the Wellington region has already reached the 98% target, but we don’t want to get comfortable and think we have made it. We want to make sure that 98% is also achieved for Māori and Pasifika who are currently sitting at 96.3% and 96%, respectively, in our region.

In this issue, we highlight 2 stories about early learning in the Wairarapa. One is about our region’s only punā kainga called ‘Ngā Manu Kākākura ō Te Ao Turoa’ in Featherston. Find out more in the Early Learning Taskforce section of this issue.

Our other story is about the Pacific community in Masterton working together to establish the ‘Moana’ Playgroup.

Let’s make sure we continue to all work together so that we ensure every child gets a great start to their educational journey.

Ngā mihi nui

Pauline Cleaver
Director of Education, Wellington region
Tel: (04) 463 8668
Mobile: 027 229 6982
Email: pauline.cleaver@education.govt.nz

Masterton’s new Moana Playgroup hits ‘The Spot’

Moana Playgroup has hit Masterton at a well known local venue, ‘The Spot’.

Four local Samoan women – Melnissa Faumui, Fale Lio, Alofagia Vaifale and Mabel Paulo – got together with Jude Mitchell and Peter McNeur from Wairarapa REAP to make their vision of a playgroup with a Pacific focus a reality.

The women started their journey by spreading the word around and talking to the communities of churches around Masterton. Moana Playgroup officially opened on 15 February 2016 and now operates out of ‘The Spot’ hall in Masterton.

Moana Playgroup welcomes all Pasifika families and their children in Masterton. Hence the reason the playgroup is named ‘Moana’, which means the ocean, is because the ocean relates to all Pasifika people.

At Moana Playgroup, children, their parents and their grandparents learn their languages or mother tongue together. They can share their stories and make resources together.

On Moana Playgroup’s first day children’s learning was focused on water play which proved very popular with the older children, Praise Paul and Ramailey Liko. Lots of fun and laughter could be heard. Children were given the opportunity to learn strategies for active exploration, thinking and reasoning.

Moana Playgroup has 15 children currently enrolled, with more new families still joining.

Ramailey Liko enjoying water play at Moana Playgroup.

Praise Paul (left) and Ramailey Liko (right) helping each other at Moana Playgroup.

Nelson/Marlborough, West Coast regional update

Special Education staff profiles and contact details

Nelson Office – Special Education staff

Below is an overview of the Special Education staff based in the Nelson office.

Christine Curnow - Service Manager, Special Education

Christine Curnow is the Service Manager for the Special Education team in Nelson. She manages a team of 19 specialists including psychologists, speech & language therapists, early intervention teachers, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, and advisors on deaf children and special education advisors.

Christine also manages the Ongoing Resourcing Scheme (ORS) funding across the district.

Contact details for Christine:
Tel: (03) 539 1518
Mobile: 027 289 7471
Email: christine.curnow@education.govt.nz 

Blenheim Office – Special Education staff

Below is an overview of the Special Education staff based in the Blenheim office.

Rachel Patrick - Acting Service Manager, Special Education

Rachel Patrick is the Acting Service Manager for the Special Education team in Marlborough and Kaikoura until the end of June 2016, while Jill Ford is at National Office. Rachel’s professional background is as a speech & language therapist, and she is keen to continue building relationships in the Marlborough and Kaikoura area.

The Blenheim office is home to an early intervention teacher, an occupational therapist, psychologists, and speech & language therapists. A kaitakawaenga and advisor on deaf children regularly join the Blenheim team from Nelson.

The Marlborough and Kaikoura team’s office is based at 18 Stephenson Street, Blenheim.

Contact details for Rachel:
Tel: (03) 579 1874
Mobile: 027 289 7562
Email: rachel.patrick@education.govt.nz

Canterbury regional update

Director’s message

Kia ora koutou

What a busy couple of weeks it has been in Canterbury. I had the privilege of being part of the opening celebrations of the new Bishopdale Community Preschool at its new permanent location at Breens Intermediate. The opening of the preschool is another great milestone, not just for their community but for our city. This is a tribute to everyone’s hard work and now the tamariki and teachers can enjoy the fantastic building. See the story and photos later on in this newsletter.

