Health & Wellbeing in Early Childhood

This module will enable you to develop an understanding of policy and practice with regard to safeguarding and child protection in early childhood settings and schools. Key legislative and statutory guidance for practitioners will be introduced and you will learn about the types, signs and causes of abuse and the implications for children’s outcomes, including those risks posed by globalisation and technology.

You will understand the possible impacts of the safeguarding process on young children and their families and appreciate the importance of working with others to safeguard and promote the well-being of babies and young children. You will learn when to signpost to other services or designated people within a school or setting to safeguard individual children. Safeguarding issues will be explored from theoretical perspectives and with reference to historical cases and current examples.

This module is designed to explore diverse local and global perspectives of practice provision in field of Health and Social Care. This will incorporate a recognition of intercultural issues relevant to practice.

You will develop an appreciation of the importance of local and global public health and other policy initiatives around health and wellbeing. You will be encouraged to explore how these relate to contemporary Health and Social Care practice.

You will be supported to consider innovative ways of working to promote health and wellbeing within a changing global community.

This module will focus on professional practice in a domain of multi-agency and multi-disciplinary working. The complexities inherent in this work will be explored, ensuring consideration is given to professional and personal ethics and values. Leadership within the sector is examined, recognising differences, similarities and challenges across and within the sector.

The second placement takes place within this module, which provides the opportunity for you to enhance your knowledge and understanding of health and social care practice, and to build upon your portfolio of knowledge, skills and values. It also enables you to understand the direct and indirect relationships between your actual placement settings and the other agencies involved in the service users’ care.

This module introduces key concepts in Mental Health, Wellbeing and Resilience. The module encourages you to reflect on and challenge your own professional practice through critical personal reflection. You will define and interrogate key themes and concepts in Mental Wellbeing and Resilience.

You will then investigate how the intersection of ideas, practice and cultural change influences leaders and managers in professional contexts, institutions and systems.

The indicative content of this module focuses on defining and critically considers concepts such as anxiety, mood, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) etc and your impact from a service delivery and individual perspective. You will be encouraged to reflect on your own professional experiences.

This module focuses on the significance of family and community on children’s lives. You will consider the influence of the family and community on children’s lives from holistic and ecological perspectives. You will explore and evaluate changing concepts of family diversity, parenting, care and social and cultural capital and develop your understanding of the barriers and solutions to making communities sustainable and supportive environments for young children.

The module will support you to develop the skills necessary to understand and develop respectful partnership with parents and carers.

In this module you will explore the concept of ‘childhood’ from philosophical, sociological and psychological perspectives. Common assumptions about children and childhood will be identified and you will consider how these perceptions are socially constructed according to historical time, place and culture, drawing upon the work of a range of philosophers and educational pioneers. Western perspectives of the child and childhood will be critiqued and contrasted with non-Western views and practices.

The module will explore some of the contemporary debates around children and childhood today and consider implications for practice in the early years.

In this module you will have the opportunity to develop your understanding of play and its value for babies and young children. You will explore current understandings and contemporary discourses around play such as concepts of ‘adult-led’ and ‘child-led’ play and you will be encouraged to evaluate current arguments about the role and function of both types of play especially in educational contexts.

Content will focus on linking theory to practice drawing upon your placement experiences and will address themes such as resilience and risk in outdoor play; the child’s right to play; and the place of play and creativity in policy. Visiting speakers will contribute different professional perspectives for example from play work or play therapy.

This module will introduce you to the research process in preparation for the sector based research project in semester 2. You will learn about research design and ethical implications of undertaking research with children and their families in an early years setting.

This module will enable you to gain an understanding of key elements of the research process applicable to researching issues in early years. Elements of the research process will be introduced, including literature review, data collection and generation, analysis and data interpretation and presentation of findings. Ways in which rigour can be established will be discussed (e.g. triangulation, generalisation, reliability, validity etc).

The module will introduce you to some different research methods commonly used in early years settings, e.g. observation, interview, questionnaire and consider the relevance of documentary and visual texts. In addition to the traditional learning and teaching strategies, this module will use peer to peer support through collaborative working in which learning ‘about’ the processes of research is explored through online and practical activities (e.g. devising a questionnaire using online software).

You will undertake independent work in developing knowledge and understanding and in working towards a portfolio set of assessed tasks. This module will also be underpinned by a 10 day placement in which you will negotiate an area of research with your placement setting.

This module will introduce you to some of the ethical implications of undertaking research with children and their families in an early years setting, including the key principles of anonymity, confidentiality and informed consent, when researching babies and young children. You will be encouraged to reflect on the conceptualisations of the child as subjects, as well as considering the role of the child as co-researcher.

