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Welcome to the Office of Early Childhood Education
National and public adviser on ECE, the OECE is a sector body representing teachers and all types of licensed services driving safer, higher‑quality education 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
Head Lice and Nits
Children get head lice. It’s one of those things that is a case of when and not if.
It pays to know
how to tell if a child has head lice and how to spot eggs how to carry out effective and safe treatment for very young children, andhow to talk with children’s parents and other families who may have come in contact or been infected
Indoor Plant and Growing Activities
Children Indoor Plant Growing Activities.
Here are 7 ideas for how to do some fun growing activities and keep children busy. Activities include an onion person, a Humpty Dumpty potato or swede, an egg shell garden, wheat people and more.
Young children will be able to do many of these growing activities themselves – they ju
Self Review: Working Smarter, Not Harder for Best Practice
Self-Review. By Janet Moles.
As I quietly move close to the habitat of an early childhood centre, I observe that the group is in the midst of the strange ritual known as ‘The Staff Meeting’. In this gathering, the leader communicates to the group, the tasks to be achieved, assigns duties and informs them of new requirements, rules and exp
Multi-Cultural Activities
Multi-Cultural Activities.
Most early childhood education services include bi-cultural elements in their teaching and learning, but with New Zealand becoming an increasingly multicultural country it can be interesting for children to learn about other cultures as well, particularly if there are children from these cultures within their communi
Service Provider Member Posts
Employment References
Have you been asked by a colleague, student, or employee for an employment reference?
Here we explain your obligations, what to write, and ways to provide a job reference.
If you are asked by an employer to provide a reference for a person who has not asked you to be a referee, do not provide a reference without first checking and obtaining
90-day Trial Period
All employers in New Zealand, no matter their size, are able to use 90-day trial periods. 90-day trials will not affect other aspects of employment relations, such as the requirement to act in good faith. It can be used for any staff – including and not limited to teachers, cleaners, cooks, administrators).
If you wish to put a new staff me
Head Injury Suffered by Toddler on Concrete Ground in Mid-Winter
For an outline of key facts read our article: Nelson’s fall: Parents still don’t know how their toddler hit his head on concrete and had a brain injury at childcare
We’ve reviewed the centre manager’s report of the incident, Ministry of Education communications, Worksafe report, and lawyer correspondence. The learning we’ve taken is:
Don’t take children outside until the outdoor playground safety check is completed and ticked/signed.
Disciplinary Process
There may be a time that you find an employee is underperforming or an employee is engaging in misconduct or serious misconduct.
You may not want to, but you will need to begin a disciplinary process with that employee. Here is information to assist you in learning about disciplinary processes as an employer or manager of early childhood s
Research Library – Today’s Featured Articles
Focus Group Methodology
Focus Group Methodology and its Usefulness in Early Childhood Research. By Claire McLachlan. Published in NZ Research in ECE Journal, 2005, pp. 113-123.
Abstract.
Focus groups are increasingly being used by researchers as a method of qualitative data gathering in educational contexts. The history of the focus group started with the ‘foc
Quality Assurance or Compliance? What the Purple People‑Eater Taught Us
These two papers explore the rise and reality of early childhood centre charters – promoted as the key to improving quality, but often experienced as a bureaucratic burden. Together, they reveal how the “Purple People‑Eater” process shaped centre practice, strained relationships, and exposed deep tensions between policy intentions and on‑the‑ground realities.
Raising Healthy Kids: A Scoping Review for Feeding Practices in NZ Early Childhood Education Centres
Research on how teachers and staff support the eating behaviours of children and feeding practices applicable to food policy and guidelines. Read the full paper below. Or to order a pdf copy of the article go to the main NZIRECE Journal page.
Cultural-Historical Borderlands: Common Grounds, Limits and Building Bridges in an Early Childhood Community
This paper discusses how early childhood education may be understood and experienced as a cultural-historical borderland, where mental borders and limits are made by people. Drawing on border theory and cultural-historical theory, different perspectives are considered in the study reported here on understanding the challenges and hopes that a commu
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