ESW Newsletter Vol 60 March 2014

Volume 60 * Term 1 * March 2014
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Tēnā koutou katoa
Inside this
issue:
Welcome to the first edition of ESW News for 2014. We hope that
you all had a wonderful time over the holiday period and that you
have enjoyed returning to your ESW jobs.
Teachers’ styles and
roles in early
childhood settings
1-2
Professional
Development
2
Safety in At-Risk
Situations
3
Staff Profiles
3
Staff Update
4
Term 1, 2014 ESW
Team and in-service
Developments
Meetings
4
Diary Sheets
4
You may have heard that an additional Service Manager has
been appointed in our district. Congratulations to Peter Reid and
Kuvern Kisten-Nair who have been permanently appointed to
their positions.
The focus for this year’s ESW meetings will be on the Hanen
Teacher Talk module. These sessions will be all day events
running from 9.30 am until 2.30 pm. The Speech-Language
Therapists will run these sessions. It is important that you attend
all of the sessions in your area as one session will lead on to the
next.
Have a great year. Thanks very much for your hard work.
Neil Bleaken
Service Manager
South Waikato Early Intervention Team
ESW News
A Newsletter for Education Support Workers employed by MOE Special Education Waikato
Kuvern Kisten-Nair
Service Manager
North Waikato Early Intervention Team
Teachers’ styles and roles in early childhood settings
The challenge of providing children with a
nurturing, interactive environment is even
greater when a child has a special need such
as a language or developmental delay.
Parents of children with
special needs are often
advised to send their children
to an early childhood centre
so they can be with typically
developing children.
It is a common assumption that a child with
delayed development will develop better
social and language skills just by being in the
same environment as their typically
developing peers. However, this is not
necessarily the case.
Research shows that:
 Children who can’t communicate with
their peers often become isolated or
rejected, especially if the delay is more
severe

Typically developing peers are less likely
to select a child with a language delay as
a playmate

Children with special needs are more
likely to interact with their teachers than
with other children when in a group

