Training, Courses & Guidance

Leicestershire's Early Years Foundation Stage team offers a diverse training package to all Early Years Foundation Stage practitioners working in settings in receipt of the Nursery Education Grant. Training is created specifically for people working in pre-school playgroups, private nurseries, LA Children and Family centres, special needs playgroups or independent schools' nurseries that provide funded education as well as at Foundation Stage classes, 4+ units and nurseries in the maintained sector.

The variety of courses with different remits and different formats supports the strive for quality education and for the well-being of children. Centrally organised courses are run at various venues around the County in order to ease access for practitioners.

Over the last six years, the rolling programme of training has increased substantially to offer a wide range of pedagogical courses which encourage reflective practice.

Each term, the choice of courses responds to a combination of government directives, of needs expressed by practitioners or of needs highlighted by the team during previous training sessions.

These courses are extremely interactive and 'hands-on' in order to ensure enjoyment, challenge and above all to give confidence to practitioners to review and change their practice accordingly. Our aim is to support practitioners in constantly improving their provision to ensure that all children in the Foundation Stage are learning in the most conducive environment.

There is a programme of core courses which aim at supporting a clear understanding of the QCA Curriculum Guidance document and at promoting good quality practice. These are recommended practitioners new to the Foundation Stage.

There are six half day courses during the course of the year that practitioners will be required to attend.  Each one covers a different area of learning, closely linked to the Foundation Stage Guidance. The courses are based on a rolling programme, so it will not matter at which point you join the new practitioners core set of courses.

Within the team, Improvement Advisors provide individually tailored support to all validated pre-school settings with additional support where there are particular concerns.

Setting can request specific in-house training, particularly where their needs are not catered for by the term's central programme. The same system applies to school development groups. These sessions are delivered by mentor teachers and advisory teachers.

To ensure expertise and variety, the team has links with other agencies eg. PLA, Library services, and with other educational departments:-Early Years Inclusion (SEN) Team, Ethnic Minority Achievement Support Service, Speech and Language Support, Traveller Education Service, ICT, Literacy and Numeracy strategies, all of whom we have run combined courses with. We also fund some specialists to deliver courses for the department eg. Music for young children with David Wheeway.