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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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toddler walking on concrete and over to safety surface at playground.
Book Reviews

“A City Possessed”: The Christchurch Civic Creche Case by Lynley Hood

“A City Possessed”: The Christchurch Civic Creche Case by Lynley Hood.

No other case of child abuse in New Zealand’s history has held public attention so strongly and for so long as the Christchurch Civic Creche case. While charges against four of his female colleagues were dropped after an 11-week preliminary hearing, Peter Ellis was later se

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Working with Parents and Whānau

Supporting and Involving Fathers

Early childhood education services in general do not do well when it comes to being inclusive of dads and supporting and involving fathers. Services could be doing better if teachers and service operators knew how. 

New Zealand families are gradually changing and men are becoming more involved in raising their children.

However, public reali

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young toddler reading book at kitchen table while having a snack
Teaching and Putting Theory into Practice

Teaching Pre-Reading Skills

Teaching Pre-Reading Skills. By Barbara Morris.

Is it important for parents and early childhood educators to be involved in teaching pre-reading skills to children? Yes it is!

Parents play an important part in helping their children acquire pre-reading skills. There are many ways early childhood educators can support the acquisition o

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take children to visit an art gallery
Learning Activities - Outside the Box Ideas

Art Gallery Visit

Taking Children to an Art Gallery.

Don’t assume that art galleries are too high-brow for young children. They may not be able to tell you the name of the artist but they will still appreciate the work. Early childhood education should include exposing children to contemporary art practice in different forms.

Here are suggestions to help

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Service Provider Member Posts

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Puddle jumping after the rain
Health and Safety Management

Flooding

Flooding – what to do and what not to do when there is flooding or a threat of flooding.

Be prepared for floods to occur wherever you are located, but particularly if located in a low-lying area, near the coast, rivers and water, or downstream from a dam.

If sustained and hard rain follows a period of drought, flooding can occur as the grou

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Health and Safety Management

Daylight Saving is here – what you need to know to support tamariki over this period

Losing an hour of sleep can be hard on your body clock.

So it’s no surprise that young children can seem particularly grumpy and out of sorts at the start of the daylight saving period. 

In Aotearoa, daylight saving begins on the last Sunday of September, when 2am becomes 3am.

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child eating a muffin at an early childhood centre
Health and Safety Management

Food Allergy Management

Food Allergy Management.

Sharing a sweet treat on your birthday is great fun, but in an early childhood setting it can be more complicated than simply working out how many pieces you need to cut the cake into.

If your centre or home-based service has children who have food allergies or intolerances, what seems like some harmless baking coul

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Employer Guides and Staff Management

Non-Contact Time Needs and Your Entitlement

Early Childhood Teacher Non-Contact Time.

At centres and home-based services, teachers or educators have a wide range of responsibilities in their roles and finding time to do everything can especially be a challenge depending on things like the number of other teachers, how many hours your service operates and the demands/ needs of caring of

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Research Library – Today’s Featured Articles

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NZ International Research in Early Childhood Education journal
2017 NZIRECE Journal, No. 2, Special Issue

Advancing Early Childhood Educators’ Access to Professional Learning in Gifted and Talented Education

An investigation into what specialists in gifted and talented education can provide to early childhood educators in professional learning and support and ECE teacher preferences and needs. Read the full paper below. Or to order a pdf copy of the article go to the main NZIRECE Journal page.

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2012 NZRECE Journal Articles

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

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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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