The early years of a child’s life (birth—5) are a major determinant of future educational success. Those who start formal education at a disadvantage compared to their peers are likely to remain at a disadvantage throughout their life, and be in greater danger of economic and social exclusion. They are also more likely to contribute to the education drop-out rates the EU wishes to reduce, and less likely to participate in tertiary education. However, despite this, the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) of those practitioners in early years care and education (ECEC) continues to lag behind that of educational professionals working with older children. For this group of, often lower paid, workers, opportunities to learn from best practice elsewhere, particularly transnationally, are severely limited. At the same time, there is now greater focus on the contribution wellbeing plays in an individual’s life chances, particularly in the early years. The Comenius TODDLER project has already identified best practice and developed materials relating to toddler wellbeing. However, proper training and the development of a holistic approach is vital to bring about a real change in practice for this important group.ToWe therefore aims to provide a unique continuing professional development opportunity for early years practitioners (EYPs) in the three partner countries – Norway, Spain and the UK, focussing on the needs of disadvantaged toddlers. Alongside this, and with full stakeholder engagement, the project will also develop a suite of training materials incorporating tools and strategies which will be of practical use to EYPs in the partner countries and beyond.The CPD will involve two short-term training visits. The first will allow the practitioners to be trained in the use of updated TODDLER and new ToWE tools and materials. The second visit will enable these practitioners to participate in job shadowing in another partner country. These CPD opportunities will not be stand-alone events, but will be integral to the creation of the eventual materials, as participants’ experience will feed into the development of all tools and strategies. This feedback will be ongoing as they use the developing materials in their own settings and participate in local focus groups. This will also contribute to a detailed impact study of the materials’ use by practitioners, giving practical case studies as examples. Three HEIs will provide the robust academic underpinning of the materials, which will be complemented by this practical feedback. Quality will be further ensured by an external evaluation liaison group, drawn from key players in the field.The tools and strategies will provide a holistic approach to ECEC for disadvantaged toddlers and focus on three key areas which have previously been identified – toddlers’ voice and expressions; meal times and toddlers with an additional language. A wellbeing audit tool, with strategies, will underpin all areas. All ToWe tools will be openly accessible and three national workshops will disseminate the training materials and impact study to practitioners in the partner countries. National participants will be able to cascade this learning to their own colleagues in early years settings and local authorities/municipalities. In addition, an International Trainers' Workshop will be held, aimed at academics and training institutes in this field, to promote the embedding of this approach in future research and training.Through the provision of CPD and real practical tools to facilitate a change in practice, towards a more holistic approach to ECEC, this project aims to raise the quality of ECEC in the partner countries and beyond, increasing the opportunities for disadvantaged toddlers and provide them with a better start to their lifelong learning journey.

This project will support Early Years Educators (EYE) professional development, collaboration and exchange of knowledge and key ideas, linking to educational system, curriculum, legisation, Early Childhood Educatiion and Care (ECEC), good provision and practice. Through facilitating Early Years Educators mobility Higher Educator Institutes (HEIs) support high quality and innovative teaching, learning assessments and methods. Our need analysis show that there is a lack of opportunities and working conditions for Early Years Educators to develop their knowledge and experiences within early years. There are challenges to implement curriculum and educational changes in Pre-schools (PS).The project aims to support Early Years Educators in their professional development through of intellectual output materials, manuals and information to develop their knowledge and understanding of the different educational systems, values and ethos that pre-schools hold. Through the use of mobility visits, reflection and job shadowing compare and contrast international perspectives of ECEC provision and practice to improve on the quality of their own provision and practice. The project will help Early Years Educators with their professional development how they can develop knowledge and skills, finding key ideas, tools and methods in teaching. The Early Years Educators will develop their pedagogical awareness and learn from each pre-school from their collaboartive reflections and didactical considerations in relation to Children´s perspectives. The materials from Intellectual output IO1 and Intellectual output IO2 provide a context for any Early Years Eduactor to use and to understand the different educational provision and is an integral part in developing Early Years Educators learning from an international context providing a range of example (IO2) to draw upon when reflecting upon their own provision. The mobility visits provide opportunities that EYE would otherwise not have in experiencing internationalisation and developing an understanding of how other countries work within the context of early years. This provides for Early Years Eductors professional developent with opportunities for sharing ideas, developing knowledge and practice from international perspectives. The new contexts, different normative aspects from each country, cascades of key ideas, teaching strategies and aspects of reflection will promote their professional knowledge and understanding which they can then disseminate to their peers and colleagues. The job shadowing aspect provides an underpinning framework for Early Years Educators to also understand the value of the experiences being provided during the mobility visit and the collaboration in an international perspective. All the Intellectual outputs, Transnational Meetings, Mobility Vistis using Share Point and Website together with Multiplier Events will provide innovative and unique opportunities to develop their own reflection skills, awareness and improve the quality of practice. The project will also support Higher Education Institutes for better understanding of Early Years Edaucators reflections and thinking and how to collaborate with Early Years educators which can support to train students within the pre-schools and how to develop to as professional Early Years Educators. The development of reflective skills (Intellectual output, IO3) provides Early Years Educators with the knowledge and skills of how to be reflective and get the most out of mobility visits and the learning opportunities through the use of reflection to develop a deeper level of thinking when reflecting upon what they see and their own practice.The Project will provide for sustainability for other Early Years Educators professionals using material on the website and from dissemination at multiplier events for their own development. All material will be avaible on the website for use, part of the material such as handbook and focus group result will be spread in to the teaching education for future development. The Early Years Educatorsexperince in the new different contexts and their reflection upon different pedagogical approaches, different teaching methods and strategies will strengthen their development as Early Years Educators. The project provide a new opportunities for the EYEs to explore international perspectives and collaboration along the project and for many years to come.The research aspect of the project supports HEIs in understanding how best to support EYEs and students within their learning and development as well as forming part of the quality assurance of the project.