Concept Cat (2023/24 trial) | EEF (educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk)

We know that many children entering early years settings do not have the vocabulary to access learning.

With the Word Aware approach, children are supported to learn vocabulary in everyday activities and environments within their setting.

Participants will be taught how to identify and teach suitable vocabulary to their pre-school or reception classes. They will be introduced to practical and inspiring ideas, which can be easily applied to busy early years settings. This course is suitable for staff working with children ages 3-5yrs.

Sessions will take place over 2 mornings: 8th & 15th September 9.30-12pm at May Park Primary School. Participants must attend both session

Please email sirona.sltearlyyearstraininginformation@nhs.net to book a place

Do you love exploring wild spaces with your children but sometimes feel a bit stuck for ideas or to know what most benefits the children you work with? Come and connect with us for our seasonal outdoor learning sessions.

Join us for one or more individual sessions, bring your children to play in the forest, and gain experience and ideas from an experienced outdoor trainer.

Venue: Blaise Castle, Bristol.

Please arrive in time to be ready for 10. You are welcome to bring lunch if you would like to feed the children before you leave.

Jane Gulliver

Jane is a qualified Forest School and Outdoor Trainer with a deep passion for nature, the outdoors, and the ways in which children learn through meaningful experiences. She believes that every child benefits from exploratory, sensory-rich learning environments filled with natural materials, where they can take appropriate risks, follow their own schemas, and develop confidence and curiosity. Outdoor learning provides the ideal foundation for this, supporting children to grow as resilient, independent, and lifelong learners.

If there are no tickets available, please email us at sph@beyth.co.uk to join the waiting list for this event.

Book with the Bristol & Beyond Stronger Practice Hub: Autumn Outdoor Learning Morning for Childminders and Children

This session explores how visual supports can enhance understanding, communication, and independence across everyday activities and routines. Visual supports provide predictable, accessible ways to share information and reduce communication barriers.

Please Note: This is one of series of SALT surgery sessions, with a mixture of input and discussion time. Each event is an individual session with unique content!

These sessions are for all Early Years practitioners, including Early Years settings, schools, and childminders. Each online workshop will feature input from speech and language therapists followed by a supportive discussion on strategies for support and valuable resources.

Book with the Bristol and Beyond Stronger Practice Hub: Using Visuals to Support Speech, Language and Communication: SALT Session

We’re excited to introduce a brand-new regional online network designed specifically for early years leaders in PVI settings, taking place online once every term.

Leadership Matters is your space to connect, collaborate, and grow alongside like-minded professionals across our region. Whether you’re looking to share best practices, explore new ideas, or build supportive professional connections, this network is for you.

Why join?

• Connect with fellow early years leaders
• Share experiences and practical strategies
• Stay informed on current priorities and developments
• Strengthen your leadership practice in a supportive environment

Book now with the Bristol & Beyond Stronger Practice Hub: Leadership Matters Network

This introductory session explores autism in the early years through a strengths-based, neurodevelopmental and inclusive lens. The training supports practitioners to develop a deeper understanding of how autistic children may experience communication, interaction, sensory processing and the early years environment.

The session encourages practitioners to move beyond assumptions and recognise the individuality of each child, considering how differences in communication, play, regulation and sensory processing can influence participation and wellbeing. Delegates will explore practical, supportive approaches that help autistic children feel safe, understood and able to thrive within early years settings.

The training includes practical strategies, environmental adaptations and communication supports that can be embedded into everyday practice to promote inclusion, engagement and positive relationships.

Learning Aims:

• To develop a greater understanding of autism in the early years
• To explore how autistic children may experience communication, interaction, play and sensory processing differently
• To increase awareness of the importance of regulation, predictability and supportive environments
• To consider practical strategies that promote engagement, communication and participation
• To explore approaches that support interaction, attention and emotional wellbeing
• To develop confidence in creating inclusive early years environments that recognise and respond to individual strengths and needs
• To reflect on how adult responses, routines and environmental adaptations can positively support autistic children and their families

Book now with the Bristol and Beyond Stronger Practice Hub: SEND Network: Understanding Autism in the Early Years

This online course is designed to support Early Years Practitioners and Teachers who are new to the EYFS framework in schools. Linked to the DfE’s Best Start in Life vision, the session focuses on the importance of high-quality early education, strong relationships and effective practice in helping every child thrive and develop positive foundations for future learning.

