Education: Early Years Teaching and Learning BA (Hons)
Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) Gold award
Our commitment to high quality teaching has been recognised with a TEF Gold rating. The University has received an overall rating of Gold, as well as securing a Gold award in the framework's two new student experience and student outcomes categories.
Why choose this course?
This degree provides real-world experience in Early Years education through taught content and workplace learning/placements. You will develop critical, analytical and transferable skills that employers value.
Taught sessions are on campus one day a week, with a minimum of 16 hours in paid or voluntary work per week in an appropriate Early Years setting. Applicants not working in the sector, will be provided with a suitable placement.
Our course has been developed for both practitioners and those new to the Early Years sector. There is an emphasis on developing professional practice, play, pedagogical approaches, leadership, sustainability, equality, diversity and inclusion. There are opportunities for you to develop your own unique interests and philosophy within the programme through cross disciplinary discussions.
Your module learning, teaching and portfolio work align with the working practices outlined in the Early Years Educator criteria (subject to confirmation), Graduate Practitioner competencies and the Early Childhood Studies Subject benchmark.
If you do not already hold Early Years Educator Status from your Level 3 qualification, we offer the pathway: Early Years Teaching and Learning (with Early Years Educator), which is classified as a 'full and relevant' qualification by the Department for Education, subject to approval (UCAS code: X001). This route will enable you to gain the professional 'Early Years Educator' status.
The Graduate Practitioner Competencies (GPC) Pathway allows you to showcase the nine competencies defined by the Early Childhood Studies Degree Network (ECSDN) in a practical setting. This route empowers you to demonstrate leadership by using your knowledge and skills to apply innovative and critical thinking to a range of professional situations. It helps you to position yourself as a leader, to advocate and promote the best interests of children and their families.
To take part in the Graduate Practitioner Competencies Pathway, during the course you will need to be assessed in your workplace and access alternative placements/work settings/community settings outside your usual place of work, to provide evidence practice across the 0–8 age range (25 days).
| Pathway | Attendance | UCAS code | Year of entry |
|---|---|---|---|
| Education: Early Years Teaching and Learning BA (Hons) | 3 years full time (employment-based with part-time university attendance) | X000 | 2025 |
| Education: Early Years Teaching and Learning (with Early Years Educator) | 3 years full time (employment-based with part-time university attendance) | X001 | 2025 |
| Education: Early Years Teaching and Learning (Graduate Practitioner) | 3 years full time (employment-based with part-time university attendance) | X003 | 2025 |
| Education: Early Years Teaching and Learning (with Early Years Educator and Graduate Practitioner) | 3 years full time (employment-based with part-time university attendance) | X002 | 2025 |
| Main Location | Employment based, with some attendance at Kingston Hill |
Reasons to choose Kingston University
- We have a long history of delivering work-based learning courses valued by employers. This course can springboard you into employment or progression within a current or new setting whilst developing your skills.
- We will combine your experiences in your workplace or placement with one day a week on campus at Kingston University.
- You will be assessed through a variety of assignments and portfolio building. There are no written exams.
What you will study
This course combines work-based practice with theoretical knowledge, covering a wide range of contemporary issues within Early Childhood and Education. You will explore development theories, international perspectives, sustainability and pedagogical advancements. It provides a route into higher education for experienced and aspiring practitioners, enabling you to progress your career.
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
In Year 1, you will develop your reflexive practice while learning about childhood development, and inclusive assessment approaches and theory.
Core modules
Personal and Professional Development 1
30 credits
This module examines what it means to be a professional in the context of both early education and inclusive teaching and learning. This module is designed to enable you to engage in reflective practice by drawing on a range of theoretical models, literature and work-based experiences. You are encouraged to take charge of your own learning, reflecting on your professional knowledge, attitudes, skills, and behaviours (KASBs). This module will also introduce you to Future Skills through engagement with Navigate workshops and module resources. You will be guided to use the reflections from the Navigate workshops to identify career development pathways and how you can be supported to achieve these with the guidance of those more experienced than you. This will include utilising supervision mechanisms within the work environment as well as the support of mentors and communities of practice to enhance personal and professional practice.
Development Theories
30 credits
In this module you will explore the development of children from birth to 25 years of age. You will examine and challenge existing theories, approaches, legislation and policies, and relate these specifically to practice. You will have the opportunity to explore different theories of development (both seminal and emerging) and to reflect on their use within the English educational system. Through discussion and debate within organised seminars and group workshops, you will develop positioning and reasoning for advocacy and practical application of published perspectives. Furthermore, this module will enable you to reflect on how developmental theories can influence key policies and guidance.
Education for Sustainability
30 credits
In this sustainability module, you will have the chance to explore the interconnectedness of various systems: natural, social, and economic. Education for sustainability promotes a sense of individual and collective responsibility towards the environment and society. It promotes a deeper contextual reflection about the role of education as a catalyst to make informed choices. The module requires you to become an agent of change who promotes action that contributes to an ethos of sustainability within an educational context.
