Early Years practitioner

Early Years practitioners

Our Early Years team provide a range of services and products to support you as a practitioner, whether working in an Ofsted registered Early Years setting in the private, voluntary, independent or in the maintained sector.

Early years practitioner Our team of consultants are specialists, covering many aspects of working with children aged 0 – 5 years old including language development and creating an outdoor environment through to toolkits that have been specifically written with the challenges you face in mind.

We can support you whether you are currently working in a day nursery, a preschool, a crèche, a childminder in the home environment, at an out of school club, or a school. Our expertise is available whether you are a manager, a key person, a room leader or an assistant.

Through our Early Years consultancy service we offer visits to individual settings to support development of the environment, review safeguarding practice and observe practice. To support the development of teaching and learning we can provide environment rating scale audits (ECERS), joint observations of practice with managers and modelling teaching activities.

Early Years advisory and consultancy services

Overall, the team at Herts for Learning has a passion for development within Early Years and to give all children the best possible start in life. We look forward to having the opportunity to work with you towards achieving this.

If you have specific needs, we would be very happy to discuss these further. Through our consultancy visits we can offer relevant support to meet the needs of your individual setting. Contact us at: earlyyearsteam@hertsforlearning.co.uk

Supporting EYFS practitioners through the changes to the EYFS statutory framework

The EYFS framework that sets the standards to make sure that children aged from birth to 5 learn and develop well and are kept healthy and safe is changing from September 2021.

To support all Ofsted registered early years providers in all settings, (including nurseries, childminders, pre-schools and reception classes) with these new changes, our team of specialist EYFS advisers have developed a range of resources and training courses.

Several of our award winning resources and training programmes have been updated to reflect the new framework and others have been developed specifically to address the new challenges it brings.

New resources and support for EYFS practitioners for September 2021

PVI settings

We have a range of new services specifically tailored to PVI settings. There are a range of packages available, designed to support continuous improvement and help sustain high-quality education and childcare to maintain a thriving business. The membership enables settings to access to a quality improvement forum and keep up to date. The consultancy packages enable PVI settings to plan a programme of support and spread the cost over a 12-month period by paying by direct debit. We can offer support remotely.

PVI packages and support

Training

The Young in Herts training programme provides opportunities for practitioners to access a range of training to meet the requirements of the EYFS and to upskill, with the overall objective of delivering high-quality teaching and practice.

For those early years practitioners who work in a school you may be interested in the school training programme.

If you are new to management, we offer programmes to support you to become an effective leader and manager. For existing managers that may wish to develop their management style further through the use of coaching, we offer a bespoke service.

Don't forget you can complete our online course which is fully interactive and consists of slides, videos and animations to support effective learning. At the end of the course there is a set of multiple choice questions to complete to help you assess your understanding of the guiding principles of teaching and learning in the EYFS. There is a certificate on completion.

Early Years resources

Our range of resources is ever-growing and written by practitioners with a high amount of experience and passion for the Early Years sector, working with children aged 0-5 years. Simply follow the links below for further information.

Curriculum design in the Early Years Foundation Stage: a step by step guide is designed to support EYFS team leaders in guiding their colleagues through a process of developing an engaging and responsive curriculum that will meet the needs of all the early years children in their school or setting.

The Supporting smooth transitions toolkit supports practitioners, children and their families with the transition process, from pre-school into the nursery/reception setting.

Places to play

This range of publications will help you create learning spaces to inspire, challenge and motivate children and help you effectively organise your Early Years environment so that it invites learning across a range of contexts, indoors and outdoors. Now includes the new Places to play for 3-5 year olds mobile App.

Making the difference - supporting disadvantaged and vulnerable children toolkit
Containing key facts about funding, guidance on best practice and tools to support the planning and evaluation processes, this is a must-have publication for practitioners who work with disadvantaged and vulnerable children. (2021 edition)

Supersonic Phonics

Lively, engaging and active phonic activities to help develop early literacy skills. The Super Sonic Phonics are ‘easy to use’ activity cards designed to enable practitioners to structure active phonic sessions.