The ChildForum Office of Pre-Primary Education

Vision: To achieve an open and transparent early childhood education system informed by research evidence and knowledge of best practice, with services that delight parents and caregivers, and are safe for children, high quality, affordable, and accessible.

The four main areas of activity for the Office of Pre-Primary Education (OPPE) are:

• Representing the sector and service providers across NZ 
• Service management and teacher support 
  
• Publisher of Research (NZ-International RECE Journal)
• Parent and whānau information service (My ECE)

Chief Executive:  Dr Sarah Alexander (see profile below)

Board:  

 2020 members to be shown here shortly

 

What we do 

Founded in 1988 to support the development of a research culture and an evidence-based approach to ECE, ChildForum expanded in 2001 to become the Office of Pre-Primary Education 

OPPE: 

1. Advocates for safe and high quality care and education for every child. Children are at the centre of the work of ECE services and therefore of primary consideration in all that "ChildForum" does in representing service providers and the sector. 
2. Provides leadership to the sector. 
3. Identifies issues, provides feedback and inspires change that benefits children, teaching staff, service owners - and society 
4. Keeps members of the ECE sector, public agencies and stakeholders up-to-date and informed of issues, news, and research.
5. Supports ECE service providers, managers, educators and teachers with expert advice and articles (written in plain language).
6. Provides the biggest online knowledge base on early childhood education and care practice and policy in NZ.

We are a non-partisan organisation 

ECE services are expected to comply with the Education (ECE Services) 2008 Regulations and meet the Code of Ethical Conduct for ECE Services and the Code of Rights for Children

Contact ChildForum

 

NZ - International Research in Early Childhood Journal

Dr Wendy Boyd - Editor

Dr Wendy Boyd has 25 years experience teaching children in early childhood education and managing programmes. She has worked at Southern Cross University in New South Wales since 2009. In 2011 she won the Vice Chancellor's Citation Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Wendy has a strong academic publication record and is a highly respected researcher and research adviser. She is also well regarded in the early childhood field and an advocate for high quality early childhood education and care for children and their families.   

Editorial Board

Dr Cara Swit (University of Canterbury, Christchurch, NZ)
Dr Kaye Cederman (Trinity College, Dublin)
Dr Elspeth McInnes (University of South Australia, Adelaide)
Prof Pam Whitty (University of New Brunswick, Canada)
Tui Summers (Te Rito Maioha, NZ)
Dr Jo Ailwood (University of Newcastle, New South Wales)
Dr Carla Solvason (University of Worcester, UK)
Dr Qilong Zhang (Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology, NZ)
Gillian Postlewaight (Eastern Institute of Technology, NZ)
Dr Chris Jenkin (Auckland University of Technology, NZ)
Nicola Watson (University of Worcester, UK)

Contact the NZIERECE Journal for publication and submission information.  

 

Chief Executive - Dr Sarah Alexander 

Sarah is a recognised expert in child development and quality early childhood education and care. She is passionate about making a difference for children and she brings a strong intellect and deeply caring approach to all that she does. One thing she values highly is the capacity to provide independent, personal support to help families, teachers and those she can to get better outcomes for children. 

She has a remarkable depth and breadth of experience, in early childhood teaching, ECE management and business support, training student teachers, academia, international speaking, writing, publishing and event organisation. Her achievements are many. When asked to name what she considers to be the five most significant achievements she said: 

• Uncovering and placing a public spotlight on issues impacting on children, parents and teachers at the Auckland Kindergarten Association resulting in a halt of its planned programme to change all kindergartens to 7-hour day year-round childcare services and resulting in an overhaul of its management to go back to being truly community-based. 
• Requesting transparency from the Ministry of Education in its handling of complaints against ECE services and placing pressure on it through Official Information Act requests and talking with journalists and media agencies about this, leading to the ministry moving to make available an annual report summarising complaints and serious incidents which while not enough for transparency is at least a significant move forward.  
• Building public and sector awareness of gender-bias in ECE. This includes doing the first study on the experiences of male early childhood teachers in the wake of the Christchurch Civic Centre and Wellington hospital sex abuse cases.  Developing the concept of a Men in Early Childhood Education support group, bringing together male teachers throughout the country  to meet each other for the very first ECE Men's Summit, leading to the formation of what is known today as EC-Menz. Writing about and advocating for gender balance in the ECE workforce over the past 20 or so years and going forward until such time as at least 10 percent of the workforce are male. 
• Holding NZEI, the teachers' union, to account for its no-touch policy and successfully arguing that there was a place for touch in caring for children in early childhood education programmes, leading to the NZEI modifying its stance and virtual abolition of the policy. 
• As a Ph.D. student from Dunedin, being at the forefront internationally in the late 1980s of the development of a new way of looking at what quality in ECE is and having her work recognised alongside that of the top names in the world for ECE research.   

Sarah's career started early. She had just turned 19 when appointed to a head kindergarten teacher position. Her qualifications include: Ph.D. in ECE, M.A. (hons) degree, B.A. degree, Higher Diploma of Teaching, Kindergarten Diploma, and Montessori Diploma (dist) London. Sarah's research areas have included the effects of childcare on children, education for gifted children, women and work, breastfeeding-friendly ECE services, defining and assessing quality in early childhood services, and men in teaching. Sarah is the author of the Ministry of Education's Best Evidence synthesis on "Quality Teaching: Early Foundations" and reports on the Parents as First Teachers Programme. She is also a parent with five children and a former middle distance and marathon runner.