Studying our Early Childhood Education BA (Hons) course will equip you with specialist knowledge and skills around early years education and child development. If you are passionate about working with children, young people and families, our unit in the Narratives of Childhood will be useful in developing your understanding of theories on childhood, youth and education. This unit will consider how children’s learning worlds are developed and regulated by adults while analysing the impact of social, economic, technological and cultural change on childhood experience. This knowledge will allow you to raise critical questions about children’s care policies, welfare and education. As an aspiring early years practitioner, it is also essential that you have in-depth knowledge of Early Child Development, therefore this unit aims to provide you with a wide range of research and theory in the field. To broaden your views on educational practice, this unit links closely to our International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education unit where you will examine international and renowned approaches used to support early years learning.

Similarly, you will be introduced to current legislation and guidance around Early Years Curriculum Studies to examine how academic research is used to develop policy. This is also discussed in The Lifelong Curriculum unit, that aims to develop your understanding of key considerations in curriculum design. You will learn not only to design curriculum, but how to implement it based on historical and current educational policy. In more specific areas of curriculum, our Early Representations of Numeracy and Literacy unit will allow you to explore how young children use representation to develop their literary and numeracy skills at an early age. In practical areas of study, you will learn to support and promote early education and development in our Developing Practice in Early Childhood Settings unit. You will keep this knowledge in mind during our Developing Teaching Practice unit, where you will learn to deliver effective classroom sessions based on current research in the field. Moreover, our unit in Reflecting on Quality in Early Childhood Settings will enhance your understanding of how adult support can allow for reflective thinking and help children to grasp a sense of their world.

As an early years professional, inclusion is a crucial factor. This is where our unit in Inclusive Education in the Early Years and Inclusive Practice in Early Childhood Settings will expose you to ways to ensure inclusion for unique children with varying needs. Moreover, with more young people experiencing mental health issues, our unit in Children and Young People’s Wellbeing will teach you to support children through understanding social and emotional issues in education. Similarly, our unit in Representations of Disability will allow you to criticise disability representation in the media and how this influences perceptions of disability. In other areas of study, you will be given an Introduction to Educational Philosophy where you will consider a range of philosophical concepts and methods that can be applied to educational contexts. To diversify your skill set further, our unit in Professionalism, Leadership and Management in the Early Years will equip you with the organisational, legal and interpersonal skills you need to lead a team and work with diverse groups of people.

Finally, you will plan and execute an independent research project in our Dissertation unit where you will choose a relevant topic of interest to you and work under the guidance of a supervisor. To help you with this, our unit in Investigating the Social World will equip you with an understanding of quantitative and qualitative research methods, data collection, analysis and reporting. Furthermore, our Key Concepts in Education unit will also give you the skills to produce academic work to a higher education standard through debates and written exercises.