Rutherford Street Kindergarten Newsletter – August 2011
Welcome Back to Term 3: hope you all had a great break. We will look forward to hearing some holiday stories, and sharing some of our own! Also, hopefully those nasty bugs have disappeared for at least a few weeks for a bit of respite!!
Goodbye We said goodbye to five of our wonderful children at the end of last term – Oscar Begg, Lily, Freya, Abe and Ella – all of whom are off to school (Abe in England). Niamh is the next to go – we have her back just for the first two weeks of this term. We wish all these children the very best for their years at school. Also, we are happy to introduce Josephine Hufflett (returning), Leah Howse, Emir Cahilog-Rahman, Will Alford, Harvey Mackitchie, William Kearney and Bella Palmer to RSK, and hope you have many good times here.
Story Grandad Martin Wearing: has been reading to our children for six years now; and is a wonderful asset to our centre and children. We would like to show our appreciation by holding a morning tea for Martin on Wednesday August 10th at 10am. If you are able to make this time we would love families to come along – and please also bring a small plate of healthy snack food to share with everyone. Kindergarten will provide cheese, crackers and grapes.
Planned Programme: The teaching staff came together over the holidays and decided on two special foci for Term 3, which include the garden and art. This planned aspect of the upcoming programme is derived from the emergent activities we noticed and recorded children spending time in over Term 2. (See the What’s Happening? book). Angie, Ruby and Ann have some great ideas in these areas, and you will get to see them as the term goes on! (If any families have ideas, we would love to know – we already have native seeds from Caity’s Nana to grow and plant out later).
In addition, look out for details later this term about a trip to the Gym. We will be having regular visits from Noa Parker (yoga) and Kath Bee, and will also be visiting Hampden Street School with Friday Class and may plan for another trip too, around the gardening/art foci.
Off overseas: Angie is going overseas for two months towards the end of this term. We are hoping to have a postcard every week so we can ‘share’ some of her experiences!! Ruby will be taking over Angie’s hours where possible for the two months, and Ji Young and our other chief reliever Sarah will largely pick up the rest. .
Professional Development: Ruby and Ann are shortly going on a course that’s undertaken over two Tuesdays. This is on Literacy and Numeracy, and should be a great challenge with lots of ideas for educational experiences to put into place for children; not to mention the rest of we teaching staff will be able to tap into the knowledge they gain.
Grass Area: This was completed in the holidays – it will be wonderful to be able to use this area as it was just a quagmire all last term due to the ongoing rainy weather! We have plans to make some tiles with the children, themed in different ways, to put in as a ‘path’ through the shingle. Watch this space…
Administration: Many thanks to Debbie Ade and our wonderful Governance Committee. Debbie has stepped in to cover us until we find a new administrator – she is keeping us afloat and teaching lots of new skills along the way!! Also, some of the committee have put hours into their voluntary roles lately – hopefully not for much longer though, as we expect to have a new administrator employed very shortly.
Otherwise on the administration front, we have a couple of areas needing fast action:
The first regards Attestation Forms. Attestation Forms are a requirement of the Ministry of Education and we must have one filled in for every child enrolled at RSK. Please fill them in carefully and return ASAP. We will not be making any further changes to your children’s bookings unless these forms are filled in; and it’s important to note that we are NOT supposed to be claiming any ECE hours without them filled in, so please give these your immediate attention. Thanks.
The second regards Immunisation Details. We have a large number of immunisation details not on our records. It is a requirement of the Ministry of Education that we hold these details on record. Please note that it is your choice whether or not you immunise your child – but we need to know either way. If there was ever an epidemic or a pandemic, we would know from these details which families to contact most urgently. If your child is immunised, we need to sight/photocopy their record every time they have new vaccinations. We have a list of children whose details are needed – so if you find a note in your pockets (Week 2) please follow this up.
If possible, to simplify the process for us (just until we have a new administrator) please drop your plunket books with vaccination records into the appropriately marked box on the staffroom floor. Plunket books will be sighted, photocopied and returned to you the following day. Thanks again.
Did you know that we are being re-licensed under the new Licencing Criteria in October?…and we plan to meet all the requirements that keep our children well educated and cared for!
Late Pick-Up, Early Drop-Off:Due to funding, we can no longer offer the late pick up between 12.30pm and 1pm. However, the early drop off between 8am and 8.30am is still available by arrangement, as is the late pick up between 3.30pm and 4pm.
Just a reminder – if you are simply late and it’s not prearranged, you will be charged $10 after 10 minutes and then $10 for every 10 minutes after that. This is standard stuff that happens throughout early childhood centres and is largely due to the child;teacher ratios required by the Ministry of Education.
Eye and Ear Checks: These are underway for all our 4 year olds, and we have our annual visit from Paula Murray on Wednesday August 10th. If your 4 year old is unable to make this day please phone Public Health to arrange another time. Apologies for all the paperwork you’re being required to fill in this week – but we also need the Before Four checklists filled in by the parents of all our 4 year olds and returned to us by the end of the first week back. Thanks.
Term dates: Looking forward to an educational, active and fun-filled term!
