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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
Teacher Education Staff Uncertain About Accepting Male Students
Accepting Males into Teaching Course.
Why should we continue to accept men into our teacher education programme when they have difficulty fitting in and so often have difficulty completing training? Our experience has been that that they either withdraw into themselves or do the opposite and become the joker in their class. Out o
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
Diseases Requiring Children and Adults Not to Be at ECE
Diseases and Conditions Requiring Exclusion of Children and Adults from Coming In Contact with Any Other Person at the ECE Service.
Below is a list of the diseases and conditions likely to be passed on to children and to have a detrimental effect on them. When a child or adult has one of these diseases or conditions the early childhood s
SUDI or SIDS – What you need to know and actions you can take to reduce the risk
SUDI Sudden Unexplained Death of an Infant.
Should an infant at your early childhood service die in their sleep how would you feel?
You might consider there was nothing you could do to prevent this from happening – that if it was going to happen it was going to happen whether or not the baby was in its parents’ care or your care.
Now
Service Provider Member Posts
Staffing Rosters: Balancing Safety and Compliance at Opening and Closing
Staffing Rosters at opening and closing can make or break the safety and compliance of an early childhood service. Many leaders are unsure what the law actually requires, especially when only a few children remain at the end of the day. This article cuts through the confusion with clear guidance on ratios, supervision, and who can legally be left to open or close the centre and differences between legal and best practice.
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
Building is Unusable But You Need to Continue Providing Care for Children
ECE Centre Temporary Relocation.
A major earthquake, a fire, or other unplanned event such as gas leak, may mean your early childhood centre building cannot be used.
Parents will continue to need childcare, and you want to continue business but what can you do?
And what arrangements can you make quickly and keep within the law?
Building the Real Quality of Your ECE Service
Beyond Regulatory Standards and Expectations to Building Quality.
There seems to be so much to do in trying to provide a quality service, does there not?
Is all your work worth it or could a change in focus and method achieve better results?
To help you to think critically on this consider the following:
Who defines what quality is? A
Research Library – Today’s Featured Articles
Contents – NZ Research in ECE Journal, 2016, Vol. 19
This special issue examines equality and diversity in early childhood education, spanning inclusive science exploration, evolving coaching roles in early intervention, whole‑school language development, socio‑economic barriers to participation, whiteness scholarship, shared decision‑making, and photostory as a tool for capacity building.
Field-Based Early Childhood Student Teachers – Who Are They and What Challenges Do They Face?
This research examines the demographic characteristics of students who choose to do field-based early childhood education teacher training and identifies challenges they face in relation to gender, career choice and academic expectations. Read the full paper below. Or to order a pdf copy of the article go to the main NZIRECE Journal page.
Supporting Teaching Practices to Foster Toddlers’ Emotional Literacy
Research on helping teachers to develop teaching practices to foster toddlers’ emotional learning. Read the full paper below. Or to order a pdf copy of the article go to the main NZIRECE Journal page.
Contents – NZ International Research in ECE Journal, 2019, Vol 22, No. 1
This issue spans sustainability pedagogies, post‑colonial tensions in Pacific ECE, digital technology use, advanced empathy, parent‑centred understandings of quality, schema‑informed behaviour support, and rhizomatic thinking in young children’s learning.
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