The Child Development course in KS4 investigates the importance of a child’s first 5 years of life, exploring how children’s early experiences shape the rest of their lives and influence their physical and cognitive development, how they use language, how they deal with their emotions and how they interact with the people around them.  Students learn how children play and how adults support their play and learning within early years’ settings. They develop technical knowledge and skills through planning, developing and adapting play opportunities suitable for young children across five areas of development.

This course prepares students for more specialised study in Childcare and Health and Social Care in KS5, but also provides the students with the appropriate skills necessary for any sixth form course. The challenge for any vocational qualification is to ensure that it prepares learners for the sector in which they hope to work. The Children’s Play, Learning and Development (CPLD) course involves 750 hours of placement attendance in early years’ settings which is the ideal preparation for primary teaching, child nursing and social care degrees. For those students planning to work within the caring professions; social work, midwifery, adult nursing etc, the Health and Social Care (HSC) course provides students with the essential knowledge and skills required for the relevant university degree courses.