Gems Newsletter - August 2021

Kia Ora from Jose

With just over 2 months under my belt here, I wanted to take a moment to share a few things with the GEMS community. Firstly, it has been a time of affirmation for me.
My observations and interactions have affirmed the strong sense of community we are so blessed to be part of. Secondly, it has been a beautiful reminder of how important responsive and reciprocal relationships are in Early Childhood Education - relationships where all people in the lives of our tamariki work together to support their growth and reach their potential. I came into my role as General Manager focussing on getting to know the adults who make GEMS what it is. I have been immersed in the world of education and I am grateful to be doing this in a community of such wonderful people (children and adults!).

Jose Llodra, General Manager

Accounting Questions

Why do we have different fee structures across our centres?

We have recently been asked why we charge different fee structures across our centres. This is a really good question – and the simple answer is the funding structure that we currently operate under the government. Per day ECE providers can claim a maximum of 6 hours per day per child, at set rates across three defined age groups. This is irrespective of whether a child is enrolled with us for 6 hours or 10 hours. The funding is standardized across the country and does not account for varying operational costs per region.

The most efficient model for us to achieve reduced care and education costs for our community is to operate a centre for as close to funded hours practical (i.e. the 6 hours that we are funded for), our Gems Miro in the Hive, where the hours of operation are 8:30 am – 3:30 pm, achieves this. The convenience of longer hours and flexibility that comes with this is provided at our other centres Rata and Kowhai.

By way of background – last year when coming out of lockdown we recognised that there was going to be a need in our community to access childcare at reduced costs to what we were currently offering. We re-modelled the services offered to accommodate this need, it made sense from a diversified business perspective as well.

We note that significant changes are afoot in the sector, with pay parity claims, and continued underfunding from the government. In light of this, we are currently reviewing the sustainability of this model and our other offerings, in light of anticipated significant change.

Staffing News

Slowly but surely we are filling our current vacancies. The employment market for ECE teachers across New Zealand remains highly competitive due to the significant shortage of experienced qualified teachers. At last count there were 500 vacancies for qualified ECE teachers, and on top of that 150 leadership positions.

Part of our growth strategy has been to grow our leadership within, this takes time, however we are seeing the benefits of this coming through the organisation.

Winter, with its associated seasonal ailments, always puts pressure on our teaching teams, and we are grateful for the team of relievers that we have available to us.

We have always had a solid recruitment programme – resulting in many long-term employees, we do not wish for this to change. We do not just plug gaps, those who join the team need to be the right fit. In the current circumstances this is challenging, and often filling positions is taking longer. We ask for your patience and support in this approach – as it is the better approach for all involved, tamariki, kaiako and whanau.

We have recently developed a teacher in training recruitment programme – and have some promising young teachers joining our ranks as permanent teachers in training under this programme. An investment in our and the wider sectors future.

Professional Development

We have recently partnered with Interlead to support our professional growth in the coming year. Having recently completed our annual and strategic planning process, and our Quality Planning Template for the coming 1-3 years, the team are focused and ready to continue their professional growth in this area, supporting the education of your children. This has been done per center – please feel free to talk to your centre manager on what we are focusing on at your centre. Our planning is informed by the feedback that we recieve in our annual surveys completed by whanau, kaiako, our management team and neighbours at Shotover Primary School as our in zone school– so thank you to all who take the time to feedback.

Karen Hayward from Interlead has also been supporting Jose (our General Manager) in finding his feet in this new role and getting to grips with the myriad of regulations, compliance and policy documents, and framework under which we work.

We have also committed to the Interlead Connector to assist us to manage our professional growth cycle responsibilities with the Teachers Council, with the renewal and endorsements required for practicing teacher certification required of employers in this sector.

Check out Interleads latest newsletter https://email.mailshot.co.nz/t/r-A5F74D191AAB66472540EF23F30FEDED

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