A new edition of the Bristol Standard has been launched this week by Bristol Early Years to help professionals improve the quality of their provision for young children and families.

The sixth edition of the Bristol Standard is part of the council’s ongoing work to enable practitioners who work with children from birth to five years of age to improve best practice through continual self-evaluation and reflective practice.

It is intended to be available as a resource to help early years’ teachers, childminders and practitioners to share experiences and reflect on their work with young children and their families. It aims to enable them to speak with knowledge about their work, why it’s important and the impact it can have on children and families, as well as set future actions for improvement.

The Bristol Standard has been recognised nationally as an outstanding self-evaluation framework and was developed through work with childminders, nurseries, schools and children centres in order to be fully representative of the field. It is used in six other local authorities and there is a separate framework for the Playwork sector.

Cllr Anna Keen, Cabinet Member for Education and Skills, said:

“Research shows that high quality provision during the early stages of a child’s development has a significantly positive effect on their future learning and development. The Bristol Standard builds on our city’s great reputation for early years learning and allows us to share this with others.

“As a Learning City we want to work with organisations across the city to make sure that we can share best practice to improve opportunities for all children. I hope that practitioners will see this as a resource that they can use in order to offer the best possible experiences to our young children.”

This edition of the Bristol Standard was launched in the conference hall at City Hall yesterday (Thursday, 22 February) during an event to celebrate those practitioners who have shown a dedication to self-evaluation and reflective practice over the past year.

Helen Moylett, independent early years’ consultant and writer, was a keynote speaker at the event and spoke in support of the Bristol Standard.

She said:

“The Bristol Standard has a great track record in supporting early years settings to improve the quality of their practice. It is a proven quality improvement programme that has been nationally and internationally recognised and it is an honour to have helped celebrate the sixth edition.”

Lil Bowers, Manager for Southern Links Children’s Centre, said:
“Enabling us to reflect on our practice as a team is an important part of working within the early years. The Bristol Standard helps to ensure we are continually providing the best possible service to our children and families.”

More information on the Bristol Standard can be found here.