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Issue no. 59 | 11 May 2021
Early Learning Bulletin 11 May 2021

Message from Secretary for Education

Kia ora koutou,

As we move through this year at a rapid pace, it is hard to fathom that we are nearing the end of Autumn and approaching the colder weather.

Recently we opened public consultation on proposed changes to the Education and Training Act. Some of the proposed changes will affect early learning services, and the public consultation provides an opportunity for you to have your say. 

This week is New Zealand Sign Language Week, Rotuman Language Week, and Privacy Week and next week is Bullying Free NZ Week (Pink Shirt Day). Phew! Your teachers and educators might choose to incorporate one or more of these into their lesson plans.

Ngā mihi
Iona


In today’s bulletin:

Critical

  • Public consultation on proposed changes to the Education and Training Act 2020
  • Curriculum Leads begin their mahi
Heads up
  • Electronic funding notices 
  • Funding Contact Details
  • The Frequent Absence Rule – a reminder
  • New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week
  • Bullying-Free New Zealand Week 17-21 May
  • Preparing for ECE Census 2021
  • EC3 assessment tool for home-based services now online
Regional News
Critical

Public consultation on proposed changes to the Education and Training Act 2020

The proposed changes include:

  • strengthening and clarifying Teaching Council of Aotearoa disciplinary and certification processes
  • enabling the Educational Review Office to review professional learning and development services accessed by schools, kura and early learning services
  • ensuring all employees Police vetted before they begin work 
  • changes to how school board elections are run, including enabling elections to be held electronically or through hui  
  • possible changes to the priority categories for out of zone enrolments in state schools. 


Public consultation closes Wednesday 16 June 2021.  To find out more about the proposed changes and have your say go to the Kōrero Mātauranga website. 

Education and Training Amendment Bill (no 2) - Kōrero Mātauranga website

Introduction of the Education and Training Amendment Bill 
The Education and Training Amendment Bill has been introduced. The Bill’s content includes expanding the timeframe that prohibits tertiary providers from charging trainees a compulsory student services fee, and ensuring that former teachers can only use physical restraint if they are approved by the school that employs them, along with other technical changes to the Education and Training Act 2020.

A copy of the Bill, and information on how you can make a submission to the Select Committee, can be found by going to the New Zealand Parliament website.

Education and Training Amendment Bill - New Zealand Parliament website

Curriculum Leads begin their mahi

Curriculum Leads | Kaihautū Marautanga are a new frontline curriculum resource located in our regional offices and available to support teachers | kaiako in early learning services and schools. We know that Te Whāriki has a strong focus on tamariki wellbeing and Curriculum Leads are here to support teachers | kaiako with curriculum design and implementation.

They will help teachers | kaiako to make sense of new curriculum wellbeing supports (such as the mental health guidelines when they become available). 

They will provide different levels of support to early learning services. For example, they could share a resource for kaiako to read in their own time or share examples of how resources could be used to strengthen practice in early learning settings.  In some cases, the Curriculum Leads could offer more in-depth support to a service over a longer period.  By working with kaiako in early learning services, the Curriculum Leads will support the government's strategic objective of increasing the wellbeing of children and youth.

For more information please make contact with your local Ministry of Education office and ask to connect with a Curriculum Lead.

Heads up

Electronic funding notices 

Thank you to all those who completed the Education Sector Logon (ESL) form and have been set up with access to the Secure Data Portal. We have developed a Secure Data Portal access guide which includes instructions on how to access the Secure Data Portal, as well as the link to access it.

Secure Data Portal information

Our goal is to become paperless. To support this, we are now aiming for all services to have access to the Secure Data Portal and their electronic funding notices in time for the 1 July 2021 funding round. After 1 July 2021, we will not post paper copies of funding notices through the mail. 

For those services who are not yet set up in the Secure Data Portal, we will send out reminder emails and call your funding contact about what they need to do to gain access. To get your service set up in time, please ensure your funding contact details are up to date. Contact your  local Ministry office if there has been a change.

Local Ministry office

If you have not  heard from us, complete an ESL39 form and send it to ECE.securedataportal@education.govt.nz.

