Brooklyn Early Childhood Centre

Tena Koutou, Namaste, Ni Hao, Talofa and Hello to all

Bonjour, hallo and welcome to___ new  families!  We hope you enjoy your time with us at BECC!

Key Dates

Upcoming dates for all meetings are posted on the noticeboard.  All parents/whanau are welcome to join us at these meetings.
Next Committee Meeting: 7 April at the centre, 7-9 pm.

Mid term break will occur in the week of
6-10 July 2009 – the centre will be closed for the whole week.

The Education Review Office will be visiting us April 20.  The last time we had a review from ERO was in 2006.  That report is on the noticeboard if you would like to read it.

Working Bee  Megan will be organising a working bee and assigning jobs to families, if you are unable to attend then it is expected that you will send a student in your place!

Building/premises meeting 4 March – see below

Fish and Chip night – Thursday 5 March.  All families are welcome, please see the notice on the board on your way in!  This is a nice social evening, come along and meet the other families!

Programme

You will soon see the children’s photographs on the programming wall.  This will be a group assessment from the team, we would like it if you could contribute the aspirations you have for your child while they are at BECC on there also.  Please contribute – we will use this for planning purposes!

We will be planning an outing to the Wellington Zoo.  This can only happen if we get enough parent volunteers as per the BECC Outings Policy.  Don’t worry though there will be plenty of notification/information coming home well before this happens.

Child chat sessions will start after mid-term break, teachers will meet with parents and whanau to talk about your child and how they are doing at the centre.  We are currently reviewing options on how to implement the sessions.

In response to the 2008 Parent Survey it was identified that you would like some workshops, we posted a notice and had no feedback, another sheet will go out for ideas on useful workshop topics for the coming year.

Big Thank You

To St Matthew’s Parish whose ongoing support allows us to offer quality ECE to families in the community.

Claiming a tax rebate

Did you know that you can claim part of your payments to BECC back as a tax rebate?
There are two types of rebate:

• Donations rebate – as BECC has charitable status, you can claim one third of your donations, up to a maximum of $630 for donations of $1,890 or more. This includes building levy and Free ECE donations. (The cap of $630 will be removed from the 2008/09 financial year.)

• Childcare or Housekeeper rebate – you can claim 33% of your childcare costs, up to a maximum of $310 if you paid $940 or more. This includes session fees.

Use the IR526 form, which can be downloaded from www.ird.govt.nz, to claim your rebate.

Contact Kathleen (skreece AT xtra.co.nz) if you need receipts for the amounts you have paid in the 2007/08 financial year.

Did you know that Brooklyn Early Childhood Centre is now officially a recognised charity? Thanks Sophie who worked on this on behalf of the committee.

Committee Corner

Being on the Parent Advisory Committee is a practical way to positively invest in your child’s early childhood education.  Being part of this decision making and active discussion team also contributes to the voice of the wider centre community. This group is vital in ensuring quality care and education for the children and smooth running of the centre.

Key Responsibilities:

• To retain a Governance role in running of the Centre.
• To have ultimate responsibility for meeting all necessary requirements to retain the Ministry of Education licence.
• To ensure all incorporated society rules are adhered to.

The Advisory Committee of the Centre contracts a Manager and Administrator who provide managerial services to ensure that the Centre is providing a high quality of care and education for the children who attend and the parents who choose to use this service.

The Strategic and Annual Management plans act as a guideline as well as dictate the future direction of BECC, these are focused around the goverance role of the committee.  The Charter, Licensing requirements, MOE regulations, compliance issues, specific outcomes that best accomodate the needs of the children, teachers, parents and the wider community.

We have a great parent committee, but always need your voice, if you are interested in coming along to a meeting you are more than welcome.  The next meeting is 7th April.   Come along and advocate for your child’s learning and play a part of the future of BECC.

Our parent committee are:

• Convenor -Salena D
• Treasurer- Natalie C
• Secretary_ Sophie R
• Parent Liason_ Diana R
• Policies

We would like parent input into reviewing policies, they have been displayed in the foyer for you to read and give feedback on.  This is an ongoing process, every month new policies will be displayed for feedback; it is your chance to contribute, please read them and write all over them.

Policies covered this month were: Cheque signing, Personnel, EEO, Privacy, Transition to School, Complaints and non compliance, Self review, Bi cultural and Curriculum and Assesment.

There is a review calendar and policy sub committee so that these will not be tabled for full discussion at meetings . . . all parents are very welcome to join the sub committee too. The second drafts of the policies are posted on the noticeboard in the entranceway, feel free to contribute to these before the next meeting in March.

We are currently DRAFTING both the Strategic Plan and the Management Plan which is also displayed for feedback.

PLEASE NOTE:

There is a two day minimum, three day maximum policy in place.  There are no more one day places at the centre.  Also we require one month’s notice of intention to change, decrease or vacate a place at the centre.

Building Project News

A meeting will be held next week – 4 March 7.30pm – venue tbc, please see noticeboard.  We will be discussing the new premises issue for the building project. please come along.

Fundraising news!

We have received a grant from Bill Brown Trust for outdoor equipment.  Thank you Sophie for the ongoing work on grant applications.

Health and Safety news

Please do not send peanuts/peanut products as we have a child with an allergy to them.  No gladwrap – this is a choking hazard.

Parking on the footpath – please do not park on the footpath as the seal is deteriorating and it creates a hazard for pedestrians.  Also it is a parking offence.

Please ensure that you sign your child in and out.  There is a system of checking in place, it is important that we are aware which children are present and which ones are away in the event of an emergency.  Please check your emergency contact details and update if necessary – this list is beside the roll.

Children who have had a vomiting or diarrhoea bug must be kept at home until 48 hours after symptoms have passed.  We do not have the facilities to care for sick children at the centre.  We have had several cases of this kind of condition over the last couple of weeks, if your child is sick please keep them at home with you to lessen the spread throughout the centre and staff.

Staffing News

Sadly Anna will be leaving the centre to live in the UK.   We have really enjoyed working with Anna and will be sad to see her go but we wish her well for the future!

Karen has placed an advertisement in the Education Gazette.

Thanks for your support

Pam, Anna, Stacey, Helen, Jo, Karen and Kathleen.