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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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- 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
Speaking Up in ECE: How to Raise Issues in Your Workplace or Community, Influence Change, and Advocate
If something in your workplace or in the wider ECE sector isn’t sitting right with you, you’re not alone – and you’re not powerless.
We speak up to protect children, strengthen the profession, and create healthier, safer workplaces.
But raising concerns can feel overwhelming, scary, and hard.
Think of one thing you’d really like to change. This article helps you work out the best way to communicate it – whether that’s addressing an issue with your employer, raising a sector‑wide concern, or advocating for children’s rights.
Log in with your member details to read the full guidance. If your membership has lapsed or you’d like to join, get in touch with us or go to the Join page on our website.
You’ll learn about common stumbling blocks, ways to build your confidence, and take the next step without feeling out of your depth.
Supervision While Eating – What the Requirements Mean and the Indicators to Help You Meet Them Confidently
The “supervision while eating” criterion is often misunderstood, especially the fact that it covers not only high‑risk choking foods but also allergic reactions, which can create real confusion about what supervision in practice looks like. This article explains the core requirements and provides practical indicators so you can keep children safe, protect yourself from allegations of harm, and ensure your service remains fully compliant.
Men Should Change Nappies
Men Change Nappies – Men Who Change Nappies, Change the World. By Bryan G. Nelson.
Changing the nappies of other people’s children is something that few people, men or women, usually rush to do. And nappy changing is commonly viewed as a woman’s task anyway so we shouldn’t worry if men do it or not. Or should we?
I remember wor
Winter and Rainy Day Activities
Winter and Rainy Day Children’s Activities.
When the children are getting restless and the noise levels are going up and up and you are thinking about how to get through the day, it’s time to bring in some new ideas and fresh activities.
Here’s help. Below are lots of teacher ideas of experiences you can give to children and activities t
Service Provider Member Posts
Building is Unusable But You Need to Continue Providing Care for Children
ECE Centre Temporary Relocation.
A major earthquake, a fire, or other unplanned event such as gas leak, may mean your early childhood centre building cannot be used.
Parents will continue to need childcare, and you want to continue business but what can you do?
And what arrangements can you make quickly and keep within the law?
Interview Questions for Teaching Job Applicants
This article goes over the broad areas to cover when interviewing an applicant and questions interviewers have found work.
When interviewing for a teaching position try to cover at least the following broad areas:
Prior work experience and reasons for any gaps in the applicant’s work record.Qualifications, when, where, how, areas of
How To Have Better Committee Meetings
Better Committee Meetings.
“Not another time-waster meeting!” – have you heard a comment like this?
I have observed and participated in some great committee and board meetings at early childhood services and no meeting has to be a time-waster or boring.
It can be done.
You can bring energy, heart, managem
Curriculum Policy
Use and adapt the following curriculum policy to suit your service and meet regulatory requirements.
Your curriculum policy must be consistent with the curriculum framework and be informed by assessment, planning, and evaluation (documented and undocumented) that demonstrates an understanding of children’s learning, their interests, whānau, and life contexts.
As well as providing a curriculum policy template for you, we’ve included the questions the Ministry of Education commonly asks and focuses on when it is checking an ECE service’s curriculum policy and implementation.
RATIONALE:
To ensure the process of planning, evaluating and delivering a localised curriculum is consistent with
Research Library – Today’s Featured Articles
Early Childhood Educators’ Workplace Well-being
Catherine Jones, Fay Hadley, Manjula Waniganayake and Melissa Johnstone. Macquarie University, New South Wales.
Full reference:Jones, C., Hadley, F., Waniganayake, M. & Johnstone, M. (2019). Early childhood educators’ workplace well-being: A case for using self-determination theory to understand and support workplace well-being in earl
Researching with Men: Ideas and Strategies for Doing Better
Research with Men. By David Mitchell and Philip Chapman. Published in the NZ Research in Early Childhood Education journal, Vol. 4, 2001, pp. 165-175
Abstract
This paper challenges the tendency of research to ignore issues related to the study of men and particularly men as parents. An argument is also presented for including men in st
Index for the NZ Research in ECE Journal, 2005, Vol 8
The titles, authors and abstracts for papers published in the NZ Research in Early Childhood Education Journal, Volume 8, 2005 are shown below.
To view any paper, scroll to the end of this page for copies.
Children as Rights Holders: Considerations for Research
Cindy KiroChildren’s Commissioner, New ZealandNZRECE Journal, V
Contents – NZ International Research in ECE Journal, 2023, Vol 25
This issue explores cultural competence in teacher education, inclusive and culturally safe ECE workplaces, social‑justice leadership, children’s understandings of same‑sex families, and innovative perspectives on children’s thinking and identity.
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