Participants will explore the core principles of the EYFS, including the four overarching themes, the Characteristics of Effective Learning, the Prime Areas of Learning, and the EYFS educational programmes. The session will also examine effective approaches to observation, assessment and planning, and how these support children’s learning and development.

A key focus will be on the role of the adult, the key person approach, relationship-based practice and the creation of enabling environments that place children and families at the heart of decision-making.

Participants will:

• Explore the principles and purpose of the EYFS.
• Develop understanding of effective observation, assessment and planning.
• Consider how relationship-based practice supports children’s wellbeing and learning.
• Reflect on the role of the adult and the importance of enabling environments.
• Strengthen their understanding of how high-quality Early Years practice supports the Best Start in Life for every child.

Book with the Bristol and Beyond Stronger Practice Hub: New to EYFS for All – Strengthening Early Years Teaching

Do you struggle to know how your childminding setting is running from a business point of view? Many of us have started as a childminder with very little business experience.

Come and talk about how you market and recruit new families, how you manage your finances, what sustainability looks like with new funding models and options for growing your business.

Book now with the Bristol & Beyond Stronger Practice Hub: Childminder Network: Running a Sustainable Childminding Business 

This session will explore how we can talk with babies to help them become confident communicators and develop respectful relationships that enable them to make genuine choices. 

We will consider how mindful care routines might support communication and language, the power of nonverbal communication, and learning the ‘conversational dance’. We will explore the benefits of ‘contingent talk’ with younger children and how high-quality adult/child interactions and planning for talk can be part of everyday practice. 

This session is for anyone working with babies.

Book now with the Bristol & Beyond Stronger Practice Hub: Talking with Babies

This is a three-part face-to-face programme running on 20 October, 10 November and 1 December 2026. Please ensure you can attend all three sessions before booking.

The Bristol and Beyond SPH is collaborating with the Somerset Research School to deliver this leadership programme.

It is a three-part training programme for Headteachers, EYFS Leads, Nursery/PreSchool Managers, Room Leaders, and EYFS Teachers.

The programme aims to enable those leading in the early years to become closer to the growing body of educational research evidence and use it to make decisions about the ‘best bets’ for their school or setting.

Book with the Bristol and Beyond Stronger Practice Hub: Using Evidence to Strengthen Your Early Years Leadership (3-Part CPD Programme)

This session will explore approaches that can support childminders in using playful, therapeutic practices to meet the needs of babies and young children through play. We will consider how different types of play, flexible play environments, and intentional adult responses can support children’s development, wellbeing, and learning.

Drawing on current thinking and practical examples, the session will encourage participants to reflect on how playful pedagogy can be embedded within home-based childcare settings in ways that are responsive to individual children’s needs and interests.

Participants will leave with practical strategies and ideas that can be implemented immediately in their own settings, helping them create playful, nurturing environments that support children’s learning, development, and emotional well-being.

This session may be recorded.

Michelle Malomo is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Worcester with a passion for play and its essential role in children’s development and wellbeing. Michelle’s professional background includes nursery management, community work, and youth work. Her research interests focus on Universal Design and Universal Design for Learning (UDL). She is currently involved in a project exploring playful communities and considering how cities can become more playful and child-friendly places.

Michelle is also the author of two books that support early years practitioners and is committed to helping educators create inclusive, playful, and engaging environments for children. Her sessions build practitioners’ confidence, motivation and core movement skills, enabling them to create their own movement activities as part of everyday planning. Staff often describe the courses as reigniting a spark to become more physically active in their own lives.

Book with the Bristol and Beyond Stronger Practice Hub: How Can a Playful Pedagogy Work Within a Home-Based Childcare Setting? With Michelle Malomo

Join this evidenced-based, approved Hanen programme, which as been adapted for early years practitioners. Learn how to identify different social communication stages, and implement strategies to support language and interaction.

The course consists of :

1 online orientation session and 5 face-to-face teaching sessions; plus 2 individual video feedback appointments in your setting. The video sessions offer a chance for participants to try out strategies with a child that they are working with, plus time for reflective practice. Each in-person teaching session runs for 3 hours. Video feedback sessions take approximately 1 hour. Appointments for video visits to settings are booked individually with participants.

The next course for 2026 will start with:

Online orientation session: Wednesday 21st October 2026, 1.30pm-4pm – via Microsoft Teams. (The link for this session will be sent via email).

