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The quality of leadership in early years settings is a key factor in determining the quality of the educational provision that children receive. Leaders invest time in motivating people to work as a team and take pride in what they do. They are skilled at estimating the pace of children’s learning and recognising that each child is unique.
An important part of the leader’s role is to regularly observe the environment and engage with the children, by asking questions, such as
Answers to questions such as these will inform the leader about how others view the provision. This will enable the leader to understand how successful the team are in supporting children’s learning and development and consistently meeting the needs and expectations of all stakeholders.
Ofsted make a judgement about the quality of teaching, learning and assessment, and the effectiveness of leadership and management in the setting. It could be argued that if the quality of either one is weak then it can only have a negative impact on the other.
The leader needs to be very clear about what good teaching looks like in everyday practice and how they “successfully plan and manage the curriculum and learning programmes so that all children get a good start and are well prepared for the next stage in their learning, especially being ready for school” (Early Years Inspection Handbook, Ofsted 2015).
Much of the inspector’s evidence comes from direct observations of practice during the inspection visit. It therefore makes sense for the leader to regularly observe in a similar way, paying particular attention to the Characteristics of Effective Learning that children are displaying, but also aligning those same characteristics to the teaching that is happening, for example, for ‘creating and thinking critically’:
It is not always easy for a practitioner to identify these characteristics for themselves when they are immersed in an activity with the children. The leader’s observations should result in constructive feedback that stimulates further discussion with the practitioner and enables a reflective dialogue to take place.
This is why the leader’s knowledge of best practice and current research is vital, they are ultimately the ‘gatekeepers’ of the setting’s core beliefs and values, but most importantly they are the enablers who help everyone meet statutory requirements with an approach grounded in current evidence-based knowledge.
Using the following statements, think of at least two examples which demonstrate that:
Michael Reed is a senior lecturer at the Centre for Children & Families, University of Worcester. This article is an edited extract from his book Effective Leadership for High Quality Early Years Practice (Pre-school Learning Alliance, 2016), which is priced at £9.55 for Alliance members and £13.95 for non-members. To purchase a copy, visit pre-school.org.uk/shop.
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