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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
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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

Hearing Loss or Ringing or Buzzing in Your Ears?
Losing my Hearing – Signs of Hearing Loss for Early Childhood Teachers and What You Can Do.
Children are by nature noisy, and working in an early childhood setting can therefore be a noisy working environment -and especially during bad weather when children are stuck indoors all day. Children screaming can damage adult ears.
Employers do h

School Entry Assessments
School Entry Assessments.
One of the most important things an early childhood service can do for its older children is to help them prepare for school.
Shortly after they begin school new entrants will be assessed by their teachers.
These assessments are called school entry assessments and take place between four and eight weeks afte

Seven Tips to Ease Back into Work After the Holidays
Going Back to Work.
Here are 7 of the best tips for easing back to work after a holiday or other break away – smoothing the transition for children and others around you.
Tip 1: Don’t worry, be happy
Children need to see their teachers and carers relaxed, positive and cheerful at the start of a new day and especially at the star
Service Provider Member Posts

Safety Checking of Staff and Others under the Children’s Act
Safety checking is required of every person who has or may have access to children as part of their work, such as cleaners and cooks at early childhood services, must be safety checked in accordance with the Children’s Act 2014 before being allowed to start work. The fine to the early childhood service of failing to do this is up to $10,000 upon c

Values-based Interviewing as Part of the Staff Safety Check
Values-based Interviewing.
It is usual to conduct a formal interview with potential job applicants and to cover skills, experience and knowledge during the interview. This ‘technical’ interview is important to ensure that the applicant has the skills, competencies and knowledge to meet the job description and person specifications.
F

A Tree Fell at a Centre and WorkSafe and MoE Heard It
A tree fell on children in an early childhood centre and for the first time ever Worksafe prosecuted an ECE service.
Four children and one adult were injured.
The most fundamental practice change to be made is that every day the service provider and all adults responsible need to assume that something could go wrong. Don’t take a

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
Research Library – Today’s Featured Articles

Young Children Becoming Curriculum: Deleuze, Te Whāriki and Curricular Understandings
Marg Sellers contests the usual dichotomisation of children and curriculum, by proposing and developing the notion of re(con)ceiving children in curriculum.

Breach of Trust – Getting it Right for Children in Early Childhood Care and Education in Ireland
Breach of Trust – Getting it Right for Children in Early Childhood Care and Education in Ireland.
Mary Moloney. Mary Immaculate College, Ireland.
Full Reference: Moloney, M. (2014). Breach of trust – Getting it right for children in early childhood care and education in Ireland. NZ Research in Early Childhood Education Journal. Special

Parents’ Choices of Child Care in Australia
Parents’ Choices of Child Care in Australia.
Wendy Boyd. Southern Cross University, Australia.
Full Reference: Boyd, W. (2014). Parents’ choices of child care in Australia. NZ Research in Early Childhood Education Journal. Special Issue: Early Childhood Policy, 17, 51 – 70.
Original Policy Paper
Abstract
Little is k

On a Joyful Note: The Practice of Attending to Joy for Educator Wellbeing
Do early childhood educators experience joy in their work with young children? Is early childhood education a joyful profession or is joy all but lost?
Login to view the full article. Or to order a pdf copy of the article, go to the main NZIRECE Journal page.
These questions have guided a recent study and the findings are reported here.
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