In-person teaching sessions: Wednesdays 1.30-4.30pm at Bedminster Children’s Centre, British Rd, BS3 3BZ on the following dates:

4th, 11th & 25th November, 9th & 16th December 2026

Video reflection sessions: to be arranged, week commencing 16th & 30th November 2026

Please email for more information: sltearlyyearstraininginformation@nhs.net

Participants must be working in a Bristol Early Years setting or as a  Health/Social Care/ Education professional, working with a child 0-5 years who may be on the autistic spectrum and must be able to attend all sessions. The More Than Words® Guidebook to accompany this course is a highly recommended resource: https://www.winslowresources.com/ or via Amazon (look out for used editions).

Due to funding differences, this session is open to Bristol settings only.

This session will support you in identifying children’s everyday mathematical experiences and planning playful moments of mathematics throughout your day.

We will focus on implementing evidence-informed approaches that support children’s understanding of mathematical skills and concepts by integrating games, stories, and mathematical vocabulary into our everyday routines, interactions, and provision.

The session is suitable for all early years educators and leaders who would like to develop their own understanding of early mathematics.

This session may be recorded.

Book with Bristol and Beyond Stronger Practice Hub: Mathematising the Day

Level 1 provides an Introduction to Makaton. You will learn signs and symbols from Makaton Stages 1 and 2 and some additional vocabulary. This is a one day training course provided by a Makaton Tutor from the Bristol Early Years Portage and Inclusion Team. Please note that in order to make this offer available to as many providers as possible across the city, only one space is available to each setting. Please bring your own lunch and lots of enthusiasm!

The two-year progress check is an important opportunity to celebrate children’s strengths, identify any areas where they may need additional support, and work in partnership with families and other professionals. In this session, we’ll explore how we can make the progress check a meaningful, child-centred process that supports positive outcomes for every child. Join us to share experiences, reflect on effective practice, and discuss how strong collaboration can help ensure children receive the right support at the right time.

Book with Bristol and Beyond Stronger Practice Hub: Talking About Twos: Meaningful Two-Year Progress Checks

Join us for this panel discussion as we share the findings from the Babies in Mind project, a Bristol-based project exploring baby room practice. While the project was rooted in Bristol, the themes and insights resonate far beyond the city, offering valuable reflections for practitioners, leaders and local authorities across the Stronger Practice Hub region.

Bringing together local insights from Bristol with emerging national research, the panel will explore what we are learning about baby room practice and consider how these findings can inform professional learning, leadership and future provision for babies.

Special guest Professor Mona Sakr will join Cassie Holland and Rosie McCallum-Farraday to reflect on the findings alongside emerging national evidence from the Nuffield Foundation-funded Achieving High-Quality Provision in the Baby Room of English Nurseries research.

Together, the panel will consider what these findings mean for practitioners, leaders and the future of provision for our youngest children.

Whether you work directly with babies, lead an early years setting, or support workforce development, this webinar will offer practical insights, thought-provoking discussion and an opportunity to reflect on how we can continue to strengthen baby room practice.

Book with Bristol and Beyond Stronger Practice Hub: Live Panel Webinar: Inside the Baby Room: Insights from the Babies in Mind Project

A high-quality Early Years curriculum is central to giving every child the Best Start in Life. This session will support practitioners and leaders to develop a curriculum that is ambitious, inclusive and responsive to the unique needs, experiences and cultural capital of the children, families and communities they serve.

Drawing on Bristol’s Early Years Curriculum Guidance, participants will explore what curriculum means in practice: everything we want children to experience, learn and be able to do. We will consider how to identify learning priorities, build on what children already know and can do, and create meaningful opportunities that help children develop the knowledge, skills and understanding they need for future learning.

The session will explore the three curriculum elements of Intent, Implementation and Impact, considering how curriculum design, pedagogy, assessment, the environment and adult-child interactions work together to support children’s progress. Participants will also reflect on how a coherently planned and sequenced curriculum helps children know more, remember more and do more over time.

Participants will:

• Develop a clear understanding of curriculum in the Early Years.
• Explore how to identify meaningful learning priorities based on the needs of their children and community.
• Consider how curriculum intent, implementation and impact are connected.
• Reflect on the role of play, the environment, routines and interactions in bringing a curriculum to life.
• Explore how assessment can be used to inform curriculum decisions and support progress.
• Develop strategies for designing an ambitious and responsive curriculum that supports all children to thrive.

