2026 ECE Wall Planner Calendar (with funding dates)

Early Childhood Education Calendar, For 2026

Start the year feeling organised and confident with our free 2026 wall planner designed especially for early childhood education services.

Featuring key dates, public holidays, events, and Ministry of Education funding deadlines, this planner helps you plan ahead with ease. Keep everything visible at a glance and ensure your team stays on track throughout the year.

Download and print the Wall Planner for your office and staff room. And, make it your own—there’s plenty of space to add notes, reminders, and other events that matter most to your service and community.

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Stay informed about ECE requirements, policies, & best practice online at https://oece.nz
	MONDAY	TUESDAY	WEDNESDAY	THURSDAY	FRIDAY	SAT & SUN
JANUARY				1 STAT HOLIDAY	2 STAT HOLIDAY	3 & 4
	5	6	7	8	9	10 & 11
	12	13	14	15	16	17 & 18
	19	20	21	22	23	24 & 25
	26 Term One starts for many schools	27	28	29	30	31
FEBRUARY						1
	2 RS7 March funding submission period opens	3	4	5	6 STAT HOLIDAY Waitangi Day	7 & 8
	9	10 RS7 paper-based submission due for 1 March payment	11	12	13 RS7 electronic submission due for 1 March payment	14 & 15
	16	17 Chinese New Year Shrove Tuesday	18	19	20	21 & 22
	23	24	25	26	27	28
MARCH						1 Children’s Day
	2 MoE Funding Payment (for 1 March)	3	4	5	6 RS7 submission due for 20 March payment	7 & 8
	9	10	11	12	13	14 & 15
	16	17 St Patrick’s Day	18	19	20 MoE Funding Payment (for 20 March)	21 & 22
	23	24	25	26	27	28 & 29
	30	31 World Down Syndrome Day
APRIL			1	2 Term One ends	3 STAT HOLIDAY Easter	4 & 5
	6 STAT HOLIDAY	7	8	9	10	11 & 12
	13	14	15	16	17	18 & 19
	20 Term Two starts	21	22	23	24	25 & 26 ANZAC Day (25^th)
	27 STAT HOLIDAY	28	29	30
MAY					1	2 & 3
NZ Sign Language week	4	5	6	7	8	9 & 10 Mother’s Day (10^th)
	11	12	13	14	15	16 & 17
	18	19	20	21	22	23 & 24
	25	26	27	28	29	30 & 31
JUNE Sāmoan Language Week	1 STAT HOLIDAY King’s Birthday	2 RS7 July funding submission period opens	3	4	5	6 & 7
Soccer World Cup Starts	8	9	10	11 RS7 paper-based submission due for 1 July payment	12	13 & 14
	15	16 RS7 electronic submission due for 1 July payment	17	18	19	20 & 21
This week: Submit ECE return (census) info to MoE	22	23	24	25	26	27 & 28
	29	30 Financial declarations due with MoE for 2025 financial year
JULY			1 MoE Funding Payment (for 1 July)	2	3 Term Two ends	4 & 5
	6	7	8	9	10 STAT HOLIDAY Matariki	11 & 12
	13	14	15	16	17	18 & 19
	20 Term Three starts	21	22	23 Commonwealth Games Start	24	25 & 26
	27	28	29	30	31
AUGUST						1 & 2
	3	4	5	6	7	8 & 9
	10	11	12	13	14	15 & 16
	17	18	19	20	21	22 & 23
	24	25	26	27	28	29 & 30
	31
SEPTEMBER		1	2	3	4	5 & 6 Father’s Day (6^th)
	7	8	9	10	11	12 & 13
Māori Language Week (Te Wiki o te Reo Māori)	14	15	16	17	18	19 & 20
	21	22	23	24	25 Term Three ends	26 & 27
	28	29	30
OCTOBER				1 RS7 Nov funding submission period opens	2	3 & 4
	5 World Teachers’ Day	6	7	8	9	10 & 11
	12 RS7 paper-based submission due for 1 Nov payment Term Four starts	13	14	15 RS7 electronic submission due for 1 Nov payment	16	17 & 18
	19	20	21	22	23	24 & 25
	26 STAT HOLIDAY Labour Day	27	28	29	30	31 Halloween
NOVEMBER						1
Diwali celebrations start	2 MoE Funding Payment (for 1 Nov)	3	4	5 Guy Fawkes	6	7 & 8 Diwali
	9	10	11	12	13	14 & 15
	16	17	18	19	20	21 & 22
	23	24	25	26	27	28 & 29
	30
DECEMBER		1	2	3	4	5 & 6
	7	8	9	10	11	12 & 13
	14	15	16	17	18 Term Four ends	19 & 20
Christmas and New Year period starts	21	22	23	24	25 STAT HOLIDAY	26 & 27
	28	29	30	31

