New edition of Birth to 5 Matters launched
The Early Years Coalition has launched the updated and expanded second edition of Birth to 5 Matters (Bto5M), non-statutory guidance for the Early Years Foundation
by Dr Julia Birchenough, Dr Soizic Le Courtois and Prof Sara Baker
Researchers at PEDAL are aligned with Early Education’s mission: we believe in supporting early years educators to use the most up to date evidence-informed practices, giving every child the best possible early education. Sometimes this can come in the form of interventions that have been tried and tested, and for which rigorous training can be provided through workshops and reference manuals. Other times, educators might just need to access bite-sized kernels of evidence, for example if they are looking for new ideas to support a particular area of children’s learning, or if they want to generally raise the quality in their interactions with children without choosing a focal area.
To meet the needs of those settings looking for a flexible, evidence-based approach to professional learning, in 2022 we published our review of evidence-based practices in the Early Years Library, freely available to download. The EY Library booklets cover children’s social-emotional skills, early numeracy, and language and early literacy. The EY Library was co-designed with educators, echoing the Early Years Foundation Stage with specific skills for educators to support. It goes beyond the EYFS in also recommending very specific teaching strategies to support each of the skills, offering bite-sized elements that combine teaching strategies with children’s skills. Unlike many other online resources, educators can rest assured the EY Library is inspired by existing evidence-based interventions.
The flexibility is a real selling point of the EY Library. We heard from an early partner that “the dipping in and out is much better for us”. Early partners also told us how the Early Years Library enhanced their practice:
I’m not just doing one activity. And, say I’ve been teaching them to write their names, I’m looking at different ways that I can really involve all the children and look at fun ways to do it.
We continue to partner with early years settings to evolve the EY Library into something that is broadly accessible and less text-heavy. We now offer videos and further resources, bringing it all together into a professional learning package to wrap around the EY Library.
The EY Library wrap-around package can help settings embed the EY Library into their routines. In other words, we want to understand how settings go beyond ‘trying something new’ to harness professional learning that lasts. We are working closely with educators, exploring how they support each other in settings to learn new, evidence-informed ways of delivering quality early education. When we first started out, we thought that educators would benefit from having workbooks to guide them through their professional learning, but we quickly found that workbooks just did not fit in with the way they learned. Instead, dialogue between staff in the setting seemed to be key. So we have created resources that harness the power of those everyday professional conversations as a driver for professional learning. For example, our resources invite practitioners to think together, after observing each other for a short activity, about how the children responded and what they might change next time.
The peer-to-peer observations are not part of performance management but are intended as a springboard for professional dialogue and reflection. Importantly, they work best in a voluntary, trusting and collaborative environment to make sure that colleagues are able to share, ask for help and give constructive feedback. Recently a partner in a nursery told us:
the ethos that you’ve got in this Early Years Library of the peer-to-peer and other things is really good and will help people branch out and adapt.
Our aim with the new professional learning resources is to equip a team of champions in each setting to develop skills for professional learning within their setting. The EY Library champions support their team to carry out peer-to peer observations, engage in professional conversations, and to reflect on their own practice. These three sets of skills for professional learning are supported by principles of coaching. Champions in the setting are encouraged to be strengths-based, solution-focused, and to listen and support rather than direct.
As with any setting-wide initiative, a crucial role is played by the manager or owner. Together with the champions, they take responsibility for making sure to engage the rest of the staff with the activities in the EY Library. Their support and motivation are needed to ensure staff have adequate time and space to observe, discuss and reflect on the evidence-informed practice they choose to focus on. This involves a regular, collaborative and trusting working relationship with staff to harness each educator’s strengths.
If the EY Library sounds like a good fit to your setting, we would love to hear from you. We are seeking expressions of interest from nurseries in England to take part in a pilot of the EY Library between March and July 2026, supported by regular contact with our research team. You can find out more here.
The Early Years Library and professional learning resources were designed by PEDAL researchers in partnership with the Early Intervention Foundation and Centre for Evidence and Implementation, thanks to generous funding from the Nuffield Foundation. Early Years Educators in England have contributed to every stage of the research.
The article was written by PEDAL’s Early Years Library team Dr Julia Birchenough, Dr Soizic Le Courtois and Prof Sara Baker.
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