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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
Rocket Making and Launching Rockets
The children were showing interest in aliens, rockets and space. Teacher, James had a water bottle rocket launcher at home, which he brought in. Sadly, this rocket only survived a few launches before the rubber seal broke and could not be replaced.
A week or two later James was reading about an air rocket made from a wine cork and car valve.
“You pump the bottle up until the pressure in the bottle was greater than the friction holding the cork in and in a reverse of a champagne cork the plastic bottle shoots off.”
James then thought about water being in-compressible, so if we fit a hose pipe to the wine cork, the water would flow in and compress the air inside the bottle until the friction failed and launched the bottle.
The Place of Travel in Teachers’ Professional Development
Travel in Teachers’ Professional Development. By Kathy Goouch and Hazel Bryan.
There has been increasing interest shown by those concerned with young children’s learning in international policy and practice. By travelling ourselves, we sought to understand the imperative for practitioners to look beyond their own geographical and cultural
Teaching Literacy – An Early Childhood Educator’s Guide
Guide to Teaching Literacy. By Dr Sarah Alexander.
From their earliest speech experiences through to contact with written language and technologies, what happens in children’s homes and communities shapes their early literacy learning. How, and whether this early learning is taken up and extended through early childhood educational practic
Are Learning Stories Working? Educators Share their Views
It is now some years since the Learning Stories approach to assessing children’s learning caught on and was widely and uncritically adopted by early childhood professionals in NZ.
Here we open up discussion and reflect on the use of the Learning Story approach to child assessment and how well it is working for teachers and children.
There
Service Provider Member Posts
Managing Staff Drug and Alcohol Impairment
Ensuring that staff are not impaired by drugs or alcohol is a fundamental responsibility for every ECE service.
Staff whose behaviour or ability to function is affected by illicit drugs, controlled substances, or alcohol present a serious safety risk.
Mentoring New People to Come onto the Committee
Mentoring new people.
Are you finding that you have to twist the arm of an unwilling parent or person to be on the board or committee?
Here are some tips so you never have to do this again.
Most organisations, early childhood services included, wait until the president or chair, secretary, treasurer and other members announce individuall
Staff Discipline and Competence Policy
DISCIPLINE AND COMPETENCE POLICY.
A template to use for your discipline and competence policy.
Date Effective: __/__/20__
Review Date: __/__/202_
Rationale
<Service Name> is committed to providing children, staff and whānau with an environment which is safe and welcoming and promotes positive outcomes for all childr
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 room for each child to stand or sit and dig without touching or getting sand on another child.
In home-based settings, the sandpit design should make sure it is of sufficient size to accommodate
Research Library – Today’s Featured Articles
Contents – NZ International Research in ECE Journal, 2017, Vol 20, No.2
This special issue examines the realities of educators’ work, from the factors that sustain teacher satisfaction and the emotional labour of early childhood teaching to access to professional learning and the challenges faced by field‑based student teachers.
Influences on SENCo Practice in Early Care and Education Settings in England
Research on the challenges for special education needs coordinators and implementation of child health care and learning plans in ECE settings. Read the full paper below. Or to order a pdf copy of the article go to the main NZIRECE Journal page.
Contents – NZ International Research in ECE Journal, 2019, Vol 22, No. 1
This issue spans sustainability pedagogies, post‑colonial tensions in Pacific ECE, digital technology use, advanced empathy, parent‑centred understandings of quality, schema‑informed behaviour support, and rhizomatic thinking in young children’s learning.
Critical Issues in Early Childhood Education
This book presents diverse viewpoints on critical issues in ECE, so that readers can discuss the positions and issues being interrogated and make their own evaluations
What We Do
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