Course overview
Do you work in a role that supports the development of children aged 0-5 years? Do you want to develop your professional practice?
Supporting Early Years Practice aims to further your understanding of how best to create and maintain positive conditions that support young children's learning and development.
This is a work-based learning degree designed to broaden and enhance your professional knowledge. As this is a work-based learning degree, you'll spend at least two days a week with an employer to reflect on theory and practice.
About this course
You'll critically investigate and evaluate the theories, knowledge, policies and legislation that underpin current effective practice.
You'll study a range of topics relevant to child development, such as play and early learning or how inclusivity and diversity shapes people's lives.
There is also an opportunity to choose and explore how specialist coordinator roles can support practice, including roles such as behaviour support coordinators, special educational needs and disability coordinators, nutrition coordinators and school council coordinators. You'll also explore current approaches to creating enabling environments for young children as well, developing research techniques relevant to your working role.
Studying alongside fellow professionals, you'll reflect on your practical experience by looking at what you know and do well, as well as how you can improve your knowledge to be more effective.
This is a work-based learning degree, so you'll spend at least two days a week with an employer to reflect on theory and practice. Our students usually complete this with their existing employer. If you're not employed, you can volunteer with a relevant organisation for two days a week. Work-based employment can be in schools, children's centres, nurseries, children's services for local or voluntary sectors, and provision for young people or those with specialist needs.
You can complete this degree in two years during one afternoon/evening per week (Tuesdays 1.00pm - 6.00pm for Level 4 and Level 5), alongside existing work commitments.
Open Evening
Foundation degrees and Professional Practice
Wednesday 7 June, 4.00pm - 7.30pm
Come along to our Open Evening to discover how a Children, Young People and Families work-based learning degree could help you take the next step in your career.
/prod01/channel_2/media/site-assets/images/cards/23-open-day-card-1.jpg)
Modules
You will study a variety of modules across your programme of study. The module details given below are subject to change and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this course of study.
Year 1
Core modules (students are required to take):
- Values and Roles of a Principled Professional
- Theories of Learning and Development
- Power, Inclusion and Diversity of Need
Students are required to choose one option module from:
- Healthy Teams Supporting Healthy Children, Families and Communities
- Creating an Ideal Play Environment
- Higher Level Teaching Assistant Preparation Level 4
Year 2
Core modules (students are required to take):
- Safeguarding and Promoting Wellbeing
- Reflecting on Research Informed Practice
Students are required to choose one option module from:
- Specialist Co-ordinator Roles
- Behaviour and Learning in an Interconnected World
Students are required to choose one option module from:
- Risks, Rights and Social Justice in a Sustainable Society
- Play and Early Learning
- Higher Level Teaching Assistant Preparation Level 5
Learning and Teaching
At Leeds Trinity we aim to provide an excellent student experience and provide you with the tools and support to help you achieve your academic, personal and professional potential.
Our Learning, Teaching and Assessment Strategy delivers excellence by providing the framework for:
- high quality teaching
- an engaging and inclusive approach to learning, assessment and achievement
- a clear structure through which you progress in your academic studies, your personal development and towards professional-level employment or further study.
We have a strong reputation for developing student employability, supporting your development towards graduate employment, with relevant skills embedded throughout your programme of study.
We endeavour to develop curiosity, confidence, courage, ambition and aspiration in all students through the key themes in our Learning and Teaching Strategy:
- Student Involvement and Engagement
- Inclusion
- Integrated Programme and Assessment Experience
- Digital Literacy and Skills
- Employability and Enterprise
To help you achieve your potential we emphasise learning as a collaborative process, with a range of student-led and real-world activities. This approach ensures that you fully engage in shaping your own learning, developing your critical thinking and reflective skills so that you can identify your own strengths and weaknesses, and use the extensive learning support system we offer to shape your own development.
We believe the secret to great learning and teaching is simple: it is about creating an inclusive learning experience that allows all students to thrive through:
- Personalised support
- Expert lecturers
- Strong connections with employers
- An international outlook
- Understanding how to use tools and technology to support learning and development
Programme delivery
Your time on campus, learning through in-person teaching, is at the heart of your academic experience and the way we deliver our programmes. This is supported and further enhanced by additional engagement activities and opportunities provided online and through digital teaching materials. This blended approach seeks to ensure a positive learning and teaching student experience.
Your programme of study has been carefully designed around a three-phase model of delivery:
- Preparation: You will be given clear tasks to support you in preparing for live teaching. This could include watching a short-pre-recorded lecture, reading a paper or text chapter or preparing other material for use in class.
- Live: All your live teaching will be designed around active learning, providing you with valuable opportunities to build on preparation tasks, interact with staff and peers, and surface any misunderstandings.
