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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
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
View the Code of Conduct for ECE Services
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Teacher Member Posts
The Importance of a Play Based Approach
The Play Based Approach – Helping young learners to flourish.
The one thing every parent, caregiver and educator wishes most for a young child is to have a happy and fulfilled childhood.
What is a Play Based Approach?
A play-based approach is a a child-centered approach. When learning and teaching is play-based it is about lea
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.
Beyond Quality in Early Childhood Education & Care Postmodern Perspectives
Beyond Quality in Early Childhood Education & Care Postmodern Perspectives by Gunilla Dahlberg, Peter Moss & Alan Pence. This review was first published in the NZJES journal, 34(2), 1999, pp. 368 – 369. Reviewed by Dr Sarah Alexander.
Beyond Quality challenges the discourse of early childhood education and over two decade
Implementing Primary Caregiving – Issues
Te Whāriki states that infants in particular should experience “unhurried and calm caregiving practices for feeding, sleeping and nappy changing.”
So despite the barriers for some early childhood services such as large numbers of children and poor adult-child ratios, if you can implement a system of primary caregiving it is a very effectiv
Service Provider Member Posts
Staffing at the Beginning and End of the Day
The information provided here answers the following questions:
Does there need to be a minimum amount of staff at the centre? Our centre closes at 5.30 pm. We usually only have two children left at that time of the day. Is it legally OK to only have one staff member at this time or do the regulations require two staff members?
Is it okay fo
Ways to Be the Best – Paths to Quality
Five Paths to Quality Improvement.
Do you want to grow and develop a service that is unique?
Would you like to see parents shouting from the rooftops about how great your service is?
Would you like to future-proof your service to help it continue to be one of the best in your local community, or even in the whole of NZ?
Aim for
Excursions Policy and Procedures
Policy and procedures for excursions and outings.
An excursion is when children are taken outside the licensed premises as part of the learning and teaching programme while attending the service. It does not include an outing for emergency evacuations, drills, or to receive urgent medical attention (we provide a separate policy template for leaving the premises for these reasons).
RATIONALE:
In the rationale section of your written policy some things you may wish to include are:
Noise Control and Reduction Methods
How to Reduce Noise Levels in an Early Childhood Environment.
Ways to assist adults and children reduce noise levels
Practical, low cost, solutions to making building and furniture changes to reduce and prevent noise.
Research Library – Today’s Featured Articles
Student Teachers’ Perceptions of Mentoring Relationships in Field-based Early Childhood Teacher Education
Abstract:
The focus of this paper is on the relationships and experiences of third-year field-based early childhood student teachers with their mentoring teachers in their usual centre of work and with their Associate Teachers whilst on practicum. It reports on data from the second phase of a larger multi-year study (which commenced in 2008),
Removing Socio-Economic Barriers to Participation in Early Childhood Education
This paper reviews policy approaches to increase the participation of children from low socio-economic families in quality early childhood education. Problems are identified with current policy approaches and an equitable way forward is proposed. Read the full paper below. Or to order a pdf copy of the article go to the main NZIRECE Journal page.
Impact of food-related choking prevention guidance in ECE
How have guidelines on the prevention of food-relating choking impacted on the food provided to children in early childhood centres in NZ? Login to read the full research paper below. Or you can order a pdf copy of the article go to the main NZIRECE Journal page.
Beyond Partnerships with Parents in ECE: A Legacy of Adult Experiential Learning in Playcentres
Research on adult learning in ECE settings and outcomes for parents of being involved. 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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