Advocating & Supporting Quality Care
and Education for Children
The WCCCA Website
This site provides information for the public about Early Childhood Education services in Wellington. The WCCCA newsletter is able to be accessed from this site, along with information about services available from WCCCA. Members have access to resources and information about courses we are running. We intend also to provide members with information and articles on current issues. Explore our web site for more.
For more information on anything on our website or to contact us
Please take note of all our new details............
email - wccca@xtra.co.nz
Phone - (04) 389-3383
Fax - (04) 389-3385
Postal address - PO Box 7506, South Wellington, Wellington
Physical address - 130 Adelaide Road, Newtown,Wellington
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T.G. Macarthy Trust Funds 2008 
For Early Childhood Education and Care Centres and Out of School Care and Recreation Programmes
This fund is provided by the T.G. Macarthy Trust for the Wellington Community Child Care Association to distribute on the Trusts behalf. It is available to community owned and operated Early Childhood Education and Care Centres and Out of School Care and Recreation programmes (OSCAR), throughout the Lower North Island.
N.B. This fund is not available to State Kindergartens, Playcentres, Barnardos, or Kohanga Reo. These services should contact their own Regional or National Associations for information on and access to T.G. Macarthy funds. The fund is also not available to Playgroups or Homework groups.
Applications will be considered from groups that meet the following criteria :
Early Childhood Education and Care Centres:
Your centre is an Incorporated Society or a Charitable Trust.
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Your centre is Parent or Community owned and managed.
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Your centre is licensed by the Ministry of Education.
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Your centre is applying for funds to improve the building or playground. Or for projects that address health and safety hazards in the centre, or you are applying so that your centre can meet the new MOE criteria.
N.B. priority will be given to Centres seeking to implement recommendations made by the Education Review Office, Public Health Service or Ministry of Education.
Out of School Care and Recreation Programmes :
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Your programme is Parent or Community owned and managed.
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Your programme is an Incorporated Society or Charitable Trust, or you are sponsored by an Incorporated Society or Charitable Trust.
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Your programme is involved in addressing health and safety issues, or you are applying for funds for costs related to the provision of activities, equipment or supplies for the programme.
N.B. Priority will be given to programmes for projects that assist them to meet Child Youth and Family Guidelines for approval for OSCAR services.
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The T.G. Macarthy Trust funds are available to groups that operate in the Lower North Island. That is, those in the region that extends from Wellington to Wanganui in the west, National Park in the centre, and the Wairarapa in the east.
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The maximum grant to any one centre or programme will be $2,000.00. Grants will NOT be made to centres or programmes for costs relating to ongoing operation such as rent, electricity or wages/salaries.
Closing date for applications –Friday 02 May 2008.
For your copy of the application form and guidelines please either
click on links Application form or Guidelines
Email: wccca@xtra.co.nz
Phone: (04) 389 3383
Write: WCCCA, PO Box 7506, Wellington South, Wellington 6242
 Funding for Free ECE now avalible and working well
The funding is available for 3 and 4 year old children attending teacher-led services, for up to 20 hours per week and for a maximum of 6 hours per day. For more information on this click here or click the logo to go to the ministry website.
At the end of June the Ministry of Education figures reported a 62% uptake of Free ECE by teacher-led services throughout the country and the inclusion of 70% of the country’s 3 and 4 year olds. As at 1 August, the Ministry says that 65% of eligible services are offering Free ECE.
Summary information and what it means for parents have a look at this flyer prepared by WCCCA flyer
For new rates announced in the May 2007 budget click here
The Free ECE Information for Parents booklet has been translated into the following languages - Chinese, Cook Island Maori, English, Fijian, Niuean, Samoan, Somalian, Tokelauan, and Tongan, and can be ordered through the Ministry of Education. They are also available online on the Ministry of Education’s Team Up website on the right-hand side of the page under http://www.teamup.co.nz /earlyyears/about/20+Hours +Free/default.htm
Parents can order copies by calling 0800 20 44 33
Monitoring Free ECE
The aim of the government’s Free ECE initiative is to support and encourage families to enrol their child or to increase the time their child spends in early childhood education, by reducing costs to families. Later this year the Ministry will be contracting out a survey of a sample of services, on the early effects of 20 hours Free ECE. This may lead to fine tuning of the policy. Data for this survey will be collected from early October 2007 to early February 2008. A draft report will be produced by April 2008. In the meantime, the Ministry is monitoring changes in ECE fee levels in order to get a picture of any change to affordability for parents.
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Consenting Parties Collective Agreement negotiations for renewal – Oct/Nov 07
The current settlement of the Consenting Parties Collective Employment Agreement expires at the end of October this year. The NZEI has “initiated bargaining” for replacement of the 2004-07 Agreement by sending a notice to all employer parties to the Agreement. Union meetings were held during August at which NZEI members discussed their claims for changes they would like to see in the Agreement. These will be forwarded to employers by the end of this month. Dates for negotiations have been set down for the 24 th and 25 th of October and the 5 th and 6 th of November 2007.
Centre employers can either represent themselves at the negotiations or they can nominate a bargaining agent to represent them. In previous years Te Tari Puna Ora o Aotearoa/NZCA has acted as a bargaining agent for the majority of employers that are party to the Agreement. This has meant that employers send in any amendments or additions they consider to be important to the TTPOA/NZCA , TTPOA/NZCA has then collated these, analysed the union’s claims, led the negotiating team, and managed the ratification process after a settlement has been reached.
