Rutherford Street Kindergarten Newsletter – April May 2010
Kia Ora te Whānau
Welcome to another term at your favourite Kindergarten. We all hope you had a restful break from rushing around. The weather has been gorgeous so enjoy the beautiful days.
A big welcome to Bernadette Armer; Bernie will be with us here at Rsk for the next 5 weeks. Please make her feel welcome. Bernie usually works at Mapua Early Childhood Centre. While she is here, Bernie will be observing the interactions of your children and the teachers. Bernie’s lecturer, Kim, from the Open Polytechnic will be here occasionally too.
Welcome to Meilan Brown (Keian’s brother), Logan Gelling, Alex Palmer, Mercedes Wills (Manon’s sister) and Hannah Pratt (Sophie’s sister). We hope you enjoy our small but friendly centre. We welcome all our families to spend some time in the centre, it might be a particular skill you have to share (baking, sewing, exercises etc), or you might have visiting relatives/friends that would love to come and hang out with us. We have an ‘open-door’ policy.
If you have questions or suggestions on this or any matter, please talk to the teachers.
Committee News:
A note from the management committee: We have had a successful year last year, ending in our positive review by ERO. (Please see the note on the notice board or www.ero.govt.nz) There have been many changes over the last three years that have made us more modern, more compliant with Ministry requirements and provided more equipment for our children. All this has come at a cost. For three years we have had one of the lowest hourly rates for centres in our region and so because of this we have decided to increase our fees from $4.50 to $5.00 per hour. (This only affects children who are under three or who attend more than 20 hours per week.) This seems like a minimal increase, but we wanted to keep it affordable. So at the AGM we have also decided to increase the termly donation to $65.00. If you feel you can pay more for your child’s education, please feel free to donate more. (Donations are tax-deductable!) If you are unable to pay the donation, please talk to Catherine about it. We are talking about $6.50 per week for each child. Remember WINZ offers subsidies to some families.
These changes will help with the day to day running of the Centre. It will not however, fund the new playground renovation. Remember the plan from months ago? In order for us to gain our new verandah, sand area and garden, we will need to FUNDRAISE! As well as apply for Grants.
We are always looking for willing helpers to ‘man’ projects. If this sounds more like you than being on a committee, please ring one of the Management committee members.
The next management committee meeting will be Tuesday 27th April, 2010 (7.30pm). We hold the meetings here at Kindergarten, in the staff room and welcome all new people.
Take a moment to handle stress:
• Jam tiny marshmallow up your nose and try to sneeze them out.
• Use your Master-card to pay your Visa bill.
• Pop some popcorn without putting the lid on.
Family Picnic:
This Friday, 30th April 2010 we will meet at the Founder’s Park to celebrate our past year’s achievements. We have organised for the Sports Tasman trailer to be there so we can have lots of fun! So bring along your family (Grandma, Grand dad and all) and a picnic lunch. 11am-1pm. All children attending will need to be accompanied by an adult. The Friday class children are welcome to come to the normal session and then be picked up at 10.45am(ish) and taken to the park. Any problems, talk to the teachers. Our idea is to have the families there to get together and meet one another, in a fun environment. The entrance is through the Windmill let them know you are from RSK and we will met in the grass area beside the Bristol Freighter. (airplane) If it rains, we will postpone the picnic to the following week.
Casual hours and obligations: If your child attends a session as a ‘casual’, ie not their normal session, it is up to you to come in and sign that form for that day so that you can receive the ‘20 hours ECE’. If you forget to do that, it will be charged as an extra session. The hours need to be changed and then changed back so that means signing two forms. On that note, when you find a ‘yellow’ card in your child’s communication pocket, it means that we need you to pop to the office to sign the booking sheet again. There are a number of reasons why; hours changed, casual sessions, checking for times or changes in 20 hours ECE. Please be patient with the teachers who are on their lunch breaks at that time. (We’re lucky to get 25 minutes!) Leave the yellow cards on the desk. Thanks.
Other up-coming events and information:
• We have booked Des Ellery to take the children’s photos this year. He will be here on the Tuesday 4th May at 9am and 12.45pm. Des will also take group photos so if it is not your child’s usual day, please try to make it in at some time.
• We have Nursing Students here in the Kindergarten next week and the week after. Please make them welcome.
• Friday 18th June will be another waiting list play date. 1.30-2.45pm. If you know of any friends who might like to enroll their child, they are welcome to pop in that day, if not before.
• We have booked a trip to visit the Brook Kindergarten on Wednesday 12th May. We have two children who attend both there and here so it’ll be fun for them to show us around their other Centre. We will catch a bus there; look out for further details soon. All children welcome on these excursions.
• Have you noticed the new name labels on your child’s bag? This is to help the teachers when they are helping children get changed. Please label your child’s lunch box, drink bottles clothes and shoes. It makes our life much easier.
• We have a healthy food policy here at Kindergarten; we encourage the children to eat sandwiches and crackers before other ‘treat foods’. In fact we would rather not see those foods in your child’s lunch box… leave them for home and treat times. Water is the best drink for children too. If we make these choices for our children now, they will find it easier to sustain as adults. It’s great to see so many rubbish-free lunch boxes.
• We have planned for a whole Centre visit to Clifton Terrace School on Friday 25th June and a small group visit to Victory school on Friday 28th May. If you are interested in either of these visits, please talk to Libby.
• If someone different is collecting your child, please let the teachers know. This keeps us all safe.
• Our gates are there to keep the children safe too. Make sure that only your child goes out of the gates, and please encourage your child not to swing on them (or slam it!) Thanks!
Libby, Mary, Angie, Ellie and Catherine, (Bernie, Loren and Marg too.)
