Early Years Level 3

Make a difference in the lives of young children. This course gives you an in-depth understanding of child development and the importance of early education. You’ll explore key areas such as children’s development, safeguarding, and the role of play in learning.

With a mix of hands-on experience and classroom theory, you’ll gain the knowledge and skills to take your first steps toward a rewarding career in early childhood development, education, or care.

What You’ll Learn

You’ll learn how young children develop from birth to eight years old, as well as completing a placement in an early years setting.

You’ll cover the significance of play in their growth, including numeracy and literacy, and how to create safe, supportive environments. You’ll explore key theories of development, safeguarding responsibilities, and how research shapes early years practice. You’ll also develop your critical thinking and reflective practice skills.

This course covers four key areas:

• Children’s Development: including the theories, principles and factors relating to development, and the potential impact of a range of factors on a child’s progress through the developmental milestones.
• Keeping Children Safe: safeguarding, health and safety, emergency best practices and when to address concerns about a child’s welfare.
• Play and Learning: the influence of theories and approaches to play, and the benefits of play and learning activities for children.
• Research and Reflective Practice: The influence of research findings on policy and provision for children and how this influences the behaviours and expectations of an individual working in an early years setting.

Highlights

You can look forward to:

• Work placement opportunities in early years settings
• Building practical, hands-on experience alongside expert teaching
• Learning from real-world case studies and current research
• Gaining skills highly valued by employers and universities

Assessment

The Assessment is comprised of two internally assessed assignments and two external exams.

Anything else?

At Gloucestershire College we want students to develop their English and Maths skills to help them achieve their learning and career goals. All full-time students (16–18) who have not achieved grade 4 or above in English Language or Maths GCSE will study these subjects alongside their main course.

We also encourage the development of wider personal skills such as communication and resilience through our Which Three Skills programme.

You will need to complete and pay for a DBS check to attend any work placement. Our staff are here to support you through this process.