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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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Teacher Member Posts

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Boy has found a stick and considers what to do next in his kindy play.
Teaching and Putting Theory into Practice

Gun Play?

Do You Allow (Or Even Encourage) Gun Play? By Tim Kahn.

Tim Kahn writes his thoughts about the superhero and weapon’s play that is often indulged in relentlessly by a small group of boys – and less persistently by another group of boys and a few girls.

Starting with the child

Effective learning for young children starts from their i

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overworked teachers and kindergarten staffing issues
Assessment of Learning

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

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child climbs fruit tree
Book Reviews

Beyond Quality in Early Childhood Education & Care Postmodern Perspectives

Beyond Quality in Early Childhood Education & Care Postmodern Perspectives by Gunilla Dahlberg, Peter Moss & Alan Pence. This review was first published in the NZJES journal, 34(2), 1999,  pp. 368 – 369. Reviewed by Dr Sarah Alexander. 

Beyond Quality challenges the discourse of early childhood education and over two decade

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Colours Happy Child
Job Guidance

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

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Service Provider Member Posts

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early childhood education staff interviews
Internal Evaluation, Self-Review and Staff Meetings

Record of Meetings – Writing the Minutes

This explains why and how to keep a record of meetings and what to record when writing the minutes. 

Why take Minutes

Keeping a record of meetings, by writing the minutes of the meeting, allows the time spent in a meeting to be productive, by stopping the same discussions and topics coming up that have already been well threshold.  Records

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Management Information Support
Employer Guides and Staff Management

Dismissal Letter

EXAMPLE LETTER OF DISMISSAL.

Below is a general draft letter of dismissal to assist you in learning how a letter can be constructed, and what things you need to consider including in it,

Private and Confidential

DATE: 

Dear <Insert Name>

Termination of your employment

This letter is to formally advise you of the termi

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behavioural disorders
Employer Guides and Staff Management

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

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child climbs tree with teacher at early childhood centre
Health and Safety Management

Playground Risk Assessment

When the Health and Safety at Work Act was brought in concerns were expressed by the education sector. For example, does the Act mean children can’t climb trees in ECE anymore?

Then there’s NZS 5828: Playground Equipment and Surfacing to think about.

Well the good news is that it’s pretty much all good news.

In this article we’ll look at how risk assessment, the HSW Act and NZS 5828 can combine to develop safety approaches that recognise the goal of Te Whariki: To grow up as competent, confident learners and communicators, healthy in mind, body and spirit.

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Research Library – Today’s Featured Articles

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early childhood research journal online
2015 NZRECE Journal Articles

Early Childhood Education: Fracture Lines of Social Context and Neural Development

Early childhood education: Fracture lines of social context and neural development.

John A. Clark. Massey University, NZ.

Full reference: Clark, J.A. (2015). Early childhood education: Fracture lines of social context and neural development. NZ Research in Early Childhood Education Journal, 18, 80 – 86.

Critical Review Paper

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early childhood research journal online
2013 NZRECE Journal Articles

Constructing Teacher Identities across Different Learning Paradigms

Abstract:

This article discusses one key finding from a qualitative study that investigated the experiences of overseas-born, ethnic minority early childhood pre-service teachers in New Zealand. Data were collected through interviews with recently graduated Bachelor of Teaching (Early Childhood Education) teachers and early childhood lecturers

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early childhood research journal online
2014 Special Policy Issue

The Relationship between Early Childhood Education and Care and English Proficiency at School Entry for Bilingual Children in Australia

The Relationship between Early Childhood Education and Care and English Proficiency at School Entry for Bilingual Children in Australia.

Meredith O’Connor1,2, Elodie J. O’Connor1, Amanda Kvalsvig1 and Sharon Goldfeld1,21. Royal Children’s Hospital, Victoria, Australia2. University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Full Reference: O’Co

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What We Do

The Office of ECE drives high-quality care, learning and teaching for all infants and young children and high-quality working environments for teachers and service providers.
Teacher supervising infant and young child playing in playground at ECE centre.

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