Early Years Training Advice

[88mph]

Sorry to crash the staffroom, but I'm needing advice on how to train as a teacher. I figured the best people to ask are the people who are there already.

I want to train in early years, I'd like to teach reception, but everything I've found online is really confusing! Different websites say different things and qualifications have different names for the same thing which makes it hard to know which is the right one.

I have no current training. Is the first step to become a TA, if so how best to go about that? Then what comes next?

Also, if anyone has trained with your own kids in preschool/nursery how were you able to balance that?

Sorry for all the questions and thank you for your advice!

If you want to teach reception, you'll need QTS which means an education degree achieving QTS or a degree plus postgraduate training (PGCE or school based training).

I'm a reception teacher. As you are teaching in a primary school, you need to have the same teaching qualification as all teachers. That means you'll need a degree, and then your teacher training on top. Your best bet is to contact your local university with an education department and they'll be able to help you.
If you're not currently working in a school I would recommend you at least volunteer to find out more about the job, if you can work as a TA even better. I love my job, but there is as much work outside the classroom as for any other year group. Good luck!

You can train as an Early years teacher which enables you to teach up to year one.

There's a real lack of clarity over the information available. I wanted to train with an early years' specialism but was advised to do general primary. I wish I'd stuck to my guns more.

However definitely get down voluntary experience before applying for anything. Good luck!

Thank you all so much! I'll have a word with my local university and also see if there is a school nearby that will let me volunteer.

Showergel1 the government website is so confusing for early years information, and other websites give so many different choices it's impossible to know what's best when you don't know anything about it!

I'm taking on board all your advice and it's given me some direction for what to look into next. Thank you.

If you're not set on teaching reception, you could look at other EYFS routes and lead a preschool or something. I can't imagine a school would hire a reception teacher without QTS though - you might not stay in reception for ever!

Experience is key though - get into schools and early years settings. Also go into key stage 1 and 2 and see what you think of them before you rule them out completely.

Be aware that training in early years can pigeon hole you into a limited number of roles if you want to be school based. I did an EYs degree with QTS, NQT year in nursery and then a few years in reception. I'm back in nursery now and a relatively expensive experienced teacher but with no experience of KS1 so there's only a few roles I would feel able to apply for.
Also knowing what I do about EYs and with many schools working opposite to that viewpoint makes it very tricky to find a job that I will love.

& becareful I started training as an EYPS which should have given my QTS but part way through the course the government changed their mind and I would now have to do a further top-up course to gain QTS

Thanks, everyone. Yes, the government changing everything is a worry. My husband is coming up against that in his line of study. They have bursaries, they don't have bursaries.. it's not easy.

You've all given me much to look into.