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Children’s Play, Learning and Development

FOR SEPTEMBER 2025 ENTRY THIS COURSE WILL BE REPLACED WITH EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT (AAQ)- VIEW HERE

In the Children’s Play, Learning and Development course, you will learn how to work with children and understand how children grow and develop. In this vocational course, students will also develop practical skills necessary for working with children. This will allow students to have knowledge that is transferrable to many career pathways as well as future study relating to working with children.

This course is suitable for students who wish to work with children in the future or have an interest in learning about children’s development. It can lead to a variety of opportunities including teaching – primary education, nursery care and other childcare settings. This course works well with and fits alongside a range of other subjects including Health and Social Care, Psychology, Sociology, Biology or core subjects such as English and Maths.

This course is delivered by experienced staff from a broad background of health and social care areas, Social Services, Psychology, Child Care and Biology. Having high standards and expectations means that each individual in their care is guided to achieve to the best of their ability.

Students learning about Health and Social Care

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Health & Social Care Trips

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Where can this course take me?

As the course is mostly coursework based, you will develop core research skills such as collecting information from various sources such as books, internet, magazines, and journals and then presenting this material in a professional portfolio. You will also gain confidence in developing independent learning and communication skills that will be essential in any workplace or university setting.

As well as gaining knowledge and understanding the theory behind how children learn, you will learn practical skills of how to work with children and we encourage students to take the opportunity of completing the “Learning with Children” enrichment course, to complement their studies, alongside the opportunity of gaining a Paediatric First Aid certificate.

Students on the course are offered high quality work placement opportunities and many progress onto apprenticeships or University courses with the aim of pursuing careers in nursing, midwifery, radiography, occupational therapy, social services and paramedic science. A significant number of students go on to pursue a related career, ranging from nursing and midwifery to occupational and clinical psychology.

EXTRA-CURRICULAR ENRICHMENT OPPORTUNITIES

QMC offers out of classroom opportunities to students to help them learn and develop their skills and knowledge to supplement their learning in the classroom. A few enrichments at QMC which complement this course includes Volunteering and First Aid.

The Childcare department also organises various trips throughout the course, previous trips include; attending a Forest School Day with the Hampshire and IOW Trust, visiting the Florence Nightingale Museum in London and working in partnerships with Sovereign Housing to support with a group of elderly individuals. View more enrichment opportunities here.

Nathaniel King

QMC made sure that the pandemic did not disrupt the experiences on offer. The teachers had and continue to work resiliently and tirelessly towards offering the best opportunities to students. A fantastic example would be the annual QM Conference that took place live and online. This featured Saffron Cordery (Deputy Chief Executive of NHS Providers), Maria Miller (MP for Basingstoke area) and Dr Lara Alloway (Chief Medical Officer of NHS Foundation Trust). It was an elating opportunity for students to ask interesting questions to local/ national professionals and to receive fascinating answers. – Brighton Hill Community School