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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
View the Code of Conduct for ECE Services
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Membership Services and Support for:
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…
Beach Trip
Taking children for a trip to the beach can offer opportunities for all kinds of learning - from discovering creatures to practising building skills. Just…
Death of a Child, Parent or Other Adult
In the event of the death of a child or person known at your service, the impact will be extensive on children, yourself, members of…
Sleep – How Much and Meeting Parents’ Wishes
Sleeping During the Day at ECE. Nap, sleep and rest times have led to tensions and stand-offs between teachers, parents and children in some centres…
Service Provider Member Posts
Building the Real Quality of Your ECE Service
Beyond Regulatory Standards and Expectations to Building Quality. There seems to be so much to do in trying to provide a quality service, does there…
Sandpit Design
A good sandpit design for an ECE service sees it being large enough to accommodate half or more of the children attending. It should provide enough…
RS7 Return – Can You Afford to Opt-in to the Pay Parity Funding?
Opting-In to Pay Parity Funding. Some service may opt-out and then lose their teachers to other services that have opted in. Others opting-in to pay…
Staff Meetings – Agenda and How to Conduct a Meeting
Staff meetings can work really well with the right Agenda and planning. Here's how to achieve and cover what is important and make sure no…
Research Library – Today’s Featured Articles
Raising Healthy Kids: A Scoping Review for Feeding Practices in NZ Early Childhood Education Centres
FULL REFERENCE: Orr, G. (2021). Raising healthy kids: A scoping review for feeding practices in NZ early childhood education centres. NZ International Research in Early…
Contents – NZ International Research in ECE Journal, 2024, Vol 26
This issue brings together research on food‑safety practices, visual arts pedagogy, disability inclusion, Indigenous perspectives, autism support, place‑based learning, and educator wellbeing. Across these diverse…
“It Pushes You Beyond the Boundaries”: The Paradox of Setting Teaching Goals in a Field-based Early Childhood Teacher Education Programme
This paper reports on a section of a research study into the teaching practice experiences of early childhood student teachers in a field-based teacher education…
Fathers’ Voices: Their Participation in Early Childhood Education
FULL REFERENCE: Tadi, P., Sadeghi, A. & Nejad, A. M. (2022). Fathers' voices: Their participation in early childhood education. NZ International Research in Early Childhood…
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.
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