This session is suitable for practitioners and leaders who want to review, refine or develop their curriculum and strengthen the coherence, progression and impact of children’s learning experiences across their setting.

Book with Bristol and Beyond Stronger Practice Hub: Developing an Early Years Curriculum – Strengthening Early Years Teaching

This CPD Programme involves three 2-hour online sessions, and you will be required to attend all three.

Wednesday 4th November 2026 – 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Wednesday 18th November 2026 – 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Wednesday 2nd December 2026 – 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm

This programme will explore getting it right for two-year-olds in early years settings. They will support educators to look at provision through the eyes of the two-year-old, reflecting upon the unique child, positive relationships, enabling environments and learning and development. The sessions will provide opportunities to reflect upon aspects of the day with children’s rights in mind, including the daily routines, mindful care and supporting play.

This training is for educators who are new to working with two-year-olds, those who haven’t done training specifically about being with two-year-olds or those wanting a refresher on getting in right with twos. It is a great basis for talking with twos, tuning in to twos and inspiring provision for two-year-olds.

Book now with the Bristol & Beyond Stronger Practice Hub: CPD Programme – Getting it Right for Twos

High-quality interactions are central to the DfE’s Best Start in Life vision, recognising that responsive relationships and language-rich environments are key to children’s learning, development and school readiness.

This session will explore the fundamentals of effective, authentic and meaningful interactions in the Early Years. Participants will reflect on how body language, tone of voice, listening, wait time and sustained shared thinking can deepen children’s learning, extend language and respond to their interests and fascinations.

Using the Quality Interaction Checklist, the EEF Evidence Store and principles from the Best Start in Life strategy, practitioners will consider evidence-informed approaches to strengthening everyday interactions and creating rich learning opportunities for all children.

Participants will:

• Explore the characteristics of high-quality adult-child interactions.
• Reflect on strategies that promote language, thinking and wellbeing.
• Use the Quality Interaction Checklist to evaluate and develop practice.
• Consider how effective interactions support children’s development and readiness for school.

Book with Bristol and Beyond Stronger Practice Hub: Quality Interactions

This Open Study Morning will support practitioners to identify children’s everyday mathematical experiences and plan for playful moments of mathematics in routines, interactions and provision.

The team at Hartcliffe are on an exciting journey, developing their own mathematical knowledge to effectively facilitate purposeful and engaging mathematical opportunities for children. We are excited to share our learning with you all.

Throughout the morning, we will:

• Hear about the curriculum at Hartcliffe with particular focus on Early Mathematics
• Discuss how mathematical thinking and language is encouraged through the daily routine
• Observe mathematics during Welcome Time when children self-register using tens frames
• Learning walk – consider how the environment and provision enables mathematical thinking and problem solving
• Observe small group activities that encourage rich ‘Math’s Talk’ and extend children’s understanding of mathematical skills and concepts – Play dough and bread making, Water play – exploring capacity and Mathematical games in provision
• Story Time – join a small group story time where children will join in with stories, rhymes and songs that support mathematical vocabulary and thinking.
• Listen to the experiences of practitioners as they develop their own understanding of key mathematical skills and concepts

The Open Study Day will consist of learning walks and observation time to see the room set-ups and routines, time with the leaders, teachers and practitioners to understand the journey that Hartcliffe has undertaken in embedding Mathematics into their daily routines and experiences with children.

This is for all early years practitioners.

Book with Bristol and Beyond Stronger Practice Hub: Mathematising the Day – Open Study Morning at Hartcliffe Nursery School

Join our PSED Learning Lead and the Bristol PSED team for four networking sessions over the year as we collaborate to discuss key areas of PSED practice. More information will follow about the focus of each session, depending on sector needs and interests. We might even bring along a guest or two!

The networks will be an opportunity to come together and explore aspects of PSED provision, sharing ideas, reflecting and connecting with other settings, coming away full of ideas and tools you can use straight away.

Network sessions will involve 30 minutes of teaching time, 30 minutes for sharing practice and discussion, and 30 minutes back together for action planning. We hope you will leave feeling inspired and with tangible actions you can take.

Please Note: This session is part of what will be regular termly PSED regional networking sessions. So it will involve some CPD and then networking/ discussion time. Participants are encouraged to discuss their learning, what they have or will put into practice, successes and challenges from their settings, and what you’d like future sessions to cover as we build this learning community.

