Child Care News
Covid-19 lockdown day 5: How it unfolded
RNZ - August 23, 2021A search has begun for people who were near an MIQ facility at a crucial time, 1 million Kiwis are fully vaccinated, sign-ins will become mandatory for most events and businesses and a free childcare scheme is now in place for essential workers. The number of community cases of Covid-19 grew ...
Covid 19 coronavirus Delta outbreak: Free childcare for essential workers from tomorrow - Hipkins
NZ Herald - Derek Cheng - August 22, 2021Free childcare will be available from tomorrow for essential workers who don't already have care in place for their children up to 13 years old. Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins announced the scheme this morning. It is similar to that in operation last year under alert level 4.
Nurses 'providing childcare services for each other' as lockdown limits options
Stuff NZ - Ripu Bhatia - August 21, 2021Nurses are clocking off and going straight into babysitting for their colleagues taking over, leaving little time for rest in between, a union says. New Zealand Nurses Organisation spokesperson Kerri Nuku said with New Zealand in alert level 4 childcare options are limited ...
Unlikely neighbours: Childcare centre going in next to liquor store and pub
Stuff NZ - George Heagney - August 20, 2021A bottle store and a pub are getting a new unlikely neighbour: an early childhood centre. The new education centre is being built in Palmerston North, in a car park next door to Big Barrel liquor store and The Albert Sports Bar. But Warren McLaughlin, who owns the site at the ...
Queenstown couple combine Angus stud with childcare as they work towards buying farm
The Country - August 17, 2021Queenstown couple Mike and Gemma Smith are proof there are other ways to make a living in their part of the world than jet-boat rides and pushing tourists off bridges with rubber bands attached. On a fine day, the view of Lake Hayes across the front paddock from their home is sensational ...
Blow to rural Southland as early learning centre closes
Stuff - Blair Jackson - August 6, 2021Relocation costs and lodging could not attract a skilled worker to a northern Southland town, and an early learning centre will close because of it. Riverstones Early Learning Centre, in Lumsden, will close on August 13. The centre is licenced ...
Riverstones Early Learning Centre in Lumsden to close due to lack of teachers
NZ Herald - Georgia O'Connor-Harding - August 4, 2021Families in a small Southland town are reeling as another key pillar in the community folds.A long-standing struggle to draw qualified early childhood teachers to Lumsden has left the owner of the Riverstones Early Learning Centre with no choice but to close the facility.
Banks Peninsula community rallying to save its only preschool from closure
Stuff - Jody O'Callaghan - July 19, 2021The race is on to find new owners for the only preschool available to families in Akaroa and surrounding bays. The community will hold a meeting on Monday night to find a way to keep the Banks Peninsula Plunket Community Preschool ...
'Crumbs': Claim lodged over minimum wage for kōhanga reo teachers
NZ Herald - Taroi Black, Maori Television - July 11, 2021Teacher aides in mainstream childhood centres on minimum wage earn more than most kōhanga reo kaiako / kaimahi who say they earn "crumbs" and are now seeking pay equity. The largest education trade union, the New Zealand Educational Institute – Te Riu Roa is hosting ...
Peter Reynolds To Step Down As Early Childhood Council CEO
Scoop - Early Childhood Council - July 9, 2021After more than a decade leading the Early Childhood Council, CEO Peter Reynolds announced he is to step down at the Council’s Annual General Meeting this evening. “Leading the ECC in partnership with the Executive has been my absolute pleasure, and it’s with great regret ...
Health authorities slow with RSV advice during outbreak, childcare centres say
NZ Herald - Sophie Trigger - July 8, 2021Wellington childcare centres are concerned they've only just received official information about the highly contagious winter virus RSV, when children have been off sick for weeks. The recent respiratory syncytial virus outbreak has put ...
Winter virus impacting short-staffed early childhood sector
TVNZ 1 news - Brooke Hunter - July 8, 2021As sickness swirls through schools and early education providers, it’s not just children that are being forced to call in absent. Children's attendance dropped noticeably last week, compared to the week prior, as a wave of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) sees hospitals around the country ...
Parents nervous about daycare centres as RSV spreads
RNZ - Liu Chen - July 7, 2021Hospitals all over the country are being overwhelmed with children suffering the flu-like Respiratory Syncytial Virus, also known as RSV. Starship in Auckland is postponing surgeries to make room for the influx, and some hospitals are limiting the visits of children to try to prevent ...
Two infants in ICU, 'hyper-sanitation' in childcare centres following spike in winter illnesses
NZ Herald - Sophie Trigger - July 6, 2021Two infants are in ICU in Wellington Hospital following a peak in respiratory illnesses in recent days. Around 100 children have been admitted to Wellington Regional Hospital with RSV (Respiratory syncytial virus) over the past four weeks, with 20 children currently in hospital ...
Crisis: Early childhood teachers hard to find
Wairarapa Times Age - Tom Taylor - July 5, 2021Wairarapa’s teachers and centre managers say that pay parity with kindergarten and school teachers will help to ease the pressure, but it is only part of a broader solution. After many years working as a qualified teacher, lecturer, and education adviser with Kahungunu ki Wairarapa ...
