Early years teacher

You would do fun activities with babies and children to help them learn and develop.

You’d come up with creative ideas for activities to help them talk, count and read. You’d help them understand more about the world and themselves.

You would work with pre-school children, for example in a council or private nursery, or a pre-school centre, and with the youngest children in primary school, up to eight years old.

There’s national guidance from the Scottish Government about education for young children. It emphasises that children are learning from the moment they are born, and that early learning and childcare are very closely linked.

You’d encourage the children to play and share with other children to learn good behaviour and co-operation. You’d make sure that it’s a safe, supportive environment where they can happily try new things.

For children aged three and over, you’d organise activities to fit with the guidance in the Curriculum for Excellence, but you’d still have a lot of freedom to decide what and how the children learn. You’d need to integrate literacy, numeracy, and health and wellbeing into your teaching.

As an early years teacher you’d help every child enjoy learning, achieve their best and be ready for the next stage in primary school. You’d find ways to help all the children do well and develop their knowledge and skills regardless of their circumstances or abilities.

As well as teaching the children, you would:

• Plan and prepare activities and materials

• Set out activities before classes and tidy up afterwards

• Check the children’s progress, identify problems and find ways to resolve them

• Discuss children’s development and progress with parents or carers

You’d need to attend meetings and training courses. You’d work closely with parents, teachers and other professionals.

Children’s safety is very important so you’d work closely with other professionals such as social workers to make sure the children are protected.

You would also work with and supervise nursery workers, teaching assistants and volunteer helpers.

• Teach in Scotland - About a career in teaching: how to apply, studying, early career and professional development

• General Teaching Council for Scotland

• Education Scotland: Curriculum information, and advice and resources for teachers in Scotland

• Disclosure Scotland – more about the Protecting Vulnerable Groups Scheme

• Scottish Wider Access Programme – About this programme to help adults with low/no qualifications get into higher education