How investing our Early Years Pupil Premium in staff training boosted children’s outcomes

20 April 2026

Gemma Sutter, headteacher of Manorside Primary School & EYFS Trust Lead at Authentic Education, explains how a focus on communication and language is improving outcomes for children from lower-income backgrounds

Gemma Sutter

Headteacher of Manorside Primary School & EYFS Trust Lead at Authentic Education

At Manorside Academy, the Early Years Pupil Premium helps us close the language gap before it widens. This has contributed to the strong improvement in our early years outcomes: nearly 80% of children achieve a Good Level of Development by the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), up from just 50% in 2022.

We use the evidence-informed ShREC approach to support educators in building high-quality interactions with children. (ShREC sets out the practical steps to take in a clear and actionable way: Share attention, Respond, Expand, Conversation.)

But what really made ShREC work for us and our children was using EYPP funds for professional development. The training really made the ShREC approach come to life in our setting. And we've learnt about the best way to give staff feedback.

Why we prioritised communication and language

Focusing on children’s early communication is one of the most impactful things any school or early years setting can do. Children who are better communicators at the age of 5 will go onto become better readers. They will achieve more by the end of primary school and gain more qualifications in their secondary education.

This is especially important to us, because Manorside serves a wonderfully diverse community - which is what makes the school such a special place to lead. Levels of economic disadvantage and the proportion of pupils eligible for Pupil Premium are close to twice the national average. This drives leaders and staff on, knowing that our work and impact in early years is crucially important for all pupils to make a great start in life.

However, having this drive for improvement doesn’t mean that we have found changing practice an easy thing to do. That’s why we have focused spending our Early Years Pupil Premium on professional development.

Here are the practical steps that made a difference for us.

Professional development: what we changed

Our nursery and reception classes are busy, with staff at full stretch. So, we had to take steps to build in time after the initial training sessions focused on the ShREC approach to ensure that the changes were embedded in daily practice.

  • Senior leaders cover the early years team once a week to release staff for ongoing training and discussion
  • As headteacher and EYFS Trust Lead, I work alongside staff, supporting each member of the team to put the ShREC strategies into action. I also model high-quality interactions in my own practice with the children
  • I also lead high quality professional development, using videos from the EEF Early Years Evidence Store. Unpicking these videos together and how they relate to ShREC supports staff to apply them in their own practice
  • Our approach means that staff learn about the new practices in the ShREC approach and integrate them into their daily work instantly.

The roots of success in Year 6 are in a child’s early years

We also look carefully at whole-school professional development sessions to check they are relevant to early years. When I was a Reception teacher, I got fed up of attending meetings that weren’t relevant to me. I specifically remember one about Year 6 writing outcomes!

At Manorside we think more strategically. If Professional Development is not relevant to early years, then the EYFS team will take part in bespoke training.

We also make it clear that early years is a crucial part of a child’s learning journey: good writing in key stage 2 depends on being a good communicator. The roots of success in Year 6 are in a child’s early years. That’s why it is vital to find the balance between whole-staff training, so everyone understands the whole-school journey, and ensuring that professional development is personalised and relevant to individual practice.

What we’ve learnt about feedback to staff

We’ve learnt that when offering feedback to staff who are implementing the ShREC approach, it’s important to:

  • be positive
  • acknowledge what team members are doing well
  • offer very specific comments to help educators to keep improving the way they’re using ShREC

For example, I recently said to a team member: ‘you’re really tuned in with the children and responding well. But you could also address some child’s misconceptions. For example, when you were talking with Adam – he’s muddling up she and he pronouns. You could model the sentence back correctly. When Adam said “Jasmin read book and he made me laugh”, you could respond: “ok, so Jasmin read the book with you and she made you laugh”.’

The importance of making time for planning and discussion

We build in 30 minutes each week for our TAs and Early Years Educators to plan and review. For example, they might look at the progress of specific children who are at risk of language delay. Thinking about the needs and strengths of those children, they might plan some additional activities for them. They will think ahead about the additional vocabulary they will model and use with the children in an engaging and natural way. We know that it’s crucial for children to use new words in conversation, so they become everyday. Introducing a child to a word like ‘sticky’ works so much better if they’re making playdough and can feel the mixture clinging to their fingertips.

We’ve spent most of our Early Years Pupil Premium on professional development to improve quality practice, and we’ve seen a big impact. Children are now much more likely to take part in back-and-forth conversations, and we’re narrowing the language gap.

The steps we’ve taken mean that every child has a fair chance to succeed – not just in Nursery, but for their entire education.

Next steps

  • Find out more about the ShREC approach – including a short video to show the practices in action with young children
  • Visit the EEF’s Early Years Evidence Store to read accessible summaries of the research evidence and to see examples of high-quality interactions between children and educators