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Welcome to the Office of Early Childhood Education
The OECE is a national organisation for the ECE sector and public adviser, championing high-quality education and care for every child
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- Provides membership support to ECE services, teachers, researchers, and community partners
- Actively contributes to sector analysis, research, and policy development
- Advances evidence-based best practices that prioritise children’s interests and wellbeing
View the Code of Conduct for ECE Services
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Teacher Member Posts
The Importance of a Play Based Approach
The Play Based Approach – Helping young learners to flourish.
The one thing every parent, caregiver and educator wishes most for a young child is to have a happy and fulfilled childhood.
What is a Play Based Approach?
A play-based approach is a a child-centered approach. When learning and teaching is play-based it is about lea
Rhythm Ribbons and Physical Movement
Rhythm Ribbons and Physical Movement. By Bronwyn Norman.
Bursting out in the beautiful sunny Autumn/Ngahuru afternoon our tamariki were ready to embrace their environment and interact with each other by choosing materials and playing games.
Fuelled by eating a healthy afternoon tea their bodies were ready to move. Tamariki were walking, ru
Pikler and Gerber Theories in Practice
A close look at how well the theories of Pikler and Gerber can be merged with Te Whariki and the models of infant care and education in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Concepts such as ‘self-soothing’ (allowing babies to settle by themselves) and leaving babies to develop in their own time rather than pushing them to meet milestones cause much debate among parents and early childhood educators.
These debates include such things as whether babies should be allowed to cry it out and whether parents or educators should help children to achieve milestones such as sitting by propping them up.
One proponent of allowing a child to develop at their own pace is Emmi Pikler, a Hungarian paediatrician who worked with children aged from birth to six in her role as Director of the Loczy Orphanage from 1946 until her death in 1979.
Pikler believed that infants’ emotional well-being was paramount, and she restructured then entire staff to ensure that all those working at the orphanage not only met the children’s physical needs, but also would ‘love’ these unwanted children and attend to them with consistent and thoughtful care.
Supporting the Language of Aotearoa. Mauri Ora, Mauri Rere – Striving to Thrive
Supporting the Language of Aotearoa.
Let’s review current teaching practices and see where we go from here. Despite substantial work involving kaupapa Māori over the last two decades our early childhood sector has not been as active as it could have been in reinforcing the speaking of te reo Māori and bicultural practices.
Ngā Wero – The
Service Provider Member Posts
How to write a policy
How to write a policy on anything or topic for your early childhood service.
What needs to be included in a written policy.
Answers to your questions such as how often you need to review policy.
Job Description for a Head Teacher, Room Leader, or Home-based Visiting Teacher
Job Description for a Head Teacher, Room Leader, or Home-based Visiting Teacher.
Here is a template to help guide you in preparing a job description that matches your service’s philosophy and reflects the position. This person will have additional responsibilities compared with other qualified and unqualified staff and educators.
If you wou
Terminating a Child’s Enrolment Because of Behaviour Issues
When Behaviour Issues Get to be Unmanageable.
A member has asked if her service can legally terminate the enrolment of a child whose behaviour has left other children crying, disrupts the programme, and requires constant individual supervision.
She’s worried what will happen if the parent goes to the local newspaper. She’s worried also about
Job Descriptions
Job description templates for various centre and home-based positions and examples.
Creating an effective job description is an important part of the hiring and employment process.
An appealing job description will attract the best candidates for the job you are advertising and will ensure you have a range of different applicants to choose
Research Library – Today’s Featured Articles
Brooke’s Day: One Child’s Experience in ECE
What is a child’s everyday experience of attending a fulltime early childhood education and care centre? This case study focuses upon one child’s experience within a centre in New Zealand and proposes that meaningful learning can occur when a child attends an early childcare programme. The methods used to gather data were videotaping, an observ
“It is a Risk, But it is a Risk Worth Taking”: Early Childhood Teachers’ Reflections on Review of Practice Using an Approach of Practical Philosophy
“It is a risk, but it is a risk worth taking”: Early childhood teachers’ reflections on review of practice using an approach of practical philosophy.
Anne Grey. AUT University, NZ.
Full reference: Grey, A. (2015). “It is a risk, but it is a risk worth taking”: Early childhood teachers’ reflections on review of practice usin
Revisiting Rhizomatic Connections and Relationships in Young Children’s Thinking and Meaning-Making
Original theory and research on children in early years education exploring the complex nature of children’s thinking, connections and relationships. Read the full paper below. Or to order a pdf copy of the article go to the main NZIRECE Journal page.
Fathers’ Voices: Their Participation in Early Childhood Education
Research on the involvement of fathers in early childhood education. Read the full paper below. Or to order a pdf copy of the article go to the main NZIRECE Journal page.
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