ESL39 form [PDF, 177KB]
 
For further information about the Secure Data Portal and accessing electronic funding notices you can contact us at ECE.securedataportal@education.govt.nz

Funding Contact Details

Please ensure that your funding contact details are kept up to date. Funding correspondence will only be sent to or discussed with the funding contact person for the service provider. 

From 1 July 2021, we will not post paper copies of funding notices. All current funding contacts will need access to the Secure Data Portal to retrieve their funding notices.

If you need to update your funding contact details, please complete an EC8 form and submit it to your local office. 

EC8 form: Change your service details
Local Ministry office 

If your funding contact person changes at any time, your new funding contact will need to submit in an ESL39 form to gain their own access to the Secure Data Portal.

The Frequent Absence Rule – a reminder

The over-riding principle of the Frequent Absence Rule is that a child’s attendance should match their enrolment as much as possible, even though this may not have an impact on a service’s funding claims. 

  • The intent of the Frequent Absence Rule is to help services to identify patterns of attendance that may suggest an enrolment change is needed. Keeping enrolment agreements up to date assists services to ensure their funding is calculated accurately. 
  • It is considered best practice to apply the Frequent Absences rule irrespective of how many hours the child is enrolled for. The Ministry expects that if a parent is breaching the Frequent Absence Rule for two months in a row, a service would be talking with parents/caregivers about their enrolment needs regardless of the funding caps and making any necessary amendments. 

While we consider it best practice to apply the rule across all enrolment, irrespective of the number of enrolled hours, we appreciate that subsidy funding is capped at 6 hours per day. 

Chapter 6-7 The Frequent Absence Rule of the Funding Handbook provides 6 steps that must be followed in relation to checking a child’s attendance pattern. Steps 5 and 6 relate to funding claims. These steps state:

 

        5. Funding for absences in the third month must only be claimed if the child’s enrolment agreement
            has been reconfirmed. If the child’s enrolment agreement is not reconfirmed, funding for absences
            in the third month must not be claimed.

        6. Funding for absences in the fourth month must not be claimed and the enrolment agreement must
            be changed to match the child’s attendance. 

New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week

It is New Zealand Sign Language week and it’s an opportunity for you to celebrate and share NZSL as a language for everyone.
 
Te Kete Ipurangi (TKI) and Deaf Aotearoa have resources and information you can use, including online taster classes that teach the signs for common classroom terms in English and te reo Māori. Video resources featuring common karakia, waiata and phrases in NZSL are also available. These online taster classes are designed specifically for children aged 5-8 year olds but can be used by anyone to learn NZSL.

New Zealand Sign Language Week – Te Kete Ipurangi (TKI) website
New Zealand Sign Language Week – Deaf Aotearoa website

Deaf Aotearoa will also be offering in-person NZSL Taster Classes to some schools, kura and early learning services me ngā kōhanga reo during NZSL week and throughout Term 2. Areas where Deaf ākonga and whānau live are initially targeted for these Taster Classes to promote the use of NZSL within communities where they are situated.

Bullying-Free New Zealand Week 17-21 May

Empower children to take the lead and prevent bullying behaviour.

This year’s theme is He Kōtuinga mahi iti, he hua pai-ā rau – Small ripples create big waves.

You can find more information on the Bullying-Free NZ website.

Bullying-Free NZ Week 2021 website

Preparing for ECE Census 2021

This year the Early Childhood Education (ECE) Census week will be from 21 to 27 June 2021. The ECE Census is also known as the ECE Return. All early learning services need to submit their fully completed and accurate ECE Census to the Ministry by 14 July 2021.

The information submitted is crucial for ECE service monitoring and policy development in New Zealand.

Thank you to everyone who completed last year’s ECE Census. You can find the published results on the Education Counts website. 

Annual ECE Census 2020: Fact Sheets - Education Counts

EC3 assessment tool for home-based services now online

We have added the home-based EC3 assessment tool to our website. This tool is what we use to assess whether you’re home-based service is meeting the education and care regulatory requirements. 

EC3 assessment tool for home-based services

We will be adding EC3 tools for other service types in the future.