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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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Transitions between Home, ECE Service and School

Helping Parents Make the Transition to ECE

Parents Leaving their Child For the First Time in Care – An anxious time.

“A heart wrenching moment for all parents is when we leave our child for the first time in the care of someone else who is not well-known to us or at early childhood service or school. A child may become a lot quieter than usual or kick up a fuss. Either way as parents we

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the importance of touch as part of caregiving and teaching children
Working with Parents and Whānau

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

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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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alphabet charts for writing letters and words at NZ early childhood centre
Transitions between Home, ECE Service and School

Running a Transition to School Programme

The strands in the early childhood curriculum Te Whāriki  underpin the objective of providing a base for children to be able to build on their learning and become confident and competent in school. The New Zealand Curriculum explains that supporting of the transition process from early childhood requires fostering of a child’s relationships within their social environment, building and recognising all their experiences and collaborating with family and whanau.

Multiple factors affect a child’s transition from early childhood to school, and some of the main factors are:

– Whether there is a collaborative approach and effective communication between school, early childhood service and the family during the transition process;

– Early childhood and primary teachers understanding of both the early childhood and the NZ schools curricula;

– Children’s understanding of the different curriculum of the school, and the school’s social and physical environment; and

– Children’s preparedness for the academic challenges of the school curriculum.

I’ll discuss each of these factors and share examples with you.

Teachers have different approaches to managing the transition processes.

As early childhood teachers, we need to understand that each child develops differently; hence we need to adapt the pace of the transition programme accordingly.

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Service Provider Member Posts

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sad child with mother
Employer Guides and Staff Management

Domestic Violence Leave

Domestic violence leave guidelines.

Asking for proof and how to treat an employee who is, or is suspected to be, affected by domestic violence

As an employer you can accept any type of proof that an employee is affected by domestic violence.  Proof may, for example, take the form of: a letter or email about what’s going on and how it

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cleaning gloves and clothes hanging to dry
Employer Guides and Staff Management

Union Rights and ECE Service Provider Duties

Union rights.

Whether your early childhood service is party to a collective agreement or not – you need to know the ins and outs of the law on rights and duties in dealing with unions.

There are also obligations you must meet in respect of new staff appointments. Keep reading below to find out more.

You may also be interested in reading&

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minimum licensing standards breached as this shows adult-sized furniture from which a child could fall
Learnings from Serious Incidents

Toddler died following a short distance fall, possibly from an adult-sized chair

The death of 20-month-old Lorenzo was due, in the opinion of the pathologist, to traumatic brain injury following a short distance fall with head impact.

In our opinion the tragedy was avoidable. There were several clear and serious failures in Lorenzo’s care before and after his accident.

We hope that the sector will learn from this tra

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child with binoculars looking out
Financial Management and Record Keeping

Financial Sustainability

Early Childhood Service Financial Sustainability.

Unless as much or more money is coming in than is going out, your service could come to be at risk. Here are some strategies for financial sustainability and increasing your revenue stream when necessary. What strategies you agree with and disagree with will depend on your values and the reasons

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Research Library – Today’s Featured Articles

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NZIRECE Journal early childhood education research
2021 NZIRECE Journal No. 2. Special Issue

Wellbeing Literacy and Early Childhood Education

Research on child wellbeing and insights into wellbeing gains for children in early childhood education. 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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Two children playing with Duplo blocks at early childhood centre.
2023 NZIRECE Journal

Children Learning about Same-Sex Families

Research on parents’ perceptions of children’s understanding of same-sex families and inclusion in ECE. 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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early childhood research journal online
2013 NZRECE Journal Articles

Constructing Teacher Identities across Different Learning Paradigms

Abstract:

This article discusses one key finding from a qualitative study that investigated the experiences of overseas-born, ethnic minority early childhood pre-service teachers in New Zealand. Data were collected through interviews with recently graduated Bachelor of Teaching (Early Childhood Education) teachers and early childhood lecturers

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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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