Course overview

This course will help staff gain confidence and develop skills in:

• delivering high-quality early education and care

• organisational management and staff development

• giving constructive feedback to parents

• working with children who have additional and special educational needs

• implementing improvements
   

You'll get to train alongside peers with similar responsibilities. The course content focuses on the key challenges teachers face in their role.
 

Early years professionals helped us design this course to fit around busy schedules so it does not add to your workload.
 

Who this course is for

This course is for leaders qualified to at least level 3 with a relevant qualification who are, or want to be:

• managers of private, voluntary and independent nurseries

• childminders with leadership responsibilities

• headteachers of school-based or maintained nurseries
   

What you'll learn

You'll learn how to:

• establish and sustain your setting's strategic direction

• develop an evidence-based teaching culture

• plan and deliver care and a high-quality curriculum to support child development

• implement communication, language and literacy approaches to support children's learning

• effectively manage children's behaviour and support children's personal, social and emotional development

• support practitioners to develop a strong understanding of how assessment can improve teaching and transition

• ensure all leaders, practitioners and teachers can identify any additional needs early and ensure appropriate referrals
   

How you and your school could benefit
 

Ensuring all children experience success

After completing this course you'll be able to develop an ambitious curriculum that meets the needs of all your learners.

Supporting colleagues to meet individual needs without creating unnecessary workload

You'll be taught how to provide opportunities for colleagues to share effective approaches for intervening with individuals and small groups. This means you will not have to plan different content or activities for each individual scenario.

Smoothing the admissions, exclusions and appeals process

The course will boost your understanding of how to comply with relevant laws and statutory guidance. You'll also learn about creating fair and inclusive policies, processes and systems.

Managing resources effectively

You'll gain knowledge about budgeting, funding and marketing. You'll also be able to confidently recruit and develop the right people for your setting.

Knowing what approaches to use

This course will help you hone your decision-making skills. The techniques you learn can be applied to a range of different improvement decisions for your setting.

Learning with people from different education settings

Take advantage of training alongside a diverse group of fellow educators with lots of different perspectives. You can learn from each others experiences and bounce ideas off each other during group sessions and collaborative practical tasks.
 

Course structure

The DfE-approved providers offering this NPQ have designed their course content around an evidence-based framework.

The course covers 6 topics, with a mix of self-study and group coaching sessions, as well as face-to-face sessions with other participants.

On average you will need to spend between 1 and 2 hours per week working towards completing this NPQ. Where possible, you should do this during dedicated career development time in work hours.

Which NPQ is right for you? 

We have created a flow chart to clarify which NPQ might be most suitable for you as an Early Years practitioner.