During your Foundation Year, you will undertake modules to enable you to enhance your academic skills and equip you with the tools you’ll need to study with confidence. You’ll carry out a personal project so you can study an area of interest related to your chosen future subject specialisation.
You’ll develop your understanding of the disciplines, issues and academic theories of working with children, young people and families and will be introduced to learning and teaching in an educational context, considering current trends and academic theories.
Following successful completion of the Foundation Year, you’ll progress onto the first year of our Primary Education (Early Years 3-7) with QTS BA (Hons) degree.
We'll work with you to ensure that Communication and Language, Personal, Emotional and Social Development and Physical Development, the prime areas of learning which lay the foundation for all children’s learning are embedded in all that you do, helping you to understand your influential role in young children’s lives.
You'll learn how experiential, play-based learning supports young children's development and how, as an effective practitioner, you can have a positive impact on children’s development and learning. Teaching in early years is dynamic, and you'll learn the professional skills related to planning, teaching and assessing, as well as how to manage a setting where children and adults work together in learning.
You'll gain an understanding of the transition to Key Stage 1 and then into Key Stage 2 and develop knowledge of both the Early Years Foundation Stage and the National Curriculum at Key Stage 1.
The Early Years 3-7 programme will enable you to develop the right expertise and values to provide outstanding learning experiences for all children, building on key features of effective practice
School Experience
Over the course of the three-year programme, you will complete a minimum of 24 weeks of assessed school experience, along with additional focus visits. In the first and second years, your school experience is eight weeks; in the final year, it's ten weeks. Intensive training and practice (ITaP) weeks provide opportunities to focus on foundational aspects of teaching and learning. These will draw upon the expertise of a range of colleagues and have been developed to give you the opportunity to practice, apply and refine your skills in specific aspects of teaching and learning. You will be mentored by expert colleagues in school and University settings.
In the first year, you will gradually take on some of the teacher's role by working with small groups of children, setting activities in areas of provision, team teaching and moving on to teach whole group lessons.
Throughout the second and third year, you will increase the amount of time you spend planning, teaching and assessing children; building your confidence, independence and progress in meeting the Teacher Standards and preparing you for your Early Career development.