Early Years School Improvement Programme

EY School Improvement Programme

Times are tough in Schools. Tight budgets and staffing issues are creating difficult conditions for improvement. Many leaders are keen to find a way through (maybe you are!) but need to do so in a 'no-nonsense' way. Enter NurseryNook! We aren't going to tell you to do and buy a load of fairy lights. We're not going to ask you to raid charity shops for clutter to look good but not be purposeful. What we will do is suggest better ways to organise your current provision, better ways to plan for new learning and if we do ask you to buy new resources we'll find a way to make this as cost effective as possible.

You can book a single 'Quality Audit' to find out all of the areas to improve. But if you want the support to make those changes with ongoing coaching and mentoring for the whole team (and leadership) at your fingers tips, then an improvement programme may be the best approach.

What to expect

This programme is a thorough and supportive journey, designed to cover every aspect of your provision and practice. We spread this across at least 3 visits (e.g. Autumn, Spring and Summer terms), with each visit having a separate focus.

Visit 1: The Deep Dive & Strategic Plan - The first visit is a forensic analysis of your core continuous provision. We work alongside your team to understand every detail of your environment. We'll go into the specifics of each basket, each resource and question why. We're looking for links between your curriculum and your implementation. But don't worry, we don't interrogate staff. We have supportive discussions and offer real advice in the moment. Following this, you will receive a comprehensive report with highly detailed next steps, which will form the strategic roadmap for our work together.

Visit 2: Refining Provision & Enhancements - In our second visit, we review the progress made from the initial report, tweaking and refining any changes that aren't working as intended. We then focus on your 'enhancement' process, ensuring that the additions to your provision are purposeful, impactful, and drive learning forward. We're not looking to reinvent the wheel, we build on what is already in place. Our goal here is to ensure that learning activities are strategic, planned and having the most impact as possible. We centre the child in our approach but teach adults how to bring in their own personal pedagogy in a way that benefits all.

Visit 3: Elevating Practice & Interactions - The final visit hones in on the most crucial element: the quality of your staff's interactions. We explore how your team are moving learning forward in the moment through high-quality coaching, questioning, and problem-solving, ensuring your practitioners are skilled and confident. We know that staff will approach this visit with some anxiety but we ensure the first two visits allows us time to meet and interact with the team so they feel comfortable with us being around them. Each staff member will need different levels of support and we will plan the day with leaders to ensure this is appropriate for all.

Ongoing Support Between Visits - This isn't just three isolated days. Between each visit, we will check in with you via video call to discuss progress, offer remote support, and tweak our plan if needed. This ongoing dialogue is included at no extra cost and ensures momentum is maintained. This is flexible to work around the workload of the team. Through these discussions the team will be guided carefully towards the overall goals set and agreed after each in person visit. After each video session the team will receive an immediate recording and a summary so they can implement changes right away.

The outcome

By the end of this programme, the transformation goes beyond just your physical environment. You will have:

A highly effective and purposeful learning environment.
A confident and skilled team who understand the 'why' behind their practice.
Embedded processes for continuous improvement that will last long after our work is complete.
The assurance that your provision and practice are robust, effective, and ready for any external review.
Children who use all their tools and strategies to solve problems creatively.

As coaches we become very invested in your journey. We will work tirelessly throughout the year to ensure you progress as fast as possible whilst maintaining a mangable workload.

Who is this for?

This programme is designed for school and trust leaders who are ready to commit to a deep and lasting improvement journey, including:

Headteachers

EYFS Leads

Trust Leads

What is the investment?

During each visit we will work alongside the team to discuss, interact and offer suggestions for improvement. This means that during each visit staff will need to be free to break away from their usual activities for short bursts of time. We would also expect leaders to be available at the end of each visit for formal feedback (usually an hour).

The Programme is spread across a long period of time (usually an academic year) however we charge for each visit. Some schools may have a smaller budget and only want 2 days whilst others need addtional days. We found this to be the fairest approach.

The cost is £800 for each visit (full day) + 45p per mile travel from Leeds. Accommodation (£100 per night) may need to be booked for distant schools. Please contact us about this.

I'm in, what's next?

Ready to Begin?

The first step is a brief, no-obligation call to discuss your school's specific needs and see if this programme is the right fit for you.