Book with Bristol and Beyond Stronger Practice Hub: PSED Network: Belonging and Transitions

Come and join our team and be part of a reflective conversation about Curriculum.

Together, we will:

• Hear about the St Pauls’ Curriculum journey
• See how it promotes our values and pedagogy
• Understand how it reflects the interests and special characteristics of our children and families
• Reflect on how it is integrated into observation, assessment and planning

During the day, there will be opportunities for:

• A learning walk
• Understand how we have developed our curriculum over a period of time
• Have a look at documentation
• See the curriculum in practice
• Share your thinking about your own curriculum
• Reflect together on our learning about the EYs Curriculum

Book with Bristol and Beyond Stronger Practice Hub: Exploring an Early Years Curriculum: Open Study Day at St Pauls Nursery

Level 1 provides an Introduction to Makaton. You will learn signs and symbols from Makaton Stages 1 and 2 and some additional vocabulary. This is a one day training course provided by a Makaton Tutor from the Bristol Early Years Portage and Inclusion Team. Please note that in order to make this offer available to as many providers as possible across the city, only one space is available to each setting. Please bring your own lunch and lots of enthusiasm! Avonmouth Children’s Centre is located off Bristol Portway and there is generally plenty of on road parking.

There is a cost for this course. It is £25 per person and you will be invoiced after the course

The Communication and Language Network is an informal online networking session designed for early years practitioners to come together, share experiences, and explore key topics related to communication and language in early years settings. Each session will look at a different aspect of practice, providing a space for discussion, reflection, and peer support. More information will follow about the focus of each session, depending on sector needs and interests. These will be run by our new Language leads, and we might even bring along a guest or two!

Book with Bristol and Beyond Stronger Practice Hub: Communication Language and Literacy Network

This online session will help you support children and young people in understanding the different emotions they experience, why they occur, and how to handle them. We will consider Emotion Coaching as a strategy for supporting children’s behaviour and self-regulation and highlight research that demonstrates the value of an emotion coaching approach. There will be opportunities to explore the tools to practice emotion coaching with children. This session is for Early Years practitioners in settings and childminders.

Part of this event may be recorded.

Book now with Bristol and Beyond Stronger Practice Hub: Emotion Coaching to Support Self-Regulation

Interactive Writing is an evidence-informed approach that supports children at the earliest stages of their writing journey. Aligned with the DfE’s Best Start in Life vision and Writing Framework, it recognises the importance of high-quality interactions, language development and shared thinking in building strong foundations for writing.

This session will explore the EEF’s approach to Interactive Writing, where educator and child work together through a purposeful back-and-forth conversation to create a message that can be written and shared. Through this collaborative process, children develop confidence as writers and mark-makers while strengthening their oral language, communication and early literacy skills.

Participants will explore how Interactive Writing can motivate young children to see themselves as writers, while supporting the development of the knowledge, skills and attitudes that underpin later successful writing. Using evidence-informed strategies, practitioners will consider how to make writing meaningful, engaging and accessible for all children.

Participants will:

• Understand the principles of Interactive Writing.
• Explore how talk and shared thinking support early writing development.
• Consider how meaningful writing opportunities can motivate young writers and mark-makers.

Reflect on evidence-informed approaches that strengthen children’s language, literacy and confidence as writers

Book with Bristol and Beyond Stronger Practice Hub:Interactive Writing

This practical and reflective session explores behaviour through a neurodevelopmental and relational lens, helping practitioners to look beyond behaviour itself and consider what children may be communicating through their actions.

The training will support practitioners to better understand the links between behaviour, communication, sensory processing, emotional regulation and developmental differences in the early years. Delegates will explore supportive, inclusive strategies that help children feel safe, understood and able to engage successfully within their setting.

The session includes practical approaches, visual supports, environmental considerations and regulation strategies that can be implemented immediately within early years practice.

Learning Aims:

• To develop understanding of behaviour as a form of communication
• To explore how communication, sensory processing and developmental differences can impact behaviour
• To increase confidence in identifying possible triggers and unmet needs
• To consider practical strategies that support emotional regulation and positive interactions
• To explore how environments, routines and adult responses can support children’s wellbeing and engagement
• To develop inclusive approaches that help children feel safe, understood and successful within early years settings

Book with Bristol and Beyond Stronger Practice Hub: SEND Network: Looking Beyond Behaviour: Understanding Children’s Needs in the Early Years