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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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pet rock 1
Learning Activities - Outside the Box Ideas

Making Pet Rocks

Making Pet Rocks.

This is a fun activity for ages 2 – 102 – so its highly suitable to involve parents and grandparents in doing too alongside their children.

This can be done inside or at an outside table. , to produce something that reflects the personal style of the creator.

Brilliant for building imagination and creativity, leadin

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website ribbons
Learning Activities - Outside the Box Ideas

Rhythm Ribbons and Physical Movement

Rhythm Ribbons and Physical Movement. By Bronwyn Norman.

Bursting out in the beautiful sunny Autumn/Ngahuru afternoon our tamariki were ready to embrace their environment and interact with each other by choosing materials and playing games.

Fuelled by eating a healthy afternoon tea their bodies were ready to move. Tamariki were walking, ru

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Boy has found a stick and considers what to do next in his kindy play.
Teaching and Putting Theory into Practice

Gun Play?

Do You Allow (Or Even Encourage) Gun Play? By Tim Kahn.

Tim Kahn writes his thoughts about the superhero and weapon’s play that is often indulged in relentlessly by a small group of boys – and less persistently by another group of boys and a few girls.

Starting with the child

Effective learning for young children starts from their i

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toddler on winter's day curious or looking at what is between his fingers
Book Reviews

Young Children Becoming Curriculum: Deleuze, Te Whāriki and Curricular Understandings

Young Children Becoming Curriculum: Deleuze, Te Whāriki and Curricular Understandings by Marg Sellers.

In Young Children Becoming Curriculum, a book published within an international series on “contesting early childhood” author Marg Sellers makes her debut as an educational philosopher.

She has taken thinking and writing on children,

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Service Provider Member Posts

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teacher exploitation stress sad bullied work related injuries
Employer Guides and Staff Management

Sick Leave Entitlement and Staff Faking Sickness or Taking Unscheduled Time Off

A minimum of 10 days per year for employers with an employer for 6 months or more is claimable. Employers may offer more than 10 days and many in the early childhood sector do. Employees can carry over 10 days of unused sick leave into the new year, and employers can choose to let employees carry over more.

But, how should you respond and wha

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job description for early childhood teacher educator manager staff
Employer Guides and Staff Management

Job Description for a Head Teacher, Room Leader, or Home-based Visiting Teacher

Job Description for a Head Teacher, Room Leader, or Home-based Visiting Teacher.

Here is a template to help guide you in preparing a job description that matches your service’s philosophy and reflects the position. This person will have additional responsibilities compared with other qualified and unqualified staff and educators.

If you wou

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the importance of touch as part of caregiving and teaching children
Employer Guides and Staff Management

Owner Worried about Putting Service at Risk By Employing Men

“I have nothing against employing men – but why put my centre at risk? Parents don’t want a male tending to their child’s personal needs. This is the type of society we now live in.”  

owner of an early childhood service

Dr Alexander Replies

* In a childcare/early childhood education context children are not any safer with wo

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Teacher Professionals Early Childhood Education
Professional Learning, Mentoring & Development

Associate Teacher and Centre Information on Supporting Student Kaiako & Payment

Associate Teacher and Centre Information on Supporting Student Kaiako & Payment.

If you’re a qualified, registered teacher and you’re ready to start supporting student kaiako as an Associate Teacher, we’ve got some helpful information to make the experience as rich and rewarding for everyone involved.

Practicums are a keystone of

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Research Library – Today’s Featured Articles

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Young children making music at kindergarten.
How-to-do Research

How to do Action-Based Research or an Inquiry, and Writing Your Report

What is Action Research?

Action research is defined in the glossary as:  

A hands-on approach to research for change in a setting and/or to one’s own practices, thinking and knowledge. Action research can be a collaborative endeavour or carried out by an individual.

When action research is being undertaken to bring about change in a se

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early childhood research journal online
2013 NZRECE Journal Articles

Omissions and Presuppositions in Kei Tua o te Pae: A Critical Discourse Analysis

This research note describes some of the findings from an analysis of three introductory booklets of “Kei Tua o te Pae”, an early childhood assessment practice resource produced by the New Zealand Ministry of Education.

Analysis involved taking a critical discourse perspective to identify ways in which text was likely to persuade readers to

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Child Thinking
2023 NZIRECE Journal

Revisiting Rhizomatic Connections and Relationships in Young Children’s Thinking and Meaning-Making

Original theory and research on children in early years education exploring the complex nature of children’s thinking, connections and relationships. 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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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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