Early Childhood Education and Care BA(Hons)

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Top reasons to choose this course

• 2nd in the UK for education courses – Guardian University Guide 2025.
• 100% of graduates in work or further study 15 months after their degree – Graduate Outcomes survey.
• Placement opportunities enable you to gain valuable hands-on professional experience.
• Observational study visits to support your understanding of the sector.
• Learn from a team of early years experts and visiting guest lecturers.
• Specialist curriculum centre with 30,000 specialist resources to enhance your learning.
• Successful completion of the degree will lead to you being counted as a level 3 early years practitioner.
• Guaranteed interview to our postgraduate teaching courses if you wish to pursue a career in teaching. 

Course structure 

We have a balanced approach to teaching and learning, employing a combination of theory and practical skills which you will experience through seminars, workshops, placements, research and independent study.

Learning and teaching approaches

The course will provide you with a challenging, inclusive and creative environment, including:

• personal and group tutorial support
• group work, discussion and debate
• independent and enquiry-based learning
• seminars, workshops and lectures
• Observational study visits.

During the first and second year of study you will engage in a number of observational study visits. These are closely linked to modules and include the observation of children in appropriate settings.

Although education has a significant focus within the course, you will also explore multi-agency working and other early childhood contexts, according to your individual interests and career goals.

Making sure that what you learn with us is relevant, up to date and what employers are looking for is our priority, so courses are reviewed and enhanced on an ongoing basis. When you have applied to us, you’ll be told about any new developments through Student View.

Year 1 

You will learn how babies and toddlers start to make sense of the world around them, along with key theories surrounding children’s physical, emotional and social health. You will consider the role of wider systems on a child’s development including family and community, policy and legislation.

Modules

• Knowing and Learning in Higher Education

  This module will help you to make the most of your studies in higher education. It will help you improve your self-confidence as a learner and develop your capacity to meet the academic requirements and expectations of the programme.

• How Children and Young People Learn

  In this module you will look at key ideas about learning and development, from classic theories to more modern perspectives. You will also consider how different backgrounds – like cultural and social experiences – shape the way children and young people develop. You’ll learn to connect theory with real-world practice by analysing different learning approaches, engaging with academic discussions and applying these ideas to examples of educational practice in different settings, such as early childhood, primary school, secondary school, and youth and community.

• Educational Thinkers and Activists

  This module explores how education policy is formed and implemented, focusing on how it is experienced by different social and cultural groups. You will develop an understanding of how education systems develop and change; how education policy is driven by ideological and pragmatic matters; how it shapes the structure of schooling; and how that helps and restricts the practice of early years specialists, teachers and educators. 

• Child Development: Physical, Social and Emotional Development

  This module is the first of three modules designed to support your understanding of child development within an ecological context. The focus of this module is physical, social and emotional development. The module will explore the role of early attachment relationships and the effect of this on learning, development, health and wellbeing. Perspectives from health, social care and education will be included.

• Families and Communities in Early Childhood Contexts

  In this module you will develop your understanding of ecological contexts and the ways in which working with families enhances children’s learning and development. The module will support your understanding of theory and research related to effective parent partnerships. You will also explore the factors affecting children’s outcomes, including poverty and issues of inequality.

• Policy, Legislation and Change in Education

  On this module you will explore policy and legislation as it applies to education and childcare. You will develop an understanding of the role that policy and legislation has on learning, curriculum development and safeguarding practices. 

Child Development, Physical, Social and Emotional Development and Families and Communities in Early Childhood Contexts modules include 12 hours of observational study visits to early years settings.

Year 2 

You will focus on child development to consider the role of play and children’s developing communication, language and literacy. You will delve further into wider societal influences on children’s lives when you consider equalities and inclusion in early childhood and how policy and legislation influence and reflect children and families’ experiences.

Modules

• Child Development: Play for Learning and Development in Early Childhood

  This module explores play as a fundamental and complex process of development and learning in babies, toddlers and young children. You will look at theories relating to play and young children’s learning and development as well as the role of adults and environment in supporting play opportunities. This module includes six hours of observational study visits to early years settings.

• Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice

  This module explores the concepts of equality, inclusion, diversity and social justice and provides models with which to explore these issues. You will use your reflective skills to understand and identify possible barriers to inclusion that children and learners of all ages may face and explore strategies to address and overcome these.

• Research Methods

  In this module you will be introduced to research methodology to help you design a small-scale research study in a relevant educational or early childhood education and care setting. It will promote a critical and ethical approach to research, expand your subject knowledge and teach you research skills which can be transferred into other contexts.

• Child Development: Communication, Language and Literacy in Early Childhood

  This module will increase your knowledge and understanding of the development of language, communication and literacy learning in babies, toddlers and young children. Topics include the role of adults in promoting children’s language development, policy frameworks which support language and literacy development, and how sociocultural factors impact on communication. This module includes six hours of observational study visits to early years settings.

• Placement: Understanding Young Children and Young Children’s Services

  This module provides you with the opportunity to link theory to practice during a five-week placement within an early childhood education and/or care context. You will explore the nature and management of organisations and how practitioners work within teams and across multi-agencies to ensure effective provision for children and families.