August 2011
Rutherford Street Kindergarten Newsletter – August 2011
Welcome Back to Term 3: hope you all had a great break. We will look forward to hearing some holiday stories, and sharing some of our own! Also, hopefully those nasty bugs have disappeared for at least a few weeks for a bit of respite!!
Goodbye We said goodbye to five of our wonderful children at the end of last term – Oscar Begg, Lily, Freya, Abe and Ella – all of whom are off to school (Abe in England). Niamh is the next to go – we have her back just for the first two weeks of this term. We wish all these children the very best for their years at school. Also, we are happy to introduce Josephine Hufflett (returning), Leah Howse, Emir Cahilog-Rahman, Will Alford, Harvey Mackitchie, William Kearney and Bella Palmer to RSK, and hope you have many good times here.
Story Grandad Martin Wearing: has been reading to our children for six years now; and is a wonderful asset to our centre and children. We would like to show our appreciation by holding a morning tea for Martin on Wednesday August 10th at 10am. If you are able to make this time we would love families to come along – and please also bring a small plate of healthy snack food to share with everyone. Kindergarten will provide cheese, crackers and grapes.
Planned Programme: The teaching staff came together over the holidays and decided on two special foci for Term 3, which include the garden and art. This planned aspect of the upcoming programme is derived from the emergent activities we noticed and recorded children spending time in over Term 2. (See the What’s Happening? book). Angie, Ruby and Ann have some great ideas in these areas, and you will get to see them as the term goes on! (If any families have ideas, we would love to know – we already have native seeds from Caity’s Nana to grow and plant out later).
In addition, look out for details later this term about a trip to the Gym. We will be having regular visits from Noa Parker (yoga) and Kath Bee, and will also be visiting Hampden Street School with Friday Class and may plan for another trip too, around the gardening/art foci.
Off overseas: Angie is going overseas for two months towards the end of this term. We are hoping to have a postcard every week so we can ‘share’ some of her experiences!! Ruby will be taking over Angie’s hours where possible for the two months, and Ji Young and our other chief reliever Sarah will largely pick up the rest. .
Professional Development: Ruby and Ann are shortly going on a course that’s undertaken over two Tuesdays. This is on Literacy and Numeracy, and should be a great challenge with lots of ideas for educational experiences to put into place for children; not to mention the rest of we teaching staff will be able to tap into the knowledge they gain.
Grass Area: This was completed in the holidays – it will be wonderful to be able to use this area as it was just a quagmire all last term due to the ongoing rainy weather! We have plans to make some tiles with the children, themed in different ways, to put in as a ‘path’ through the shingle. Watch this space…
Administration: Many thanks to Debbie Ade and our wonderful Governance Committee. Debbie has stepped in to cover us until we find a new administrator – she is keeping us afloat and teaching lots of new skills along the way!! Also, some of the committee have put hours into their voluntary roles lately – hopefully not for much longer though, as we expect to have a new administrator employed very shortly.
Otherwise on the administration front, we have a couple of areas needing fast action:
The first regards Attestation Forms. Attestation Forms are a requirement of the Ministry of Education and we must have one filled in for every child enrolled at RSK. Please fill them in carefully and return ASAP. We will not be making any further changes to your children’s bookings unless these forms are filled in; and it’s important to note that we are NOT supposed to be claiming any ECE hours without them filled in, so please give these your immediate attention. Thanks.
The second regards Immunisation Details. We have a large number of immunisation details not on our records. It is a requirement of the Ministry of Education that we hold these details on record. Please note that it is your choice whether or not you immunise your child – but we need to know either way. If there was ever an epidemic or a pandemic, we would know from these details which families to contact most urgently. If your child is immunised, we need to sight/photocopy their record every time they have new vaccinations. We have a list of children whose details are needed – so if you find a note in your pockets (Week 2) please follow this up.
If possible, to simplify the process for us (just until we have a new administrator) please drop your plunket books with vaccination records into the appropriately marked box on the staffroom floor. Plunket books will be sighted, photocopied and returned to you the following day. Thanks again.
Did you know that we are being re-licensed under the new Licencing Criteria in October?…and we plan to meet all the requirements that keep our children well educated and cared for!
Late Pick-Up, Early Drop-Off:Due to funding, we can no longer offer the late pick up between 12.30pm and 1pm. However, the early drop off between 8am and 8.30am is still available by arrangement, as is the late pick up between 3.30pm and 4pm.
Just a reminder – if you are simply late and it’s not prearranged, you will be charged $10 after 10 minutes and then $10 for every 10 minutes after that. This is standard stuff that happens throughout early childhood centres and is largely due to the child;teacher ratios required by the Ministry of Education.
Eye and Ear Checks: These are underway for all our 4 year olds, and we have our annual visit from Paula Murray on Wednesday August 10th. If your 4 year old is unable to make this day please phone Public Health to arrange another time. Apologies for all the paperwork you’re being required to fill in this week – but we also need the Before Four checklists filled in by the parents of all our 4 year olds and returned to us by the end of the first week back. Thanks.
Term dates: Looking forward to an educational, active and fun-filled term!
Mary, Angie, Ann, Ruby, Ji Young and Catherine.