Nearly 800 serious incidents in ECE Services in 2024
NEWS/ANALYSIS.
3 July 2025.
Alleged cases of child abuse or neglect, accidents, fraud and weather events were among 796 serious incidents early childhood education services reported to the Ministry of Education last year.
Health and safety issues were the most common type of incidents in ECE reported to the Ministry of Education
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Anyone thinking about getting a job in ECE working in ECE or thinking about moving to a different service will find clear, practical information in this article about pay rates, employment conditions, and what to expect in different roles. It explains everything from starting salaries and pay‑step calculations to workplace rights, benefits, and how to recognise a supportive, professional environment.
Discover the key organisations and sector groups shaping early childhood education in New Zealand – who they are, what they do, and how they influence the services, policies, and people at the heart of the ECE sector.
Getting a job. How can my ECE qualification help me to get a job? With an early childhood teaching qualification you may find yourself attractive
The ECE funding review proposals shift money toward large commercial daycare, cuts pay parity, reshapes equity funding, and overlooks quality, affordability, and small service sustainability.
Children’s Immunisation and ECE.
One of the key international measures of a healthy population is a country’s percentage of children fully immunised against diseases.
The higher the immunisation rate, the more successful NZ is seen to be in protecting young children’s health. However, there are things you need to know and issues
TITLE: Pet Lamb – fostering agreements, day-to-care care, benefits for children’s play and learning, and regulatory requirements
Some lambs are sadly orphaned at birth or there may be another reason why a farmer may decide the lamb would be better off to be hand-reared (such as in the case of multiple births and the mum having only one teat).
Your service could offer to help to hand-rear the lamb.
A lamb gives children a new responsibility.
A lamb is a new playmate and a friend that will love them unconditionally.
A lamb is gentle. It delights in playing but also at times needs to stop and drink or sit down and rest.
This is a pet that is dependent on care for survival and that will teach children to nurture.
Introducing a pet lamb to your early childhood service is an excellent way to naturally support children to spend more time outdoors running, jumping and skipping and enjoying the spring weather.
Below we cover aspects of
– How to get a lamb
– Agreements with the farmer and with your children for fostering the lamb
– Preparing for the lamb and what you need
Shoes and Ships and Sealing Wax – Taking a Sociocultural Approach to Interviewing Young Children. By Jill Robbins. Published in NZ Research in ECE Journal, 2002, Vol. 5, pp. 13 – 30
Abstract
When conventional interviewing methodology is employed with young children there appears to be a tendency to overlook or avoid the ‘talk of man
Citius, Altius, Fortius, is Latin for “Faster, Higher, Stronger”. original moto of the Olympic Games. The Olympics is a wonderful event to help in learning
Colouring-in Books in ECE.
Back in the 80s and 90s the use of colouring-in books was hotly debated amongst early childhood professionals and a consensus developed that drawing templates and colouring-in books were bad for children.
But today, colouring-in books for adults have become fashionable. Such books are promoted as supporting mind
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