Child Care News
'Systemic challenges' with education for teen parents, review says
Stuff NZ - Adele Redmond - July 9, 2018But a report released on Thursday by the Education Review Office (ERO) paints a nuanced picture. While the overall performance of the country's TPUs has improved since the last review in 2013, more than half have limited curriculum options and a lack of career planning for...
'Expensive' school holiday programmes barely making a profit
Stuff NZ - Brittany Keogh - July 8, 2018Providers of school holiday programmes labelled by parents as expensive say they are barely making a profit due to high operating costs. Schools closed on Friday for two weeks, and many working parents are left with no alternative but to place their children in a school holiday...
Multiple teachers deregistered for hitting, force-feeding and dragging young children
Stuff NZ - Adele Redmond - July 6, 2018Three teachers have been barred from the profession, and a fourth reprimanded, for using physical force against young children. Pre-schoolers were smacked, force-fed, dragged by their arms, and had their hair pulled by three of the teachers. The other, a primary school teacher...
Girls' college backlash over baking and childcare courses
Marlborough Express - Paula Hulburt - June 24, 2018A girls' college has come under fire for promoting baking and childcare as career options for its students. A pupil from Marlborough Girls' College, in Blenheim, is accusing it of taking a "step back in time to the 1950s" after baking, early childhood education and catering were...
Early Childhood Education Leaders Produce Messy Play
Scoop NZ - Press Release: New Zealand Tertiary College - June 20, 2018Encouraging children to explore through messy play is also enshrined in Te Whāriki (New Zealand's early childhood education curriculum), which reminds the sector that messy play supports learning across all its strands, with special mention to communication, exploration and contribution...
Let's treasure our tamariki and kaiako in early education
Scoop NZ - Dr Lynley Tulloch - June 12, 2018Let's treasure our tamariki and kaiako in early childhood education. I believe in education. I've made it my lifetime passion – particularly early childhood education (ECE). So it troubles me that problems in New Zealand's ECE sector have been the focus of a lot of media interest...
ECE centres too crowded, noisy and cold, researchers warn
Radio NZ - John Gerritsen - June 11, 2018The Education Ministry needs to raise minimum standards and protect under-five year olds from cold, crowded and noisy early childhood centres, a group of researchers say. They told a seminar at the University of Otago's Department of Public Health in Wellington that far from...
'Their culture, their identity' - South Island preschoolers develop app to help other kids learn Samoan language
TV NZ - June 11, 2018A group of South Island preschoolers have been a part of the creation of a new app to help other children learn the Samoan language. The app, called 'Tatou o ile Maketi', or 'Let's go to the Market', wasn't designed by a web developer. The idea, look and sound came from the children...
Campaigner condemns sacking of West Coast childcare worker with HIV as 'discrimination' - 'What they didn't do was look into the facts'
TV NZ - June 11, 2018A HIV campaigner has condemned the decision of a West Coast early childcare centre to sack a HIV-positive employee as an act of "discrimination" which is indefensible given she posed no threat to the children in her care. Positive Women national coordinator Jane Bruning...
Sacked HIV teacher: Boss says they had to tell parents her medical details because of 'danger' and 'fear'
NZ Herald - David Fisher - June 9, 2018An early childhood education company told parents of children the daycare manager was HIV-positive to dispel any "fear" they might have over possible "danger" to their children. Evolve Education chief executive Mike Finlay said the decision to tell parents about Gayle Jonker living...
New survey shows 'worrying' extent of bullying among early childhood teachers
Stuff NZ - Adele Redmond - June 4, 2018An early childhood teacher who claims she was targeted for identifying alleged child abuses at her centre is among hundreds of pre-school teachers suffering bullying on a regular basis, a new survey indicates. A third of the 900 teachers surveyed by early childhood education...
Calls for MoE to crack down on significant bullying in early childhood education sector
NZ Herald - June 4, 2018Bullying in the early childhood education sector is pushing good teachers out and the Government is being urged to act urgently. A third of early childhood teachers and supervisors had been bullied over a 12-month period, according to a new a report from ChildForum...
Evolve hires new CEO as Porse impairments push it
Scoop NZ - Sophie Boot - May 28, 2018Evolve Education Group sank into the red as it booked previously signalled impairment charges to its Porse in-home childcare unit, having twice downgraded guidance. The Auckland-based early childhood education group also appointed a new chief executive. Earlier this month...
Budget 'breaks trust' on promises to voters - National
Radio NZ - May 18, 2018Mr Robertson said it was the first universal increase for early childhood education services in a decade, and extra funding for special needs would help relieve pressures on schools' operational budgets...
Public services receive big boost in New Zealand budget
Public Finance International - Simone Rensch - May 18, 2018An extra $1.6bn will be given to education over the next four years, including early childhood education and to help students with higher learning needs. This is a 45% increase on last year's budget. The finance minister said: "New funding will address increasing demand for early childhood...
