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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
View the Code of Conduct for ECE Services
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National and local stories, expert analysis, commentary, and more.
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Teacher Member Posts
Bullying Experienced by Teachers – Personal Stories
Bullying Experienced by Teachers.
In the following accounts, teachers real names have not been used for fear of reprisals.
The stories below were told individually to us and come from people working in different parts of the early childhood sector, for different employers.
The teacher accounts are hard to read. For some teachers the bullying was so bad it broke them.
Learning from Disabled Children – How Early Childhood Professionals Can Help
Learning from Disabled Children. By Tim Kahn
This article on Learning from Disabled Children is written from a UK perspective. Some terminology may not be commonplace in New Zealand but should still be apparent from the context.
Disabled, but not really so different
When our daughter, Sarah, was very young, we used to visit our friend Mi
Individual Education Plan
Individual Education Plan Appropriate for Young Children and in Early Childhood Education Services.
How are teachers and parents to know what a child is really learning and establish joint goals, assessment and feedback?
Use the ‘Individual Education Plan’ template provided below.
This includes instructions and an example.
Print v
Creating Edible Gardens with Children
Edible gardens in early childhood centres and homes provide a valuable resource for teaching many aspects of the early childhood curriculum while also creating and sustaining a regular growth and supply of fruits and vegetables.
One of the joys of encouraging children into gardening is the pleasure of seeing, tasting and sharing the results of the effort. Dispositions such as perseverance and curiosity are nurtured through the experience of growing and tending to plants.
Gardening provides a real, as opposed to an artificial, context for the learning of natural science, maths, and language.
On this page we present information and guidance on: purposes of an edible garden, what size and structure works well, produce use, and which plants are most suitable to grown in ECE for speed, fun, and for children to eat.
Motivations and reasons for an edible garden include
Service Provider Member Posts
What Records to Retain and How Long
Retention of Records: Paperwork and what’s Required to be Kept by the Ministry and Various Agencies, including IRD and the Charities Commission.
Issues of safety, privacy, and storage.
Early childhood service reports and records should always be kept in a safe place and not in someone else’s home, car, or workplace. In case of fire it
Job Descriptions for Relievers
How to write a Job Description for a Reliever Position.
Many services like to use relieving staff they know, rather than going through an agency.
Below is a template for a job description that you can adapt to suit and use. If you would like more guidance and ideas go to the main article about writing JDs.
Service name or Logo
J
Indoor-Outdoor Spaces and Room Layout
Early Childhood Centre Design Ideas.
We show, with photographs, a different design and approach to using space for supporting small group and project work. The design comes from a bilingual kindergarten, called a ‘Kita’ in Hamburg, Germany.
The photographs were taken, by Sarah Alexander, during a guided tour of the facility for
Child Complaint and Parent Feedback Forms
Complaint and Parent Feedback Form. Child Feedback Form / Questionnaire.
Children’s Voice.
For a form to document children’s views on the quality of your service and understand better how to meet their individual needs and expectations click on the button below
Child feedback form
Parent and Caregiver Voice.
Does your serv
Research Library – Today’s Featured Articles
“It is a Risk, But it is a Risk Worth Taking”: Early Childhood Teachers’ Reflections on Review of Practice Using an Approach of Practical Philosophy
“It is a risk, but it is a risk worth taking”: Early childhood teachers’ reflections on review of practice using an approach of practical philosophy.
Anne Grey. AUT University, NZ.
Full reference: Grey, A. (2015). “It is a risk, but it is a risk worth taking”: Early childhood teachers’ reflections on review of practice usin
Whiteness Scholarship in Early Childhood Education
Research on how racism and ‘whiteness’ operates within the early childhood research site and research processes. It shows ways that researchers and educators reinforce, rather than reduce the impacts of whiteness and racism, despite the best of intentions. Read the full paper below. Or to order a pdf copy of the article go to the main NZIRECE Journal page.
A Whole School Approach to Language Development in the Early Years
Research findings on supporting children entering school with speech and language delay. Concerning is that the skills necessary for teachers to have to support children are lacking within initial teacher training, which does not support children who are most vulnerable before and after entry to school. Read the full paper below. Or to order a pdf copy of the article go to the main NZIRECE Journal page.
Airplane Grows in the Tummy of Clouds: Living Through Relations in the Early Years of Life
Using a child’s expression that illustrates his mental image of constituted relations of living things, the author conceptualizes relationality, an interrelated view of being, and its importance for early childhood education. The difference between relation and interaction, and the significance of inter-human relationship are discussed as signifi
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