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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
Pikler and Gerber Theories in Practice
A close look at how well the theories of Pikler and Gerber can be merged with Te Whariki and the models of infant care and education in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Concepts such as ‘self-soothing’ (allowing babies to settle by themselves) and leaving babies to develop in their own time rather than pushing them to meet milestones cause much debate among parents and early childhood educators.
These debates include such things as whether babies should be allowed to cry it out and whether parents or educators should help children to achieve milestones such as sitting by propping them up.
One proponent of allowing a child to develop at their own pace is Emmi Pikler, a Hungarian paediatrician who worked with children aged from birth to six in her role as Director of the Loczy Orphanage from 1946 until her death in 1979.
Pikler believed that infants’ emotional well-being was paramount, and she restructured then entire staff to ensure that all those working at the orphanage not only met the children’s physical needs, but also would ‘love’ these unwanted children and attend to them with consistent and thoughtful care.
How to Find Common Ground with Dads
Relationships with Dads in ECE.
How can we as female educators find common-ground with Dads that is non-threatening? Karen (ECE teacher).
Dr Alexander Replies:
* A major common-ground between female educators and Dads is the child – talk with Dads about their children, what their child has been doing during the day, ask questio
Lunch and Rest Breaks – Your Entitlements
Lunch and rest breaks.
Working with children is a very busy and demanding job. Employees in different types of early childhood services are often questioning what their entitlements are when they come to breaks.
There is a huge variation of break times across the sector.
So what are early childhood teachers entitled to when it comes
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
Service Provider Member Posts
Fee Bargaining – When Parents From Other Cultures Want to Bargain
Parents Wishing to Bargain Over Childcare Fees.
Do you find some parents who are used to bargaining in their own countries are less accepting of price increases and accepting set prices?
Are you cautious when increasing fees or other charges because of how parents from different cultures may react?
New Zealand is a nation with around
Case Studies of Centres that Successfully Completed Self-Review
Self-Review and The Quality Journey: Is there a Leader at the Helm? By Anne Grey.
This article explores the role of the leader in early childhood centre self-review.
Two case studies of centres that had successfully completed self-review in the previous twelve-month period were undertaken. The leader of each centre was interviewed, the
Ministry of Education Audits: Funding Audit and Record Keeping Audits
Preparing for a Funding Claim Audit.
The purpose of a visiting audit from the Ministry of Education is to:
Verify that the service is claiming and receiving the correct amount of MoE funding,
Verify that a service is meeting the record keeping requirements for the grants, and to
Provide advice and assistance to services about record
The ECE Fundraising Guide
Fundraising Guide.
Hi, can you please help me and my kohanga. I don’t know how or where to get funding for an outside playground!!!! This is my first time trying to get a grant…….I’m really on the fundraising committee but I just found out there is no funding committee so I’m giving it a go
Morning teas, cake raffl
Research Library – Today’s Featured 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
Supporting Teaching Practices to Foster Toddlers’ Emotional Literacy
Research on helping teachers to develop teaching practices to foster toddlers’ emotional learning. Read the full paper below. Or to order a pdf copy of the article go to the main NZIRECE Journal page.
Early Childhood Educators’ and Parents’ Perspectives of Literacy for Children Under Three
Research on literacy practices for infants and toddlers (children under 3 years) in early childhood education and parent and educator understandings. Read the full paper below. Or to order a pdf copy of the article go to the main NZIRECE Journal page.
Satisfaction with Autism NZ’s early support programme, EarlySteps
Reporting on a practitioner-led evaluation of an autism specific NZ early support (formerly known as ‘early intervention) programme, the findings, and recommendations. Login to view the full article. Or you can order a pdf copy of the article, go to the main NZIRECE Journal page.
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