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Welcome to the Office of Early Childhood Education
National and public adviser on ECE, the OECE is a sector body representing teachers and all types of licensed services driving safer, higher‑quality education for every child
View our positions
- 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
Under-5s Rugby
Teaching Rugby to Children in Early Childhood Education. This fosters a sense of belonging, pride, and achievement.
Rugby is part of NZ’s culture and central to our cultural identity. (See another article on following and celebrating the Rugby World Cup with children
It is a great sport to introduce to children from about 2 years of a
Supporting Boys’ Interests and Play in ECE
Ideas for activities and learning extensions are provided for teachers who are working with boys aged 3- 5 years.
There is a good chance you will see some gendered play and behaviour in any early childhood setting you enter. Our profession is female dominated and early childhood settings can be feminised environments.
Supervision Basics: Four Skills Every Adult Working With Children Must Demonstrate
Active supervision is the single most effective way to prevent harm – this article shows teachers, services, and regulators the essential skills needed to keep children truly safe, not just watched.
Controlled Crying or Training Children to Settle Themselves to Sleep
Controlled Crying.
This article discusses the Controlled Crying method. It gives clarity to conflicting opinions about whether this is a good practice and its benefits. We discuss if this method should and can be used in early childhood education (ECE) settings and in our teaching practice. Suggestions are included for other ways of support
Service Provider Member Posts
Home-based Service Start-Up Story and What’s Worked Well
Home-based Service Start-Up.
We profile a successful private Home-based Early Childhood Education Service based from Christchurch, and talk with the co-owner about the ins and outs of a home-based service start-up.
Veronica Kidd is the co-owner of a Home-based Early Childhood Education service.
She has a Diploma of Teaching (ECE) and i
Domestic Violence Leave
Domestic violence leave guidelines.
Asking for proof and how to treat an employee who is, or is suspected to be, affected by domestic violence
As an employer you can accept any type of proof that an employee is affected by domestic violence. Proof may, for example, take the form of: a letter or email about what’s going on and how it
Collection of Children Policy
Here is a policy and set of procedures for the Collection of Children that you may use and adapt for your early childhood service. Services are responsible for upholding children’s safety at all times. This includes responsibility for ensuring the safety of children leaving the premises.
Reflective questions
Considering reflective questi
Being Inclusive of LGBT Teachers
Equality and acceptance of LGBT teachers in the New Zealand education system is still far from established.
Discrimination can be subtle, such as whispering the word ‘gay’ so that the children can’t hear, but can also be obvious and inappropriate through direct discrimination and exclusion.
Teachers, and particularly leaders, in early c
Research Library – Today’s Featured Articles
Children’s Participation in Disaster Risk Reduction as Curriculum
Children’s Participation in Disaster Risk Reduction as Curriculum.
Dian Fikriani* and Jane Bone** * Gadjah Mada University Indonesia. **Monash University Australia.
Full Reference: Fikriani, D. & Bone, J. (2014). Children’s participation in disaster risk reduction as curriculum. NZ Research in Early Childhood Education Journal, Spec
Neoliberalism and Post-Colonialism in Conflict: Hybridisation in Early Childhood in the South Pacific
Research on the understandings of early childhood professionals on colonisation and ECE policies and systems post-colonisation. Read the full paper below. Or to order a pdf copy of the article go to the main NZIRECE Journal page.
Interviewing Young Children: A Socio-Cultural Approach
Shoes and Ships and Sealing Wax – Taking a Sociocultural Approach to Interviewing Young Children. By Jill Robbins. Published in NZ Research in ECE Journal, 2002, Vol. 5, pp. 13 – 30
Abstract
When conventional interviewing methodology is employed with young children there appears to be a tendency to overlook or avoid the ‘talk of man
Creating an Early Childhood Curriculum Pathway for Sustaining Indigenous Knowledges
Practices of equality and diversity in terms of early childhood education curriculum are examined. ECE is a transmitter of Western knowledges to Indigenous Fijian people and the research participants perceived young children to be the most affected by these knowledges. 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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