Post Graduate Certificate in Early Years Practice

Information for International Students

If you are an international student joining the course, we recommend visiting the University’s Essentials website. There is a specifically designed section to support international students offering lots of advice and information on things like accommodation, opening up a bank account, health care, visas and even things like culture shock. 

You can also contact the International Student Advisory team for support on visas and immigration advice.

Induction 

Online enrolment

You will need to enrol online in order to become a fully enrolled Early Years Teacher Status student. You will be emailed the instructions to enrol online during August or when you have met all the conditions of your offer. You must enrol online before the programme begins so that you are able to collect your university campus card on your first day, on 23rd September 2025.

Your first week

Your timetable for the first week outlines what you will be doing and details of the first day at the Institute of Education. You will need to come to L24 G06 (No 24 on map) ready for the programme start of 1.00pm.

• The Foundation Years 
• The Froebel Trust
• The Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE) Project

The Early Years Teacher Status Standards: Please download the Standards and guidance.

Please read and begin to become familiar with the terminology.

Equipment for your training

We try to keep printing for our university-based sessions to a minimum. This means that it is often useful if you can access materials electronically, either live from our VLE (Blackboard) or by downloading materials in advance and accessing them on a laptop or tablet during the session. These documents are very difficult to access effectively through a phone screen, so it is likely that you will want to be able to bring a laptop or table to sessions.

Please explore the resources offered by key national organisations on;

• Early Education: The British Association for Early Childhood Education 
• The Foundation Years - the latest new, policy and resources for early years professionals
• The Froebel Trust
• The Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE) Project
• Council for Disabled Children
• National Children’s Bureau Early Childhood Unit
• Early Excellence 
• Fundamental skills (literacy and numeracy): You will need to demonstrate these skills by the end of the year, so it is never too early to start

Literature

We also advise accessing the following Literature prior and during the programme as well as the reading lists for each module. 

• Child Development: irrespective of your experience you would still benefit from reading or revisiting child development, how to support children’s development and different early years pedagogies.
• The Early Years Foundation Stage; theory and practice. Ioanna Palaiologou 
• Key persons in early years: building relationships for quality provision in early years settings and primary schools. Peter Elfer, Elinor Goldschmeid, Dorothy Y Selleck, 2012, 2nd edition. 
• An introduction to child development. Thomas R Keenan, Subhadra Evans, Kevin Crowley, 2016, 3rd edition
• Child development for early years students and practitioners. Sally Neaum, 2019, 4th edition. 
• Theories of child development, Professional Association for Childcare and Early years 2016. 

You should access, bookmark and begin to become familiar with these frameworks.

• The Early Years Foundation Stage
• Development Matters
• SEND code of practice
  

All trainee Early Years teachers need to demonstrate certain standards of subject knowledge including child development and leadership of others. This requirement was introduced because there is overwhelming research evidence to show that secure knowledge is essential for Early Years teachers to support children’s learning. Early Years teachers feel more confident about effectively supporting children’s development when their own subject knowledge is good.

During the programme you will gain experience across the full birth to five age range in a variety of different early years settings. You will be fully supported, through taught sessions and individual help as required. Ongoing assessment will give you an indication of your strengths and areas for further work.

All EYTS students are required to complete placements during the programme. These are to ensure that you demonstrate personal practice and leadership across the full age range from birth to five years and also that you have an understanding of the Key Stage 1 curriculum.

In preparation for the placement, that all students complete between September and December, please begin to identify a school that offers the Key Stage 1 curriculum where you could complete an observational placement for one day a week. More information on this placement will be given on your first day on the programm

In preparation of you beginning the programme please could you complete the following summer exercise. We would like you to bring your finished piece of work to the session on 7th October 2025.