Tēnā koutou katoa
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
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
Get Unrestricted Access to NZ’s Specialist ECE NEWSROOM
National and local stories, expert analysis, commentary, and more.
Education Bulletin and Sector Notices
Free to sign-up and receive
Membership Services and Support for:
Teacher Member Posts
What’s all the Fuss About Playdough?
Playing with playdough is an everyday occurrence at many ECE services, but the humble activity is subject to frequent debate with suggestions that playdough and other food based play ideas are culturally insensitive.
The debate is not new – it is revived every few years and has been around for at least the past 30 years.
One debate was
Rocket Making and Launching Rockets
The children were showing interest in aliens, rockets and space. Teacher, James had a water bottle rocket launcher at home, which he brought in. Sadly, this rocket only survived a few launches before the rubber seal broke and could not be replaced.
A week or two later James was reading about an air rocket made from a wine cork and car valve.
“You pump the bottle up until the pressure in the bottle was greater than the friction holding the cork in and in a reverse of a champagne cork the plastic bottle shoots off.”
James then thought about water being in-compressible, so if we fit a hose pipe to the wine cork, the water would flow in and compress the air inside the bottle until the friction failed and launched the bottle.
School Starting Age – Evidence and Arguments
The Best Age to Start School. By Dr Sarah Alexander.
In New Zealand nearly all children have their first full day at primary school on or very close to their 5th birthday. This is a social custom as it is not a legal requirement for families to enrol their child until 6 years of age. Parents have a choice to continue their child in early ch
Creating Edible Gardens with Children
Edible gardens in early childhood centres and homes provide a valuable resource for teaching many aspects of the early childhood curriculum while also creating and sustaining a regular growth and supply of fruits and vegetables.
One of the joys of encouraging children into gardening is the pleasure of seeing, tasting and sharing the results of the effort. Dispositions such as perseverance and curiosity are nurtured through the experience of growing and tending to plants.
Gardening provides a real, as opposed to an artificial, context for the learning of natural science, maths, and language.
On this page we present information and guidance on: purposes of an edible garden, what size and structure works well, produce use, and which plants are most suitable to grown in ECE for speed, fun, and for children to eat.
Motivations and reasons for an edible garden include
Service Provider Member Posts
Pay Reviews – Why, When and How
Regular annual pay reviews can help in developing and retaining a high-skilled and loyal staff. Reviewing staff pay is also a useful exercise to ensure that each member of staff is receiving pay that is appropriate and all legal obligations continue to be met.
Contents
What are employer’s legal responsibilities and moral obligations?Whe
Case Studies of Centres that Successfully Completed Self-Review
Self-Review and The Quality Journey: Is there a Leader at the Helm? By Anne Grey.
This article explores the role of the leader in early childhood centre self-review.
Two case studies of centres that had successfully completed self-review in the previous twelve-month period were undertaken. The leader of each centre was interviewed, the
90-day Trial Period
All employers in New Zealand, no matter their size, are able to use 90-day trial periods. 90-day trials will not affect other aspects of employment relations, such as the requirement to act in good faith. It can be used for any staff – including and not limited to teachers, cleaners, cooks, administrators).
If you wish to put a new staff me
Child Protection Policy
Updated April 2026 with the latest regulatory requirements.
A strong child protection policy isn’t just about meeting licensing standards – it’s a core safeguard for children, your team, and the trust families place in your service.
With new 2026 updates now in force, it’s essential your policy reflects current expectations and best practice.
Log in with your member details to read the full guidance. If your service’s membership has lapsed or you’d like to join, get in touch and we’ll help you get set up quickly.
On this page, we break down the latest regulatory changes, provide the most effective template to use, and share practical insights to help your service demonstrate a genuine, proactive commitment to child protection.
Login to read more
Research Library – Today’s Featured Articles
Contents – NZ International Research in ECE Journal, 2022, Vol 24
This special issue examines how parents and families shape early childhood education, from partnership models and parental wellbeing to fathers’ participation and culturally diverse perspectives on engagement.
Quality Assurance or Compliance? What the Purple People‑Eater Taught Us
These two papers explore the rise and reality of early childhood centre charters – promoted as the key to improving quality, but often experienced as a bureaucratic burden. Together, they reveal how the “Purple People‑Eater” process shaped centre practice, strained relationships, and exposed deep tensions between policy intentions and on‑the‑ground realities.
Early childhood teacher engagement with place-based education
The study followed ECE teachers who were learning to use an outdoor centre – a nature-based education space. The experience, who their beliefs, values and understandings of the pedagogical approaches that underpin learning in nature and the importance of place-based learning for tamariki and kaiako alike were affirmed. Login to view the full article. Or you can order a pdf copy of the article, go to the main NZIRECE Journal page.
Observation: An Effective Research Tool or a Rude Intrusion?
Abstract:
This article discusses observation as a method of collecting data in early childhood research.
Observation has become a common mode of early childhood education practice, mostly to assess children’s learning, which has particularly become prevalent since the introduction of learning stories (Blaiklock, 2008; Carr et al., 2
What We Do
Resources
