Kate Dethridge has spent over 30 years in Primary education. She started her career as an Early Years teacher and this has remained a passion throughout her career. As an additional OfSTED inspector and Headteacher of an outstanding Teaching School and National Support School, she has inspected and supported countless settings, learning from the best and developing a detailed understanding of what excellent provision looks like and how it is both established and maintained. She was made a Dame in the 2015 New Year's Honours for services to Education.
'A Practical Guide to Early Years Education' has been written in order to support colleagues in gaining an understanding of what excellent provision looks like and offers tools and resources to help you manage, improve and sustain high quality provision in your setting. Pick up a book about Early Years education and too often it is heavily weighted to research and theory. These are important of course, but for many of us who are busy and time poor, we want to be able to open a book and find it full of good ideas and easily accessible resources, easy to read and written by someone who does the job day in and day out. Whether you are a child minder, work in a nursery or in a school, this book will offer you sensible, practical advice about what you can do to improve the experience for the children in your care, meet their individual needs and sustain improved learning outcomes.Written in a clear and easily accessible way, each chapter focuses on a key area of provision and offers a wealth of practical ideas and resources to help you: *Understand what excellent provision looks like and should include * Audit your own provision and identify strengths and areas to improve * Develop resources and guidance for staff to ensure that your setting offers all the necessary support and skills to ensure the children in your care are stimulated, develop excellent attitudes to learning and make progress.