Placements

Spend a year on placement

Gain valuable experience and earn money during an optional placement year following year 2. You’ll return to the final year of your degree with added confidence, additional real-world experience and valuable contacts. 

A placement year significantly improves your CV, giving you a distinct advantage over others when applying for jobs and starting your career. It will also help you to develop the softer skills such as communication and teamwork.  

Our dedicated Placements and Employability team will support you in getting a placement that aligns with your interests and career ambitions.  

They can help with CVs and cover letter writing, applications, online testing and more. Plus, they’ll provide support and guidance when you’re on placement and make sure that everything is going well. 

Other placement opportunities

In your second year you will spend 120 hours in practice as part of the Understanding Young Children and Young Children's Services module.

Our teaching staff will ensure you are well prepared and have all the support and guidance you need to make the most of the opportunity. You will attend a pre-placement briefing and preparation day.

You’ll also keep a reflective journal for the duration of the placement as a focus for your reflections and engage in group forum discussions to enhance your work-based learning.

Placement destinations could include:

• a children’s community centre
• a refugee camp
• an international school
• a nursery
• a pre-school
• a charity
• a maternity ward
• a reception class
• children’s support services, such as ICAN.

Final year 

You will draw on placement experiences to explore the complexities of multi-agency and interdisciplinary working as well as how childhood is interpreted across the globe. You will also consider the ways that different agencies approach the assessment of children’s learning and development needs.

You will also have the opportunity to research in depth the areas of early childhood that most interest you.

Modules

• Teamwork, Collaboration and Leadership

  Focusing on interdisciplinary services, this module explores the skills needed for effective and inclusive teamwork, collaboration and leadership. It aims to promote knowledge and understanding of relational intelligence and will cover areas including theory related to inclusive teamwork, collaboration and leadership; national and local policy and strategy relating to multi-agency working; and the importance of self-reflection.

• Assessing Learning and Development in Early Childhood

  You will explore definitions of assessment and its role in the teaching and planning cycle during this module. It will cover areas including the definitions and forms of assessment in early childhood services; the purposes of assessment and its value for children, parents, carers and practitioners; and the relationship between policy and assessment practices.

• Reflection on Learning

  This module will support and encourage further understanding of reflective theory and practice. It will Include an understanding of personal pedagogy and philosophy around early years education and care. You will be able to reflect on past learning and make plans for future development including employability.

• International Perspectives on Early Childhood

  This module aims to support understanding of early childhood as a social construct. You will explore contrasting outlooks on early childhood from a range of international perspectives and explore the variety of ways in which children live their lives. You will also reflect on the meaning of early childhood and the ways in which culturally constructed views of children influence policy and practice.

• Dissertation: Researching Early Childhood

  You will investigate an area of interest in early childhood in this module. Using your research skills you will develop a researchable question and apply appropriate methods to gather and analyse data. Your research will be supported by workshops on topics including planning and presentation, ethical and practical considerations, methodological issues and evaluating a research dissertation.

Meet the team

Dr Lesleann Whiteman – course leader

“My goals for the early childhood degree course focus on student engagement, customer service and academic rigour, supported by diverse flexible and multidisciplinary teaching and learning experiences for students.

“I have worked for 31 years in early childhood development teacher education with diverse organisations in the United Kingdom, Asia, North America and the Caribbean to ensure that Early Childhood Teacher Education Programmes use a holistic curriculum approach in training early childhood educators.

“My work speaks to that of designing professional development programmes for early childhood educators and developing parent education programmes with a strengths-based approach in addition to advocating for relevant early childhood policies for the development of early childhood care and education.”

Read Lesleann’s full profile.

Other members of the team

• Dr Jools Page
• Dr Jodi Roffey-Barentsen
• Declan Dowkes
• Dr Nosheen Rachel

Dr Lesleann Whiteman

Facilities 

Curriculum Centre
Our specialist Curriculum Centre on the Falmer campus houses more than 30,000 specialist resources, spanning all the subjects in the national curriculum. The collection includes games, DVDs, CD-ROMs, pictures, charts, education packs and an extensive collection of children’s books.

Falmer library
The Falmer library houses an extensive array of literature and resources related to early childhood education and care.

Course fees

The fees listed here are for the first year of full-time study if you start your course in the academic year 2025–26.

You will pay fees for each year of your course. Some fees may increase each year.

UK undergraduate and some postgraduate fees are regulated by the UK government and increases will not be more than the maximum amount allowed. Course fees that are not regulated may increase each year by up to 5% or RPI (whichever is higher).

If you are studying part-time your fee will usually be calculated based on the number of modules that you take.

Find out more

• Brighton Boost – cost of living help for our new undergrad students. Find out about how we can help with your study, accommodation or travel costs and more...
• Fees, bursaries, scholarships and government funding info for UK and international undergraduate students
• Student finance and budgeting while studying
• Read our student contract and tuition fee policy (pdf) for more on University of Brighton tuition fees.

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