Measles is one of the most dangerous and contagious diseases in Aotearoa NZ because it spreads easily among people who are not immunised.

The best protection against measles is two doses of the MMR vaccine.

Te Whatu Ora is encouraging early learning services to do two things to help their staff and children have a healthy and happy summer:

Check your immunisation register:

Measles information – Ministry of Education

• Talk to staff about immunisation and use this website to find out if they need an MMR vaccine:

Find out if you need a measles vaccine – Te Whatu Ora  

Knowing immunisation levels at your service makes it easier to manage any cases.

Here is some downloadable information about measles that could be displayed in your service:

Protect against measles [PDF, 211 KB]

Measles factsheet [PDF, 1.5 MB]

For more information about measles, talk to your doctor, healthcare provider or community pharmacist or visit these sites: 

Measles – Te Whatu Ora

Home – Immunise New Zealand  

To find out where you can get the MMR vaccine go here:

Home – Healthpoint

The home-based service qualification requirements described in Schedule 1A of the Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 will move to the next stage of the phased implementation on 1 January 2024. 

After this date, 60% of educators working in a standard-funded licensed service must hold a home-based service qualification. This percentage is calculated based on educators who work at least four days in a calendar month.

Quality-funded services must have 80% qualified educators who hold a home-based service qualification from 1 January 2024. The remaining 20% of educators will need to be in training or induction.

It is important for services to continue to meet the requirements including those that relate to the record keeping requirements - that is master staff records, monthly records and certified qualifications.

As we approach 2024 our website will be updated to reflect this next phase of the qualification requirements for both standard and quality funded home-based services. Currently general information on these changes, including what qualifications you need to be counted as ‘qualified’ for these calculations, is available here:

Home-based staff qualification changes – Ministry of Education

Tāhūrangi, a platform designed to make finding, organising, and sharing curriculum content quicker and easier, went live last week. It’s where all our new curriculum content, resources, and teaching materials will be released in future.

Visit Tāhūrangi here:

Tāhūrangi – Ministry of Education

The release of the new platform may have implications for the way kaiako currently plan their teaching and learning:

• All the content related to Te Whāriki: He whāriki mātauranga mō nga mokopuna o Aotearoa early childhood curriculum is available on Tāhūrangi now.
• Te Whāriki a Te Kōhanga Reo is still available through a link on the Tāhūrangi homepage, which sends you to Te Whāriki Online. The material there will eventually move onto Tāhūrangi – we will let you know when this is done.

If you have any questions, please email the team at tahurangi@education.govt.nz.

From 26 February 2024, all persons responsible in teacher-led education and care centres must hold a first aid qualification from a first aid training provider recognised by New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA). Now is a good time to check your first aid certificate renewal schedules to ensure all persons responsible hold the appropriate first aid certificate by this date. Find out more about qualifications and providers here:

First aid qualifications for early learning services and kōhanga reo – Ministry of Education

There may be times when early learning services are faced with external threats to security that require police attention or intervention. To provide more comprehensive and efficient support to you during emergencies, NZ Police are asking that you share site plans with them.

These will be saved securely and geotagged in the police RIOD (Realtime Intelligence for Operational Deployment) tool.

Send your plans and contact details to plans@police.govt.nz.

WorkSafe and MBIE provide advice to support workers and employers who have concerns about bullying in the workplace and detail the steps they can take in the links below. 

Bullying – Worksafe

Bullying – Employment New Zealand

Tagaloa Scholarships are awarded to Pacific people doing a master’s or doctorate research that contributes to understanding of Pacific people’s experiences and world views in Aotearoa New Zealand. 

Two recipients will be selected to receive a scholarship for final year of full-time study in 2024:

• a master’s scholarship worth $10,000 
• a doctoral scholarship worth $14,000. 

We encourage Pacific teachers, leaders and staff doing research in education and wellbeing as part of their postgraduate study to apply online by 11.59pm Saturday 16 December:

Tagaloa Scholarships – Ministry of Education

For questions email Tagaloa.Scholarship@education.govt.nz.