If the child with special needs is
included by the other children, it is often
in a passive role e.g. ‘the baby’ in the
cot.
A child’s ability to be included comes down
to their social and communication skills.
Children with special needs require very
specific and consistent support to become
an active and participating member of the
centre. Successfully including a child with
special needs in a typical setting depends
very much on how you, the adult, support
the child’s development and interactions
with others.
The Education Support Worker meetings
this term are about children’s conversational
styles and their stage of communication
development. We also look at teacher styles
and roles that we can play in the early
childhood centre setting.
These all determine how successful we can
be at achieving positive outcomes for the
children we work with.
Volume 60 * Term 1 * March 2014
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Don’t forget the power of praise.
The Teacher roles we look at include:
The Director role – The teacher maintains tight
control over the children and their activities. The
teacher spends most of her time making suggestions,
giving directions or asking questions. Children are
expected to respond but not to initiate.
The Entertainer role – The
It doesn’t need to be a long speech – a hug,
a wink, or a thumbs up all have the same
affect.
Think how good you feel when someone
says “well done”. Just the same for the little
folk!!
teacher is playful and lots of fun,
but the teacher does most of the
talking and playing, giving
children few opportunities to get
actively
involved
in
the
interaction.
The Time Keeper role – The teacher is in charge of
moving through activities and routines in order to stay
on schedule.
The Too Quiet role – The teacher sits with the
children but hardly interacts with them.
Professional Development:
The Helper role – The teacher offers help or talks for
a child before they have shown a need for it.
This term the professional development at our regular
ESW meetings will be for a whole day session and
will focus on ‘Encouraging Language Development in
Early Childhood Settings’.
The Cheerleader role – The teacher gives lots of
praise and gets excited when the child accomplishes
a task.
The Responsive Partner role – The teacher is tuned
in to the child’s abilities, needs and interests. She
responds with warmth and interest and encourages
the child to take an active part in interactions.
The roles we find ourselves playing will be influenced
by two factors in the children we are working with:
A: The conversational style of the child you are
working with:
The sociable child
The reluctant child
The ‘own agenda’ child
The passive child
You will learn how to make the most of everyday
interactions and conversations by focussing on
children’s interests
and
providing
language
appropriate to their respective language levels.
The topics covered include:
Children’s different conversational styles
The roles teachers play
Stages of language development
and
B: The child’s communication
developmental level
You will learn practical, interactive strategies to help
children interact and communicate during everyday
activities.
and
language
Discoverers
Communicators
First word users
Combiners
Early sentence users (joining 3-5 words)
Later sentence users (joining 4 words +)
If you are interested in finding out more about this,
please come to the Education Support Worker
meetings arranged in your areas.
The ideas and terms used in this article come from
Learning Language and Loving It, by Elaine Weitzman
and Janice Greenberg from the Hanen Centre 2002.
Useful strategies to use
 Observe, Wait and Listen (OWL)
 Be face to face
 Imitate
 Interpret
 Comment
 Join in and play
Turn-taking
Encouraging interactions in group situations.
We think you will find this an enjoyable and useful
course so please make the time to come along and
learn beside your other ESW colleagues.
Volume 60 * Term 1 * March 2014
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Safety in At-risk Situations
Our work with vulnerable young children means that
we need to ensure that we protect children and staff
from being placed in situations which potentially give
rise to allegations of inappropriate practice. If you
are alone with a child, or if you work on Learning
Outcomes that have not been agreed to, you are
putting yourself and the child at risk.
The following “do’s” and “don’ts” are designed to
protect everyone and it is important that they are
strictly followed:
▲
Never work with children alone. A staff
member from the centre (or the child’s parent if
you are working in the home) must be working
nearby and able to see what you are doing AT
ALL TIMES. (This applies to work at the centre
and to any excursions you go on.) Most
importantly, this means you should not for
example be in a room alone with children, or be
the only adult outside with children. At all times
the centre staff are responsible for ALL the
children present at the centre.
▲
Implement
the
Outcomes only.
▲
Never get involved in managing challenging
behaviours unless this has been specified in
the child’s Individual Plan and you have
received full training from the child’s MoE - SE
Lead Worker or specialist staff member. If the
child you work with becomes difficult to
manage, ask the teaching staff for support.
They are trained and know how to manage
difficult incidents.
▲
▲
agreed
IP
Learning
Never give a child medication, or provide first
aid to a child as part of your work as an ESW at
the centre. Centres will have specific policies
