Why early years teachers need bespoke professional development

A child’s early learning experiences are the building blocks for their future. With the right support at a young age, children are more likely to succeed throughout school and into adult life.

In fact, research shows that when a child has a high-quality early years education, they are more likely to achieve:

• 1.
  better GCSE grades
• 2.
  improved social and emotional wellbeing
• 3.
  increased lifetime earnings

For children already experiencing disadvantage, these positive impacts are even more pronounced.

Despite these high stakes, professional development for early years can be a blind spot across the sector. Too often, resources and frameworks are designed through the lens of primary or secondary classrooms, leaving early years practitioners with the exhausting task of translating strategies so they make sense in their dynamic, play-based environments.

Our independently verified Impact Report found that schools using Steplab see meaningful improvements in how teachers engage with their PD, how consistently and confidently they teach, and in student outcomes.

But the report also highlighted an important challenge: leaders and teachers in early years found it harder to take full advantage of Steplab without content and video models tailored to their phase.

To provide early years educators with the same level of rigorous support as other phases, we partnered with Bethan Hughes, Head of Early Years at Reach Academy Hanworth Park, to develop a brand-new, bespoke curriculum of Early years steps designed specifically for the foundation stage.

Our Early years steps provide teachers with the tailored, evidence-informed tools they need to build strong foundations for every child.

To ensure this curriculum truly captures the realities and nuances of excellent early years teaching, we collaborated with a cohort of expert early years leaders across the sector. These leaders piloted the steps in their own settings and provided invaluable feedback that shaped the final content.

As Elliot Hahn, PD Lead at Manchester Communication Academy, noted during the pilot:

“The new Early years steps are much more developmentally appropriate and aligned to the realities of high-quality practice in the early years. There’s greater clarity around what effective pedagogy actually looks like in EYFS rather than adapting models designed primarily for older pupils.”

The Early years steps, like all Steplab’s core curriculums, are organised around the six universal teaching problems that every teacher faces.

These universal teaching problems are drawn from our Simple Model of Teaching, which borrows from Daniel Willingham’s Simple Model of Learning.

This model synthesises decades of insights from cognitive science, neuroscience and psychology about the fundamental processing of learning. It helps us understand how learning really happens and therefore enables us to focus on the core purpose of any strategy in an early years classroom:

• 1.
  Create culture
• 2.
  Secure attention
• 3.
  Optimise communication
• 4.
  Drive thought
• 5.
  Gather and give feedback
• 6.
  Ensure consolidation

The goals and steps within each strand are rooted in the most reliable evidence available for how early years teachers can secure learning. This includes robust meta-analyses that review numerous studies looking at early years education, as well as synthesis guides such as the Education Endowment Foundation’s Early Years Toolkit.

The Insight study module for each goal includes an evidence summary outlining the evidence base behind each specific approach.

Interpreting evidence and figuring out the implications for practice can take an immense amount of time. By distilling this research into concrete, actionable steps, and combining it with the insights of expert early years teachers, the curriculum allows practitioners to spend less time translating theory and more time implementing impactful strategies in their day-to-day practice.

Across all the Early years steps, we’ve intentionally centred the specific priorities and strategies that we know have the greatest impact on early learning and school readiness.

This means:

• 1.
  a stronger focus on relational practice, including co-regulation and positive interactions that build belonging
• 2.
  a stronger focus on continuous provision, including explicit modelling, questioning and shared thinking within play-based learning
• 3.
  a stronger focus on developing communication and language, including strategies for up-levelling vocabulary, scaffolding speech and providing stimulating resources

As part of the pilot, Katie Whitehead, Early Years Lead for Orion Education, highlighted how effectively the curriculum speaks to the realities of early years teaching:

“The Early years steps are clearly written by early years experts. It is amazing to see early years-specific coaching feedback, which will not only develop early years teachers but also their coaches and mentors too. A lot of work has clearly gone into this and it is very impressive.”

Within the Early years steps, we’ve added goals tailored to the unique priorities of early education.

• 1.
  Support a strong transition
  This goal enables early years practitioners to plan for and effectively support children and their families as they start nursery or school through proactive communication, getting to know every child, and carefully timetabling the vital first six weeks.
• 2.
  Teach behaviours
  The steps in this goal recognise the distinct developmental stage of children in the early years by focusing on modelling positive behaviours, supporting emotional regulation and reflection, and adapting to each child’s stage and needs.
• 3.
  Create a sense of awe and wonder
  This goal outlines how early years teachers can promote the curiosity and wonder that underpin an intrinsic enjoyment of learning and drive purposeful play.
• 4.
  Promote learning through storytime
  These steps support practitioners to use expressive storytelling to bring a range of diverse and representative texts to life, fostering a deep love of reading.

Amy Looker, Head of Early Years at Star Academies, saw first-hand how these targeted goals resonated with her staff during the pilot:

“The ‘Create a sense of awe and wonder’ goal aligns particularly well with effective EYFS practice and supports child engagement and curiosity. The whole ‘Create culture’ strand in particular felt specifically targeted to EYFS practice; the steps were especially useful to reference during drop-ins and coaching conversations. The ‘Support Play’ steps are a real strength of the content.”

Seeing great teaching that reflects your actual context means you can visualise the potential for it in your own setting.

The Early years steps feature high-quality video models of expert teachers demonstrating these strategies in their own classrooms. These authentic examples are a scarce resource in the sector, but they are vital in making strategies more concrete and attainable.

If we are serious about improving outcomes for every child, we must be equally serious about how we support the people teaching them.

Elevating early years practice means investing in phase-specific, evidence-informed professional development.

We’re really proud of the Early years steps and excited about the impact they will have for teachers and, in turn, the children they support.

If you’re already using Steplab, head to the Library to see the Early years steps for yourself.

If you aren’t yet using Steplab, book a demo to see how evidence-informed professional development and instructional coaching could support your school, nursery or trust.