Early learning and childcare quality indicators: Leadership of continuous improvement

'Very good' pedagogical leadership

Senior leaders are visible and provide strong strategic guidance and direction. They enable all staff to provide high-quality learning and teaching to secure children’s progress.

Leaders promote and support innovation, creativity and professional enquiry. They enable staff to be highly effective leaders of learning.

There is a focus on improving wellbeing and educational outcomes for children. Staff demonstrate a determination to recognise, respect and promote children’s rights. This reduces inequity and improves outcomes for all.

We consider local and national guidance and evidence-based research about how children learn. This informs pedagogy and all aspects of practice.

We have a shared understanding of pedagogy and how this enables the implementation of the curriculum. Senior leaders rigorously monitor the quality of interactions, experiences and spaces and provide meaningful feedback to practitioners to ensure continuous improvement.

'Very good' leadership and professional learning

Through highly effective leadership at all levels, we consistently achieve high standards in our work. We motivate, support and inspire others to continually improve their pedagogy and practice.

Across our team there is a strong ethos of valuing professional learning, development and collaborative working to build capacity and sustain highly effective practice.

We engage in a broad range of professional learning based on high quality self-evaluation. This enables us to reflect on, develop and improve our knowledge, understanding and pedagogy to provide high-quality early learning and childcare.

The resulting knowledge gained is used very well to influence and support pedagogy and practice to meet the needs of all children. Professional learning and development enhance the setting’s improvement priorities with a very positive impact on outcomes for children.

'Very good' planning and continuous improvement

Our clear co-created vision for change and our values reflect the ambitions of staff, children, stakeholders and the community. They underpin the setting’s ethos and context, which reflects very well the needs of children and families and improvement work.

Ongoing critical reflection and purposeful self-evaluation involves all staff, children and stakeholders.

There are clear plans for improvement with specific, measurable targets to support the implementation of change. Senior leaders guide and manage the direction and pace of change successfully.

Highly effective strategies are used to monitor and evaluate the impact of change and inform future actions. All those involved with the setting are clear about improvements and the impact on the quality of early learning and childcare.

The following challenge questions can support your self-evaluation:

• How well do we use evidence-based research, local and national guidance to inform our pedagogy and improvements?
• How well do we support one another, share practice and take responsibility for improving our pedagogy?
• In what ways do we use robust self-evaluation to make decisions about professional learning and improvement?
• How well does professional learning impact positively on outcomes for children and in what ways?
• To what extent do our approaches support children, staff and stakeholders to share their views, experiences and opinions to influence change?
• How effectively do we engage others to develop a shared vision and purpose for our setting?
• How well does the setting’s vision and values underpin the work of the setting? What impact do they have on improving the quality of education and care we provide?