First Published 2016

by John Catt Educational Ltd,
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© 2016 Kate Dethridge All rights reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

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About the Author

Dame Kate Dethridge has spent over 30 years in primary education. She started as an early years teacher and this has remained a passion throughout her career. As an additional Ofsted inspector and headteacher of an outstanding teaching school and national support school, she has inspected and supported countless settings. It has allowed her to learn from the best, developing a detailed understanding of what excellent provision looks like and how it is both established and maintained. She was made a dame in Her Majesty’s 2015 New Year’s honours for services to education.

“This is a guide for passionate practitioners, written by a particularly expert and passionate practitioner. It both explains the practical details of promoting different areas of learning but also offers detailed advice on assessment, safeguarding and inspection. A must for all who believe that the answer to improving social mobility is getting it right in children’s early years.”
Dr Tim Coulson, Regional Schools Commissioner for the East of England

“This book is an excellent introduction for those new to EYFS and a great guide for those wishing to develop their knowledge of the sector further. Its clarity, rooted in effective practice and systems, is a valuable addition to any teacher’s, or indeed parent’s, reading list.”
Simon Knight, director of education, the National Education Trust

“A useful and easy read for early years practitioners. It supports the adage that, ‘a reflective practitioner is an effective practitioner’ and provides many audits and reflective tools that can be used by leaders to monitor and develop pedagogy, practice and provision with early years teams.”
Clare Kershaw, Head of Commissioning Education and Lifelong Learning at Essex County Council

“If both experienced and new leaders want really good practical advice about how to establish highly effective EYFS provision, then they should read this book.”
Helena Mills, CEO of Burnt Mill Academy Trust

Introduction

Early years education plays a crucial role in ensuring children make the best possible start in life, developing their confidence, interests and ensuring they establish the social skills and attitudes to learning that they require to succeed at school. Get it right in the early years and children are set up for life. It is a huge privilege to be involved in such a significant stage of children’s lives but with this comes great responsibility. Some of us are lucky enough to have the opportunity to visit many excellent settings and learn from them; we see highly effective practice and duplicate it. For those who are unable to make such visits, a book of lessons learned is the next best thing.

A Practical Guide to Early Years Education has been written in order to support colleagues in gaining an understanding of what excellent provision looks like, offering tools and resources to help you manage, improve and sustain high quality provision in your setting. Pick up a book about early years education and too often it is heavily weighted with research and theory. These are important elements but for many of us who are busy and short on time, we simply want to be able to open a book and find it full of good ideas with easily accessible resources that are easy to read and written by someone who does the job every day. Whether you are a child minder or work in a nursery school, this book will offer you sensible and practical advice about what you can do to improve the experience for the children in your care, meeting their individual needs and sustain improved learning outcomes.

Written in a clear and easily accessible way, each chapter focuses on a key area of provision and offers a wealth of practical ideas and resources to help you:

Understand what excellent provision looks like and should include.

Audit your own provision to identify strengths and areas to improve.

Develop resources and guidance for staff to ensure that your setting offers all the necessary support and skills to guarantee the children in your care make progress, are stimulated and develop excellent attitudes to learning.

Whether you need a better understanding of the needs of children acquiring English as an additional language, improve your outdoor provision or ensure your safeguarding practices are effective and compliant, this book will support you and ensure that you have a comprehensive understanding of what needs to be improved and how you can easily achieve this. Each chapter addresses the crucial areas of learning in early years settings and, in addition, will help you consider how to develop key workers, how to confirm children are ‘school ready’ and how to prepare for and succeed when being inspected.

The book offers advice and strategies for establishing highly effective behaviour management strategies, how to engage boys and plan a curriculum that appeals to them, as well as giving tips and guidance on making observations to develop effective assessment practice. In addition, there is a chapter dedicated to leadership in early years settings which identifies expectations and offers support in ensuring any setting is well-led and managed. This is a book is for educators and leaders alike to inform your practice while offering quick, easy and sustainable tools for self-assessment and improvement.

I hope this book will give you the understanding, confidence and tools to improve your own provision and that it will provide a catalyst for debate and discussion. I would like to thank all those people I have met and settings I have visited that have improved my own understanding of excellent early years provision. In this book, I share their skills and ideas in the hope that all children will benefit from excellent provision to sustain them through their childhood and beyond.