Support for EYFS provision in Multi-Academy Trusts

As a UK charity focused on raising the quality of early childhood education, our mission is to support schools to give every child the best start through high quality foundation stage provision. We do this by enhancing the expertise for the adults working with them and we also campaign to improve the policy environment, including better funding for early years.

How we can support your work

In the light of the 2021 EYFS reforms, Ofsted’s current strategic focus on the early years and the ongoing impact of the pandemic, anyone leading or working in the Foundation Stage has been facing constant change and challenge.  For any leaders who are not themselves early years specialists, it may be particularly hard to know where to turn for outside expertise and advice. Early Education (the British Association for Early Childhood Education) has a hundred year history of supporting the development of high quality early childhood education.  We welcome engagement with any practitioners and schools who seek to benefit from our depth of knowledge and breadth of expertise on early years curriculum and pedagogy.

Improve the quality of your Foundation Stage provision

We can help you improve your nursery and reception provision with the support and advice of our early years specialists who can provide:

• bespoke consultancy and advice
• INSET days
• quality improvement and project work
• coaching and mentoring.

Connecting early years professionals

We have built a connected community of early years practitioners and organisations through our membership, both online and through our local branches. We provide opportunities for networking, sharing best practice, continued learning and enhancing your provision.  Our networks can provide peer support and learning for your foundation stage practitioners and leaders and opportunities to learn from best practice in other nearby schools and settings.

Supporting staff development and retention

Our programme of continuing professional development for you and your staff, provides opportunities for learning and personal professional development which makes effective use of the research evidence to achieve better outcomes for children. By outsourcing your early years specialist training to us, you can be confident that your staff will be receiving high quality training and education that will have an impact on the quality of foundation stage provision.

Campaigns 

We recognise the challenges the sector faces and campaign to address these issues. By adding your voice to our campaigns, you will be helping towards a better early years sector for both the educators and the children.

We campaign for:

• increased early years funding to raise the quality and sustainability of the sector.  We are the only early years sector organisation addressing the needs of early years in schools including the cost of paying qualified teachers.  We speak out on issues such as the recent changes to Teachers Pay and Pension Grant funding for early years in schools and have been instrumental in obtaining and increasing supplementary funding for maintained nursery schools.
• policies that support high quality early childhood education.  This includes campaigning against the Reception Baseline Assessment and leading the Early Years Coalition of organisations which developed the Birth to 5 Matters non-statutory guidance.  Birth to 5 Matters was developed by the sector, for the sector, to support the introduction of the revised EYFS, and has been widely welcomed and implemented by practitioners.