In addition to the traditional learning and teaching strategies, this module will use peer to peer support through collaborative working in which learning ‘about’ the application of research ethics is explored through online and practical activities. You will undertake independent work in developing knowledge and understanding and in working towards the development of your own ethics form. This module will also be underpinned by a 10 day placement in which you will negotiate an area of research with your placement setting.

This module brings together a range of theories, models and approaches that aim to identify and address the needs of service users and practitioners within Health and Social Care.

It will further develop the sociological and psychological theories covered earlier in the programme linking them to an area of your interest within Health and Social Care practice.

You will consider a holistic understanding of individuals’ expectations of the provision and delivery of Health and Social Care, from a local, national and global perspective. You will explore a range of strategies for managing service users’ expectations whilst appreciating the diversity of needs.

In this module you will have the opportunity to independently research an aspect of early years provision in a placement setting. You will be expected to negotiate an area of focus with your placement mentors and will design, plan and implement an area of study with a view to facilitating change or supporting provision in your setting.

Ethical issues will be addressed, including the key principles of anonymity, confidentiality and informed consent. Specific guidance will be given for the analysis of data and the production of a research dissertation.

You will be expected to think strategically and analytically and to work independently and autonomously as appropriate within agreed guidelines. There will be an emphasis on enabling you to demonstrate the limitations and uncertainty of knowledge and the influence of perspective and theoretical/methodological approach on findings and conclusions.

This module will enable you to contribute to the work of your placement settings, through the negotiation of your research focus, setting change management and improvement priorities and engage in creating and leaving a ‘legacy’ from your research as you make the transition from ‘knowledge consumer’ to ‘knowledge producer’.

In this module you will be introduced to theories and models of leadership and management as they apply to an educational setting. You will be encouraged to reflect on the range of leadership roles within an early year setting and will consider how these have changed and developed from an historical perspective relating to policy and legislation in the early childhood sector.

You will reflect on the complexity of managing provision in an ever-changing landscape and will examine some of the challenges and opportunities of working with a range of stakeholders through effective teamwork and application of different leadership styles. Leadership will be set in the contemporary contexts of leadership for learning, multi-professional leadership through working with families and communities and self-evaluation leading to improvement in provision and practice in early childhood settings. These will be explored through a reflection on the skills and attributes needed by leadership and managers in early years contexts.

In this module you will have the opportunity to build on your understanding of the constructs of ‘childhood’ through an examination of past and present contexts, and the challenges and possibilities of global and future childhood.

You will be encouraged to reflect on a number of thought-provoking debates around global issues surrounding childhood, including child labour and child soldiers, child marriage, the global impact of social media on childhood and the global inequalities in education and health. You will be introduced to some of the policy and legislation around protecting the rights of the child and will reflect on the nature of children as objects of National and Global concern.

In this module you will reflect on the impact of change on the developing child, with a focus on the range of transitions which children experience from birth to 8 years.

The module will draw from research which argues that if a child is taught to cope with the expected changes that are anticipated through childhood, then they will develop better coping mechanisms when faced with unexpected changes. You will be encouraged to reflect on the changes experienced by children in a rapidly changing society and will examine some of the strategies which might be used to support children through these expected and unexpected changes. A key focus of this module will be that of the promotion of resilience, resourcefulness and reciprocity, and the role of the adult in fostering these in children in order to prepare them for a future of change and supporting more positive outcomes into adulthood.

This module will develop knowledge and understanding of methods and practice in teaching and learning in the 0-8 age range. This will build on some of the models of child development first introduced at Level 4 with an emphasis on the role of the practitioner in supporting and extending learning.

You will be encouraged to critically reflect on the pedagogical underpinnings of the current Early Years curriculum and will be introduced to some of the more recent developments in developing children’s learning through the processes of deep learning, deep thinking, emotional satisfaction and engagement with others. The notion of creativity will be explored through an exploration of some of the more progressive views of early education and through an examination of alternative curricular such as Forest Schools, In the Moment Planning and The Curiosity Approach.

In addition to the traditional learning and teaching strategies of interactive lectures, seminars and discussions, this module will encourage you to reflect on ideas in relation to your experience of everyday practice. Through practical workshops you will explore aspects of an alternative curriculum in order to form your own ideas about provision in the early years.

You will engage in critical analysis of contemporary issues in Inclusion exploring impacts upon the individual and their learning environment.

This module will be dynamic in the sense that themes will be contemporary and develop from year to year. Examples of issues may be the contested concept of disability (considering scholars such as Allan, Norwich and Tomlinson) as a social construct and how this relates to current social and educational initiatives. An understanding of the principal reasons that create challenge and concern in meeting needs and lead to individuals becoming disengaged from education will be considered.

You will participate in determining the module content, sourcing relevant reading and leading discussion. Use of data, local, national and international will be analysed to support or contest issues discussed.