April May 2010
Rutherford Street Kindergarten Newsletter – April May 2010
Welcome to another term at your favourite Kindergarten. We all hope you had a restful break from rushing around. The weather has been gorgeous so enjoy the beautiful days.
A big welcome to Bernadette Armer; Bernie will be with us here at Rsk for the next 5 weeks. Please make her feel welcome. Bernie usually works at Mapua Early Childhood Centre. While she is here, Bernie will be observing the interactions of your children and the teachers. Bernie’s lecturer, Kim, from the Open Polytechnic will be here occasionally too.
Welcome to Meilan Brown (Keian’s brother), Logan Gelling, Alex Palmer, Mercedes Wills (Manon’s sister) and Hannah Pratt (Sophie’s sister). We hope you enjoy our small but friendly centre. We welcome all our families to spend some time in the centre, it might be a particular skill you have to share (baking, sewing, exercises etc), or you might have visiting relatives/friends that would love to come and hang out with us. We have an ‘open-door’ policy.
If you have questions or suggestions on this or any matter, please talk to the teachers.
Committee News:
A note from the management committee: We have had a successful year last year, ending in our positive review by ERO. (Please see the note on the notice board or www.ero.govt.nz) There have been many changes over the last three years that have made us more modern, more compliant with Ministry requirements and provided more equipment for our children. All this has come at a cost. For three years we have had one of the lowest hourly rates for centres in our region and so because of this we have decided to increase our fees from $4.50 to $5.00 per hour. (This only affects children who are under three or who attend more than 20 hours per week.) This seems like a minimal increase, but we wanted to keep it affordable. So at the AGM we have also decided to increase the termly donation to $65.00. If you feel you can pay more for your child’s education, please feel free to donate more. (Donations are tax-deductable!) If you are unable to pay the donation, please talk to Catherine about it. We are talking about $6.50 per week for each child. Remember WINZ offers subsidies to some families.
These changes will help with the day to day running of the Centre. It will not however, fund the new playground renovation. Remember the plan from months ago? In order for us to gain our new verandah, sand area and garden, we will need to FUNDRAISE! As well as apply for Grants.
We are always looking for willing helpers to ‘man’ projects. If this sounds more like you than being on a committee, please ring one of the Management committee members.
The next management committee meeting will be Tuesday 27th April, 2010 (7.30pm). We hold the meetings here at Kindergarten, in the staff room and welcome all new people.
Take a moment to handle stress:
• Jam tiny marshmallow up your nose and try to sneeze them out.
• Use your Master-card to pay your Visa bill.
• Pop some popcorn without putting the lid on.
Family Picnic:
This Friday, 30th April 2010 we will meet at the Founder’s Park to celebrate our past year’s achievements. We have organised for the Sports Tasman trailer to be there so we can have lots of fun! So bring along your family (Grandma, Grand dad and all) and a picnic lunch. 11am-1pm. All children attending will need to be accompanied by an adult. The Friday class children are welcome to come to the normal session and then be picked up at 10.45am(ish) and taken to the park. Any problems, talk to the teachers. Our idea is to have the families there to get together and meet one another, in a fun environment. The entrance is through the Windmill let them know you are from RSK and we will met in the grass area beside the Bristol Freighter. (airplane) If it rains, we will postpone the picnic to the following week.
Casual hours and obligations: If your child attends a session as a ‘casual’, ie not their normal session, it is up to you to come in and sign that form for that day so that you can receive the ‘20 hours ECE’. If you forget to do that, it will be charged as an extra session. The hours need to be changed and then changed back so that means signing two forms. On that note, when you find a ‘yellow’ card in your child’s communication pocket, it means that we need you to pop to the office to sign the booking sheet again. There are a number of reasons why; hours changed, casual sessions, checking for times or changes in 20 hours ECE. Please be patient with the teachers who are on their lunch breaks at that time. (We’re lucky to get 25 minutes!) Leave the yellow cards on the desk. Thanks.
Other up-coming events and information:
• We have booked Des Ellery to take the children’s photos this year. He will be here on the Tuesday 4th May at 9am and 12.45pm. Des will also take group photos so if it is not your child’s usual day, please try to make it in at some time.
• We have Nursing Students here in the Kindergarten next week and the week after. Please make them welcome.
• Friday 18th June will be another waiting list play date. 1.30-2.45pm. If you know of any friends who might like to enroll their child, they are welcome to pop in that day, if not before.
• We have booked a trip to visit the Brook Kindergarten on Wednesday 12th May. We have two children who attend both there and here so it’ll be fun for them to show us around their other Centre. We will catch a bus there; look out for further details soon. All children welcome on these excursions.
• Have you noticed the new name labels on your child’s bag? This is to help the teachers when they are helping children get changed. Please label your child’s lunch box, drink bottles clothes and shoes. It makes our life much easier.
• We have a healthy food policy here at Kindergarten; we encourage the children to eat sandwiches and crackers before other ‘treat foods’. In fact we would rather not see those foods in your child’s lunch box… leave them for home and treat times. Water is the best drink for children too. If we make these choices for our children now, they will find it easier to sustain as adults. It’s great to see so many rubbish-free lunch boxes.
• We have planned for a whole Centre visit to Clifton Terrace School on Friday 25th June and a small group visit to Victory school on Friday 28th May. If you are interested in either of these visits, please talk to Libby.
• If someone different is collecting your child, please let the teachers know. This keeps us all safe.
• Our gates are there to keep the children safe too. Make sure that only your child goes out of the gates, and please encourage your child not to swing on them (or slam it!) Thanks!
Libby, Mary, Angie, Ellie and Catherine, (Bernie, Loren and Marg too.)