Early years teaching centres pilot launches

The two outstanding childcare settings chosen to deliver the one year pilot, which started in January are The Mill Children’s Centre based at St Vigor and St John Primary School, and Street Children’s Centre on the site of Brookside Community Primary School in Somerset.

The local pilot, which is being led by Somerset Centre for Integrated Learning and funded by a grant of up to £30,000, is to run alongside the Government’s national project that involves 16 outstanding children’s centres across the country.

Similar to the national project, Somerset County Council intends to raise standards and improve children’s outcomes.

The settings that have been chosen as early years teaching centres in Somerset will work with their early years advisory service to train students who are new to the profession, lead peer-to-peer learning and provide support for other settings in the area. They will also become centres for training EYPs.

To measure the impact and outcomes of the pilot, an audit of settings will be carried out. Staff will also produce quarterly reports.

It is hoped that the teaching centres will become self-sufficient through the application of grants and by charging for the training they provide to other settings and early years practitioners.

Vicky Thomas, Somerset County Council’s group manager for integrated learning and traded services, said, ‘Somerset County Council is committed to giving children the best start in life, and excellent training and development of early years practitioners is integral to achieving this.

‘It is encouraging that Somerset is able to offer this opportunity to these outstanding settings to echo what is happening nationally. The pilot will maintain the importance of setting-to-setting support to allow practitioners and students to benefit from the latest techniques in early years development and education.’

Claire Axten, headteacher of Brookside Community Primary School and Street Children’s Centre, said, ‘This initiative will afford us exciting new opportunities to build on our excellent local relationships, and to develop our already extensive collaborative work, to provide access to outstanding training and development resources for everyone involved in the provision of early years education.

‘We look forward to contributing to raising standards of early years provision throughout the area through our involvement in this revolutionary project, and will work closely with our colleagues to develop the next generation of early years leaders.’