St Pauls Nursery School & Children's Centre

Bristol Early Years Teaching Consortium
"There is, I believe, actually nothing more powerful to say about education than this: that all people, however young or old, have an enormous drive and capacity to learn;......that the most effective teachers trust learners, enhance their self-esteem, have no need to control them, provide an unconditional support which doesn't go too far; and value all types of intelligence in all areas of learning" Paul Ginnis Freethinkers Guide to the Educational Universe Jan '94
The Bristol Early Years Teaching School Alliance (Originally established as BEYTC Bristol Early Years Teaching Consortium) is a hub for Early Years settings and Primary Schools who wish to collaborate, learn together, question, challenge and innovate to improve provision and achievement for our youngest learners. We have great ambition.
It is led by St Pauls Nursery School and Children's Centre, who was awarded National Teaching School status in 2012 and is judged as outstanding by Ofsted.
Key alliance members include Bristol Local Authority EYs team, all 9 other Bristol Nursery Schools and Bath Spa University.
We also work in very close collaboration with local Teaching Schools: Bristol Primary Teaching School Alliance, CLF Institute, and Cathedral Schools Trust Teaching School Alliance to develop an aligned and robust offer to EYs Settings and Schools which best meet the local, regional and national priorities.
Our aim is to constantly evolve promoting, sharing, celebrating and learning from exciting great practice as well as championing new learning and thinking. We hope to bring together EYs settings and schools to build sustainable improvement, and we are always looking to extend our partnership working and expand or deepen our alliance.
Our focus is to develop sector led improvement through innovation, collaboration partnership, most specifically in the 3 areas that are required of National Teaching Schools:
To support, through partnership and collaboration...co-ordinating and providing high-quality school-led initial teacher training (ITT); providing high-quality school-to-school support to spread excellent practice, particularly to schools that need it most; providing evidence-based professional and leadership development for teachers and leaders across their network.
To ensure a self-improving, school-led system, teaching schools are required to operate by the following principles of effective delivery, accountability, systems leadership, engagement and continuous improvement.
Underpinning all our work is our commitment to:
The rights of the child
Child led learning and learner-centred leadership
Professional learning, embedded in research and based on reciprocity and joint practice development, to develop knowledge and skill and build capacity
Developing a democratic community for leaders at all levels that is reflective, self-evaluative, emotionally intelligent and resilient, fostering pride and purpose
Pushing the boundaries, taking chances, being altruistic and innovative
Building a cultural community in which all learners can and do thrive
Reducing inequality in educational achievement and life chances
We aspire to build collaborative, authentic, respectful and trusting partnerships in which we:
Recognise and celebrate individual strengths
Listen to each other
Are committed to each other's success and the success of the wider partnerships
Have unequivocally high-quality standards and are champions for ALL children
Strive to develop as inquisitive, critical practitioners and lifelong learners
Build sustainability and capacity
Behave in a socially responsible way
The Bristol Early Years Teaching School Alliance has a leadership role in developing quality improvement across Bristol. Through strategic partnership work with the LA and innovative models of commissioning, we play a central role in quality assurance, self-evaluation, professional development and school/setting improvement for the whole EYs sector. This includes: all reception classes in Primary Schools, Nursery Schools, Nursery classes, private voluntary and independent Nurseries and childminders.
Our Teaching Schools have a track record of leading and delivering high quality support and professional development that has measurable and sustainable impact.