We are on an exciting journey to create refreshed Kōhanga Reo branding (or as we call it, our ‘visual identity’) that is welcoming and engaging for our whānau, mokopuna, ākonga and kaimahi, and for everyone who wants to connect with us.

This mahi has involved the development of a set of designs, kowhaiwhai, icons and images that represent us and our kaupapa, tell our story, and connect where we have come from with our hopes and aspirations for the future. A Working Group, with Kōhanga Reo and Trust members, has supported development of the designs, along with feedback from various hui and surveys.

Over the next few months, the new designs will be applied to our new website and Kōhanga Reo intranet as well as other Trust systems, tools, templates, and documents. A visual identity kete is in progress, which whānau will be able to use to access the new templates and designs for posters, documents, presentations, and other purposes.

The visual identity kete will be launched at the end of April at the same time as the launch of our new website and Te Kōhanga Reo intranet. We’ll keep you posted as the mahi progresses on this.

Work is progressing well on development of our fresh, new easy-to-use website, using the new visual designs to enhance the look and feel of our web pages and content. The new website layout will make it easier for you to find the information you need and there will be new rohe web pages to enable sharing of local news, events, and pānui. We are working toward a launch date of end of April.

In late April, Kōhanga Reo will be moving to a new identity management system, which will provide better security for our systems, data, and information.

This involves kaimahi and whānau working through a single sign-on set-up process (creating a new password), the introduction of Office 365, One Drive, and new email mailboxes with increased capacity and the ability to sign in anywhere. Support will be provided to make the shift and navigate the look and feel of the new sign-in landing page.

Single sign-on makes it easier to ensure everyone has access to the right systems for their role and for new kaimahi to get access when they start with us. It means there will be one sign in process for all systems – no more multiple sign ins each time you move to a new system.

As part of this mahi, email inboxes will be migrated to the cloud through May. We will be in touch about your exact migration date and will step you through the migration process.

In the meantime, it will be helpful if you can:

• Clean out your email inbox and delete old emails, junk, deleted items etc. to reduce the load to migrate.
• Review files that may be saved to your hard drive, delete any old files, and decide which ones should be saved into One Drive – this will streamline your effort when you receive new devices as part of the Technology rollout (see below).

This new identity management system means that new Kōhanga Reo kaimahi will only be granted access to Trust systems once their Police Vetting is cleared. Initially, this will affect Office 365, email, and the Kōhanga Reo intranet. Over time, this will include Smartly, Edge, and Te Papa Ako. When a person’s police vetting expires, access to Trust systems will be suspended.

We’re integrating Edge with the Ministry of Education’s (MoE’s) Early Learning Information (ELI) system. This change will provide us with a more secure reporting method and means that mokopuna educational journeys within Te Kōhanga Reo and the progression and achievements of mokopuna are included in the nationwide statistics.

ELI was introduced in 2016 to collect information about early learning participation and since then, all early learning services, except Kōhanga Reo, have been required to use ELI. Kōhanga Reo introduced the first electronic Mokopuna Management System, KIS, prior to ELI and we have been reporting using standards developed in 2006. Technology has moved on, and we are now connecting our Edge with ELI to improve reporting and funding processes. This mahi will need to be in place by 1 October 2024.

Connecting Edge with ELI will help us to share our mokopuna data more securely with the Ministry because the data is encrypted and passes seamlessly between the two systems. It will help improve our data quality through regular and consistent data sharing, supported by weekly updating of attendance records once we go live in October, and it will provide us with a better understanding of mokopuna participation and their progress through their educational journeys.

This means that Kōhanga Reo enrolment and attendance information, and mokopuna educational journeys and achievements will be included in the Ministry’s reporting and research, supporting development of new initiatives. This is important because we know multi-lingual people get the best tertiary education outcomes, but we cannot demonstrate which of those Manu Pīrere began in Kōhanga Reo.

We are working with District Managers to get ready for this change and will be taking a staged approach to ensure support is available as you work through this process.

For Kōhanga Reo, this involves checking that you have a scanned copy of a birth certificate or passport for each enrolled mokopuna loaded into Edge, and that the legal name and date of birth recorded in Edge, exactly matches the identity document. Where identity documents are not already in Edge, these will need to be sighted and uploaded. To support your kōrero with whānau about this, we’ll provide you with information on Kōhanga Reo obligations under the Privacy Act 2020 on the collection and use of identity documents.

Once you’ve collected, uploaded and checked mokopuna identity documents, the ELI system will assign a National Student Number, or ‘NSN’, for each mokopuna. Some whānau may not be able to provide a copy of a birth certificate or passport. In these cases, the mokopuna will have an unverified NSN until they enrol in kura.

Once we have the Edge to ELI connection established, we will ask Kōhanga Reo to maintain good data quality by updating mokopuna attendance records on at least a weekly basis.

How to upload a Mokopuna ID into Edge

This year, we’re rolling out new devices to Kōhanga Reo across the motu using the specific funding we have for this. After delays due to Covid, supply chain issues, and natural disasters, it’s all finally happening this year.

Our aim is to provide a consistent, modern technology environment across all Kōhanga Reo so that you have the hardware, software and networking services expected of a modern work environment. Better tools will help technology “get out of the way” and allow maximum focus on the needs of mokopuna and whānau.

We’ll work with whānau at each Kōhanga Reo to find out what type of devices will suit your needs, and then will place the orders and support delivery and set up of the new devices when they arrive.

We’re working with District teams to take a staged approach so that we can provide a good level of support throughout this process. We’ll arrange to spend time in each rohe at District Offices and at individual Kōhanga Reo to provide training and technical support as needed.

If you wish to purchase additional devices or peripherals (such as monitors, keyboards or mice), opt into a 2 degrees plan, or take up the Brother printer offer, then you will need to provide whānau hui minutes confirming that the deduction for the cost of these items can come from the drawdown.

A rebate option will be in place for those Kōhanga Reo who have recently purchased new devices through the Trust. See the Frequently Asked Questions below for more information on the rebate process and criteria.

While Te Ara Hiko will be proactively booking calls with each Kōhanga Reo, there is also be a ‘Book a Call’ option for whānau to use to connect with technical support as needed.

You can book a call using the link below: https://outlook.office365.com/owa/calendar/[email protected]/bookings/

We are looking forward to getting the new devices out to you!

LMS365 has been confirmed as the new learning management system for Kōhanga Reo. This application works within SharePoint and Teams, and is a place to share learning resources, videos, and documents. Once we have progressed the technology changes above, we’ll begin to prepare a range of learning content to support kaimahi onboarding, induction, and role-based learning.

We’ll let you know when there is some initial content prepared for you to check out and we'll provide more detail about the functionality we will be using in due course.

If you have any pātai, comments or feedback about these projects, we’d love to hear from you - please contact Katherine Rive, Technology Programme Change Manager, at:

[email protected]