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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

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

Protecting Children’s Skin and Eyes from the Sun
Practical and best sun protection measures for babies, toddlers and young children in home-based and centres.
Always use sun protection measures during peak UVR times between September and April, especially between 10am and 4pm (or Terms 1 & 4 in early childhood services).
During the winter months and outside of these hours sunhats and ot

Bullying by Children as Young as 2 Years
Bullying by Children as Young as Two.
Children bullying another child is not uncommon, and it happens in early childhood centres and homes. Around one in ten children experience being bullied or picked on as a consistent experience from age two years, according to findings of a longitudinal study.
Here we will look at: Should a child be called a bully? What is bullying? Examples of bullying. What’s normal and how adults can stop bullying from developing in the first place

Teaching Overseas or Coming to NZ? Don’t be Disadvantaged
Returning to Teaching in NZ or Going Overseas to Teach.
This article covers key things to be aware of, plan for, do, and get evidence of, to reduce the possibility of disadvantage upon your return to NZ.
Working in an early childhood overseas can be an enriching experience and a good way for teachers to continue their
Service Provider Member Posts

Record of Meetings – Writing the Minutes
This explains why and how to keep a record of meetings and what to record when writing the minutes.
Why take Minutes
Keeping a record of meetings, by writing the minutes of the meeting, allows the time spent in a meeting to be productive, by stopping the same discussions and topics coming up that have already been well threshold. Records

Staff Lateness for Work or Other Problem Behaviour
Here is what you need to know when deciding how to respond to an employee who is late for work.
Late for work – a one off or infrequent occurrence
If you pay the employer by the hour you are under no obligation to pay for time when the employee is not at work.
If an employee is late without a reasonable exp

Playground Risk Assessment
When the Health and Safety at Work Act was brought in concerns were expressed by the education sector. For example, does the Act mean children can’t climb trees in ECE anymore?
Then there’s NZS 5828: Playground Equipment and Surfacing to think about.
Well the good news is that it’s pretty much all good news.
In this article we’ll look at how risk assessment, the HSW Act and NZS 5828 can combine to develop safety approaches that recognise the goal of Te Whariki: To grow up as competent, confident learners and communicators, healthy in mind, body and spirit.

No-Cost Ways to Find Teaching Staff Before Other Employers Do
Finding teaching staff.
Are you having difficulty finding staff who are suitable for your early childhood centre or home-based service?
Do you have no or very little money to spend on advertising?
Here are strategies that are simple, take little time, and are often overlooked – but have proven very effective for getting the
Research Library – Today’s Featured Articles

It is Difficult to Review the Quality of Education if You Don’t Know What Children are Learning: ERO and Self-Review of Early Childhood Services
A critical look at the New Zealand Education Review Office’s draft guidelines for reviewing early childhood services is provided in this paper. ERO’s guidelines provide a range of “evaluation indicators” to inform centres as to what is considered to be effective practice. The indicators that ERO provides in relation to the assessment of chi

Developing Curriculum for the Early Years: A Perspective from Bangladesh
This paper gives a narrative of the emergence of early childhood education in Bangladesh, a country with 156.6 million people. Reference is made to the NZ Te Whāriki and Australia’s Early Years Learning Framework for Australia. Read the full paper below. Or to order a pdf copy of the article go to the main NZIRECE Journal page.

Engaging in Collaborative Research: Lessons Learned
Teacher-Researcher Partnership and Research Collaborations. By Margaret Turnbull and Helen Dixon. NZ Research in Early Childhood Education journal, Vol. 9, 2006, pp. 91-103
Abstract
A collaborative research initiative was established between early childhood centre staff and teacher educators from a tertiary institution. The aim of the resear

Preschool Teachers’ and Parents’ Perspectives on Primary School Preparation in Singapore
Research on preschool teachers’ and parents’ views on how to best prepare children for school. 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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