about first aid and medication, which they will
follow. If a child needs to have a prescribed
medicine while at the centre the teaching staff
are responsible for administering it. On the rare
occasions where there is an exception to this
rule the ESW will be provided with full written
documentation of procedures agreed by the
child’s MoE - SE Lead Worker, the ESW, the
centre and the family. Any exception must be
agreed and documented.
Always work at the location(s) specified in
your Work Schedule (unless you have prior
approval from the child’s Lead Worker). An
official centre trip is considered the same as
working at the centre.
▲
Always work on the days and times specified
on your Work Schedule (unless you have written
approval from the child’s Lead Worker to work
on an alternative day that week).
▲
Be sure that you meet regularly with the
child’s Lead Worker to discuss any concerns
and issues.
If in doubt, don’t do it; consult your ESW manual
or Lead Worker.
Remember to make use of Incident forms when
relevant.
Hi, my name is Sushma Luxton.
I was born and raised in Nadi, Fiji Islands. I have
lived in Auckland for the last 20 years, and my
husband and I recently moved from Auckland to
Waikato region.
We have settled quite well with the rest of our
families down here in Cambridge ... I have one
son, and a daughter who is still in Auckland as she
is so well adapted to her Auckland Girls Grammar
school.
Last year I became fully qualified with my
Counsellor's Diploma in Professional Counselling
Certificated and alongside this I was also working
with Ministry Of Education in Manukau, Auckland.
Since February I have been working in the
Cambridge area.
Prior to these jobs, I worked as a Bank Officer for
8 years, but had to give up this job to continue my
tertiary education with counselling.
I have a lot of passion to work with children and am
keen to do my best in whichever way I can to help
in creating changes in one's life.
I am a very open, honest and easy communicating
person and one of my greatest hobbies is travelling,
especially overseas.
I hope Waikato region will do us good and one day
my whole family will be down here with us from
"THE BIG SMOKE".
Volume 60 * Term 1 * March 2014
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Term 1, 2014 ESW Team & Inservice Development Meetings
All meetings this term will be from
9.30 am to 2.30 pm
You are expected to attend one of the following
meetings. Please refer to your employment
agreement and to pages 22 & 23 of your manual.
You should attend the meeting on time even if it
means you have to leave your work at the EC facility
early that day.
Te Kuiti: Wednesday 26 March
MOE SE office, cnr Nettie & Lawrence St, Te Kuiti
Tirau: Wednesday 26 March
Tirau Church Hall
. Wednesday 9 April
Thames:
MOE SE office, 404 Queen Street, Thames
Hamilton / Huntly: Thursday 10 April
Hamilton MOE SE office, 19 Home Straight, Te
Rapa
NB. You will be paid for attendance and for actual and
reasonable travel time and mileage over and above your
usual to and from work distance. Significant distance
travel (over 50 km return) should, if possible, be pooled
either with other ESWs or with any specialist staff
travelling to the meeting. Please negotiate this significant
distance travel with either Kuvern or Neil in advance.
Staff Update …
A warm welcome to the following ESWs who have
started working with us since the last newsletter …
Donna Josey, Katrina Harman and Rachel WillmottPalo (Te Aroha); Lesley Walker, Lara Tompsett, Kelly
Mawkes and Hemoata-Kate Tito (Hamilton); Petra
Monga and Cherie Mitchell (Tokoroa);
Doreen
Ruarau (Otorohanga); Sushma Luxton (Cambridge);
Angela Sowerby (Raglan); Jessica Disher and
Mahara Hepi (Te Kuiti).
And also in that time we have said farewell to Tammy
Winter, Ann Campbell, Natalie Nuttall, Lesley Steiner,
Puti Stone, Jonelle Richardson, Lynette Philburn,
Tracey Wakefield, Andrea Lockley, Gina Rose,
Alysha Cooke and Linda Pitts-Brown.
DIARY SHEETS
Diary Sheets must be sent in promptly each week
Work Period
Diary Sheets cut off
Pay Dates for
the period
03.03.14 – 14.03.14
Tuesday 18.03.14
@ 12.00 noon
Wednesday 02.04.14
@ 12.00 noon
Monday 14.04.14
@ 12.00 noon
Wednesday 30.04.14
@ 12.00 noon
Wednesday 14.05.14
@ 12.00 noon
Wednesday 28.05.14
@ 12.00 noon
Wednesday 11.06.14
@ 12.00 noon
Wednesday 25.06.14
@ 12.00 noon
26.03.14
17.03.14 – 28.03.14
31.03.14 – 11.04.14
14.04.14 – 25.04.14
28.04.14 – 09.05.14
IMPORTANT
12.05.14 – 23.05.14
FLU VACCINATIONS – WINTER 2014
26.05.14 – 06.06.14
09.04.14
23.04.14
07.05.14
21.05.14
04.06.14
18.06.14
Enclosed with this newsletter is a notice about the flu
vaccination programme for the winter of 2014.
09.06.14 – 20.06.14
We urge you to take advantage of this opportunity.
23.06.14 – 04.07.14
Wednesday 09.07.14
@ 12.00 noon
16.07.14
07.07.14 – 18.07.14
Wednesday 23.07.14
@ 12.00 noon
30.07.14
To obtain your voucher please contact Maggie Scott:
Telephone: 07 850 8883
Email: [email protected]
02.07.14
If you send them every Monday for the previous week you should always
be ‘on time’ regardless of the diary/pay cycle. Diary sheets sent in after
the cut off date will be paid in the next round.
COPYRIGHT INFORMATION: The contents of this newsletter should not be reproduced without consent of MOE, Special Education Waikato
MOE Sector Enablement and Support - Central North Region
19 Home Straight, Te Rapa 3200 * DX Box GX10047 * Hamilton * New Zealand
Telephone: (07) 850 8880 * Facsimile (07) 850 8998 * www.minedu.govt.nz

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