- Post: Follow-up activities will include opportunities for you to check understanding, for staff to receive feedback from you and your peers to inform subsequent sessions, and for you to apply learning to new situations or context.
Preparation, Live and Post teaching and learning and the digital materials used will vary by course, but will be designed to help you structure your learning, take a full and active part in your course, and apply and test your developing knowledge and skills.
Assessment
A variety of assessment methods are used, matched to the learning outcomes for your programme, allowing you to apply and demonstrate the full range of knowledge and skills that you have developed.
For more details on specific assessment methods for this course contact hello@leedstrinity.ac.uk
Entry Requirements
Leeds Trinity University is committed to recruiting students with talent and potential and who we feel will benefit greatly from their academic and non-academic experiences here. We treat every application on its own merits; we value highly the experience you illustrate in your personal statement.
Information about the large range of qualifications we accept, including A-Levels, BTECs and T Levels, can be found on our entry requirements page. If you need additional advice or are taking qualifications that are not covered in the information supplied, please contact our Admissions Office.
For our Foundation degrees, you must have:
- at least one year of relevant work experience or volunteering
- a Level 3 qualification, such as BTEC, CACHE qualifications, A-Level, or you if you do not hold one of these, you could be asked to complete a Level 3 entry essay if you have significant previous relevant work experience
- GCSE English Language or English Literature at Grade C or 4 or above (or accepted equivalent such as level 2 Functional Skills in English)
- Support from your workplace to join the programme and a written reference from your employer which will also confirm whether you already have a DBS check
This course is not available to students on a Student Route Visa.
Fees and finance
Funding
UK Home Students:
Tuition fees cost £5,000 a year for this course in 2023/24.
Part-time tuition fees will be prorated accordingly to the number of credits you're studying.
Depending on government policy, tuition fees may change in future years.
Leeds Trinity offers a range of bursaries and scholarships to help support students while you study.
Additional costs
We advise students that there may be additional course costs in addition to annual tuition fees. These include:
- Books - recommended and required reading lists will be provided at the start of your course. All the books and e-books are available from our Library to borrow but you may choose to purchase your own.
- Print costs - the University provides students with a £6 printing credit each academic year which can be topped up either on campus or online.
How to apply
Download the application form below and return it, along with your references and copies of your qualifications, to:
Admissions Team
Leeds Trinity University
Horsforth
Leeds
LS18 5HD
The admissions team will acknowledge receipt of your application, and aim to make a decision within two weeks of receiving your application.
If you've been made an offer, you'll need to accept or decline by emailing admissions@leedstrinity.ac.uk.
There is no official closing date for applications, but the course will be closed when it is full. We therefore encourage you to make your application as early as possible.
Please ensure you complete the application form in full and supply all the required supporting documentation when you make your initial application. Incomplete applications may be rejected.
If you need advice on your application, please contact our admissions team on 0113 283 7123 (Monday to Thursday, 9.00am to 5.00pm, or Friday 9.00am to 4.00pm) or admissions@leedstrinity.ac.uk
Graduate opportunities
Providing you with the opportunity to develop the professional skills and experience you need to launch your career is at the heart of everything we do at Leeds Trinity University.
On successful completion of the foundation degree, you'll be able to progress on to our top-up degree in Professional Practice.
This will lead to a full BA Honours degree after an additional year of study.
You could progress in your current role, seek more specialist roles with children and young people, or expand into new areas of practice.
After completing the Foundation degree and the top-up Professional Practice degree, many of our students continue on to our MA in Family Support, MSc Psychology (Conversion) or a PGCE.
After you graduate, Careers and Placements will help you as you pursue your chosen career through our mentoring scheme, support with CV and interview preparation and access to graduate employability events.
To find out how we can help you make your career ambitions a reality, visit:
The support from Leeds Trinity is amazing, not just from the tutors but from all areas of student support, such as the Learning Hub, too. Through studying for my degree, I have become much more knowledgeable and confident in implementing what I’ve learnt in my job as a nursery practitioner.
Nursery Practitioner, Foundation degree in Supporting Early Years graduate
Chat with our students
Do you want to find out more about studying at Leeds Trinity University?
Ask our Student Ambassadors about what it’s like to be part of the Leeds Trinity University community, chat to them about your course(s) of interest and hear more about their Leeds Trinity University student experience.
Chat with our studentsWhat is Discover Uni?
Discover Uni is the official, authoritative source of information and guidance on higher education in the UK. The website allows you to search for and compare data and information on university and college programmes from across the UK.
It helps you make sense of all the information out there by linking to other quality resources and explaining what can be found where. It also allows you to search for and compare information and data for individual undergraduate courses across the UK.