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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
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
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Teacher Member Posts

Job Interview Preparation and Questions
ECE Job Interview Questions.
If you have been asked to attend an interview then you have been short-listed out of the applications received.
The information below will help you to prepare for the interview and participate in the interview process with confidence.
This article covers:
what checks are likely to be done on youqu

Transforming an Old Woodwork Table
I am James Lochead-MacMillan and I’m going to share with you our review and evaluation of the woodwork table and children’s use, and what we did to bring about improvement
Review and evaluation of woodwork
The hammers had seen better days, the saws were rusty, the screwdrivers were AWOL, the vices and the drills were all broken. The work benc

Co-construction, Problem-Solving, Scaffolding and Hypothesising
The early childhood years are a busy, exciting time. New discoveries, skills and competencies are a regular part of life for a young child. Early childhood teachers have the opportunity to optimise these amazing and important years. In this article, I will discuss teaching strategies, such as co-construction, that can turn children’s possibilities into realities.
The practices that will be discussed involve expanding thinking, problem-solving and developing hypotheses. These teaching strategies can build on children’s learning dispositions and their strengths and interests to put the ‘wow factor’ into learning.
The ‘wow factor’
It is probably safe to say that most of us who choose to become teachers do so because we enjoy knowing that our work can make a meaningful contribution to children’s lives.
Most teachers I talk to are passionate about teaching and seeing young children learn.

Assessing Reading Readiness
Assessing Reading Readiness – 7 Signs a Child is Ready to Go from Listening to Reading.
How can you tell if a child is ready to go from listening to stories to reading stories? The best way to know is to look at the behaviours, skills, and interests which indicate that a child is ready for reading. The checklist can be useful also as
Service Provider Member Posts

Disciplinary Process
There may be a time that you find an employee is underperforming or an employee is engaging in misconduct or serious misconduct.
You may not want to, but you will need to begin a disciplinary process with that employee. Here is information to assist you in learning about disciplinary processes as an employer or manager of early childhood s

Maximising 20-Hours ECE Funding Around Public Holidays
20-Hours ECE Changes.
When a service is closed for statutory holidays and is not providing care for children it does not receive funding.
Unfortunately this can mean a loss of income for a service, which is difficult especially when there are still wages and other costs to pay.
However, there is a trick to getting around this.  

Cashflow Management
Cashflow Management.
How do we cope with huge cash inflows from the MoE three times a year then famine in between?
The simplest way is to put into a separate bank account all the advances received each four months and then transfer it into the normal bank account monthly. You will also need some capital of your own in the bank to cover the c

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

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.

Children as Teachers: Creating Opportunities for Children to Share Expertise with their Peers
In early childhood centres young children have the opportunity to interact with their peers in a play based environment. Play takes a central role and is a way by which children may challenge and extend each other’s thinking. Current accounts of how children learn and develop recognise the importance of peer interactions in this process. The stud

Designing An Early Childhood Study and Starting It!
Designing Your Study and How to Get Started
Here are articles we think will help advise you best on designing early childhood research and support you with helpful tips through any tough times.
Start by checking out all the published articles in the NZ-International Research in Early Childhood Education Journal on this website (over 25 years

ECE Participation and Child Outcomes: A Critical Review of the Evidence
This review cuts through political spin to reveal what the strongest evidence actually shows about the effects of ECE. Learn the real benefits and risks of ECE – not the claims, assumptions, or slogans.
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