Opens in a new tab
MyECE logo
ECE parents council logo

After Your Child has Started – Care, Health, Safety & Education Issues

Learn how services can best manage child sickness and medication, communicating with separated parents, children’s gun play, and other issues.

Read guidance on biting, children escaping, how to know if your child has settled-in well, and more…

enrolment form and attendance at early childhood service
After Your Child has Started - Care, Health, Safety & Education Issues

Leaving your child and strategies to help you and your baby / child

What parents can do to help their child adjust to being left in care at an early childhood service. How to make drop-offs go more…
Read More »
Setting-in to childcare. Happy and settled child
After Your Child has Started - Care, Health, Safety & Education Issues

Happy and settled child? How to tell if your child has settled-in or putting on a brave face to please you

How to tell if your child has settled-in and is truly happy © myECE.org.nz. Parent Support and Information. Many children settle into an early childhood education…
Read More »
time in childcare
After Your Child has Started - Care, Health, Safety & Education Issues

Parent-child attachment, making the most of your precious time, and when to seek help

Infants and young children naturally seek emotional security, and strong attachment develops when a parent is present, responsive, and sensitive to their child’s needs. But,…
Read More »
medicine and giving children medicine for pain and fever
After Your Child has Started - Care, Health, Safety & Education Issues

Sickness: Medicating sick children and medicines

Medicine and Medicating Children © myECE.org.nz. Parent Support and Information. Paracetamol is the most commonly prescribed medicine for young children to reduce a high temperature or for…
Read More »
child escaping and leaving or running away from the early childhood centre
After Your Child has Started - Care, Health, Safety & Education Issues

Escapes or left alone: Children leave unnoticed by adults or left by themselves at the ECE

Children escaping or left alone on the premises. © myECE.org.nz. Parent Support and Information. There is always a risk of children escaping - leaving unnoticed from…
Read More »
child bitten by another child - a biter
After Your Child has Started - Care, Health, Safety & Education Issues

Biting: What causes a child to bite and what parents and teachers can do about it

Biting: What causes a child to bite and what parents and teachers can do about it © myECE.org.nz. Parent Support and Information.  All babies go through…
Read More »
After Your Child has Started - Care, Health, Safety & Education Issues

Gun Play, Pretend Weapons, and Superhero Play

Gun play, superhero and weapon play is play that children can initiate on their own. Why do children do this? How should we respond to…
Read More »
separated and divorced parents rights in early childhood education and childcare
After Your Child has Started - Care, Health, Safety & Education Issues

Separated and divorced parents: Your right to information and the support ECEs can provide

Your right to information and the support ECEs can provide © myECE.org.nz. Parent Support and Information. If you are divorced or recently separated from your partner it…
Read More »
caring for child, crying, leaving child, self-soothing
After Your Child has Started - Care, Health, Safety & Education Issues

Sleep training: Leaving a child to cry it out and self-soothing

Leaving a child to cry it out © myECE.org.nz. Parent Support and Information. Self-soothing when a person chooses to be alone and do this is one…
Read More »
teacher reading book to a group of children
After Your Child has Started - Care, Health, Safety & Education Issues

Reading: Teaching reading from infancy to 5 years, how a child learns to read, and if your child’s gifted

Supporting your child to love words, language, and learn to read. © myECE.org.nz. Parent Support and Information. Infants and toddlers Preschool Age 3 – 5 years…
Read More »
Key

Community Ownership:
Parents likely have a strong say in how the service operates and what happens to children, all money earnt stays within it, and teachers may be paid better and childcare charges may be lower compared to most (but not necessarily all) private and corporate owned services. (Ask: Is it an Incorporated Society? Does it also have charitable status?)

Small Boutique Centre:
Centres with 50 or fewer children make it easier for staff to provide a warm and nurturing environment, for children to have their individual needs met and skills, knowledge, and competencies extended. (Ask: For continuity of care and relationships, do children stay with the same group of children and teachers throughout their time at the service?)

100% Qualified Teacher Funded:
All staff counted toward meeting the minimum adult-child ratio requirement must hold a practising certificate as a teacher if the service receives this level of Ministry of Education funding. (Ask: Does the service count teachers trained in the ECE of children birth to 5 years and not primary or secondary school trained teachers?)

Men Included on Teaching Staff (as at last year):
There are strong benefits of having both men and women on the teaching team for the quality of care and education a service provides to children. Additionally, gender bias in staff recruitment and employment is not generally acceptable in society today. (Ask: How many teaching staff are employed and what proportion are men?).

Clean Licence Record (last year and the year before):
To be licensed a service must comply with regulations that help ensure children’s safety, care, and a suitable standard of education. When requirements are breached the Ministry of Education may downgrade a service’s licence to provisional or issue a suspension. (Check the lists of services placed on a provisional or suspended licence https://oece.nz/public/information/standards/ published each year)

Recommended Highly by 80% or More Families:
At least 80% of families recommend the service and rate it as being very good to excellent on a range of aspects of quality. (Note that a response rate of at least 51% families on the OECE parent survey https://oece.nz/public/information/resources/parent-survey/ research instrument within the last three years is necessary here)

myECE white logo blue back
Join the Parents Council

Are you are parent, grandparent, or caregiver of a child under 6 years?    

Join the ECE Parents Council.   You will receive:

  • A monthly newsletter (free)
  • Survey invitations and notifications of important changes in ECE

We promise not to spam you with rubbish, just useful information.