Are you interested in the 2027 key funding dates? Pease check this page for updates in late 2026.

Further Information for Service Providers

Funding Rate Increases in 2026

Strategies to Maximise Funding you get for 20 Hours ECE, etc.

Late pick-ups or early drop-offs? What you need to know before you charge parents

Cashflow management

Accounting and Financial Terms Glossary especially for ECE Service Providers

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“It Made Me Argue More Confidently and I Can Stand by My Words”: Beginning Teachers’ Perspectives

FULL REFERENCE: Murphy, Caterina, & Butcher, Jenny (2015). “It made me argue more confidently and I can stand by my words”: Beginning teachers’ perspectives about mentoring, goal setting, and leadership during teacher registration. NZ Research in Early Childhood Education Journal, 18, 1 – 19.

Log-in to read the full research paper below. Or order a pdf copy of the article from the main NZIRECE Journal page.

ABSTRACT: Mentoring and leadership are complex issues for early childhood education concerning growing as a teacher-leader professional. The period of provisional teacher registration is an important time for ongoing professional learning. This qualitative report focuses on the perspectives of five beginning teachers concerning their mentoring relationships and experiences during their journey of gaining full teacher registration. It reports on phase three of a larger multiyear study interested in teaching practice experiences (2008-2013). The research themes for phase three of the research were the effectiveness of mentoring relationships and goal-setting and teacher awareness of the Registered Teacher Criteria (RTC) (New Zealand Teachers Council, 2010) in everyday practice. One focus group interview was conducted. The results illuminate how beginning teachers use the RTC to support the attainment of registration and develop as teacher-leaders. Key themes of how their mentoring experiences as student teachers still affect their confidence as beginning teacher-leaders, their leadership aspirations and their ongoing journey of goal setting as professionals, were evident.

Key words: Beginning teachers; mentoring; registered teacher criteria; goal setting; leadership; appraisal.

INTRODUCTION

Beginning early childhood teachers in Aotearoa New Zealand are required to complete a minimum of two years provisional registration, guided by fully registered mentoring teachers during their programme of induction and mentoring (New Zealand Teachers Council (NZTC), 2010; 2011). This paper, (phase three of a multiyear qualitative study (Butcher & Murphy, 2012; Murphy & Butcher, 2009, 2011, 2013), reports on beginning teacher experiences. Research questions focused on the effectiveness of mentoring relationships, goal setting practices, and the use of the Registered Teacher Criteria (RTC) (NZTC, 2010) to support their teaching practice and professional learning.

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Contents – NZ International Research in ECE Journal, 2018, Vol 21, No. 2

This issue examines emergent literacy across socioeconomic contexts, strengths‑based approaches for supporting vulnerable families, school‑starting age debates, early literacy perspectives for children under three, professional standards in ECE, and inquiry‑driven STEM learning.

male teachers and children playing and learning in sandpit at early childhood centre.

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

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Early Childhood Education Press Releases NZ

ECE funding review

Quality expected to go out the window with ECE funding review June 17, 2025. Press Release: OECE The just-announced review of ECE funding could lead

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2026 ECE Wall Planner Calendar (with funding dates)

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