Centres that would like the TTPOA/NZCA to represent them again this year, need to complete a bargaining authority form and pay a fee of $200. The TTPOA/NZCA has requested that these be sent to them by the 19 th of September. If you have not done this and would still like them to represent you, or you have not received the mail out from TTPOA/NZCA, contact them immediately: Email: nancy.bell@nzca.ac.nz
WCCCA has launched a new RELIEVING TEACHER SCHEME - we have qualified and non qualified teachers available for centres - see flyer (pdf 81kb)
We are also looking for teachers to be relievers for the scheme - see teachers flyer (pdf 68kb)
If you are a new reliever here is the NEW RELIEVERS PACK (pdf 99kb) -all the information you need to know and timesheet (pdf 96kb)
For more information please phone Bethany O'Hagan on 0508 4 73224 (0508 4 REACH)
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Courses for 2008 - TEACHER REGISTRATION, Being Resourceful, Dramatic Play, From Other Cultures, Families & Communities, Different Perspectives in ECE, Going Outside, Role of Parent Committee, Management & Leadership, Health & Safety (more information )
Teacher Vacancies in Early Childhood Centres, After School Programmes and Holiday Programmes - job description and contact details
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Early childhood licensing/certification criteria-second round of consultation
With the Free ECE policy now up and running, the Ministry of Education is able to turn its attention back to the Regulatory Review. The Ministry has revised the criteria as a result of feedback from the sector. A number of changes have been made to the draft that was circulated to services in 2006 – the “Green Book”. A second round of consultation is now about to begin.
Regional meetings, to which the original Reference Group members have been invited, are to be held around the country during October. WCCCA staff will be involved in the Wellington meeting which will take place on the 2 nd of October. At this meeting the Ministry will provide Reference Group members with information about the consultation process.
On, or around the 8 th of October, ALL services will receive a newsletter about the consultation process. In this newsletter there will be the name of a website that services can go to, to view the new draft of the criteria. Hard copies will also be available from the Ministry.
The actual consultation process will be targeted at umbrella organizations rather than individual services. WCCCA will keep you posted.
Safe Katz
Safe Kids and teachers Resource Kit – A Health and Safety resource for earlychildhood centres
- copies are available on request from WCCCA - for more information
New Charities Act
Not for profit organisations that wish to be registered as Charities for tax purposes need to be
registered with the Charities Commission. see full article in sector news
Charities Commission Update newsletter 25 - September 2007
Charities Commission Update for October.
If you'd like to read the newsletter on our website, or print it out in its 2-column format, please visit http://www.charities.govt.nz/news/update_newsletter.htm.
Opening of the Stokes Valley Community Childcare Centre
The Stokes Valley Community Childcare Centre finally opened their doors for the first time. They have 18 children starting and a full team of teachers, 3 of whom are fully qualified and one other due to qualify in 6 weeks. All the children that are starting have not been attending anywhere else. This means18 new children participating in early childhood education which should please the Ministry of Education.
113-115 George Street Stokes Valley.
Email address stokesvalley.ccc@xtra.co.nz
Centre upgrades
It must be Spring. A number of WCCCA member centres are currently in the throws of planning, and/or implementing building or environment upgrades. For some, this is in preparation for meeting the new licensing standards. If you have equipment that you would like to sell or buy for you centre, let us know and we will get the word out.
And if you have news, or interesting initiatives, fundraising events coming up, you think other centres might be interested in, please let us know - just give us a call or email us.
Early Childhood Education Strategy:
50% Teacher Qualification Requirement for teacher-led, centre based ECE services
Kia ora tatou katoa,
Ngā mihi rawa koutou, i runga te kaupapa o te ra.
I am pleased to be able to tell you about the next phase of the Teacher Registration Targets, outlined in Pathways to the Future - Ngā Huarahi Arataki.
The first target came into effect on 1 January 2005. This meant that home-based care co-ordinators and the person/s responsible in teacher-led, centre based services had to be registered teachers who held a Diploma in Teaching (ECE) or similar qualification. more....
Wellington City Council to review early childhood centre leases
In December last year Wellington City Councilors discussed a paper setting out options for the future level of support by Council for early childhood services in the city. For further information click here
WCCCA – Member Survey 2007
At the beginning of September,
WCCCA sent out a survey to members asking for feed back on our services. If you have not filled yours in yet, we are still keen to receive your feed back, especially in relation to WCCCA courses and workshops, so that we can begin planning next year’s programme. If you have not received a copy, or have misplaced it please give us a call and we will send out another one.
New Equipment and Surfacing
Under the new Standard for playground equipment and surfacing which came into effect in May 2005, all licensed ECE services must ensure that any new equipment or safety surfacing they buy, has a Certificate of Compliance. The Ministry of Education’s list of known manufacturers who range of products have tested and certified will soon be available on their website. This however, will be a guide only, and ECE services will still need to check with any potential manufacturer/supplier that a Certificate of Compliance is available before a purchase is made.
Consenting Parties Settlement
still to be ratified. It goes to the employers for ratification first. Deadline 14th December. If ratified by them, then it goes to the Union and they then go through the ratification process with all union members covered by the Agreement. Attached are the pay rates agreed on.
We welcome your feedback on our website! Let us know what you think by email or phone us at the WCCCA office
(04) 389 3383. |