Some staff from the Ministry of Education took the opportunity to attend a presentation about a Teaching and Learning Research Project, ‘Nurturing and encouraging young children’s identity, language and culture’. This is being undertaken with 2 early childhood services in Christchurch. Information about this exciting project can also be found in this newsletter.

One of our main priorities remains supporting you, your staff and the children enrolled in  your services. We contacted every early childhood service by email following the shake on 14 February, but unfortunately some contact details had changed and some of the emails did not get through. Please remember to notify our office if contact details such as phone numbers and email addresses are changed so that we can update our records. Changes in these details should be sent to: ECE.Canterbury@education.govt.nz

The impact of the recent quakes and the series of ongoing aftershocks may still be affecting some. We are here to assist you so please to do not hesitate to contact us if you require any further support.

Many of you will also be aware of the series of bomb threats schools have been receiving. The threats have been investigated by the Police and it is their belief that the threats have been generated offshore. While the threats have not been directed at early childhood services, this is a good time for you to review your emergency procedures to ensure that staff are aware of what actions they need to take should such a threat be made.

Finally, if you are applying to amend your licence please take heed of the following information. Service providers apply to the Ministry for any amendments to their licence using an Application to Amend an Early Childhood Licence form (EC/8). At times, we receive an EC/8 with a proposed effective date which has already passed, or it will pass before we are able to process the amendment. We are unable to backdate licences and the effective date must not precede the date on which the change is made. Therefore, we ask that if you have an amendment to be made it does not require a visit to the service. Also that you allow at least 1 week processing time between when the form is received in this office (including allowing time for this to be delivered to us if you are posting the form) and the date that you want the licence to be effective from. We usually are able to process licence amendments quicker than this, but 1 week will ensure that if any issues arises we have sufficient time to resolve these. No changes can be made to your operation before the effective date of the amended licence.

Again, thank you for your ongoing support.

Mā te wā

Coralanne Child
Director of Education for Canterbury
Tel: (03) 378 7345
Email: coralanne.child@education.govt.nz

Bishopdale Community Preschool – opens in its new permanent location

On Saturday 27 February, the Ministry of Education joined with the Hereora Learning Community Cluster to celebrate the opening of Bishopdale Community Preschool’s new whare. It is a tribute to the resilience of spirit and enormous persistence that 4 years after the preschool was forced to ‘temporarily relocate’ to Breens Intermediate due to earthquake damage they have finally found a permanent home.

The Hereora Learning Community Cluster’s vision is to ‘collaborate, inquire and aspire’. This is a true example of living your vision as the community came together to support the preschool during its time of need. Breens Intermediate has been pivotal and from the outset saw the opportunities to build a strong sense of community. The speeches held one theme – early childhood education (ECE) services and schools are the glue that holds our communities together. Together we plan for the education of our students as these are ‘our kids’.

The opening celebrations exemplified this as the deputy principal of the school and a teacher from the preschool jointly managed the barbeque for a sausage sizzle and the voices of the Breens kapahaka group sang the Hereora waiata.

For the last 15 years, Roberta Burt had been kaitiaki for a carving which represented Hereora made by students of the area. Hereora is the guardian of the puna/springs which bubble up in the local area and feed the streams. Roberta said that she had always intended to gift the carving to the school, but when she heard that a preschool was going to be built it felt right that it go to them as a representation of the link between ngā puna and the mokopuna of this community.

Roberta Burt (left) presents the carving to Sarah Straver (right) from Bishopdale Community Preschool.

Congratulations to the parents, whānau, committee member and teachers of Bishopdale Community Preschool.

Nurturing and encouraging young children’s identity, language and culture in the early years

The Teaching and Learning Research Initiative (TRLI) seeks to enhance the links between educational research and teaching practices to improve outcomes for learners. The fund was established by the Government in 2003. One of projects is being undertaken in Christchurch, led by Keryn Davis with support from Ruta McKenzie as Co-researcher and Dalene Mactier as Research Assistant (CORE Education). It focuses on understanding how young children express their working theories about identity, language and culture. Associate Professor Sally Peters and Vanessa Paki (University of Waikato) are Research Associates. A description of the project can be found on the TRLI website.