Assessment and Inclusive Approaches in the Early Years
30 credits
In this module you will explore the practices of assessing children to support holistic development in practice. You will celebrate the diversity and the child's unique learning journey through use of various assessment tools, strategies and underpinning concepts. This module will guide you in creating a supportive and inclusive environment for babies, toddlers and young children with specific considerations for their individual needs and intersectional features.
Engaging with families and collaborating with other professionals will be a key part of the module, as these active and sustained relationships are crucial in supporting a child's holistic development. By the end of this module, you will be equipped with the knowledge to make informed decisions regarding assessment information and inclusive approaches that enhance the educational experiences of all children, especially those who may need additional support.
Core modules
Personal and Professional Development 2
30 credits
This module provides the opportunity to explore and engage at a deeper level with the theories and models that promote collaboration and reflection in professional working contexts. You are encouraged to take an active role in shaping your personal, professional and pedagogical progress through engagement with the Future Skills Explore activities. The collaborative nature of working within the module will inform your subject knowledge as well as a range of transferable skills that are essential for a graduate to work effectively within and beyond the sector.
Children's Rights
30 credits
This module provides an in-depth exploration of the rights of babies, children and young people lensed through the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) (UNICEF, 1989). You will evaluate the various rights afforded to children, the importance of safeguarding these rights, and the challenges faced in implementing rights-based approaches and initiatives locally and globally. It is essential that a range of issues within care and education are critically evaluated through the lenses of the UNCRC and rights-based philosophies to ensure that you are well informed about your professional role as advocates for children and their families. An exploration of relevant legislation, policies, curriculum frameworks and initiatives provides students with further opportunities to interrogate and critique the intentions, values and principles that underpin the range of provision within the UK, Europe and the Global South.
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in Practice
30 credits
This module will centre on the current constructs of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) through the lenses of education. It will explore contemporary issues related to equity and equality. There will be opportunity to explore positive and limiting practices within educational settings, which promote or inhibit an inclusive culture between stakeholders and within stakeholder groups. In this module you will review educational approaches that can provide empowerment for marginalised, under-served or underrepresented groups within the community. You will examine your own dispositions, personal beliefs and values and how these impact on practice approaches and ethical decision-making. Intersectionality factors that influence and underpin the lived experiences of babies, children and young people will also be evaluated with a view to making suggested improvements to current practice approaches that promote an inclusive and equitable culture.
Play and Pedagogy
30 credits
This module examines theories of play and pedagogies in early childhood education contexts. The module examines how babies, toddlers and children have a right to play and access playful learning experiences in their early childhood. Play will be positioned as an essential contributor to the healthy and holistic development of babies, toddlers, and young children, considering the influence on cognitive, social, emotional, moral, spiritual, and physical development. You will consider differing pedagogies of play and examine core influences including the enabling environments, the adult role, digital literacies, planning, and inclusion. Connections will be made between children's motivations, dispositions and attitudes in play, and theories and philosophies that underpin play in early childhood spaces. The module will extend your knowledge of the pedagogies of play that promote inclusive and playful learning experiences for children.
Early Years Educator Pathway
Early Years Educator Portfolio
Non-credit bearing credits
This module promotes reflection on your existing and developing knowledge, attitude, skills and behaviours (KASB) that are required to successfully work within an Early Years provision with children up to the age of 8 years old. It enables you to record your growth, achievement and the professional attributes developed over time and in collaboration with others. The Reflective Professional Practice Record should be regularly reviewed and discussed with your workplace Critical Professional Associate (CPA) and your tutor(s).
In Year 3, you will consider multi-professional practice and contemporary issues in health and wellbeing, reflect on your leadership and plan a small-scale research project.
Core modules
Personal and Professional Development 3
30 credits
The module expands on the professional graduate skills developed across the first two years of study. You will refine and critically evaluate professional reflections in relation to your own professional identity and specific subject pedagogy. You will become an expert in your subject and evolve leadership and advocacy through personal reflective tasks and collaboration with others in a range of professional contexts. You will retain active engagement with continued professional learning activities and apply new knowledge to your own professionalism whilst reflecting on your evolving personal skillset. Reflection around skills to excel in your career after graduation forms an essential element to this module. Therefore, you are encouraged to explore a range of career opportunities and network with other professionals in readiness for the next stage in your professional journey. The Future Skills Apply Learning Outcomes are delivered in this module.
Contemporary Issues in Supporting Health and Wellbeing in Early Years
30 credits
This module explores key issues related to health and wellbeing in the Early Years. The teaching content frames health and wellbeing issues through various lenses including neuroscience, sociology, psychology, policy and guidance (statutory and non-statutory). The roles and responsibilities of adults who work with the child, families and communities will be explored and you will consider factors which promote or impede holistic development. This will provide you with a critical appreciation of the complexities of addressing practice based contemporary issues which support the holistic development of babies and young children within health and wellbeing.
Leading Effective Practice in Early Years
30 credits
This module will give you the opportunity to critically reflect upon leadership models and approaches. The module content will lead you to appreciate the crucial role played by Early Years leaders in supporting change and how leadership can facilitate best practices for babies, children, parents, carers, practitioners and other professionals. There will be opportunity to explore the importance of respectful partnership with these stakeholders. You will be led to explore educational issues related to the Early Years through sociological, political, psychological, economic, philosophical and political lenses. The voice of the child will be a central focus in the proposed change management process. You will be encouraged to evaluate methods, strategies and approaches that you use to manage yourself and others.
You will also reflect through experiential learning on your existing and developing leadership skills; identifying areas of strength and further development.
Research Informed Approaches of Collaborating with Others
30 credits
This module will support you to think critically about planning a small-scale enquiry that requires the collaborative participation of other stakeholders. You will explore the ethical implications as well as the methodological approach that underpins your proposed enquiry. You will examine evidence-based approaches that are currently drawn on in the field of education and beyond. You will critically reflect on challenges and ethically sound practices that promote meaningful collaboration.
Graduate Practitioner Pathway
Graduate Practitioner Portfolio
Non-credit bearing credits
This module enables you to apply your developing academic and experiential knowledge of pedagogy and research to a range of contexts for children up to the age of eight years old. It enables you to consider your growth, achievement and professional attributes developed over time and in collaboration with others. This should be regularly reviewed and discussed with your workplace Critical Professional Associate (CPA) and tutor(s). You will take charge of your own professional development through the portfolio building exercise.
Future Skills
Knowledge to give you the edge
Embedded within every course curriculum and throughout the whole Kingston experience, Future Skills will play a role in shaping you to become a future-proof graduate, providing you with the skills most valued by employers such as problem-solving, digital competency, and adaptability.
As you progress through your degree, you'll learn to navigate, explore and apply these graduate skills, learning to demonstrate and articulate to employers how future skills give you the edge.
At Kingston University, we're not just keeping up with change, we're creating it.
Entry requirements
Teaching and assessment
Scheduled learning and teaching on this course includes timetabled activities including lectures, seminars and small group tutorials.
Who teaches this course?
Our lecturers all have experience teaching in their specialist fields and remain actively connected to over 200 partner colleges and schools in the central and Greater London region.
Course fees and funding
Additional costs
Depending on the programme of study, there may be extra costs that are not covered by tuition fees which students will need to consider when planning their studies. Tuition fees cover the cost of your teaching, assessment and operating University facilities such as the library, access to shared IT equipment and other support services. Accommodation and living costs are not included in our fees.
Where a course has additional expenses, we make every effort to highlight them. These may include optional field trips, materials (e.g. art, design, engineering), security checks such as DBS, uniforms, specialist clothing or professional memberships.
Facilities
The Kingston Hill campus features an outdoor learning environment where trainee teachers lead curriculum-linked natural sciences activities with children. It includes a specially built 'cubby house', outdoor pond, beehive and nature trail. It offers early years students the opportunity to simulate teaching and learning with natural materials.
There are a number of teaching rooms set up to replicate actual classrooms. Each classroom is subject based – such as an art room, science lab – and is equipped with all the relevant facilities you will need to practise your lessons before taking them into school.
Our library (the Nightingale Centre) has an excellent range of teaching resources to help you plan and teach your lessons, such as a range of children's topic books, music and nursery rhymes on CD, as well as artefacts and kits that can be used to illustrate historical periods, different religions, science, mathematics and music.
After you graduate
Many students return to Kingston University for postgraduate and continuing professional development studies. These include Early Years Initial Teacher Training leading to Early Years Teacher Status (EYTS), the Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) leading to Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) and masters qualifications such as the Education MA at Kingston, subject to meeting course requirements.
Please note: to progress to EYTS or QTS, you will need GCSE (minimum 4 or C) in English Language, Maths and Science.
Types of jobs
- Early Years professional
- Early Years room leader
- Outreach worker
- Early Years manager
- Early Years adviser
- Learning support
- Play worker
- Primary teacher (following postgraduate training)
- Higher level teaching assistant
- Community-based nursery nurse
- Family support worker
- Unqualified teacher
- Training and development adviser within day care settings/local authorities
Employers
- Surrey County Council
- Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
- Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames
- London Borough of Wandsworth
- London Borough of Merton
- London Borough of Enfield
- State and Independent Primary Schools
- Multi Academy Trusts
- Early Years and Nursery Settings
- NHS
- Children's Centres
- Refugee provision
- Charities and non-government organisations
Course changes and regulations
The information on this page reflects the currently intended course structure and module details. To improve your student experience and the quality of your degree, we may review and change the material information of this course. Course changes explained.
Programme Specifications for the course are published ahead of each academic year.
Regulations governing this course can be found on our website.