Mapusaga A’oga Amata and North Beach Community Childcare Centre in east Christchurch are the research sites and the project involves teachers, children and families from both services. At the end of February the early childhood community had the opportunity to hear the team introduce the project and share emerging examples and ideas from the first year of this 2-year project. Fa’amavaega Saofai from Mapusaga and Deborah Rose, Rachael Vincent and Munira Sugarwala from North Beach described the benefits of working together as ‘sister’ services and the impact this is having on children’s emerging understanding of cultural identity. The teachers are capturing and analysing children’s expressions of their working theories about ‘self and other’, as well as teacher pedagogy which contributes to these outcomes. The final report on this project is expected to be available in mid-2017. For further information contact Keryn Davis at: keryn.davis@core-ed.org.

Otago, Southland regional update

Roles and responsibilities of Ministry staff across the Otago/Southland region

Kia ora koutou and warm Pasifika greetings.

Last week we welcomed Dr Hassan Ibrahim, the Regional Ministry Refugee Education Coordinator for the Southern region, to our office. He has been helping us to plan for the resettlement of the Syrian refugees. Hassan highlighted to us the importance of a whole family approach, where building the capacity of the parents as well as the children is key. Understanding language and local culture, and the ways families can be supported to engage with early childhood centres and schools, helps give parents confidence in their ability to support their children and is a key to successful resettlement. We have met with Penel Pask, a representative from the early childhood sector, and representatives from the Otago Primary and Secondary Principals Associations to discuss the extra support needed to assist with the education of the refugees. We expect the first group of around 45 people (less than 10 families) at the end of April.

We have 8 Communities of Learning (COLs) approved in our region in the Wakatipu Basin, Cromwell, Dunstan, South Otago, Gore, Fiordland and Northern Southland, Lower Mataura Valley and the Southern Area schools. Making connections with early childhood education (ECE) services is part of the education pathways focus of COLs. In a number of communities there are already connections between schools and ECE, but we want this extended within the COL context. The specific nature of ECE involvement in COLs is being explored and this will vary in different communities. We will keep you updated as developments progress. The sharing of transition strategies and making links between Te Whāriki and the New Zealand School Curriculum would be a great starting point for discussions.

This year, our key focus is on new ways of working and fostering transitions across educational pathways in our region. With new staff joining our ECE Team we have a wonderful opportunity to look at how we utilise the team’s strengths to support ECE development and practice. We have provided you with more of a team response with key contact leads as per the contact list below. If that person is not available at the time, other team members can and will assist.

	Kurt Chisholm (03) 471 5225  Mobile: 027 243 2915 Key contact for licensing regulations and new licensing services: Invercargill, Southland, Queenstown-Lakes and Central Otago
	Pip Laufiso  (03) 471 5202  Mobile: 027 051 1467 Key contact for licensing regulations and new licensing services: South Otago, Dunedin and North Otago
	Nikki Hosking  (03) 471 5227  Mobile: 027 705 6558 As of Term 2, key contact for all ECE and schools in Northern Southland, Central Southland and Western Southland (Kurt Chisholm will be back-up support for licensing regulatory)
	Natasha Munro  (03) 471 5218  Mobile: 027 248 5539 Key contact for Cromwell area for all ECE – Natasha is also the key contact for ECE Property Occupancy agreements on school sites
	Chris Cooper   (03) 471 5224   Mobile: 027 809 8573 Key contact for ECE playgroups in Dunedin and South Otago
	Ernie Mather:   (03) 471 5266   Mobile: 027 809 8422 Key contact for ECE playgroups in North Otago, Central Otago and Dunedin
	Robyn Powell:   (03) 211 8021 Key contact for ECE playgroups in Invercargill and Eastern Southland

ECE information (general) – Chris, Ernie, Robyn will be able to assist.

Managers:

	Mary Geary (Southland): (03) 471 5208  Mobile: 027-215-4143
	Kathryn Palmer (Otago):  (03) 471 5209  Mobile: 027-433-2126

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

Ngā mihi mahana

Julie Anderson
Tel: (03) 471 5217
Mobile: 027 836 4846
Email: julie.anderson@education.govt.nz